RSS/XML Feed for THE FORUM?

[Duke 0]

Enabling an RSS feed would allow people to add "Live Bookmarks" on Firefox (there are similar applications with all other browsers) so they can view all updated topics before even coming to this website.

I for one would be happy to use this type of feature since it makes the whole internet browser experience much simpler. I have feeds from personal blogs by Objectivists, Capmag, Dr Kenner, news, science, economics, and other sources.

[Stephen Speicher 0]

Enabling an RSS feed would allow people to add "Live Bookmarks" on Firefox (there are similar applications with all other browsers) so they can view all updated topics before even coming to this website.

I for one would be happy to use this type of feature since it makes the whole internet browser experience much simpler. I have feeds from personal blogs by Objectivists, Capmag, Dr Kenner, news, science, economics, and other sources.

The feature exists as an option in this software. If someone knowledgeable wants to help properly activate the RSS feed, let me know.

[darren 0]

Are RSS feeds still an option? I think it would make it easier to keep up with what's being talked about on the Forum. I think two options would be great:

1.) A feed of all new threads, and

2.) A feed of all new posts on a specific thread.

As lazy as this sounds, having to go to a website regularly is a lot of work for me. Most of the content that I keep up with is brought to me through RSS feeds, which I can then quickly parse through and read (or not read) on my own schedule.

[Betsy Speicher 0]

Are RSS feeds still an option?

I'll look into that.

In the meantime, you can get email of new posts on particular threads or forums using the "subscribe" option here.

[ewv 0]

Are RSS feeds still an option?

I'll look into that.

In the meantime, you can get email of new posts on particular threads or forums using the "subscribe" option here.

-- and you can keep a browser tab open on "Today's Active Topics" to see all the new posts and updates.

[darren 0]

Are RSS feeds still an option?

I'll look into that.

In the meantime, you can get email of new posts on particular threads or forums using the "subscribe" option here.

-- and you can keep a browser tab open on "Today's Active Topics" to see all the new posts and updates.

These are fine options, but not good enough. An RSS feed would allow anybody to keep up with thread as they come along, while using the same method they use to check other sites. If that list comes to my email, then my options are to stop and read the email or not (and lose whatever post I might have been interested in). And if I keep the browser open, I might waste time typing in the URL, switching to that tab, hitting refresh, etc. Again, this may sound lazy, but RSS is a great way to let content come to you instead of you going to it.

And please note, I'm a fan of the Forum (though I don't post very often, I'm more of a lurker). Other people who are new to the Forum might not have "bought in" to the site enough to do that amount of work. A RSS feed would allow someone to say, "This site looks good, I'd like to keep my eye on this one" and let the computer do the work.

[ewv 0]

Are RSS feeds still an option?

I'll look into that.

In the meantime, you can get email of new posts on particular threads or forums using the "subscribe" option here.

-- and you can keep a browser tab open on "Today's Active Topics" to see all the new posts and updates.

These are fine options, but not good enough. An RSS feed would allow anybody to keep up with thread as they come along, while using the same method they use to check other sites. If that list comes to my email, then my options are to stop and read the email or not (and lose whatever post I might have been interested in). And if I keep the browser open, I might waste time typing in the URL, switching to that tab, hitting refresh, etc. Again, this may sound lazy, but RSS is a great way to let content come to you instead of you going to it.

And please note, I'm a fan of the Forum (though I don't post very often, I'm more of a lurker). Other people who are new to the Forum might not have "bought in" to the site enough to do that amount of work. A RSS feed would allow someone to say, "This site looks good, I'd like to keep my eye on this one" and let the computer do the work.

Of all the things that I am concerned about for "wasting time" and an "amount of work", occassionally clicking on an open browser tab when I want to see if something interesting has come up and seeing a notification email instead of an RSS email are not among them .

[Betsy Speicher 0]

Are RSS feeds still an option?

I'll look into that.

Well, I think I set up an RSS feed. Check it out and let me know what you think.

[darren 0]

Are RSS feeds still an option?

I'll look into that.

Well, I think I set up an RSS feed. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Awesome, thank you! I've added it to my reader and everything looks good. I'll keep my eye on it for the next few days and let you know if I find any problems!

[darren 0]

Of all the things that I am concerned about for "wasting time" and an "amount of work", occassionally clicking on an open browser tab when I want to see if something interesting has come up and seeing a notification email instead of an RSS email are not among them .

It's not much work if it's just one site. But if you think of all of the interesting things that you might be interested in and all of the work it would take to check for updates on them, it would quickly get out of hand. Here are some examples of things that I want to know about:

1.) When "Ayn Rand" or "Objectivism" is mentioned in the news,

2.) When someone writes a blog post that includes a reference to "WPF" or "LINQ,"

3.) When one of my friends or coworkers update their blog,

4.) When one of my favorite anti-environmentalist blogs are updated,

5.) When a rare item that I want appears on eBay,

6.) When a major traffic jam occurs before I leave for work,

7.) Facebook updates,

etc.

This is just a small sample. I can check for these things manually, but that would be very time-consuming. I can use email updates for some of these things, but them my email inbox would become a mess. Instead, I just go to http://www.google.com/reader, and I'm instantly updated with practically everything I'm interested in, including Forum threads now.

[ewv 0]

...Here are some examples of things that I want to know about:

1.) ... etc. This is just a small sample. I can check for these things manually, but that would be very time-consuming.

That looks like a lot more than I want to be constantly told about.

I can use email updates for some of these things, but them my email inbox would become a mess.

You can filter your incoming mail into different mailboxes.

Instead, I just go to http://www.google.com/reader,

Be careful with the rights you sign away with a google account.

... and I'm instantly updated with practically everything I'm interested in, including Forum threads now.

Don't you have to look at the Forum anyway to monitor new threads you want to get?

[darren 0]

Be careful with the rights you sign away with a google account.

I'll check into that... it was so long ago that I set up my google account, I can't even remember anything bad in the agreement. It would have to be pretty bad for me to give up all of the benefits the account offers.

Don't you have to look at the Forum anyway to monitor new threads you want to get?

Well, optimally I wouldn't. If a thread appeared that I wanted to keep up on, I'd go to that particular thread and subscribe to its RSS feed. Each thread would have its own feed, in addition to the site's overall new thread feed. Currently the Forum feed includes only new feeds. For example, I was informed of the new "An Island Called Liberty" thread this morning but not all of the responses to older threads. I don't know if the forum software offers the ability to view RSS feeds at the thread level (though I bet it might, later I might try tinkering with the query string parameters), but even just being informed of new threads is a great start.

[ewv 0]

Be careful with the rights you sign away with a google account.

I'll check into that... it was so long ago that I set up my google account, I can't even remember anything bad in the agreement. It would have to be pretty bad for me to give up all of the benefits the account offers.

There are other RSS readers. Maybe Phil can give recommendations.

Don't you have to look at the Forum anyway to monitor new threads you want to get?

Well, optimally I wouldn't. If a thread appeared that I wanted to keep up on, I'd go to that particular thread and subscribe to its RSS feed. Each thread would have its own feed, in addition to the site's overall new thread feed. Currently the Forum feed includes only new feeds. For example, I was informed of the new "An Island Called Liberty" thread this morning but not all of the responses to older threads. I don't know if the forum software offers the ability to view RSS feeds at the thread level (though I bet it might, later I might try tinkering with the query string parameters), but even just being informed of new threads is a great start.

Are you saying RSS will tell you about a brand new thread before you subscribe to it?

[PhilO 0]

There are other RSS readers. Maybe Phil can give recommendations.

I actually haven't been a big RSS user. The mechanism I currently use on a limited basis, is built into Firefox, Live Bookmarks, where you can create a "virtual" bookmark from an RSS feed.

[darren 0]

Are you saying RSS will tell you about a brand new thread before you subscribe to it?

Yeah, it provides the first post on every new thread posted on the Forum. If you want to read more, you can just click on the header and go straight to that thread.

[Betsy Speicher 0]

Are you saying RSS will tell you about a brand new thread before you subscribe to it?

Yeah, it provides the first post on every new thread posted on the Forum. If you want to read more, you can just click on the header and go straight to that thread.

If you want to see all threads with new posts, click on "View New Posts" at the top of most FORUM pages. The threads with unread posts will have a little orange box to the left of the thread title. Click on the orange box and it will take you to the first unread post on that thread.

When you have read all the posts you want to, click on "Mark all forums as read and return to index" and it will do exactly that.

[ewv 0]

Are you saying RSS will tell you about a brand new thread before you subscribe to it?

Yeah, it provides the first post on every new thread posted on the Forum. If you want to read more, you can just click on the header and go straight to that thread.

If you want to see all threads with new posts, click on "View New Posts" at the top of most FORUM pages. The threads with unread posts will have a little orange box to the left of the thread title. Click on the orange box and it will take you to the first unread post on that thread.

When you have read all the posts you want to, click on "Mark all forums as read and return to index" and it will do exactly that.

That is what I suggested back at the beginning. Leave the tab open in a browser window and click on the tab to reload it whenever you are ready to consider what else has come in. The threads are ordered by the time stamps of the latest post in each thread, with the most recent at the top, and is not restricted to only new ones you haven't seen -- you can set it to show all threads for the day, week, etc., still ordered by the last post in each thread. The flags will show which ones you haven't seen until they become dated.

But the problem with "mark all forums as read and return to index" is that it returns to the main index, and clicking "view new posts" again doesn't show any of the posts at all until someone posts a new one. To avoid that I do not manually mark all forums as read.