Well, I explored MERLIN and I found it to be needlessly complicated. The sign-up process was clunky and did not work as it was supposed to according to the confirmation e-mail I got - when I logged on using the user-name and password they gave me it did not take me to another place to change my password. I did not bother to follow up, because by then I was really irritated with the site: while I was waiting for the confirming e-mail I started to browse the site without signing on - turns out you don't need to - I found a note buried somewhere that said you don't. I was not too thrilled with the content, either, though more will no doubt be added. A lot is duplication of stuff already done elsewhere or links to stuff. I am tired of duplication! I am also tired of having to sign up and then remember user names etc. for endless accounts. How do people manage? I suppose they write them down on bits of paper!!!!!
Apologies to any reader for my foul mood! However (also apologies to the grammar purists who might read this blog for starting a sentence with a conjunction), some of my doubts about the value of some of the things we have been exploring seem to have validity even when I am in a good mood. I have just read an article from PC Magazine saying MySpace, Second Life and Twitter are doomed by their own futility. I have also just read an article in today's Aegis by a twenty-four year old regretting the fact if all your news is online you no longer have the pleasure of saving as mementos newspaper clippings of important things in your life.
Anyway, to get back to the discovery exercises. I looked at Feedster and Topix and Syndic8. I think none of them have very good search engines: I had enormous hit lists and even when I ordered them by relevance they did not seem to be at all relevant. The trouble with all of them except Syndic8 is even if you put in the name of a feed you get a list of articles rather than a feed you can subsribe to. Syndic8 was the only one that showed the feed link for the arts section of the Telegraph when I asked for it. I think the organization of top blogs by topic in Bloglines is most helpful for the beginner, though limiting. Topix is probably best if you want everything on a subject. Good luck matching your search to their tags!
Despite all my reservations about RSS feeds I find I have signed up for a lot! I have to keep up with my husband who keeps confounding me with improbable stories from the Daily Telegraph (it must be true because it's in print!). He has lots of time to check his feeds because he is retired. Now I can check his veracity and maybe cap his stories!
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