I’m unsubscribing from the Scientific American feed…
…and here’s why (from an email to SciAm):
Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I am unsubscribing from your RSS feed and why.
1> Too many ads, too prominently placed and intrusive
I am not a big fan of ads in RSS feeds, but I am willing to accept them in the right mixture for the right content. Unfortunately you haven’t got that mix. The content you provide is not compelling enough for me to wade through the ugly ads that your newsisfree feeds are placing, especially when the content is non-existant. It is common for me to open your feed and see a headline with an ad and nothing else - in fact they all look like that (the ones that have ads, that is).
2> Skimpy RSS items
I want more that a headline. The headline tells me whether the enclosed content is worth looking at, so then I read the content, and if it’s compelling I’ll go to the site for more info. Even on feeds that offer full text, if I see a post that really interests me I’ll go to the site even though I’ve read the whole article; that way the site gets a little “visit-juice.” The end result of a post that contains no text and just a headline is that I don’t go there, I don’t get anything at all out of it. I can’t tell from just a headline if I want to read the story; even if you’re not going to provide full text you have to provide something. And please, tell me what I’m supposed to do with a post that just says “more”?
If you’re interested in my reading your online content and visiting your site (and who knows, maybe even subscribing to your magazine if I like what I see) then give this some serious thought. I’m available to consult if you need some help with the whole RSS concept.
Thanks!
kinrowan
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