Google Reader - Deleted Posts

[shepard]

I did not see a forum for Google Reader, so here is the question.

I notice that Reader downloads posts from blogs even days after those posts were deleted from the blog. I understand that with the reader you can never delete an entry once it is downloaded. (Don't like that limitation). But, even if I create a totally new reader account on a new computer, when I access a feed from certain sites, I get old, deleted posts along with the more recent valid ones. If I visit the blog directly, the old deleted posts are not there.

Anyone know why this happens? Does Google access an old cache to get feeds? If so, this might explain why these old deleted blog posts keep downloading. However, if that was true, how would Google Reader get new posts? Maybe the feed download form a site is only updated by Reader if there is a new post?

Thanks!

[intelliot]

Thanks for the suggestion! I've created a Google Reader Forum and moved your topic into it.

I don't know why old posts still appear, but one thing to consider is caches between the "source" blog feed and Google Reader. For example, I use FeedBurner for my blog's feed, and FeedBurner caches the feed. Thus, even deleted posts will still appear until FeedBurner updates its cache.

[shepard]

It's great to have a forum for the reader!

I used the "Add to Google" button to add the feed, so I don't think any third parties are involved. As I noted, I also created a new Windows account on a different computer and then made Google Reader my homepage using a totally new account at Google. So I should have appeared as a new person subscribing to the feed. It still downloaded and displayed old, deleted blog posts from the site that are not there if you actually visit the site. Strange!