Damien at the Speed of Life – DATSOL

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+ = ? About a month ago, I followed Google’s advice and transferred my Feedburner feeds to Google Adsense.  Apparently Google will be dissolving Feedburner altogether mid February.  Since I did that it has been one problem after another and my 4 feeds have been inaccessible. I have a workaround, sort of.  It is based on the concept that you can always redirect your own url but you can’t do anything with one of Google’s.

This is a real problem when you value feed subscribers as I do.  It proved especially troubling to me when I started broadcasting my podcast recently through iTunes and the feed address Google gave me was completely dead.  After I explain a little more, I feel I have a workaround that may help:

What happened exactly?  Well, since Google is offering no support as far as I can tell, I figure I’d lay it out in a post and see if we can figure it out together.

Basically, my original feed is:

http://www.damienriley.com/feed/

Way back in the day when I satrted with Feedburner, they assigned it the feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/damienatthespeedoflife

When they asked me to migrate they told me to change my code to reflect the new feed which would be:

http://feedproxy.google.com/damienatthespeedoflife

Then, when that came up with nothing in a few days, Feedburner showed a different address.  It was the same as the original Feedburner feed except with a 2 after the “feeds” subdomain name:

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/damienatthespeedoflife

Yesterday I was told my latest posts as of three days ago were not updating in this feed.  I have to tell you, I was furious.  I decided on a workaround that gives me better control over my own feeds:

1. Search and replace all the above feeds in my database and theme to the original raw feed:
   http://www.damienriley.com/feed/
2. Take off any plugins or 301 redirects in my .htaccess files and let the raw feed be my only feed I advertise.
3. Wait for Google to get its sh** together and when/if they do
4. NEVER AGAIN change anything in url code for my feed.  Keep it raw and if I like the new Google feed system, change it through a simple 301 redirect in the .htaccess files.

One more reason to love Google folks.  In all seriousness though, I’m sure they will get feeds together eventually.  It will probably rock and then you don’t want to be locked out of the party for some reason.  The 301 .htaccess redirect will get you right back in.  I do love many Google services but PageRank and now this feed mess are definitely two of its shortcomings.  Your current subscribers will miss some posts but hopefully it will work out in a happy Google ending.

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my FEED Thanks for visiting!

It’s been almost a full year since I quit reading RSS feeds.  It got way too out of control and for me it was just more clutter in my daily routine.  I have to say that my getting out there to read my favorite blogs has definitely stagnated.  I used to make my “rounds” daily and now I am lucky if I can get to my blogroll once a month.  As any blogger knows … time management is golden.

I’ve learned a lot in the last year that might make RSS feeds a better bet.  I’ve prioritized my goals and set goals in the direction of CAN, my self rating system.  I’ve also learned more how to identify a blog worth putting on my “to read” list.  So I’m gonna go for it.  If you are on my blogroll you can bet I’ll be stopping by more.  If I haven’t commented much lately. my apologies … we live, we learn.

As for those not on my blogroll and the other ones out there in the blogosphere I have yet to discover.  I think going back to RSS feeds and Google reader will have some “pioneering,” “discovery” qualities that will introduce me to more greatness on the web.  Do you read RSS feeds? I know some people don’t.  I’m interested in your input on this new(old) direction I am taking.