This is from the archived Oh Word. Visit the relaunched Oh Word for the new style.

|


Internets Celebrities DVD

Rather see the above links in your inbox or feed reader?
Subscribe to our Links for hand-picked items from around the web

Oh Word Email Updates

Your email address:



May 09, 2007

The Tao of TWIB · by Rafi Kam

I got an email just now asking:

I’m wondering how you guys choose the blogs that you link to in the TWIB joints.

I figured I’d share my answer with you guys since other people might be wondering the same thing:

I subscribe to around 500 rss feeds. Not all of them are hip-hop related but many are.

During the week I skim my subscriptions in Google Reader. If I think a story is worth sharing with our readers I click a link and the item becomes automatically listed in the sidebar of our blog.

If I think it is especially noteworthy – sometimes because of its quality, sometimes because it relates to something else, sometimes because I have something to say about it – then I’ll star it to be reviewed at the end of the week. Sometimes I’ll star something for potential TWIB use that I didn’t share because I had already shared enough on the topic or because it will only be worthwhile with some commentary.

At the end of the week I look at what I’ve starred and subjectively cut about 80% of them and then I have the week in blogging. The number of links and what I pick depends entirely on my mood at the time and what I thought was interesting that week. It also usually depends on if the item showed up in Google Reader for me in the first place.

I’m open to considering items sent by email or new sources to subscribe to but I won’t be regularly checking a site that doesn’t have an rss feed.

Also I’m likely to stop subscribing to a feed if I notice that a site is not delivering quality content, particularly in proportion to many items for me to click through. A site that delivers a quality piece once in a while and posts 0-3 times a week has a much better chance of staying around than a site that posts 5 times a day and once every hundred posts gives me something decent.

I’m subscribed to enough places that filter, aggregate, comment on items from around the web so I’ll usually catch wind of the notable item anyway. So I don’t worry about cutting sources that slow me down and aren’t adding to the conversation.

Hopefully this answers your question.

Peace,
Rafi
ohword.com

Comments for "The Tao of TWIB"

  1. First!

    Hey thanks for linking regularly to Racialicous in TWIB. :)


    — Carmen Van Kerckhove    May 9, 03:51 PM   

  2. Second!!! yes!!! nah but that was what i though y’all did basically except for a little bit of details


    — Edgar C.    May 9, 08:52 PM   

  3. so wait, there are people who don’t use RSS?


    — eskay    May 9, 09:02 PM   

  4. Rafi, how the hell do you deal with 500 rss feeds? I subscribe to about 75, and that shit still drives me crazy.


    — SmoothJimmyApollo    May 10, 02:30 AM   

  5. dude I know you were just answering a question but fucking shit that had to be the most boring ohword post ever. Way to long of an answer for a worthless question. Next time just ignore that shit man.


    — SergDun    May 10, 02:50 AM   

  6. Damn I’m only subscribed to 5-10 (including OhWord) and it still seems like a lot.


    — DJ Flash    May 10, 06:12 PM   

  7. I’m not subscribed to any but whateva I won the one and only First of the Month at OhWord…....so….....erm…....I win


    — EnglandRepresent    May 11, 03:23 AM   

  8. Im missing some quality Hiphop RSS feeds. Can you share your OPML file from Google Reader?


    — Project    May 11, 04:45 PM   

  9. did u see that cas’s First vid was on youtube feature page

    sick


    — JunSri    May 12, 01:05 AM   

  10. Project,

    I’ve never done it before but yeah I’ll look into it. Just so you know there’s tons of other feeds in there that have zip to do with hip-hop.

    JunSri,

    Yeah man, Cas’s video blew up. I’ve been meaning to do a post mentioning YouTube featuring it but I had a crazy past few days.


    — rafi    May 15, 12:26 AM   

  11. I used to have 400. It’s a sickness!

    I cut down to 200, and now I focus on news sites, cuz many blogs would frustrate me with unpredictable quality.

    Rafi, publish your OPML file so we can see what you read, and style off you.


    — Hashim    May 15, 05:27 PM   

  12. I’ma keep it on the blog nerdery for a minute….

    Rafi, how has your new “Around the Horn” section affected how you do the t.w.i.b. posts? Also, much thanks for all the links to DK in Around the Horn and t.w.i.b. too.


    — ian    May 19, 09:38 PM   
Textile Help