It used to be so easy to follow a blog. There was a handy little RSS button. Just click and your in. Google Reader picked it up and new posts magically appeared in your reader. No skills required. Then they killed Google Reader. All of Blogville scrambled to find new ways to keep their followers. Blogs chose Feedly, Bloglovin', or something else. They added new buttons to their blogs and hoped their readers would stay with them. At least some blogs did that. Some didn't. And what if the only follow button is Bloglovin' but you use Feedly. What if you aren't techy enough to figure it all out (that'd be me). Oh the drama.
Then Mac users had to upgrade their systems. And Apple didn't think we needed RSS feeds. Suddenly there was no way to get those all important RSS feeds on Mac -- at least no simple way. I upgraded to os X Mavericks and boom. All my feeds died. I had just figured out how to worm my way around Google and now Apple betrayed me. Sigh.. Back to school for me.
I downloaded a free third party reader app since Mac no longer has a reader. My first reader did not work, and their support was so helpful that it just sent me to an "About" type page. I appreciate that, but I already read that. Thanks anyway.
So I downloaded another free third party reader app (Feed Wizard, if you're interested). Awesomeness. This one works. It's a little cumbersome and there is currently no way to organize your feeds that I have found, but it was super simple to add my feed subscriptions from my old list. Well, simple except for those few that didn't give me a useable RSS feed link. I couldn't. find. one. anywhere.
I thought I was doomed to the odious chore of actually typing the address in each time. Who actually does that? I need my blog feeds to slap me upside the head. I need them to come to me. So I did a little searching around to find an easy solution. This link will take you to a site that will show you how to take any blog to HTML and find the RSS feed code. Then it's as simple as copying and pasting into your third party reader.
Just go to the website you want to follow. Then, for os X Mavericks, I went into Develop (you may have to set preferences to show Develop if it isn't already there.) From Develop, I chose "Show Page Source". That opened a window at the bottom of the webpage. Then I hit Command-F to open the Find feature. I typed rss in the little search bar that popped up. That will highlight the rss and help you find the code. (This link will show you how to find it). Then I hit Command-C to copy. Next, I opened up Feed Wizard, clicked the little "+" that opens the Add Subscription window, pasted the RSS code in there and hit Subscribe. Done. Now I can follow any blog, no matter how they set up their follow features.
Your computer may be slightly different depending on what browser you use, how you receive your feeds and whether you are Mac or PC, but it will be fairly similar. The link above gives some variations. It may sound complicated, but it was easy enough for a non-techy like me.
And you know what that means, don't you? That means you can easily follow Gallimaufry Grove, even if you haven't figured out my follow features on the sidebar. (I plan to upgrade them soon. Really I do...)
Have a great day!
Angela
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