RSS Feed Reinstated
This musing of Jim McGee's nicely sums up my thoughts on RSS. As a user I love and can't do without it. As a website owner I find it disturbing that people would rather see a simple text summary of my blogs rather than come and admire the site I spend endless hours presenting nicely. Being realistic I accept what Jim's saying:
Sites that provide no RSS feed essentially don't exist for me.
Could it be that I am losing readers simply by not having an RSS feed? I'd hope not but, just in case this is so, I've reinstated the feed that I first added more than a year ago and here it is!
Before anybody picks it apart I just want to say that I know it probably doesn't validate and that it doesn't provide any summaries. I am working with Domino after all! I don't really care too much about that. What matters is that it works in the newsreaders I use. What it functions as is a way of tracking new postings. That is, the seven most recent blogs and articles. What it shouldn't be is an excuse never to have to pay me the ocassional visit ;o)
PS: Notice also that I've started adding titles to blogs. Just thought you might like to know.
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... I find it disturbing that people would rather see a simple text summary of my blogs rather than come and admire the site I spend endless hours ......
In my news reader (a vague term as it's also used for Usenet readers too) there is an option to see your wonderful pages in their full glory.
I would also commend your new predeliction to adhere to good website hygeine (as per the tips in Elizabeth Castro's HTML for the World Wide Web, Fifth Ed., p 119 'Try not to use "Click Here" for a label. Instead use the key words that already exist in your text to identify the link.').
All those "{Link}" anchors tend to be disconcertingly annoying ("link to what?").
(-;
BTW Your work is brilliant, keep it up.
Jake,
I believe that, while impressive in layout, Codestore's strength IS the content. Your articles helped me with some solutions earlier in my Domino career. The web is less about layout these days, more about information. Just an opinion mind you.
David - you're right. That's why I left the body of the feed blank. Some readers take this to mean they should simply open the URL by default.
Patrick - I'll try and change that so it makes more sense. Normally when people post a link in a comment it is in context. i.e. "I found a solution here: { Link }". Hover over the link and you see where it goes. It's either that or a huge great URL ;o)
Jamie - You're right. It is all about content. But RSS feeds have the side effect of taking away the personal touch of actually visiting somebody's site.
Hi
I agree with Jamie :-)
Whilst there are some impressive web technologies out there I much prefer using a site that has a fresh, clean and simple layout (e.g Codestore).
I am however starting to think more about tools like News Crawler. As the amount of sites I visit regularly begins to increase this may prove to be a useful type of app to use.
Gordon
Gordon, before you get in to using NewsCrawler, it's worth waiting for FeedDemon to be released {Link} . The Alpha is amazing. Some time soon I will share my OPML file with you all. It's a list of sites I am "subscribed" to. It makes keeping up to date with it all a hell of a lot easier and a damn site quicker. RSS is definitely the way forward. Just not sure if I like it or not ... ;o)
Took your advice Jake and waited for FeedDemon to go Beta. Must say I am impressed with what I have seen of it so far. Looking forward to the final release now.
Good things come to those who wait ...
Cheers, Jake.
Jake,
found this link from Ed Tittel's XML rantings ... kudos to Mark Pilgrim's online RSS validator.
NewsDesk is a donation-ware reader that's fairly good, although requires the .net framework to be installed. I like it.
Neither NewsDesk or Userland Radio will accept the CodeStore RSS feed as valid, seemingly because the 'Language' (English one would assume) hasn't been declared. Haven't studied it too much in-depth, just wanted to send a 'heads-up'.