I’m keen on using NewsBlur as a replacement for Google Reader, which I currently use to keep track of mp3 blogs/rss feeds for record labels I like. So perhaps my usage is a little bit different to most - it might not even fit the product which is fair enough. I love the interface mostly. What I’m unsure of is if I can entirely disable or at least negate the ‘training’ part of the app. I had a good look at the FAQ and questions here on GetSatisfaction, but couldn’t find an answer.
Basically I want to ensure no story is ever hidden, and every new article from every followed feed shows up in my Unread list. My question is, if I never use the training feature - I’ll never have any hidden stories right? And conversely, if I never click the dislike button (and only like stories in the trainer) - I’ll still never have a hidden story?
As another person who wants a better Google Reader and isn’t much interested in “social”, I confirm this - if you never use the training features every story is always visible.
(This prompts an addition to the wants list - a method of resetting the training material from a feed, or from all feeds. Unless I am missing something, the green and red tags in the Intelligence Trainer have to be laboriously changed to grey, feed-by-feed, to do this).
Thanks Alastair. I think most of my confusion comes from the FAQ:
Help! All of my stories are several days old and new stories are not showing up.
Congratulations on your esoteric taste in blogs—and condolences as well. The way NewsBlur works requires that sites get updated on a regular basis, so we try to serve the most popular and frequently updated sites first. Sites that only have a single subscriber tend to get updated much less often, in comparison to those that have many; the same goes for those that update a few times a month instead of several times a day. Why can’t NewsBlur show me all the stories I want, when I want them?
Totally unfair, we know. Our best recommendation is to post some of your favorite older stuff from that obscure site you love on your Blurblog. If more people see that stuff, then you’ve increased the likelihood that blog will snag other subscribers, and it’ll get bumped up NewsBlur’s list of sites to refresh more often.
Am I right in thinking this means that some sites may refresh less often, but all the stories from every site I’ve subscribed to will come in to my NewsBlur feed eventually (and still in chronological order)?
Yup, pro users get every single one of their feeds updated at least once an hour. Free accounts subscribed to sites that nobody else subscribes to will have those unloved sites updated just a bit less often, but at least twice a day in the worst case.
As for training, you are correct in thinking that by not training stories you won’t miss out on stories. I built a neat little “Show hidden stories” button that *only* shows up in the story titles feed title bar when there are actually hidden stories. So you don’t have to worry about missing stories. Additionally, there is a red counter when you read a feed that has a hidden story. It’s between the view and story traversal buttons.
I am having trouble getting my hidden stories to show up. I am in the All Sites Stories view, “all-unread” selected. I see a 4 in red box, which indicates that 4 stories are hidden this view, but I dont see any “Show Hidden Stories” button to make them visible.