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What many people in the online world do not realize is that sharing information has nothing to do with whether you are online or offline; if you share anyone’s personal information with anyone, through any method and in any form, you may be breaking a trust.

I think that in order to build relationships, make friends or even have good contacts, one should prioritize the idea of never revealing anyone’s personal information under any circumstance unless one has specific permission to do so. Otherwise, people who share their personal lives with others will be forced to blame themselves for sharing their thoughts with others.

Sharing people’s personal and private information, that they entrusted you with, in your blog posts should be avoided

Imagine you write a blog post using someone’s personal life situation as even a small indirect example, and then some random commentor dissects that information or the topic in question. Because of that, you have forced someone, who shared that personal information with you, to feel defensive and to feel bad for having their personal lives out in the open for random people to discuss and debate. That is not an act of being considerate to others. That is an act of using others to write blog posts.

Why would you assume that someone would not mind you sharing their personal information?

Personal information is personal information, Assuming things like “I thought you wouldn’t mind…” only makes me think of a few questions: Why would you think that someone would not mind you sharing their personal information? What specific thing prompted you to think that someone would be comfortable with you talking about their personal life with someone else, on a blog or a place like Xanga? What is your reasoning and logic behind such an assumption?

If you ask personal questions, be prepared to keep to yourself any personal answers you receive

Many people consider things like business and blogging ideas to be part of their personal lives too, so it is important to realize when to share any information about other people, and when to simply keep quiet. If you do discuss the information with someone, make sure no one finds out about it. Otherwise, the act of sharing information will result in someone running into trust issues, because of their private information being put into the public world by an inconsiderate person. It is not nice to have someone else suffer because of your actions, is it?

What do you think? If you would like to read more on a related note, Jess has an excellent post about this, titled “How foolish is it to trust?“, which can tell you more about some of the thoughts that can come to mind regarding the topic of trusting others.

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1. DBT keeps me from eating normally every night

   Oh lord! It can be 3 am, and when no other e-mail is coming in, I hope that some DBT subscription e-mail comes in. It is very interesting to read the tips that Daniel has to share with the rest of the planet. I like getting daily DBT subscription e-mails.

   If I had to choose between eating cheesecake in the middle of the night and reading an e-mail, I would prefer eating cheesecakes and talking to a very good friend [ ]. However, if my good friend is not online, DBT e-mails are so interesting, I will usually put off my eating and read the latest DBT posts and any related comments. By the time I get done with DBT posts and comments, I forget about eating. Not good. Really not good. DBT should start writing boring posts on a daily basis, so that I can get bored easily and resume eating my food.

2. Daniel from DBT makes me wonder if I am chatting with him, or if I am dreaming

   Daniel, the owner of DBT, is usually online around the same times. “Why is he so accessible?” I wonder. Daniel is considered one of the finest A-list bloggers by many people, and yet he is always online, ready to interact when he has to. I sometimes wonder “Am I dreaming?” when I find it so easy to chat with Daniel compared to other A-list bloggers. Not nice, Daniel and DBT, for making Bes wonder every other night whether or not he is dreaming.

   “Hey Bes!” He usually says. “Am I still dreaming? He still remembers me?” I think to myself, wondering if forces of blogosphere nature and lack of sleep are playing with my mind. DBT sucks because it spoils me into thinking that all “A-list bloggers can still think about other people and not act too stuck up after getting their blogs famous.” Other A-list bloggers, take note: Daniel sets a few good examples to follow on how to communicate with others based on the topic at hand, and not based on how rich or elite one feels.

3. DBT discriminates, but less than most other A-list blogs

   Wow. I remember getting together with an A-list blogger last year who told me that he only wanted to write for advertisors, so that the readers could click on more sponsored links. DBT, on the other hand, does not care if you look at ads or not. DBT also does not discriminate based on whether or not you link back to it. DBT does have one criteria on which it wants to discriminate: you having a blog. If you do not have a blog and you do not want a blog, you will probably have a hard time realizing the potential of DBT. Other DBT lovers will probably hate you for not having a blog. You will not be able to show your face in the DBT world, for you do not have a blog, while everyone else does, and everyone else learns from DBT about ways to improve their blogs.

   That is bad, since such a discrimination forces all of us bloggers to force ourselves to keep having blogs, whether we like it or not, just because we want to keep DBT happy and we want to keep reading DBT posts. DBT’s business model discriminates against people who do not have blogs, because it does not cater to them. Will I ever be able to free myself from the chains of blogging, considering the fact than if I stop having a blog, I will be looked down upon by other DBT lovers who are not being discriminated against because of having blogs? It sounds highly unlikely. Boohooo!

So there you have it. That is my list of 3 random reasons why Daily Blog Tips sucks so much, that I like reading it everyday via e-mail to learn about different tips and techniques, or to see what Daniel thinks of different ideas and concepts that I am already familiar with.

What do you think? Can you think of some more reasons? Did you find anything interesting in this list, or does TR [The Reasoner] suck for not being able to make you smile even a little bit? Now if you must excuse me, I must do something which I have been saying and doing recently in many of my posts: eating, I have to go eat now.

Thank you for reading.

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If you are a blogger, you may have a habit of responding only to certain comments or commentors, or you may try to respond to every comment. You may also not respond to any comment at all. If you are a blogger, you should realize that there is a difference between responding to comments and simply acknowledging comments. Thus, simply acknowledging comments as an obligation on a regular basis does not mean you know how to, and that you actually are willing to, communicate and interact with your readers.

Responding to comments as a reader

If you are a reader and a commentor on a blog, you may or may not like responding to each and every comment addressed to you, or you may or may not like responding to comments that revolve around your comment. You may even have the habit of tackling and addressing each comment on other people’s blog, based on certain criteria such as the type of a blog in question, the type of topic covered, etc.

One thing we should keep in mind is that every blogger can also be a commentor, and every commentor can also be a blogger through the comments, so both bloggers and commentors can also fall into both categories at the same time.

I try my best to respond to each and every comment

I try to respond to everyone on this site, and I try my best to keep up to date with my comments and any due comments on other sites. Sometimes it takes a while, even a few weeks or months, though I try my best to get to everything. For me, late follow-ups are better than no follow-ups. Communicating with others is one of my main priorities.

I just went through all of my comments and e-mails, and unless I have misplaced e-mails or cannot easily find things because of numerous computer backups, I am happy to say that I have responded, via comments, instant messages, e-mails and other channels of communication, to each and every comment and commentor on all of my blogs for the last 7-8 years or so, with the exception of RA Project, Flickrness and Eyeography so far; I should hopefully be able to get to them soon. Responding to comments in my view means communicating with the commentor, and I do that even on the phone [voice or text messages].

Is responding to all comments one of your priorities?

Keeping the above in mind, do you like responding to all blog comments?

Please let me know what your opinion is about this topic, and also whether or not you think responding to all comments is necessary. Thank you.

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Pros:

• Track some people who visit your site
• Get traffic by having other MyBlogLog members visit your site, similar to a traffic exchange network where members visit anyone voluntarily who visits their site
• The MyBlogLog team is trying hard to listen to the readers and improve the service as one of their main priorities, thus you have greater chances of having your suggestions implemented than before
• Be able to see a list of regular MyBlogLog readers who like your website on a regular basis

Cons:

• Track only other MyBlogLog members
• Available only if the widget is displayed
• MyBlogLog code can slow down or halt your site - for an example, see the attached image of how MyBlogLog sometimes halts The Reasoner - opens in a new window. The screenshot image is an example of how the MyBlogLog code keeps waiting for something to load from the Yahoo/MyBlogLog servers, and my website is never completely loaded in such cases.
• MyBlogLog widget is not customizable
• MyBlogLog communities are currently blogrolls being spammed by many members

Do the MyBlogLog Pros outweigh the Cons for you, or vice versa?

So, if you have a blog, do you like using MyBlogLog? If you do not have a blog, or have not used MyBlogLog yet, would you like using MyBlogLog on your site?

Please let me know. Thank you.

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1. Not talking about a job means you have no job

   Many people assume that if someone does not talk much about their offline job, they do not have a job, or they do not have a good job. These people probably cannot understand the fact, easily, that sometimes people simply do not want to talk about something in their personal life as it may be boring, or it may be personal and they may not want to share it with people who are not genuinely interested in knowing.

   I personally get to hear this every other day, since I do not talk about my offline work activities, or anything similar, on my site here or with others that much. Instead of asking, people assume things about my job. I get over 50 calls every day alone related to “work” that I do not get paid for, and I have to meet around 10 people every 2 days or so, directly, in private meetings, to do things related to work, round the clock; sometimes I have to meet people at 3 AM. That is why I am always finding it funny when some people do not ask me about my activities, but simply assume that I do not do anything other than to blog on this site and eat chocolate.

2. Never talking about your offline life means you have no offline life

   Some people assume that if you do not push your offline personal life into the online world, you do not have an offline life. That is why if you remain quiet in a conversation or try to talk about something, people will immediately assume things about you.

   I personally, rarely talk about offline life online, though if someone asks for it, I may answer in detail depending on the person and the situation. However, people will assume things like my relationships, hobbies, views, religion, sexual preference, etc. on an almost constant basis, because I do not talk about my personal life out of the blue in every chat window that can be opened.

3. The more aggressive you are, the more right you are

   This one is a classic. Many people will assume that if they are aggressive about something, they will appear to be right in almost any argument. It is as if the art of being pushy and aggressive and on the offensive becomes more important than the point being argued.

   I see arguments online regularly, where someone will be very aggressive in questioning something, and they will assume that just because they are aggressive means that they will be able to make the other person look bad. Usually, if one is paying attention, it seems that acting aggressive has nothing to do with being rational or logical. Some times people get aggressive even while asking a question, which makes me wonder: “if this person is so tense while simply asking a question through text and over a topic this person does not care about, how easy will it be to control and affect this person’s moods in real life?“

4. The act of acting weird will go unnoticed

   Some people think that since one can hide in the online world, one can do weird things and go unnoticed. This includes copying others, acting weird like blocking others on instant messengers simply because one feels jealous, one talks to someone else only to ask for advice, etc.

   I think it is very easy to both hide and get noticed in the online world. Noticing someone copying ideas can be tricky, but it does not go unnoticed. I notice people copying my writing and other styles all the time, and I also see people taking ideas from the comments they receive and posting them as their own on a regular basis too. These people basically assume that other people will not care in the online world. On the contrary, people do care a lot in the online world if they feel they are being cheated.

5. Inquiring about something means your knowledge is limited

   Many people think that if you ask questions, you do not know anything about some topic. When a person tells me about a feed reader or some new technology, I listen attentively and I ask questions. That act of asking questions makes many people assume that I do not know anything about the thing I am asking about. I personally have a character where I will ask questions even about things I know, since I want to know more and I want to hear about things from other people’s perspectives a lot.

   Sure, when you ask a question, you may not know something about the element that is being asked in the question, but you may know generally about that something. For example, I have rarely been talking about making money online as of today, but I have made a lot of money online through online businesses in the past. That is why it is funny when people approach me and start assuming that I do not know how to make money online, instead of asking me about it. I am guessing this is one of those things you need to brag about so more people can know, including potential employers.

So there you have it. That is a list of 5 random things that many people assume about others online. Can you think of some other things that people assume? Can you relate to something here, or do you have any opinion about any of these points or about assumptions in general?

Thank you for reading.

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1. Talk about typical and non-typical topics because of believing in them

   This is one of my greatest skills, and it is also one of my greatest weaknesses. The benefit? I can talk about things that can affect individuals and corporations, both typical and non-typical, both big and small, since I believe that both big and small things affect us all. The downside? Venturing off in different directions appears to be a form of “not having a clear focus” to many readers, and patience is something that is usually replaced by the need to find out things right away, even by myself.

   I like blogging about random topics and revolving them around certain themes. Take your own personal life as an example: when you live your life, you revolve everything in your life around your understanding of things, even if your understanding prompts you to be considerate of everyone else. Similarly, I believe that any blogging topic out there can be taken and applied to any kind of a belief you may have, or revolved around any topic.

   That is why I try to revolve the most random things around certain key elements, like reason.

   Many people seem to be doing the same thing, going from one topic to another, while not aiming at a certain thing. Many of such people are simply trying to get their post count up. Kudos to them!

2. Revolve the blog around readers

   I am not here to vent my emotions. I am here to vent my emotions into your thoughts and feelings. I am not desperate to be heard in the online word, so everything I write, I write to communicate something with you. Venting about something means to vent something off your chest; I am here to convey an understanding instead. Therefore, even though the topics are all mine, I want to show them to you so that you will understand the message I am trying to convey to you. That is why my blog revolves around both me and you.

   The downside of such an approach? Money. It is hard to make money when your blog revolves around bringing up topics that you think are good and practical for you and your readers. Otherwise, I can start talking about a 100 ways to make money through your blog every week, and I will start getting a lot of sponsors too. Maybe I can simply talk about one single way to make money every week to keep many parties happy, no?

   Many people think that saying “My blog is not possible without readers like you” is enough to show any kind of a bond or an appreciation, even when no other element on their blog appreciates readers. Most bloggers write about topics that please their advertisors or the companies, networks and groups they are affiliated with.

3. Respond to all comments, using a brain

   I have been trying to respond to all comments for several years now. Sometimes I respond to comments via e-mails, taking the discussion away from the blog and continuing it through e-mails. Most of the time, I will reply to each and every individual comment, not only to acknowledge a comment but to actually communicate with a person. I think communicating with all commentors on The Reasoner is something I can do blindfolded now.

   Why? Because I hate it when I write a long comment on someone else’s site, and they respond with only a “Thank you for your comment. ” Such comments simply tell me that a blogger feels obligated to reply to each comment, without actually communicating with me. Either do not reply, or stop using the same copy-paste responses to every comment you get. Maybe I should start a list outlining all the bloggers who look stupid trying to treat comment responses as an obligation.

4. I like keeping the number of posts on my site down

   I do not believe in outputting as many posts as possible in order to attract readers and advertisors and search engines. I want to attract others by the actual value that helps people, and not by promises that something may help people. That is why sometimes I can write 2 posts a day for months, and then I will slow down and write a post a week. What I write is more important to me than how much I write. People who write a lot of posts regularly usually tend to write things to lure in people. Some people who actually write a lot while giving value back to the readers are simply amazing. They exist, but they are hard to find. One place you can find them is in my bookmarks menu, though I remember their blog addresses by heart.

   In contrast, I try to keep my post count growth rate down. I got an offer last month to have a small ad placed on my site for $450 a month if I post an article everyday for at least 6 months, the way I have already been doing for a few months now. I declined the advertising offer, telling the advertisor to let me know if they would like to place an ad on my site if they did not have a posting schedule requirement. Since then, I have instead started posting less and running a poll asking you about the frequency of published posts you would like to see here. Why? I think it is a waste of my time to post a 100 posts in 2 months when only 5 of those posts get the message across. I feel the need to combine the ideas, thoughts, and pack a lot of punch into any post I write, so that each and every post gets attention and I get all my ideas and message across. Maybe I am currently quite satisfied eating 2 pieces of bread and drinking a glass of milk every day, using money earned in the offline world?

   For me, having a few nice posts is better than having a 100 useless posts that only aim to lure in people so that more money can be made. Money to go retire can be made easily by fooling people, but building legends, fortunes, relationships and brands takes a long time, and requires doing something realistic so that people in both the short and the long term, even when you are not around anymore, will say “Wow, he/she did help me! What a memory!” That is why I like working with companies which aim to build a brand through legacy, and to make money at the same time, and not companies which are only around to make money quickly. When you aim to build a brand or have a legacy, you tend to care more about other people, even if you love making money.

5. Value content over looks

   I believe that if one had to choose, content is more important than design. However, in reality, it seems that most human beings prefer something that appears nice instead of something that is ugly but has actual value. That is why even with design changes, my writing maintains a lot of the same philosophy of feelings in my content, even if the topics keep on changing. For me, content comes first, and if I have time, I work on the design slowly. Sure, looks can be important as Darren from ProBlogger argues, but without content, looks are usually used only to deceive people and to make some money. If someone can manage to have both quality content and a quality design on their blog, I think that person has a very nice diamond that they should utilize fully, quickly and carefully, to ensure that they are able to communicate with as many blog readers as possible and get their message across efficiently and effectively.

   Why? Maybe it is human nature, to be attracted to things that appeal to any of our senses, or our thoughts and feelings. It is important to present things nicely, since we are all like babies. You can get many babies to eat the toxic veggies if you act nice and talk in a friendly manner, but you will have a hard time getting the same babies to eat the veggies if you are dressed as a bigfoot and you keep growling at the top of your voice. The value you offer, the vegetables, are still the same, but for the baby, your presentation and your looks also becomes part of the content.

   Maybe I want us all to be non-typical babies?

So there you have it; a really nice bragging post. Among the thousand other things [haha], the above 5 are some of the common things that many bloggers try to copy from The Reasoner. Some give credit, some do not give credit, and some have come up with their own versions of similar ideas on their own.

Whatever the reason may be, I hope this list helps you improve some aspect of your blogging or life. I also hope that if you have any suggestions for any of these things, you can let me know so I can improve.

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Many personal blogs usually take advantage of having password protected entries, like SP’s site. SP could write things about, let’s say, Bes, as in “Bes is so retarded, Bes actually tries to communicate with cats, squirrels, penguins and whales!” SP could then password protect that entry, so that I do not see what she wrote about me.

Password protected content on Non-Personal Blogs

Another way to use password protected entries could be to have content reserved only for a specific type of readers, like readers who pay. A blog or a site could have such premium content, that it could charge readers a monthly fee in order to receive specific or customized passwords to access all the password-protected content. For example, I could have a special subscription section on this site catering to non-personal blog readers, where I have videos of me trying to kidnap whales, but instead I end up getting kidnapped by whales. I could password protect that content, and give Jess that password if Jess pays me $500. Does that sound like a good deal, Jess?

Password protected content has drawbacks too

While password protected content can offer benefits to many blogs, any password protected entries can have drawbacks too, for both blogs and blog readers. Regular visitors may not be able to access information simply because they do not know the password, and thus a blog may get more criticism than praise. Also, people who cannot afford to pay me $500 for my “How to kidnap a whale and get kidnapped instead!” videos may not be able to see the epic tale I have to tell. Password protected entries limit access for many people, and that may not be cool in the eyes of many.

So, do you like having and seeing password-protected entires on blogs? What is your opinion about them?

Please let me know what you think. Thank you.

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• Write personal opinions to share with others.
• Earn money directly through ads on your blog.
• Keep an online diary.
• Practice skills, such as your writing, recording, and other skills.
• Establish an authority on different topics through your blog.
• Promote your offline business.
• Keep in touch with friends or family, or others online.
• Be like others, since others have blogs too.
• Pass time without being bored, and a blog helps you pass time easily.
• Maintain your job, since it may require you to blog.
• Pass a class, since your class may require you to blog or comment on some classwork-related blog.

So, why do you blog? Why do you own or run any kind of a site? Can you think of others reasons for which you may be blogging?

Please let me know what you think of the above, and what you think of this question. Thank you for reading.

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Ok, fine, RSS does not mean Really Scary Squirrel. RSS basically means Really Simple Syndication. An RSS Feed, or a Really Simple Syndication Feed allows a reader, like yourself and someone called Bes, to view some specific content through a platform and software of almost any choice. For the remainder of this article, the terms RSS, RSS Feeds and Feeds will all mean the same thing: RSS Feeds.

RSS allows Content Delivery in a method of your preference

Imagine I had a show on the street, where I acted very weird, or normal in some people’s view. If you wanted to see me, you would have to come to the street and watch me. I could, however, make a videotape of myself and have that videotape available in libraries, bookstores, movie stores, and also have it shown in movie theatres and on TV. If you choose to watch my performance by watching a videotape at your home, you are watching my show in a manner you want, instead of coming to the street and watching it.

RSS is that video tape. An RSS Feed allows you to view any website content, which makes available its own content via RSS feeds, in any RSS platform and software of your choice. That way, instead of typing “http://www.thereasoner.com” to visit my site multiple times daily, your RSS Feed Reader can show you all the new and latest content that is available on my site, right in your RSS Feed Reader. Not only that, your RSS Feed Reader can also show you updates from multiple websites in a single window, saving you time and space. Thus, instead of you going to a website, the website content is delivered to you. For the remainder of this article, RSS Feed Readers, RSS Readers and Feed Readers will refer to the same thing: RSS Feed Readers.

Types of RSS Feeds

As RSS Feeds got popular, different groups have come up with newer versions of RSS Feed formats, like RSS, RDF, and ATOM. Usually, it does not matter which version or format of an RSS Feed you use or come across. As long as there is an RSS Feed, you can usually view it in an RSS Feed Reader.

How do I find the RSS Feeds on different sites?

The exact location of an RSS feed usually depends on the software being used to power and run a website. Many new RSS Feed Readers automatically determine the location of a website’s RSS Feeds, so depending on your RSS Feed Reader, you may simply point your RSS Feed Reader to a website and the RSS Feed Reader will do all the work.

Here are a few locations where, usually, some specific software-powered websites place their RSS feeds. Every time you see the word “name” below, simply replace it with the domain name of the website, relevant username or relevant member id, to find the appropriate RSS Feed.

• Blog.com
  http://name.blog.com/atom/
  or
  http://name.blog.com/rss
• Blogger/BlogSpot.com
  http://name.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
  or
  http://name.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/

  For example, Jerine’s BlogSpot.com blog rss feed is:
  http://this-is-the-mad-style.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

• LiveJournal

  LiveJournal feeds are available only to people who pay for it, or have specific accounts that come with feeds, and thus LiveJournal acts both as a feed reader and as a feed creator. Typically, the feed url is:

  http://syndicated.livejournal.com/name/

• MovableType powered sites
  http://www.name.com/atom.xml
• MySpace

  MySpace Feeds are currently very buggy, though if they work, here is the link: http://blog.myspace.com/blog/rss.cfm?friendID=name .

• Nucleus
  http://www.name.com/xml-rss2.php
• TypePad
  http://name.typepad.com/my_weblog/rss.xml
• Vox

  http://name.vox.com/library/posts/rss-full.xml
  and
  http://name.vox.com/library/posts/atom-full.xml

  For example, Stacee’s blog on Vox is http://stacey.vox.com/, and the relevant RSS feed url is
  http://stacey.vox.com/library/posts/rss-full.xml

• Xanga
  http://www.xanga.com/name/rss
• Windows Live Space
  http://name.spaces.live.com/feed.rss
• WordPress powered sites
  http://www.name.com/feed/

  For example, Valerie’s site Spoken-For.org is a self-hosted WordPress site, so her RSS Feed address is http://spoken-for.org/feed/. Also, as suggested by Valerie, the following work also:

  http://www.name.com/wp-rss2.php
  or
  http://www.name.com/wp-atom.php

• WordPress.com
  http://name.wordpress.com/feed/

What are RSS Feed E-mail Subscriptions?

Some websites, like FeedBurner, allow website owners to have their website feeds available via e-mail. For example, this very site, The Reasoner, allows you to subscribe to its feed via e-mail also. You simply add your e-mail address to the RSS E-mail subscription list, and if there is any new content, you will be e-mailed any new content from any website with RSS e-mail subscriptions, every 24 hours. RSS Feed E-mail Subscriptions simply e-mail you any new content as it becomes available.

Example of RSS Feed Readers

There are many different kinds of RSS Feed Readers available. Many are free, while some require payments. Generally, RSS Feed Readers are currently divided into two main categories: Online RSS Feed Readers and Offline RSS Feed Readers.

Online RSS Feed Readers

The Online RSS Feed Readers allow you to check different websites feeds while being online on a certain RSS Feed Reader website. All you need to do is visit a website and you can access an RSS Feed Reader online. Usually, you need to be online at all times in order to view feeds in an Online RSS Feed Reader.

Here are some examples of Online RSS Feed Readers:

• Bloglines
• FeedLounge
• NewsAlloy
• Google Reader
• LiveJournal - If I understand this correctly, depending on what your LiveJournal account level is, you can add RSS feeds from different sites into a LiveJournal Syndication and read them via your LiveJournal account.
• NetVibes
• Rojo

Offline RSS Feed Readers

The Offline RSS Feed Readers allow you to check different website feeds by installing a software on your computer. After you run that installed software, you can access the different feeds. Usually, once you download all the updated feeds, you do not need to be online through an Offline RSS Feed reader in order to view the feeds you have already downloaded at a later time.

Here are some examples of Offline RSS Feed Readers:

• FeedDemom
• FeedReader
• Illumio - suggested by John
• ThunderBird - The e-mail client has a built-in RSS Feed Reader too.
• Browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, etc : the popular browsers can also serve as RSS Feed Readers. Simply click on any RSS link or icon on a website in your browser to see the RSS feed right in your favorite browser.
• NEWSFIRE
• SharpReader
• RSSOwl

Both the Online and Offline RSS Feed Readers download new feeds and any new, updated content of your choice from the websites you select whenever you login or run such RSS Feed Readers.

How do I add feeds to an RSS Feed Reader?

To add feeds to any kind of an RSS Feed Reader, you will usually be required to create a an account, which is also usually free, with the RSS Feed Reader website of your choice. Once you are logged into the online or the offline RSS Feed Reader, simply add the appropriate RSS Feed address for a website, or add the normal website address into the feed reader. Most Feed Readers today can automatically find the appropriate RSS Feed addresses. If you have any questions about specific Feed Readers, simply ask me.

What is RSS itself? Is it a file, is it a software, or what?

Jess asked an excellent question below about what exactly is RSS: a file, software, code, etc, and how it is installed on different systems. Please see my answer below for more details.

Conclusion: RSS really simplifies syndication

There you have it. In one post, you have gone from believing that RSS Feeds meant Really Stupid Squirrels Feeding on something, to thinking that RSS Feeds mean Really Simply Syndication Feeds. I still think RSS Feeds mean Really Scary Squirrels Feeding on scary things, by the way.

If you have any questions, please contact me or post a comment below. I will update this introduction with any questions or information you may have, and give you credit too.

Thank you for reading.

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Following are 10 random reasons which show that you may want to blog regularly because you want to:

1. Have more readers.
2. Have more commentors.
3. Have more search engine exposure.
4. Attract more advertisors for your blog.
5. Tell others about your personal life.
6. Keep an online diary for yourself.
7. Meet online people more in order to make more online friends [different than making online contacts in order to make money].
8. Post more as your current income depends on it.
9. Express your views on a certain issue more; like global warming, the myth of global warming, etc.
10. Showcase skills to potential employers through your blog, like writing, video editing, design, etc.

Do you prefer having a regular blog schedule which depends on some element like time, your offline life, etc? Do you feel obligated to blog on a regular schedule?

Please let me know what you think. Thank you for reading.

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What the feelings about homes could be all about

Before one can think about having something as precious as a home in the online world, one needs to figure out what kinds of things are considered important on similar levels in both the online and the offline world. A home is considered by most people to be the most important, personal and valuable property someone can have. You rarely see people respecting and getting close to homeless people right away; many people assume that if you do not have a home, you are to be less respected. It is as if the homeless people have done something wrong by not having a home: a home is an essential thing for you to have, if you want to live a life where the society does not loathe you every minute of the day.

A home is also what you cry for when you are sick, the way many people cry “Mommy! Mommy! WHERE ARE YOU MOMMY!?!” when they get sick. In fact, you cry for Mommy after you have cried for and gone back to your home, from wherever you were. Also you hear people say “I wanna go home, I don’t feel so good.” You do not hear people say “I wanna go to an internet cafe, because I don’t feel so good.”

Thus, considering such things, can we have similar feelings for something in the online world?

What is the online equivalent of a home?

What is the online equivalent of a home? Is it a website? Is it the popularity of a website? Is it the money a website owner makes from the website? Is it the identity of a person? Is it our presence on different channels of online communication? Is it the value of our contacts? Could it be the celebrity status of a blogger? Is it our e-mail address: “Hey, nice to meet you. Why don’t you come over to my e-mail address, though your e-mail address, and we can chat? Hmm, you can e-mail me this Thursday, say, at 7 pm?“? Ever hear that on a regular basis?

Could it be a combination of all of these, or is it something completely different? What is it that can be considered a universal form of a “home” in the online world?

The elements are everywhere, and I have identified the relevant reasons. I guess being in my home, among the many other places, helps me make simple things more complicated and vice versa, than what they are, for myself.

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Treating online people the same as offline people : you consider offline people to be true friends, you can talk to either offline or online and be satisfied, you give offline and online people the same priorities, etc.

Treating online people better than offline people : you trust and share your life with online people more than offline people, you prefer spending time with online people more than offline people, etc.

Treating online people worse/less than offline people : you trust offline people more than online people, you may also think online people can be inferior compared to the online people because of the online nature of things, you prefer talking in person instead of talking online, you avoid sharing personal stories with others online, etc.

Do you treat online people the same as offline people?

What is your opinion on this? Do you treat online people the same as offline people? How do you treat and compare the two?

Thank you.

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