The psychological cost of having an RSS feed

(refp.se)

8 points | by refp 8 hours ago ago

9 comments

  • refp 8 hours ago ago

    Ever since I first started blogging I have struggled with performance anxiety, and I have concluded that much of this boils down to me adding an RSS feed to my site.

    This article dives into why that is, and the hidden costs of adding something as simple as /rss.xml to your blog.

    • BinaryIgor 8 hours ago ago

      By performance anxiety you mean checking views and clicks? What's wrong with that? You should care whether people read your stuff ;)

      • refp 8 hours ago ago

        The TLDR is that I back in 2015 published some C++ related posts that got way more traction than I originally anticipated, and given the subscriptions to the RSS-feed I felt like I could not live up to the contents people perhaps expected.

        On the other hand, I have no idea what people _actually_ expected to be published, but in my head I have for what it's worth created this nightmare scenario where I post something not related to C++, and all those readers would be /pinged and disappointed.

        Impressions and clicks are a confident booster, though the fear of disappointing or letting people down because they expect "better" content is something I for sure struggle with

        • BinaryIgor 8 hours ago ago

          Got you :) I advise you to work on it and get over it - it's far more satisfying to mostly (not always) write about things others are interested in; people find value in your work and you have more impact at the same time; it's an overall win-win.

    • BeetleB 8 hours ago ago

      I know you mention it, but for me it's simple: Just don't maintain those kinds of logs!

      • refp 8 hours ago ago

        Solid advice for sure, and ignorance is bliss but damn does this nuddle of mine (brain) make it difficult at times; "no logs for an httpd? you cray-cray-crazy? what if something happens!?"

        Perhaps I need some further self-reflection, because I fear that with no logs I would assume the worse and end up in the same boat. Though.. maybe it is time to grow up? No idea, weirdly enough this problem is one of the hardest I have ever faced

    • wredcoll 8 hours ago ago

      I mean, whats the difference between seeing the logs of the actual blog content?

      • refp 8 hours ago ago

        For me it boils down to the fact that rss-feeds propagate without any knowledge or control. One left-over subscription somewhere can ping so far, whereas a manually copied link (like if someone reads an article and decide to share it) at least is an isolated event.

        It is not the author of the RSS who "disturbs" sleeping agents, it is simply the one who actually forwarded the message. If that makes sense?

  • BinaryIgor 8 hours ago ago

    Just don't have it in your logs or host your blog on CDN :) But in any case, please add RSS feed - let's keep this awesome protocol/convention alive