Planet Atheism (info on joining), my aggregator of atheism-related blogs, was launched exactly one month ago today. It has steadily increased in number of blogs (41, as I write this), and readership is on the rise, too.
During this month, there were technical changes as well; for instance, from time to time, a post didn’t close its HTML tags properly, and its formatting “spilled over” to other posts after it. I spent about 2 days finding a way to deal with it, and I believe I’ve succeeded, now. 
Some software versions were also updated, but you probably don’t care about that.
Personally, I have enjoyed PA so far, for two reasons: one, I, myself, have a place to read more than 40 very interesting blogs every day. It’s usually the first web page I open, in the morning. To me, this is a much better way to keep up with those blogs than using individual RSS feeds, or opening 40 blogs every day. Some of the member’s blogs I already followed; others were new, fascinating discoveries.
The other reason is more “human”: I love to see posts saying “I found this link on PA”, or comments saying “Hi, I found your blog on PA; here’s what I think of your post…”. I love the feeling of having created something that other people, too, enjoy and find useful.
Anyway, I’d like to ask you some questions:
- if you have a blog, and are on PA, what do you think of the experience? Has your readership gone up? Are there new people commenting?
- if you have a blog (related to atheism), and are not on PA, any reasons for that? (You can always ask me to remove you later, if you don’t like the experience… )
- do you read PA? If not, why not?
- if you read PA, how do you do it? Visit it once a day? More than once? Use its RSS feed (which I provide, but I don’t use myself - I don’t like reading feeds with too many posts a day, but reading them on a single web page works for me)?
- have you discovered any new blogs through PA, that you currently enjoy reading?
- do you often click on a post’s link to go to the individual post and comment, or to watch YouTube videos (which don’t show up in PA)? (You were aware you could do so, right?
) - any suggestions for improving PA?
I appreciate any replies.
Finally, if a friend of yours has an atheism-related blog, why not suggest that him or her join PA?
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1. I think PA’s a great collection of interesting stuff. I also read ABA, and it’s got a different feel (not least of which is full post content on one page). Readership has definitely increased (if my stats are to be believed), although there are only a few comments.
3. As I mentioned above, I think PA has a great collection and mix of blogs, all of them interesting in their own ways.
4. I generally read it two or three times per day. I don’t bother with the RSS feeds as I have most of the individual blogs’ feeds directly.
5. Yes.
6. Yes if there’s extra content, or I comment.
7. Not a thing. I like the way that the feeds are reloaded (they are, aren’t they?) so that they catch edits.
Great stuff, Pedro!
Wow, I had no idea it was that new…
I get a bit gun shy before publishing a new post because now more people will see it hehehe.
1) I have not contributed enough yet, but when i do make posts yes, i have seen more hits page. I’m sure once i post something worth commenting on there will be more comments made
3) Yes, I think PA was an excellent diversity. very enjoyable
4) Have not quite found my groove yet.. I use the rss feed but at the same time I visit the page at least twice a day.
5) yes
6) yes
7) None yet.. but i’ll keep thinking…
It makes for a great way to share thoughts and idea’s with others. Much appreciation for putting the page up.
Hey Pedro, nice work. I’m going to be using the PA feed on the front page of the new Black Sun Journal. It’s a great portal on all the active minds in our network. Thanks for thinking of this.
If it’s not too much work, you might want to go to a post-slug format so you can fit more content on the front page. There are many long posts (and good ones) and it would help to be able to scroll quickly through.
In a perfect world, the reader would be able to toggle between full-text and post-slug format.
BlackSun: I really prefer full posts; it’s like reading a newspaper or a magazine.
But… hmmm… I think I can accommodate you, soon.
In effect, it’ll be like creating a completely new PA, with small excerpts only, but many more posts in the front page. I’ll post about it here when it’s ready.
EDIT: http://www.wayofthemind.org/2007/02/09/planet-atheism-short-posts-version/
Hi Pedro, I am on Planet Atheism and check it a few times a day to see what’s new (I don’t use the RSS feed). I have discovered some blogs via Planet Atheism but more importantly there are many posts on blogs I am aware of that I might’ve missed if they weren’t on Planet Atheism.
I often click on links to go to individual blogs but I must admit to sometimes just reading the posts at Planet Atheism for blogs which take a long time to load.
Planet Atheism has been a convenient and valuable resource, thanks.
I think it’s a terrific idea. I’ll always make sure I visit to find out what’s new.
Two things I’d like to see, first a logo of some sort that could be included on each individual blog to show we’re members and also so that PA is more visible to visitors. Currently we can only link and it would be good to turn have a very visible link.
Second, it would be nice to be able to incorporate latest headlines within each blog. I’m a technophobe so I have no idea how it could be done but it would be good to have a section of latest posts in, (for example), the sidebar.
If you’re using wordpress then an HTML widget might work?
To answer your specific questions:
1. Yes to all, readership has gone up and a few new people are posting.
2. N/A
3. Yes.
4. I visit once a day and have it as an RSS feed.
5. I’ve discovered yours! I was aware of PA before your blog
6. I’ll only go directly to a post if I want t comment or know more about the blog.
7. As above.
Cheers
Michael