Truncated Posts in RSS?

Hey everybody. So, some of my posts are rather long, and so I truncate them with a (Read More…) link that takes you to the full post. That link also shows up in the RSS, as a (more…) link.

For the frontpage of codesimplicity.com, I think that’s pretty useful–it makes it a lot easier to browse the various articles. But I was wondering, for those who read this in an aggregator or via RSS–for the long posts, do you prefer getting only the short version (with the “more…” link) or would you rather just have the whole post?

Update: It looks like, from the comments, that full text in the feed is the clear winner! That’s actually my preference too, when reading sites, but I usually am not reading posts as long as the ones I write. 🙂 I’ve installed and activated the Full Text Feed plugin for WordPress, so in the future the feeds will contain the full text even though the front page and email notifications will still be cut by the “more” link.

-Max

13 Comments

  1. Definitely the full article. I hate it when only the excerpts are in the feed. I almost never click through to read the rest if they do that.

  2. I don’t mind excerpts, especially for a long post. I usually read my feeds in Google Reader, but I prefer to read the full story on the webpage. Perhaps you could have 2 different feeds, excerpts and full length?

  3. This strikes me as a case where I’d hope your “engine” could handle the work for you. For the web site case, I agree with you: I’d want a truncated tease (graf) to the story. But for the feed, I’d want the full-on piece. My feed reader gives me options to see heads only, to truncate, or to show it all your text. I almost never go to a site now, reading’s done almost completely in the feed reader.

  4. I don’t generally click through to read the rest of a truncated post from a feed. I figure that if people want me to read it, they’ll give the whole thing in the feed. 🙂

  5. +1 for the full article in the feed. I read all your posts on Planet Mozilla, but this is the first time I’ve ever actually come to your site, to comment.

  6. Wow! Okay, it sounds like the consensus is full feed! 🙂 That’s actually my preference too, when reading sites, but I wanted to see what other people thought. 🙂

    -Max

  7. Agree on the full feed. I’m subscribed to the Planet Mozilla feed, and it can be frustrating to lose focus from the main task (trying to go through the Mozilla information avalanche) and move to the browser (I use Thunderbird for my feeds).

  8. Using Google Reader to follow Planet Mozilla. I generally prefer full-posts, as long as they’re not excessive – on the order of 5+ pages, that kind of thing. Long technical posts full of diagrams and screenshots probably ought to be truncated, but almost anything else is fine…

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