26 aug 07
Wired has this mini-feature where they define/coin esoteric tech terms. It’s called “Jargon Watch.” For example, many eons ago, dooced showed up in the magazine. You know what dooced means, right?
Anyway, for a long time I’ve been trying to think of a term for the following phenomenon. So, you’re subscribed to a blog in your feedreader of choice. You read a post, you mark it as read, and it’s banished to the black hole of already-read things forever. Oh, wait! The owner of said blog republishes or otherwise alters their whole feed, and all their posts show back up for you as unread. (This has happened to me twice very recently with Mike D.’s blog. What’s up?) Since this is incredibly annoying, it deserves its own term. Initially I considered RSS Spam, because that’s pretty accurate except that there really is RSS spam. FeedReload? Unintentional Feed Reload (UFR)? Annoying Feed Barrage (AFB)? I Have Already Read These Damn Posts (IHARTDP)?
Actually, the best I’ve come up with so far is: feedpeat. Get it? Feed repeat?
Anyway, let me know what you think, other ideas, and if someone has already named this and I’ve missed it. Then, since I’m so damn famous, we’ll make it into Wired.
Richard / 27 aug 2007 / 10:55 a.m.
I’m glad someone else is annoyed by this. Mike D.’s feed “refresh” recently is enough to cause me to drop it. I use Google Reader and at first I thought it might be a GR issue. Other blogs do this all the time and it drives me crazy. What makes it worse is when they don’t make note that there was an update to the feed item so I can at least reassure myself that I’m not crazy for thinking I already marked it as read. I’m all for “feedpeat”.
Emma / 29 aug 2007 / 2:53 p.m.
Oh hey look it’s my famous Django sister. Don’t let your head get to big there.
ez / 26 aug 2007 / 11:39 p.m.
Feedpeat reminds me of The Adventures of Pete and Pete.