Lifehacker posts too much

I love Lifehacker and the vast range of topics it covers, but I'm tired of seeing 20+ posts in my RSS feeds on a daily basis. I'm not interested in every article that goes up, but I'm subscribed to every post. I barely pay attention to the headlines anymore as I scroll through Google Reader, and I rarely read more than 5 posts per week. Lifehacker has become exercise for my scroll wheel.

I did read one article today, but I found it when I visited the site--not through the RSS feed even though I'm sure it was in there today.

I unsubscribed just now, and I'll probably check the site a few times a week. No more clogging my feeds, though.

What I Want in a Blog

I'm currently subscribed to about 30 blogs in Google Reader. That's a lot to follow, but I don't read every post on every blog. Why not? For starters, I don't have that much time to spend reading blogs on a daily basis. I'm not interested in every post in my RSS feeds, and I don't read some posts simply because they're not useful to me.

Here are some things I look for in blogs, what I like and don't like. It's the difference between visiting the blog once and coming back to read every post.

Post enough to keep me interested and not much more

I generally prefer shorter posts. They take less time to read and the faster I can learn from them, the better. The other thing I look for is how the post is written. If there's a list or it's broken into parts, I'm more likely to read it even if it's more text. I can easily see what that post is about and read what I want from it. I don't need to dig through a block of text for one useful tip. I tend to skim long posts anyway, so I'm essentially reading a short post.

Frequency is also a factor in if I subscribe to a blog. I don't care if a blog posts once a day, a week, or a month as long as it's somewhat consistent. I like a steady stream of updates. Blogs that post multiple times a day are great, but I don't find their posts nearly as useful to me. Seeing 20 posts from one blog over the course of the day can be a turn off and I might unsubscribe.

Make your posts easy for me to read

Write descriptive titles and include relevant images. Break the text up into sections or make lists. Include links to what you're talking about so I can read more information about the topic. Use bold and italics and change the font size to make your post visually appealing.

Include the post's publish date

Nothing bugs me more than a hard-to-find publish date (or author for group blogs). The internet changes all the time, and new information is always available. I want to know how old the post I'm reading is. An old date won't put me off reading a post. I just want to determine if it's still useful (software updates and responses to news items, for example).

Think about the layout

I prefer stream-lined designs. I don't want flashy banners, auto-play videos, or background music. (I'll click the video when I want to watch it--no worries.) Don't crowd ads and posts together. Make sure the color scheme doesn't interfere with text readability, and please make sure the text is big enough to read. Nothing makes me leave a site faster than the likes of size 8 pink text on an orange background. Or worse--white text on a busy background image.

I like blogs that are reader-friendly. They don't bombard me with too many posts too fast and so I can actually enjoy what I read. The color scheme makes sense, the layout is organized, and there are enough updates to keep me interested.

These are my thoughts. What do you look for in blog posts? What makes you subscribe to a specific blog?

YouTube Binge

Also known as one of the reasons I haven't written a blog entry in two weeks despite having ideas for roughly 8 posts.

Every now and then, I go on a video binge and watch every video on an entire channel over the span of a few days (or sometimes all in one day). The first time this happened, I came across ItsJustSomeRandomGuy. He has a running series about Marvel and DC super heroes and villains using action figures, mini sets, and props, and he and his girlfriend voice all of the characters. RandomGuy voices Peter Parker and Joker particularly well, and he sings as the Green Goblin. I found his channel with 40 videos uploaded and watched them all in the span of two nights. Lots of time on YouTube, but well spent.

Then some time this past spring, I followed a suggestion to watch a Doctor Who-related video and ended up watching everything on littleradge's channel. He's funny, he's thoughtful, and he's a Doctor Who fan. What more can I ask for?

Earlier this week I was looking for clips from Blink, a Doctor Who episode from season 3, and found this awesome fan-made song which was posted as a response to Trock and I had no idea what that was, so of course I clicked. Turns out Trock is "Time Lord Rock," the equivalent of Wrock--"Wizard Rock," as in original fan-made music about the Harry Potter series. (Check out the Ministry of Magic for excellent examples.) So Trock is that but for Doctor Who and the term was coined by nerimon on YouTube. I've now watched about 70 of nerimon's videos over the course of 3 days...He and littleradge comment on everyday topics like movies, education, annoyances, and technology just to name a few.

Nerimon leads to charlieissocoollike and fiveawesomeguys which connect to fiveawesomegirls, but I don't have time to delve into all those videos. Maybe I will, though, since television doesn't offer much to look forward to anymore. I'm currently following two shows, but I'm more excited about Trock and new videos in my YouTube subscriptions.