Does anyone use RSS feeds?

[robbalvey]

Hey everyone,

 

I've been doing quite a bit of research on website upgrades and one thing that keeps popping up in many places is "RSS Feeds."

 

My question is though, does anyone actually use these?

 

I don't know a single person that does personally. None of our close friends I believe use them, no one I work with use them, so I wonder is it one of those things that a lot of sites seem to have, but no one seems to care about?

 

Please take the poll and let us know.

 

If you DO use them, can you please let me know what the benefits are.

 

Thank you!

 

--Robb

[packfanlv]

Robb,

 

I use them to keep up on a few blogs. I am traveling right now and find myself away from the computer for long periods of time and I find it useful to keep track of the posts I have missed since my last visit.

 

With that said, I probably wouldn't use them on a forum like TPR, so I don't know what the benefit would be. I guess each thread could have RSS and then one would only need to subscribe to the thread to get updates, but I think receiving an email when a thread is updated works great for me.

 

I really am enjoying the community. I joined a couple of years ago and have visited regularly, but just now have found the time to start posting. It is wonderful that you are continually working to make the site better. Thanks again.

 

Shawn

[MG]

The only thing I use them for is BBC news since updates are always coming hard and fast. It is useful when you are not near a television. I don't know if they would really help TPR since it would take an awful lot of work to keep trying to update them daily.

I don't think I would use them on TPR. I think the forum and email probably make a better team.

Doesn't Screamscape use RSS?

[bovinejumpsuit]

I use them for sports news but I think the main bonus of them are for indexing sites like www.newsnow.co.uk rather than the average user

[Dhukka]

Hi Robb,

 

I use RSS for some pages I want to keep track of and I find it's really practical.

While I agree that it won't make sense in the forum itself, I often have wished there would be RSS for the front page updates. If someone reads the forum on a regularly basis it surely doesn't make sense since you have to bypass the front page to get there. But there are periods where I don't have the time or interest to read the forum and don't visit the page at all. That's when a front page RSS feed would make sense for me.

[packfanlv]

I agree. I think having an RSS Feed for the front page updates is a great idea. If you implement it at all, something simple like that would probably be of most use to people.

[Loefet]

No, just because I keep track on the news I want to know, the old fashion manual ways.

[brilinjo]

I've seen the icon before, and please excuse my ignorance - but what is RSS?

[packfanlv]

I've seen the icon before, and please excuse my ignorance - but what is RSS?

 

Basically it is a way of syndicating content so someone can subscribe and receive updates. For instance many blogs have RSS feeds so someone can subscribe and be notified when an update is posted. In addition there are also programs that will aggregate different RSS feeds and put them together so you can view information from several different places at once. This is a very popular to gather news without having to visit several different sites.

 

For more information I suggest you read the Wikipedia article which explains it better. Here is the link:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

 

I hope this helps!

[TheRapidsNerd]

Up to now, I thought it was some wierd alternative to iTunes podcast subscriptions. Thanks to packfanlv, I'm better informed and learned something new today.

 

Sounds like if you can't get to TPR for a while, RSS could be helpful, for front page news. Like the others have said, RSS may not be practical for the majority of forum topics.

 

Maybe it could apply to special events/group trips?

 

This sounds like a maybe at best for usefulness on TPR.

[Groteslurf]

Yes I use them although to a limited extend. I'm subscribed to a news site, and a few themepark websites.

I think it would be great to get new TPR frontpage alerts through RSS but especially new forum topic alerts via RSS would be a brialliant feature.

[taytig]

Robb - I use them for news headlines, but that's it. If you are going to use them. I would probably just do the front page updates as the forum has so many posts that the RSS would be a bit much. Just a thought.

[ginzo]

especially new forum topic alerts via RSS would be a brialliant feature.

 

With the relatively high amount of garbage/locked threads we get, I don't know if automated new thread alerts would be such a great idea.

[cfc]

I don't know anyone who uses them, either--but the "hey, why not add RSS feeds to our site?" question comes up from time to time at my office. I don't think they're necessary for a site like TPR, though.

[ParkTrips]

I've used them in the past, in conjunction with Thunderbird, but honestly its not really necessary.

[larrygator]

I use MyYahoo as my home page and get RSS feeds for: Major News events, local news events, sports news, advertising news, technology news. Yes, I would probably include a TPR feed if it existed. However I spend so much time on this site it probably wouldn't matter to me, but it would be more useful for your casual guests.

[jackskellington101]

I use them once and a while for text, specifically for Mouseplanet, but mainly for whatever podcasts I subscribe too. It's a good way to narrow down a site or blog that posts constantly to just the posts that you specifically want to see. Overall, however, for something like a forum, I'd much rather see the page every time to see what's going on. It might be a good alternative for the "notify me when a reply is posted" e-mail option and something to add to the front page, but I don't know if it's really necessary.

[AllenA07]

I use an RSS feed for things such as sports scores and news, however I really don't think I would use it for a site like TPR. With a site like this it makes more sense just to come by and visit.

[shesaidboom]

I use them so I can read all the blogs I keep up with in one place instead of wasting time visiting them all individually to see if they've been updated yet. I don't really see how it would work for a forum though. Maybe just for front page updates like other people have mentioned, but even that doesn't really seem necessary.

[robbalvey]

Just to clairfy, if I did add them, it would be for the front page updates or announcements only. I don't see how it would be practical on a busy forum like this.

 

--Robb

[ParkTrips]

going off what Larry say, an igoogle gadget for the front page updates would be cool!

A little box like that.. I'm sure they are also rss based

[coasterdude5]

I don't. I've never figured out exactly how they work so if I learned I might be more inclined to use one but at this time I don't.

[jackskellington101]

^^ That is very true. I forgot about iGoogle. That would be pretty cool to see the updates on there when I first open my browser.

[DenDen]

I use RSS feeds for posting content on my web site. (ie. I have the Florida Lottery's RSS video podcats on my Florida-based web site.) I personally don't use RSS for reading.

 

The RSS I distribute on my site usually goes out the same way, it ends up on other people's web sites. RSS is a GREAT way to share content to other web sites, and then it directs other people's traffic to you.

[jedimaster1227]

I agree with what others have said that an RSS feed, while nice, may not be needed. For those members that visit the site everyday (even multiple times a day), they won't really need a feed. For those casual members that browse on a more periodic level, a feed may come in handy.

 

I watch all of my daily sites using an iGoogle homepage with all of the site feeds letting me know if something new has come up--though I still end up visiting the site anyways, so while a feed does come in handy, I still check on the site no matter what. Its just that good!