For a while, I’ve been looking at ways to integrate all the little bits of writing I do around the web. Usually with RSS, sending Twitter updates to Jaiku and Tumblr to my regular blog and WordPress etc etc.

However, I’ve recently thought that maybe it is best to keep things separated, as far as content goes, and just create the connections with links and have each place maintain itself on it’s own.

I think this works better because instead of creating a mash of content that allows people to get the same information from me via different channels, I can use each channel and cater to it’s strengths whilst building even more content.

The example is that if someone follows me on Twitter and also uses Tumblr, I don’t want them to decide between the two because they don’t care to hear the same stuff from me twice. Instead I can do something completely different, and make the second connection worthwhile for them.

I set up a completely different Twitter account for pulling in feeds from things I write and mark, via Google Reader amd YouTube etc. This is separate from my regular Twitter account that I update for anyone wanted to follow my day-to-day without all the links.

It seems to make more sense to me to keep things in their place. If I wanted to follow your Twitter updates, I would follow you on Twitter; I’m not too interested in seeing those updates on your Tumblr page.

A visual analogy would be instead of creating interconnected vines that grow amongst one another, I’ll create a group of trees, freestanding, that link together with the branches. Is that too sappy? [pun intended]

What a hassle! WordPress decided a while ago that you can have either summary or full content feeds, but if you used the code the feed’s posts would get cut.

Editing the wp/includes feed files didn’t help and neither did the full-feed plugin. However, I’d suggest using Cronin’s Dual Feeds plugin.

Not only does it fix this little issue across the board [category feeds etc] but it also allows you to make up a secondary feed for summaries and plug your feed into Feedburner.

Good look.