Subscribe To Stropp’s World - It’s Free

Posted by Stropp on July 23, 2008

Every now and again the question comes up regarding the subscription options that are available here at Stropp’s World.

You’ve probably noticed the two reasonably large graphics at the top of the sidebar. These provide the two methods for reading Stropp’s World other than coming directly to the site.

 

So what do they do?

Subscribe to RSS

The Subscribe to RSS image will add this blog’s RSS feed to the feed reader of your choice. RSS is an acronym that stands for Really Simple Syndication and works by providing an XML file containing the blog post that is read by another program called a feed reader.

There are two kinds of feed reader. The first comes in the form of a standalone program that lives on your desktop. I use Thunderbird as my eMail client, which has the functionality to add RSS feeds to its own reader functionality. You can also find any number of programs that just act as feed readers and don’t have any other function.

The second kind of feed reader is the web based reader. Example of these are Google Reader (pictured below,) Bloglines, and Netvibes. I don’t actually use Thunderbird as my RSS reader, I use Google Reader after switching over from Bloglines some months ago.

As you can see, I’ve got a lot of blogs listed in Google Reader. You can also get RSS feeds of web forums, and some companies provide feeds of news. I’ve got a couple of MMOG developers news feeds in my reader so that I get breaking news when it happens.

It’s real lucky I am a very fast reader or I’d never be able to read all the feeds every day.

Subscribe to eMail

The other subscription option that I offer is the ability to get blog posts delivered by eMail.

I first looked into this about eight or so months ago when my friend Gitr told me that Stropp’s World had been blocked by his works web filtering software. Bummer!

So in a stick-it-in-your-ear sort of gesture to these killjoy web filtering companies, I decided to provide Feedburner’s eMail delivery service as an option to my readers who don’t get the opportunity to enjoy the quality witty and insightful writing (cough) that appears on this blog.

However, at this writing, there are only four who have taken up this generous offer. I can only imagine that there is a belief that I will send much spam their way, perhaps of the male enhancement or breast enlargement variety.

Such a mistaken belief. The eMail subscription is handled by Feedburner, and it simply provides the eMail version of my posts. If I write three posts in a day, those will be bundled into one eMail and sent at a specific time. I do have access to the addresses, but I’ll never spam to them. Feedburner is also owned by Google, that adds another level of trust.

So Why Subscribe?

I used to have a daily ritual of visiting each blog or website in my favorites list. While I still do that, I find it’s easier to just check the feed reader to see if there’s any new content. That’s also really helpful on weekends when blog posting slows down a lot.

Subscribing with RSS will ensure you get the latest articles almost as soon as they are posted. Subscribing with eMail, as long as you whitelist the address, will ensure you get the articles delivered as well, no messy web filters to deal with.

So what are you waiting for? Subscribe today. It’s free.

If you have any questions, doubts, or other comments about subscribing, drop a comment below. Alternately, you can use the contact form to eMail me.

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