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Forum Index : Site News : RSS Feed anyone.
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Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
I'm thinking about adding a RSS feed to the site. A couple of forum members have suggested an RSS feed in the past and I think it might be useful. There's a bit of work setting it up and maintaining the feed, so I want to make sure it would be used before I look into it any further. If you dont know what a RSS feeds are, dont worry, I didn't really know what they were until a few days ago either. So, who would sign up to a RSS feed if I put on in place? It would contain any new updates to the site and postings on the forum. And if anyone know of a good "RSS for beginners" link, I would appreciate it. Regards Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Hi Glenn, What type of RSS is about? I remember I was one of guys that asked for this. Well, I was thinking about this: In an Wordpress, Blogger, or another CMS you can activate a News Feed. Is about a little script accessible from a fixed address, which can return a list with last five or ten (or whatever you set in your control panel) articles from your article database or forum. And can be retrieved entire article (I don't recommend you this because your interest is to have a visit) or only an excerpt of your article which also contain the title of article and a "Read more ..." link. How we (outsiders) can use this? 1. If is about a person which don't have web site but use Internet for reading all kind of news, then it have a News Feed Reader, Where it can specify the feed address of his favorite tech site(s). News can be received by emails or not (the majority avoid involving their emails). 2. If is about a web master, it will include the link on his website sidebar, having a little corner where your five last news (excerpts from them) appear, driving all interested visitors to your site. Your RSS Feed engine (from your forum or CMS) must be able to support a massive traffic because all internet FEED READER BOTS will access your feed link. News Feed links example: http://moriscanet.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default http://lialorena.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default And if you go there, you will see at right sidebar ("BLOGURILE MELE") excerpts from other sites. Of course, there are solutions also for static sites (manually created, not dynamically generated). Let me to search for a link which I don't remember right now. Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Ok, you must have a file (feed.xml by example - a valid RSS 2.0 standard) with a link to it. I will send you by email an example with how must be that file. For your static site, of course. That file must be updated every time you add a new page (but is easy to do). It will be a valid example, including few excerpts from your pages. You can choose to have plain text on your excerpts, or a formatted text, including also little thumbnails... I will make both examples. Also, your main index file must contain a link in your header section. This way, in my Firefox browser, a little rss feed icon is showed, signaling that your web site have a rss feed mechanism. For your forum, I don't know what to say, it must have a feed mechanism... look at your control panel. Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Google FeedBurner Help Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Thanks Vasi, I think I'm on the right track now. Got your emails. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
A word of caution: An RSS feed on your site will draw vast amounts of canned ham! I found out the hard way and had to go from an open forum to a "logged in" only along with having to add a bunch of fancy software from Wordpress to suppress the spammers! Still, an RSS feed will keep more traffic on your site. Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Good tips MacGyver. The forum is already closed, members need to be signed up before they can post anything, so thats that problem taken care of. Vasi has helped me out with the RSS a lot, I just need to get it finished and online. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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