Second Tree Blog

Semi-regularly updated musings from the Tim, Julie, Benton, Carson, and Alana Wilsons.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

This Blog Is Awesome...but I Forget to Check It...

I heard a segment on my Wait Wait Don't Tell Me podcast this afternoon that reminded me of this blog (and many blogs, for that matter). In the "Bluff the Listener" segment, one of the (untrue) scenarios presented was that the proliferation of reality TV shows and the re-emergence of game shows was leading to more and more people having a psychological disorder that made them think that they were special in some way and that they, too, deserved to be on national television to showcase their unique talents. The real disorder turned out to be a guy in Sweden who managed to get a sick benefits for his addiction to heavy metal music.

With that preamble...it's occurred to me that most of the people who might actually be interested in this blog (both of you!) are not the sorts of people who are subscribing to a bunch of RSS or Atom feeds. But, hey...if you are, then notice that I've got an Atom feed on this site (it was pretty much a default setting -- nothing I had to do). Just click the "Atom" link at the bottom of the righthand navigation and then copy and paste that URL into your reader (if you're using IE 7, you can just click on the link and then click "Subscribe to this feed" to add it to IE).

The problem is, if you don't actually check your feeds on a regular basis, then subscribing to this feed is about as useful as an ice chest at the North Pole.

Another option -- I tested this -- is to set up a Google Alert to monitor the blog. This is really pretty easy, and it's a fun little gadget to play with. You have to create a Google account to use it, and you have to use Google. So, if you're paranoid about your privacy or if you think Google is evil, then this option is out. If you do set up an alert, just set it to watch for "Second Tree Blog" and select "blogs" in the dropdown with what to monitor. You can set it to send you updates as they get posted, once per day, or once per week. Google Alerts are pretty cool. You could set up another one for, say, "Himalayan snowcock" (you know who you are!) and get updates when Google picks up that something new has been posted on the 'net with that phrase.

Still too much work? Never fear, dear reader! There's another option. I'm willing to go all 2006 and actually push this content to your inbox. All you have to do is send an e-mail to subscribe@secondtree.com with "SUBSCRIBE" in the subject line, and you will start getting an e-mail every time a new post gets added here (assuming my spam filter doesn't block your e-mail). Unsubscribe by sending an e-mail to the same address with "UNSUBSCRIBE" -- don't look for any fancy-schmancy autoresponders to give you this information in the footer of each blog update. Poor form e-mail-wise, but it's a pure opt-in model, so you get what you get. If the list of subscribers actually grows past, say, five, I'll blast the list every six months or so asking if anyone wants to unsubscribe. I've got no terms of use, but I'm just providing this as a convenience -- you're e-mail address is safe with me and won't be shared with anyone else. Except maybe Julie. If she asks.

 

1 Comments:

  • At July 9, 2007 4:01 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Ah, yes...we do know who we are! And you know us well - i.e., subscribe works.

     

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