Keeping in Touch

Since starting the blog Elegant Sufficiency in early 2006 I’ve realised that blogs, and the internet, are strange and intimidating things for many people. And I think some people who are comfortable with the internet can be a little presumptive, even arrogant, about the level of knowledge of others.
Many people who visit my blog might know how to subscribe to “feeds”, but for those who don’t, here are some basic instructions in my very non-tech-speak:
Basically, a feed is a free way of finding out whether the websites and blogs you like to keep up with (hopefully Elegant Sufficiency is among them) have been updated without actually having to go to the sites one by one. Feeds are useful if you’re interested in keeping up to date with lots of websites or blogs. And how do you do it? You have to sign up with a “feed reader” – many of which are free. I use one called Bloglines, although there are stacks of others that I haven’t explored.
When I visit www.bloglines.com each day, it lists in one place all the feeds I have subscribed to over time and highlights those that have been updated. (I subscribe to feeds from The New York Times Dining and Wine section and a pile of blogs – indeed, most websites and blogs offer feeds.) What I see when I click on “My Feeds” is a list of the names of the websites and blogs’ I’ve subscribed to; the ones that have been updated since I last checked are highlighted. I can whiz through them, reading the latest from each in a simplified Bloglines format – or I can click a link to load the actual website or blog, which of course takes a little longer.
It’s very simple to sign up for Bloglines: click on "Sign Up Now It's Free" and follow the instructions from there. Once you have your (free) account, you can then subscribe to as many feeds as you want. Click the “Feeds” tab, then on “Add”. In the “Blog or Feed URL” address box that pops up, I hope you’ll type elegantsufficiency.typepad.com
You’ll get a few options of types of feeds, which are all a bit of a mystery to me – most of my subscribers seem to choose the first one. Click the box, then go straight to the bottom of the page and click “subscribe”. And that’s it.
If you want to be fancy, you can then go to "Extras" at the bottom of the left-hand column, click on "Download Notifier" and follow the instructions. This will put a little 'B' icon in your application bar that will flash when your favourite blogs are updated on Bloglines. (Friends with Macs have told me they’ve had problems doing this.)
Hope this all makes sense and that my explanations are correct. For more detail, Six Apart, the company that I pay each month for access to Typepad, my blogging provider, has a great explanation of feeds and feed readers here.

Comments

[shula]

I'd go mad without bloglines...

[cindy]

Hi there!
Just love your blog! Please keep me informed about all....

[kim]

hello... i've really enjoyed this blog.. please keep me informed! (great illustrations too).
regards,
Kim.

[Luiza Andrada e Silva Ferrari]

i would like to recieve news about elegant suff