To the new weblogs.asp.net bloggers

First of all: welcome. Now, as you all might know, this blog site, http://weblogs.asp.net, has a grouped RSS feed (a couple actually), which is called the 'main feed'. If you place your post in a category which is in the default list of this site, your post will automatically end up on the main feed. This is a nice feature, but as it is used now it kills the site.

At the moment, the feed is flooded with completely useless posts: posts which link to articles from 2 years ago, copied texts from manuals, very poor code copied from other websites etc. etc. More and more people are giving up on this main feed because of this. While what you post on your blog is your business, you have to realize that by placing the post on the main feed, you also affect others on this site. For example, I don't want people to unsubscribe from the main feed and I bet a lot of others here think the same.

So, dear new blogger at weblogs.asp.net, do yourself and us a big favor: write new content. We all know about a couple of search engines, and we all know how to lookup things in MSDN. We don't need random posts without any red line to point us to these articles. Instead, what we don't know (yet) is what your opinion is about topics related to .NET programming, what your experiences are with .NET programming, what your ideas are about how things could get better. Those articles are interesting to read and will attract new readers and existing subscribers to come back.

History learns that this flood of useless posts is temporary, but what's sad is that often people who unsubscribe to a feed don't come back.

19 Comments

  • Frans, I couldn't agree more with you there. It's simply ridiculous to see people make a one liner post linked to an external resource about some article they happened to have read, found cool and decide to flood the main feed :|

    Thanks for bringing that up. Hopefully, something can be done about this.

    Have a good day,
    Alessandro

  • I like(d) the feed a lot. The stuff which normally is posted to it learn me new stuff, give me ideas or give me insights on what other people think about development etc. But let's be fair, I'm not 10 years old, I can find stuff on codeproject, google, codeplex etc myself. Actually my nephews which are 10, can do that also.

    Post stuff which adds value, but don't spam us with stuff we already read a year ago and making for each link you found a new post.. It's not a contest who can post the most!

  • Frans, i totally agree with you. Well, i dont blog on weblogs.asp.net i'm only a reader. Since the weblog is open for everyone, the quality of the articles change for the worse. I noticed that the double posts are also increased. May some people to remember: less is somtime more.

    Servus,
    Klaus

  • yes indeed an important issue. I personally am thinking if I should continue with the feed as the number of useful stuff has just reduced so low that its difficult to find a good post to read.

  • Is the asp.net weblogs still invitation only? or can any registered user create a blog now?

    im assuming its the former!

  • +1000 my flood is exploding!

    I think we need at least a couple of feed, the first is the main feed (the oldest), the others is the one with new bloggers.

    I waited for a minute before asking to "open" my blog in weblogs.asp.net but thinking at the problem you mentioned I gave up !

    Best regards !

    Gianluca

  • Totally agree..

    I am thinking about creating some kind of feed wrapper, which can filter on some field values in the RSS stream.

    You will see all new postings, except for the people/keywords you 'Junk' tagged..

    Then that filtered RSS url can be used in your RSS reader or bloglines account.

    Sounds simple.. Maybe bloglines is interested in building it into their rss reader..

    Regards hj meulekamp

  • Haissam: I'm not talking about posts on a blog, as I said: everyone should post what s/he feels should be posted. It's just that not every post should be on the main feed. Blogs have individual RSS feeds, if you feel a post doesn't belong on the main feed, don't post it on the main feed.

    The thing is also that the discussion about the main feed has been held a couple of times in the past as well, and never it was really resulting in anything useful.

  • I thought the community was too focused on software engineering concepts like unit testing and obscure language features and not enough on actual web development. Building developer communities is important and there is a lot of competition. For example, I network with the larger IT community on ITtoolbox.

  • Call a spade a spade.  There's one new blogger that's trashing the feed.  He was mentioned in the "Poor Code" feed.  If he goes, things will get better.

  • Maybe something simple like exclude all the new people from the main feed until they earn their stripes?

    Phil.

  • Hi Frans,

    Im glad to see someone besides myself is trying to point this out and do something about it. I really liked reading all of the blogs that used to come through from the asp.net weblogs, but now, I skim through most of them. Anyway, keep up the good work!

  • I'm so nervous posting at asp.net that my blog is completely empty. :D I'll post something when I think it may be unique.

  • kCornwell: hehe :) It's not that you shouldn't post whatever pops up in your mind, please do so, but the main issue is the main feed which gets flooded.

    I'm glad Joe looks into it and I'm looking forward to the new feeds ;).

  • Thanks you Frans,

    Thanks to the asp.net team for giving us an opportunity to show our ideas. I hope that my posts be in the truth way ;)

    Best regarlds,

    Eugenio

  • Why did you make the official asp.net blog as public if you are going to seperate between old bloggers and new bloggers? It is better to leave it private until someone earns his/her MVP or joins Microsoft...

  • I totally agree. This is getting really annoying reading through multitudes of learn this and learn that links.

    I'm a new blogger here also. I purposefully didn't write an initial biography or "thanks to Joe" post, because there already was a thanks post, then another, then another, etc. Also, why would anyone care about me being a new blogger anyways?

    Hopefully people will start thinking twice before posting crap to everyone.

  • Right on!!! I just hope they stop the useless posts...

  • Hi guys,

    I'm working on a rich rss and home page solutuion and I hope you will keep your eyes on my blog as I will be asking for your input soon.

    In the mean time - NEW BLOGGERS should read this post http://www.joeon.net/post/2008/01/Weblogsaspnet---New-Blogger-Feed-Growth.aspx and use the info to keep non-technical posts OUT of the agrigate feed.

    In the interest of overall satisfaction, I will remove Bloggers who post non technical posts to the main feed from the agrigate feeds.

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