Okay, it’s official, WordPress’ Reader does not work for me. I switched to Reader from email messages a few month’s ago to cut back on the number of emails I was receiving. You know, the “so and so has a new post” emails. I had days when I just felt overwhelmed by the number of emails. So, switching to Reader made sense. That way I wouldn’t get an email telling me you’d just posted and could just go over to Reader and read all new posts at my leisure. Sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it?
Except, not everyone’s posts show up in Reader for some reason and every so often I’d find myself thinking “I wonder why this person hasn’t posted for a while” only to go over to their blog and find out, that indeed, they had been posting regularly. And, to add injury to insult, Blogs I’ve never heard of, and have no interest in following, show up in my Reader.
So, a few weeks ago, I began thinking it was time to switch back to email notifications and write Reader a “Dear John” letter. In view of that, I went and culled my list of blogs I follow. Some of those blogs were no longer active and some had changed and my interest in them had waned.
Then today Reader changed their appearance and set up and that was the last straw. I hate the new look. So, if I’ve been missing from your blog, I blame it all on Reader and am going, right now, to set up email notifications.
And I think, too, I will go have some cheese with my whine!
Cheers!
Jan 25, 2013 @ 22:27:56
I’m also not a fan of Reader – and today I also culled my list of subscriptions, which allows me to focus on the blogs I *really* want to read. Like yours.
Jan 11, 2013 @ 12:13:39
Amazingly or not you and I have reached the same point. I have been clicking people over to email again.
Jan 10, 2013 @ 20:02:18
Oh me oh my, No wonder. I’ve been missing so many folks. I use the reader on my not so smart phone sometimes it gets out of order and I never get Crowning Crone there. People must be missing me too, I only have 5 likes in the last 2 days ? Has my quality gone down hill lately? Or maybe we need to add our link to all blogs we comment on (when we can find them) just to get ourselves out? I’ll have the Chablis!
Jan 10, 2013 @ 21:58:16
Definitely not your quality. Email notifications work best seems to be the consensus.
Jan 10, 2013 @ 13:38:36
I gave up on Reader a long time ago. The same things you mentioned were happening to me as well. E-mail seems to be the most reliable way to stay connected to other blogs.
Jan 10, 2013 @ 04:11:46
Did you enjoy that and was it helpful? We all need to whine sometime or other x
Jan 10, 2013 @ 22:01:19
Well it helped me and others, I think, just to see the problem and know it is pretty much universal.
Jan 11, 2013 @ 07:25:28
good
Jan 10, 2013 @ 00:58:01
Reader does that to me too – Reisling?
Jan 10, 2013 @ 21:59:45
Right now a lovely Chardonnay or glass of Cassis would do just fine. Day spent at hospital for my sweetie’s cataract surgery. All went well, all is well!
Jan 10, 2013 @ 23:36:23
excellent!
Jan 09, 2013 @ 18:18:43
I’m with you. I HATE the new reader! :-/ Bleh.
Jan 09, 2013 @ 18:12:47
I hated the email notification. I found it too overwhelming. For others posts, I do use the reader for a quick daily scan. I agree that it occasionally misses posts. Therefore, once a week or so I go into my list of blogs that i follow and check out my favorites to make sure I have not missed any. So people will not hear from me, then I may suddenly comment on several of their posts all at once. However, I find tat more efficient than dealing with too many emails.
Jan 09, 2013 @ 17:18:02
Hi Joss. I use Mac’s MAIL program and have most of my blogs coming in via RSS feed. I prefer it to emails or even WordPress’ “Reader” feature. It’s much less intrusive than emails and not subject to the whims of the WordPress developers. : )
Jan 09, 2013 @ 17:16:57
I’ve had the same problem. Thought for a while it was a browser issue [I use Chrome], but I don’t know. It got so annoying so I switched back to email, made up a label of its own in Gmail, and set them to skip inbox. That way, I can go through that bunch whenever I feel like it instead of feeling overwhelmed by my inbox.
Jan 09, 2013 @ 17:35:30
” [I use Chrome] ” You know, you may just be right about it being a “browser issue”. Google and WordPress are head to head competitors. I’ve had nothing but frustration trying to follow and comment to anyone using Blogspot. It’s not really much of a stretch that google would do such a thing in this instance as well, is it?
LOVE your idea of rerouting to a seperate box for new blogpost email.
Jan 09, 2013 @ 18:47:27
Yes, I checked out the reader with IE and that worked better. I cannot be bothered by changing browser just to comply to whatever childish ideas they might have. The email works great for me now, I’ve had it like that for a week now.
A few years ago, I used a blogging service called Multiply [dead now RIP]. They stated openly that «Multiply works best with Firefox». That’s when I left..
Jan 10, 2013 @ 22:03:05
I have used Firefox for so long that I forget IE exists. I don’t like Chrome as it interferes with my headset,
Jan 09, 2013 @ 16:39:41
I’ve had similar problems, Joss. And some of my followers have mentioned that my blog hasn’t been showing up from time to time. I’ve tried Google reader, but had similar problems. New posts might not show up for days, if at all. I wish I had a good fix to offer. I, too, get overwhelmed with all the email notifications, but haven’t found a happy medium.
Jan 09, 2013 @ 17:00:08
Frustrating. For now, I’m gonna go back to emails! At least those come through and I can always do a batch delete if I’ve been away for a few days or something.
Jan 09, 2013 @ 16:04:19
I use Google Reader. That way I can add anyone’s blog (or page). If someone doesn’t have an RSS Icon on their page for an automatic add, you can still copy and paste their web address to add it to Google Reader.
Jan 09, 2013 @ 16:58:58
I’ll keep that in mind if I start feeling too overwhelmed with emails again. Thanks for sharing that.
Jan 09, 2013 @ 16:02:32
I’m thinking you should send your “whine” on to WordPress… After all, if they don’t know the extent of their problem, how can they fix it properly? (As in, so it’ll work for YOU!; )
Jan 09, 2013 @ 16:57:11
I’ll see if I can figure out how to do that Deb. thanks.
Jan 09, 2013 @ 15:31:38
Joss, I thought it was just me. I totally agree with you and have recently gone back to email notifications. Thanks for posting this.
Jan 09, 2013 @ 16:58:12
It’s definitely not just you as I’ve read comments here and there about people not seeing posts for blogs they subscribe to. Somehow Reader seems to decide what you should see!