Wednesday, January 11, 2012

In Which I Sort You and Mark You Read


So the other day, I spent a couple of hours finishing the organization of my Google Reader folders, which, of course, are still subject to change. I also marked EVERYTHING as read. That is something I've never done in all these five years. It felt wrong, but good. I woke up to 81 new posts, and came home from work to 120. I got that down to 80 again before going to sleep last night and now we are back to 167.

See how this is a losing battle? You people post too much! Yes, it's all your fault and not that I subscribe to too many, right?

But I can already see that even doing this much will help me to comment better and more. I have no idea how that works, but somehow it does. So hopefully you'll see me doing that.

And I thought it might be fun to list my reader folders here, because I know I like to see how other people organize things like this, so maybe you'd like to see what I came up with.

Author Blogs
Book Blogs divided like this:
  Big and Popular (popular bloggers that get tons of comments where I want to see what they have to say, but don't          necessary feel the need to comment, know what I mean?
  Buddy and Challenge Friends (people that join in a buddy read or challenge with and I may want to track them temporarily, that is, until we might make some awesome connection or something!)
  Favorites (yep, favorites, bloggers I've been reading forever, etc.)
  International
  Kids Blogging
  New to Me (the spot to go if you are in the "trial" period!)
  Often Commenters (you go here if you comment on my blog a lot, but I'm still getting to know you)
  Random (the catch all spot)
  The Guys (book blogging boys)
  Top Favorites (the ones I will read and comment on every day)
Blogs about Blogging (maybe I'll learn something)
Celebrity Blogs (I deleted a lot from here, but am saving it in case a come across an awesome one)
Challenge Blogs (places created to keep track of challenges)
Food Blogs
Podcasts
Publishers
Quilting
Real Life People (usually family and a few neighbors)
Utah Authors
Utah Book Bloggers: Favorites (those I've met and become friends with IRL)
Utah Book Bloggers

Now I will leave you wondering, of course, which one YOU fit in! :) But let's just say I have a lot of favorites! And now I wish I could spend all day keeping up with you all!

Do you have any further suggestions for me? Ways to organize a Reader that have really worked for you? I'd love to learn!

How are your blogging resolutions going?

35 comments:

  1. I like your lists. I have some very similar categories in mine, but may have to steal a few of these.

    I'm working on a commenting challenge hosted by motherreader.com. It has exposed me to a lot of new blogs and has gotten me commenting on a more regular basis.

    Other blog goals: not going so well. Still have a few old reviews to write and clear out of my queue.

    I have cut back on my "obligated" reading and am enjoying it so far.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wahoo... Blogger's new threaded comments! I have a personal comment challenge going, and so far so good. I feel like I've been commenting a lot lately. Not very intelligent comments I'm sure, but commenting at least! :)

      Delete
  2. I use similar categories. :) I've made blog reading less stressful by not committing to comment on every blog or every post. That's taken a lot of the pressure off and prevented me from falling behind and having to "mark all as read" often.

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  3. That is so smart! I need to take the time someday to do organize my reader because I think it would make me a saner blogger too!

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    Replies
    1. It takes awhile, but it really does help. This is really just a start for me, I could make it much better.

      Delete
  4. I wish they offered this option on the regular blogger, I would love to be able to divide my many interests into different folders. Seems handy and easier to track down that blog post you want to return to again.

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    Replies
    1. By regular blogger, do you mean the friend connect thing? Which is going away I understand. Another cool way to organize blogs is Feedly.com. I'm loving that too.

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  5. Great labels! You must have 100s more blogs than I do, since I don't think I could put any of the blogs I follow into some of those categories.

    Here's how I've been staying on top: I put it in list format, scroll through and click on ones that look interesting, and when I hit the bottom, I mark all as read. Every day (or you know, every time I get on there). It's refreshing.

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    Replies
    1. Some of my categories don't have a whole lot in them. So I may end up getting rid of them. We'll see I guess. I will have to try your blog reading method!

      Delete
  6. I really like your labels. They're similar to mine, sort of.

    But, more importantly, I think you should put me in every Favorite category you have so that you get lots of doses of me. Wouldn't that be awesome? I think so. ;)

    Here are my categories:

    1. Annoying Blogs (blogs with music or auto play so I remember to mute my speakers before I go to comment)
    2. Authors
    3. Content Warning (blogs that have over 18 content that I sometimes read for some of the book reviews, but I don't want to go scrolling by at work; honestly, I really should just unsubscribe to these blogs, lol)
    4. eBook Deals
    5. Family
    6. Favorite Blogs
    7. Friends
    8. Non-Reciprocal (blogs I comment on often but they don't comment back; these are usually the big ones)
    9. Uncategorized (I need a better way to categorize these puppies)
    10. Utah Book Blogs

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HA! You make me laugh! I would have never thought of Annoying and Content Warning categories. Love it!

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  7. I like your categories. I must try to be that organized. I have all book bloggers lumped together.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If I lumped them altogether I don't think I'd get any of them looked at.

      Delete
  8. Wow, you're so organized! All my (hundreds of) book blogs are in one folder - the rest are divided into things like Writer Blogs, Family Blogs, Friends' Family Blogs, Adoption Blogs, Cooking Blogs, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, you should try spreading out your book blogs into other categories, see how it feels, if you like it or not.

      Delete
  9. Wow, you are very organized! I also thinned mine out a few weeks ago, but I did not make new categories for them...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will need to keep thinning I think. I only unsubscribed mostly to those who haven't posted in this last year. It was interesting to see how many there were though.

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  10. PS: My post is up! I meant to say that in the last comment. oops!

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  11. Tee hee. I don't have quite so many folders, but I also bet I don't have quite so many blogs since I just unfollowed a bunch. Here's mine:

    Authors (For Author Blogs)
    Book Bloggers (You're in this one)
    Friends! (You're in this one too!)
    Personal Blogs (For non-book blogs)
    Tours (For ARC Tours)

    And that's it! It's so wonderful to be organized.

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  12. You're right, now I'm wondering where I fall. I haven't even begun to organize my blog. Soon, soon. I'm very proud of you for deleting and I suggest you follow Melissa's advice. ;)

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    Replies
    1. I bet you can guess where you fall! Yes, you'll need to play with Google Reader soon.

      Delete
  13. Great lists! I have similar lists, such as favorites, blogging buddies, newbie bloggers, twitter buds, etc.

    I like the Big & Popular idea, as I follow several big blogs who get tons of comments, so no need for me to comment. I just might borrow this one! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Glad you have your Google Reader under control now! I'm always surprised at how many posts greet me when I check it after work. My folders are:

    Authors
    Book Blogger Friends
    Book Bloggers
    Book Community (ArmchairBEA, BBAW, Cybils)
    Filipino Book Bloggers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think I'll ever be able to actually keep up with everyone posting. I will try though.

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  15. It's good to have it all sorted, isn't it? that way I prioritize when I can't read them all at once. I have a "trial" folder too, called Newbies. Also one for blogs I'm considering taking off my reader, because I rarely read or comment on them. They usually sit there a month or two and if I still haven't seen anything interesting, or interacted with the blogger via comments, it floats off my list... otherwise too unmanageable!

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    Replies
    1. Good idea about a "almost ready to unsubscribe" folder! I like it!

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  16. Wow, this new thread thing will make it look like I have a gazillion comments now! Awesome! :) I'm so excited though. Really!

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  17. I didn't know blogger had threaded comments! Huh. I'm going to have to check that out. I love your categories, though. I need to snag a few for myself.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, the threaded comment thing just happened yesterday or so. You have to change your comments settings to embedded.

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  18. OH...this is something that I desperately need to do. I get so overwhelmed that I just give up and don't read any .... and then I go through withdrawal and miss all my online friends.

    I currently have the blogs I read sorted into about six broad categories - but I think I need to take the time and really segment them further. You have inspired me!

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  19. I'm too lazy to go look, so off the top of my head-
    Authors, book bloggers, book bloggers-YA, Books- mark read (the first to go from the bookish ones when I'm overwhelmed), The Consumerist, Consumerism (couponing sites, mainly),Crafts (this needs broken down more, specifically a mark read section), Etsy, Fashion, Favorites, Home & Cooking, Humor (DYAC!, Wrong number texts, etc), Kitchen Sink (this is where I'd put my own blog, if I weren't already in my own favorites list), Parenting, and then there's usually a big chunk of newish ones at the bottom that I periodically go categorize.

    ReplyDelete

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