This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Michael Cote. Original Post: PeopleOverProcess.com: Anti-Pattern: Mark All Read by Accident Feed Title: Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc. Feed URL: https://cote.io/feed/ Feed Description: Using Java to get to the ideal state. Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Michael Cote Latest Posts From Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc.

As happens about two or three times a year, I just accidently marked all the feed I subscribe to in my aggregator as read. While it's liberating to have an empty feed inbox, it's not quite that simple. I'll have to go dig around for some items in important feeds.

I've done this enough times, as has Steve and I'm sure many others, that I'd like to make a suggestion to aggregator coders: make it difficult for me to mark all my subscriptions as read. This could even be a preference that I had to turn on as (I suspect) the number of feeds I have it out of the ordinary.

If I had 10-20 feeds, I can see that it wouldn't be a problem. But, I have a huge amount of feeds: I was up around 12,000 items unread (that number is actually low due to my switching from Feedlounge to Vienna a month or so ago). Sure, I wasn't ever going to read those, but I 'd like to control (consciously rather than by accident ;>) when I trash them.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled vacation.

Tags: usablity, aggregators