Leaving Algorithm-Driven Spaces

If you spend a lot of time on places like Bearblog, Ooh Directory, and Bubbles Town, you run into a few common themes in blogging. One of them that particularly interested me this year is the "feed annoyance" post. I am not calling anyone out specifically: this isn't about something that only happened recently or that a recent blogger did (although many have). This is more about the fact that it happens so often from so many people, and it made me want to think and read about it. I am not immune, of course. I'll get to that later. Scenario: You're looking at your favorite feed aggregator site hoping to find some interesting blog posts to read. Either you've already gone through your favorites list or you don't keep one, and you still feel like you're craving more words and thoughts from others. As you go through the list today, this week, over the last month, you find yourself getting increasingly frustrated, exasperated by the repetitive topics, informal grammar or too-strict grammar…