Brendan Tompkins [MVP]

Blog First. Ask Questions Later.

Was I Blacklisted by Bloglines?

I started trying out Bloglines about a week ago. What I liked about it was the way I could publish my list of the blogs I'm reading. To me, this list is key. It has taken me a year or so to filter and hone it so that I'm reading stuff I'm interested in. The other cool thing is that you can see how many other bloglines users have subscribed to a particular feed. Of course, I subscribed to my own blog, just because. I noticed that 15 other people had also, probably for lesser reasons.

So the other day, I noticed that my blog had been removed from my list! I didn't do this! I assure you, I read my own blog all the time! So I re-subscribed. Now bloglines says that there's only 1 person subscribed to my blog. Me! So did everyone un-subscribe since last week? Or, did the record and all FKs for my blog get deleted? Was this an accident? Am I being silenced? I know that Microsoft is probably pretty worried about my WSMQ project taking market share from MSMQ but I doubt they'd do anything so sneaky. ;)

Of course I'm not really that paranoid, but this does point out a potential problem when using these hosted blog readers. You're putting your library of feeds in someone else's hands, and anything could happen. If an obscure blog like my own was deleted from my list, I may not ever even know it was gone! Even worse it may take me years to get those 15 people back!

-Brendan

Published Sep 13 2004, 07:11 AM by Brendan Tompkins

Comments

Darrell said:

Did you ever find a way to upload an OPML file? I'd really rather not go through ALL my subs and resubscribe to each one individually via Bloglines.

# September 13, 2004 3:33 AM

Brendan Tompkins said:

No, I did do them all by hand.. So what are you using?

# September 13, 2004 3:38 AM

Paul Wilson said:

Some us read you in the main DNJ feed. :)

# September 13, 2004 4:44 AM

Shannon J Hager said:

http://www.bloglines.com/help/faq#import

"How Can I Import An Existing List of Subscriptions?

Once you have registered with Bloglines and replied to the confirmation email, click on the My Feeds tab at the top of the screen. Then, click on the Edit link. At the bottom of the left panel will be a link to import subscriptions. The subscription list must be in OPML format. "

# September 13, 2004 4:49 AM

Darrell said:

Shannon - thanks! I must have trolled around the interface for 10 mins looking for the upload! Guess I should RTFM...

# September 13, 2004 5:53 AM

Shannon J Hager said:

I haven't actually used Bloglines but I recommend it for my "normal" friends (non-developers). I looked up that feature before I recommended it because it seemed like a "must have" to me.

And then I made an OPML for them so they could start off with a few good feeds.

# September 13, 2004 9:51 AM

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About Brendan Tompkins

Brendan has been programming with .NET since the first public beta and is owner and operator of Port Technology Services, a consultancy company providing .NET application development services to the Maritime industry. In July, 2007, he was awarded the Microsoft MVP award for ASP.NET. He's also a proud co-founder of failed .COM startup Intrinsigo, and has had a hand in the failure of numerous other businesses. He currently runs CodeBetter.Com and Devlicio.us, and lives in Norfolk, Virgina with his wife Tiara and son Ian.