Just Links in RSS Feeds
Recently, the comic strip Unshelved stopped appearing in its entirety in my aggregator and just became a link to the day’s comic strip. At first, I didn’t think much about the change. So what: I now have to click the link to read the strip. Then I thought, what’s the point of having an RSS feed, of using this terrific push technology, if it’s just going to give you a link to something and you have to go out to get it on your own. Okay, clicking a direct link isn’t as bad as having to go through the Web site to find that day’s content, but it’s still aggravating. Imagine if instead of getting headlines to the ResourceShelf, you just got a link saying “Go read the ResourceShelf.” (Don’t tell me I’m the only who reads the ResourceShelf?) I don’t need a link to tell me that the comic strip is there or remind me to go read it. One of the reasons why I subscribed to the comic strip in the first place is so that I would have it appear on my blog. I wonder why Overdue Media made the change. Copyright issues? Site traffic? Or … ?
Addendum 11/29: The complete Unshelved began reappearing in my aggregator yesterday. Hopefully, it’s a permanent change.
