I'm sorry that I couldn't do this to your face, but I'm writing to tell you that it's over. You might not have seen it, but I've tried to be loyal, but the temptations were just too much in the face of your problems, which I'll admit seem quite small and petty to begin with - but they build and they build.

I loved using your beta interface, but it's been in beta for quite sometime, and getting less reliable; the SSL issues that happened during June/July/August and the endless “Server Communication Error"s. Switching back to the normal interface just made me sad. Then I met Google Reader. I'd heard about her a few times in the past, but just brushed her off as some supermodel that I'd hear all about, but never meet. After the breaking of Google's services several times fairly recently I certainly didn't want to meet her - I wasn't sure that I could cope with breakage when I most needed it.

But whilst out this week I couldn't load your mobile interface, and I had no choice. Like some sort of rabid, sickly WoW user needing his daily heroic dungeon grinding fix (I'm over that now, honestly. I only think about it sometimes), I needed my precious news. Thats when Google Reader came around the corner and I bumped into her. She picked me up, casually imported my OPML file and everything just worked. The organisation stayed the same, the mark-as-read-on-scroll, all those things that I loved about your beta interface were there. Then I realised what you were and what you had become.

You might be thinking, “but what about all that stuff you've got pinned with me?". I realise that it's a shame, but at the end of the day I'll just have to treat it like I've forgotten to do a recent back up prior to migrating hardware. I could go back and grab the pinned stuff as and when I need it, or maybe transfer it to a wiki or bookmarks but that would be too much.

I wish you a good life Bloglines, and I hope that you can understand. Maybe we'll see each other again soon at the shopping counter and make a little awkward conversation.