In a previous post I mentioned that we eliminated the feed (via ca.yahoo.com) for Victoria’s daily newspaper, the Times-Colonist, because a) that feed contained too many non-Victoria/ non-local items, and b) it tended to inundate (pun!) the cascade to the point that it (the cascade) turned into a platform for the daily paper, drowing out the blogging voices.

On the comments board, Rob Randall suggested that we could hand-pick the articles we want, and thereby ensure that we only got the items we want. But it would have been incredibly time-consuming (and counter-productive/ counter-product) to do so if it were to entail pushing each individual link into the cascade (that is, losing the functionality of a feed).

At the same time, hand-picking the relevant items seemed to be the only way to get what we want – at least until we figure out how to “read” (and filter) the Times-Colonist feed for its local signal, vs. general noise.

Well, I found a work-around – and at the risk of blowing my own horn, I have to say it’s pretty damn clever (if simple). Here’s how it works: for years I’ve been a devotee of Diigo, the social bookmarking and research tool. There are people who think Diigo is too complicated (they haven’t seen the light, imo), but once you install the toolbar or the diigolet and you “get” it, it’s indispensable for ever after.

I use Diigo every single day: for bookmarking, for searching the web, for twittering, for sending messages.

So here’s my workaround: I opened a second account called VictoriaMC; and now, when I look at the Times-Colonist, or CFAX1070 or Monday Magazine online and see an article that should be in MetroCascade, I simply bookmark it to VictoriaMC.

Here’s the magic part: my new Diigo page in turn has a feed, which MetroCascade can read (and show in the cascade). It works beautifully. All that you-the-user of MetroCascade will see is the title of the article (directly linking to the online article), with a one sentence (or so) “lede“. Diigo stays in the background, invisible – which is why I’m throwing a well-deserved spotlight on it here: thanks, Diigo!

Until we get to that next level, where filtering the feeds works automatically, I’ll be adding links by hand, helped by Diigo, which makes the task very manageable.

- Yule Heibel