The day I broke up with Bloglines

Dear Bloglines,

Hi, it’s Lisa again. How are you? I’m just going to get to the point. I think it’s time for us to see other people. We just don’t "work" together the way we used to. It’s time for me to move on.

Let’s face it; we’ve been having problems for awhile. I’d go to you and you wouldn’t be there. You’re just so unresponsive and unreliable these days. I can’t count on you anymore. I mean, sometimes you’re there for me and sometimes you’re not. Sometimes you’re timely in telling me what I need to know and other times you just leave me hanging. I have to hear from Barry or Andy or Danny what I should be hearing from you. How can you be in a relationship without communication or trust? You can’t!

Last month, you promised me you were going to be better. You gave me new viewing options and advanced features and I fell in love with you all over again. But now I realize I was just allowing you to sweep our problems under the rug. You haven’t changed; we were both just pretending.

But I was willing to forgive you and keep believing that, in time, things would get better on their own. But then today happened. Today you just took my heart and smashed it into a million, billion tiny little pieces. I came to visit you after I returned from lunch (I had to go home and get my wool socks) and when I came back, I saw this:


Where are my feeds? You stole them from me. All of them!

I’m sorry, but I can’t do this anymore. I think it’s time for us to see other people. I’m going to spend some time with that other guy, maybe even some of his friends, and I think you should take this time to work on yourself, too. You’re not living up to your full potential. You can be better, I know it.

So, I guess that’s it. The past two years have been great but we just don’t fit together the way we once did. Take care of yourself, okay? Good luck in the future.

All my love,

Lisa Barone
Former Bloglines enthusiast

PS

All my feeds are gone. What are you subscribed to? Send me your list.

Lisa Barone is a writer, content marketer & VP of strategy at Overit Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

See Lisa's author page for links to connect on social media.

Comments (9)
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9 Replies to “The day I broke up with Bloglines”

Bjorn,

I disagree. My heart has been with Bloglines from the very beginning. I cannot count the number of times I have cried myself to sleep because Bloglines just didn’t love me as much as I love(d) him it. I give and I evangelize and then it plays Hide the Feeds and leaves me unable to do my job. Is Bloglines going to give me shelter when I lose my job and am forced out on the street? Will it feed me when I am unable to afford food?

I agree with you. That other guy will never meet my needs the way Bloglines once did. But what am I to do?

That’s so terrifying, losing all your feeds like that. If it happened to me, I might just go into a funk and not be able to blog for a week.
I recommend finding a list of everything you ever linked to, and starting with that as your new reading list. There are tools out there that will give you a list of outgoing links from your site, and you can use that as the basis for building a new feed list.

I’ve been reading your post, and so have other people here at Bloglines. We’re working pretty hard to keep the site up, which isn’t an easy job, and admittedly there have been a few more hiccups than usual. So while at first my reaction to your breakup with us was anger and frustration because it seems your heart hasn’t been in the right place for quite some time (Like when you said all the sane people have left for that other guy), but then I was filled with sadness and disappointment and wondered what we had done wrong, and if only you would stay we could be happy again.

But now I’m feeling better because I think, and hope, that you’ll be back. That other guy may seem exciting and fresh, but you’ll never have the same deep feelings for each other that we had. Oh, and I doubt that other guy will listen to you much or read your blog, but it’s possible.

So we’ll still be here when you come back. I hope you do come back. We miss you already.

I typically export my GR feeds every month or two.
Here are a couple of the A list blogs I read.
Marketing Pilgrim
InsideGoogle
ChannelAdvisor
SearchEngineLand
eBay strategies

Lisa,

I applaud you for having the courage to make the break. Too often some of my best friends have stayed in relationships that are clearly abusive.
Sadly they do so out of fear of the unknown, and having false sense of comfort staying in what is familiar, no matter how painful that relationship is.

I also feel it’s vital to forewarn you. Once an ex doesn’t have you there to abuse anymore, they more often than not will try to lure you back – and go to great lengths to do so. And if you ever feel threatened by your ex, don’t hesitate to get a restraining order against them. They’re not a guarantee of protection but they can help in these situations.

It’s time for you to rejoice – you’re on the path of a new start in life, free from the burdens, the stress and the insanity that were a sad but major part of that relationship.

On a final note – Please – Lisa – remain strong. It’s too easy after being out of an abusive relationship to begin to play down the abuse and want to remember only the good. Don’t let time wear you down.

Sorry to hear the sad news, but you’re too good for Bloglines. No one wanted to tell you, but we were starting to worry that it was an unhealthy relationship. You should totally rebound with Newsgator and just go crazy for a bit. After you’ve gotten your fun out, settle down with Google. You’re much better off. Good luck and we’re here for you!
For real now: I completely second what Barry said. I’m not a news hound, so I stick with Google, but it does go down and I’ve started using a secondary for important sources. Good luck and let us know what you think of the switch.

Another shining example of why Bruce better hold onto you tight ;-)

I’m the same as Barry – Google Reader for primary, and Bloglines for the secondary backup reader. Although I haven’t had GR go down in a while…

Google Reader can also go down, so keep both going if possible.

I use Google Reader as my primary and Bloglines as a backup.

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