Becoming a better blogger, reader and helping me take out the trash: Trimming in Public: Episode 4

Trimming in Public is a series where I go through my list of 293 RSS feeds, 10 RSS feeds at a time, give some detail as to why I subscribed to a particular feed, and then decide whether or not to keep on consuming that feed. In Episode 1 I explained what RSS is and how to use it, please read that if you need a refresher on why RSS is awesome and why you should be using it if you take reading news on the internet seriously. The prefix to Trimming in Public is “Becoming a better blogger, reader and helping me take out the trash.” For the bloggers out there who read IntoMobile, I hope you get a better idea of what I do to keep on top of the news. For the readers who read IntoMobile, I know that this site isn’t the only mobile focused technology site on the internet, and by sharing which sites I read I’m hoping that you’ll keep on coming back here. Taking out the trash has an obvious explanation, I can’t keep up with my RSS feeds and need to trim my list. For those who want to download my complete list of 293 RSS feeds, feel free to grab my OPML file.

Check out Episode 4 after the jump, and all episodes by clicking on the Trimming in Public tag:

1. Chromium Blog: Chromium is the name of the open source version of Google Chrome, the browser that I use most often on a day to day basis. The blog hasn’t been updated since January, and while I do care where the browser is going, I don’t care enough to be subscribed to this feed. Besides, any time they do start blogging again, I’m sure I’ll hear about it via Twitter or Tech Crunch or Techmeme. Decision: Unsubscribe.
2. Churbuck: David Churbuck works for Lenovo, a company that makes a line of laptops known as the ThinkPad. Why do I know this? I’m a huge ThinkPad nerd. Practically every laptop I’ve ever owned has been a ThinkPad. I love the design, the dependability, the battery life, but do I love David? This is his personal blog more or less. He constantly writes about getting back into shape and fishing. I’m sorry, but I just don’t care. Decision: Unsubscribe.
3. Communities Dominate Brands: Tomi Ahonen is one smart guy. He worked for Nokia at some point, and he has been involved in the mobile industry since … well I don’t have a year, but the way he writes gives you a feeling that he has been around since Moses came down from the mountain with two tablets. He has a knack for writing essays that are long, very long, and filled with statistics, but they can all be summed as up as: SMS drives profits, mobile communications is the new revenue generator, buy my books. I used to learn a lot from reading his blog, but today I often find myself skipping his blog posts because they’re just so damn long and repetative. For people new to the industry, read his stuff. He writes as if he is explaining wireless telecoms to someone who doesn’t even know what a cell tower is. I like him because of that, but I can’t read his blog anymore. Decision: Unsubscribe.
4. comScore: As an analyst firm that mainly focuses on America, I don’t know why I read this feed anymore. Sure they may publish a nugget of gold here and there, but I’ll leave it up to other bloggers to find those precious bits of info, rather than sifting through the druge myself. Decision: Unsubscibre.
5. Creating Passionate Users: Kathy Sierra was once a rockstar in the social media space. She “got it.” The fact that she was a woman though, meant people on the internet were being a bunch of fucking douche bags, some of them even sent her death threats. It’s a shame really. Her blog is still up, so if you’re new to the social media space, read read read. I personally miss her drawings (or photoshopped images, whatever you want to call them) since they clearly illistrated points that made people unwilling to listen to what social media consultants had to say finally pay attention. Shame really. She was way ahead of her time. The Bob Dylan of Social Media. Decision: Unsubscribe.
6. I subscribed to Kathy’s blog twice since she changed her RSS feed. I’m deleting the duplicate too. Don’t worry, in today’s Episode I’ll hit 11.
7. CrunchGear: When a race between many competitors reaches a close, everyone remembers the victor, few remember the runner up, and no one remembers who took home the bronze. Between Engadget, Gizmodo and CrunchGear, I’m sorry to say it since I love John Biggs’ style, but CrunchGear earns the bronze. I just can’t be bothered to read it anymore. Decision: Unsubscibre.
8. Cybette’s VOX: Carol is a friend of mine. She hasn’t updated this blog since November 2007. If I want to see what she is up to, I just have to get off my ass, put on some clothes, and ask her since she is literally right around the corner from the apartment where I’m sitting. Decision: Unsubscribe.
9. Daily Writing Tips: English is not my first language, that honor goes to Romanian, which I’m slowly losing since I have no one to really practice it with. Even though I work night and day to master English, I still fumble with the more complicated nuances of grammar and sentence composition. This blog used to teach me how to better express my thoughts, but now it’s just trying to teach me new words that I’ll probably never use. It also points out common mistakes, such as the differences between your and you’re, whether and weather, where and were, you get the point. According to IntoMobile statistics, we have a fairly sizeable portion of foreign readers. Whether you’re a writer or not, if you feel like improving your English, then subscribe to this blog. Decision: Unsubscribe.
10. DailyTech News Feed: Yet another technology blog, why do I bother reading so many? Seriously? Oh I know why, so I can read the opinions of many people and then form my own based on the bits I steal from here and there. Decision: Unsubscribe.
11. Darla Mack: This one makes me me sad. Darla Mack was like a mentor to me. She started blogging way back in the day, I think early 2004, which may be a little too new school for the bloggers in California who started in early 2001, but for technology blogs, she was a real gem. Darla was awesome as a blogger because she was super smart, but at the same time she wrote in a very non geeky, mainstream voice. She was the Walt Mossberg of the S60 and Nokia ecosystem. Darla was also awesome as a person. She filled the room with love and joy and I’m lucky to be one of the few to say that I’ve had a chance to meet and party with her. More recently however, she has been having personal problems. I forget what exactly, but her husband was hit by a car, and then she got sick herself; it’s just a tragic story. There are people who write on Darla Mack’s blog today, but it just isn’t the same. If you’re reading this Darla, I hope you’re OK. The internet really misses you. Please come back. I’m sorry to have to do this, but: Decision: Unsubscribe.

Wow, look at that. I deleted all 10 (11 if you count the duplicate) RSS feeds mentioned today. I’m down to 265 from 293. How low can I go?