Does anyone know ...

[sholio]

... of a (free) RSS reader that functions like LJ's friends list or DW's reading list -- that is, it shows you a list of the most recent chronological posts in all the blogs you're subscribed to?

It's getting to where I'm reading more blogs on Wordpress etc. than I used to, but I never remember to check them, so I figured that it was time to work out this whole RSS thing. *g* But I really like the LJ/DW friendslist interface, and all of the RSS readers that I've looked at so far (Google Reader, various Mozilla plugins, etc) are more like a bunch of bookmarks, where you have to click on each individual feed to see the latest posts in that blog. I may as well just use bookmarks.

Surely an LJ-style RSS reader must exist!

ETA: Google Reader can do it! Thank you very much to those who pointed this out. :D

Comments

[veleda_k]

Personally, I read most of the blogs I follow as feeds on my LJ/DW page. But maybe you were looking for something third party or Wordpress specific?

[siria]

What about using expanded view on Google Reader? That should give you the whole post—unless I'm misunderstanding what you want out of an RSS reader?

[lannamichaels]

If one exists, I'd love to know about it. In lieu of finding one I like, that's basically what my DW flist has become: 1/3 journals, 2/3 RSS feeds.

[sholio]

Yeah, I was looking for something third-party. With LJ changing their friends page and heaven knows what else, I'd like to try spending a little less of my social Internet time on LJ and LJ clones. But the LJ/DW reading interface is just so convenient and easy.

[sholio]

Well, what I'm looking for is an option to view more than one feed at once. Basically, all the RSS readers that I've looked at (including Google Reader) force you to click through each feed to see new posts in that feed. Like having to visit every LJ or DW blog that you're subscribed to. What I'd like is something for RSS that just gives you a big scrolling list of all the latest posts, like LJ/DW do.

... or can you do that with Google Reader? I admit that I haven't poked around much yet.

[sholio]

*nods* It's such a simple idea, especially since ALL the social networking sites work that way (Facebook, LJ/DW, Tumblr...) -- it's kind of mind-boggling to me that there isn't an RSS reader that works the same way! Unless, as other people have suggested, I just use my LJ or DW account as an RSS aggregator and mix them in with the LJ or DW posts.

[lannamichaels]

I Am Not A Programmer, but I wonder what would go into writing one. I mean, all it would need to do is grab RSS entries every so often and then display them in some kind of order. Nothing fancy, no "I've read this", or whatever. Just displaying them.

[zing_och]

I use Google Reader, and "All Items" gives me all new posts in blogs I've subscribed to in chronological order, no clicking through required. You can choose if it goes from oldest to newest or the other way around.

[sholio]

... oh wow, it does!!! I think that I just didn't have enough blogs subscribed yet to actually see this, because I was getting all posts from one blog ... but it was the one that had all the recent posts. You are absolutely correct -- thank you!

[siria]

Yup! At least in my version you can! Click 'All Items' on the left-hand side, and then make sure that you have the expanded view selected on the right. Here's a screencap of how I've mine set up, with the options circled:

[sholio]

Apparently, Google Reader does exactly what we're both looking for! I just hadn't happened to hit upon the right combination of clicking to get it to do it.

I agree with you, though, because it's probably the simplest of all possible RSS reader behavior, and it's amazing that it's such a rare thing.

[sholio]

Thank you!! zing_och just pointed this out too. I think the problem was that I didn't have enough feeds subscribed yet to have noticed this, and also, once I started clicking on individual feeds, I didn't realize that you could step back out of that view.

Awesomesauce!

[lannamichaels]

Cool. :) I am trying to de-google, partly out of privacy concerns, and partly out of usability problems (why, google, why), so I'll keep looking. :)

[sholio]

That makes total sense to me (I'm trying to keep my life relatively google-free, but I still use some of their services in various areas).

Over on LJ, FeedDemon was suggested, although she said that it integrates with Google Reader, so it may not be what you're looking for either. But maybe worth a try!

[lannamichaels]

I've tried FeedDemon and didn't like it, although I can't remember why right now. I'll try it again and see :)

EDIT: Oh, right. It really doesn't want you to read them all from one place. It gives blurbs that you have to click to read the post on the website. And while in each feed's page, it seems like you *can* get it to expand and show the entire post, I can't figure out how to do that, or how to change the arrangement, on the My Subscriptions page.