Matt McAlister takes a look at the two main phrases when talking about users and RSS, adding a feed vs. subscribing to a feed. I definitely agree that Subscribe is a loaded word, one with plenty of monetary thoughts. Do you have to pay for this subscription? Will it run out like magazines? If so, how do you renew? Sure, these questions seem a bit simplistic but I can hear my mom asking them.
Adding doesn't fare much better. I like Matt's questions of where the feeds go when you add them. If you have a subscriblet of some kind, you hope the feed makes it back to your reader but you really don't know for sure until the next time you check it.
Of the two, I would also go with Subscribe. It seems to state the proper relationship between user and feed. You aren't adding the feed and then ignoring it like you can do with adding events on your calendar. Instead, you are taking the action of subscribing and the subsequent action of reading the feed for as long as you are interested.
This is yet another indication that the mainstream use of RSS is still not a given, at least in its current form.
Technorati Tags:
rss,
aggregators