How I use Stream

I created Stream because I wanted a simple reverse chronological timeline of feeds. Dave Winer calls it a River of News. That’s also how Stream got its name. A stream is just a small version of a river – yes, that’s an oversimplification, but you get the idea.

Anywho, I just wanted to share how I use Stream. There is, of course, no wrong way to use it. Just use it your way.

When I announced Stream 1.0 was shipping I mentioned it was a complement to your existing feed reader. That’s why I want to talk about how I use it.

I use Stream for feeds that only update a few times a day. I don’t use it for feeds, like say, the New York Times. It’s just too much to consume without the folder organization system of other feed readers.

When I decided I should trim out feeds that published many, many, articles a day I exported my feeds list as OPML, removed the busy feeds from Stream, manually removed the lightweight feeds from the OPML I’d exported, imported the trimmed OPML into Feedbin, connected Unread to my Feedbin account on iOS and connected it to NetNewsWire on the Mac.

Wow. That sounds like a lot of work, but it wasn’t. Now I have my very casual list of bloggers I love to read. It’s still 162 feeds, but most of those feeds post rarely and the ones that post most often, like Kottke and Daring Fireball, only post a few times a day. It makes using Stream a real joy.

If you’re curious about my feeds feel free to checkout my OPML file.