Let me explain how the RSS feed works. The idea is that you get an application called an "RSS Reader" which checks for updates on web pages that you "subscribe" to. That is, you subscribe to the RSS feed of a few web pages that interest you, such as blogs or photo websites or newspapers. That way you don't have to visit those websites to see what's new -- you get the new content right in your RSS Reader as soon as it's posted.
In our case, if there are four or five conversations (ie, blog posts) here that are getting new comments, you'll have to check each post to see if someone added a new comment -- unless you get the RSS feed. You can subscribe to the RSS feed of the entire blog (thereby getting notified when there's a new post), and you can subscribe to the RSS feed of a particular post (thereby getting notified when there's a new comment on that post). The RSS Reader makes it very easy to read new comments and posts as they are created. It has a look and feel kind of like an email program. Also, if you want, you can click the entry in your RSS Reader to jump to that new post (or comment), in order to add your own text to the conversation. Once you have your RSS Reader set up, subscribing to a new post is as easy as clicking the RSS symbol in the address bar (something like this:
).Getting the RSS feed is also nice for when the blog has some down-time, and there is no new content for a few days. You don't want to have to go checking it every day with nothing there. Or if you left a particularly funny comment and are anxious to see reactions to it -- just watch the reader (which updates itself) for new content rather than reloading the blog post page.
There's only one down-side to having an RSS feed on our blog. Unfortunately, after a little looking around, there appears to be no way to do this if we have a private blog. But, you know, the blog really is private if nobody else knows that it exists. And we can make it private later, if need be. And we can move to a new address, too, if needed later.
To me, the benefits of having the RSS feed seem to far outweigh this downside. What do you guys think?
I am definitely with it. I like the feed and am frustrated by not having it. But, I don't feel so strongly to over-rule someone who has serious privacy concerns (which I currently do not understand). So essentially, I don't care, but I do if it is just a vote thing. Sorry to be so wishy-washy.
ReplyDeleteerd
I really don't know how else to see where comments have been left. For example, I just left a few comments on the other posts -- try to figure out which ones (if you have a free half hour and you looove to click your mouse).
ReplyDeleteOk, I'm with it. How do ya get one of these new fangled RSS thingys?
ReplyDeleteThe only "someone" you could over-rule, or not understand their privacy concerns, would be your brother.
Let's keep this blog in "The Family", I only wanna go outside if there is some real ching $$$ in it!!
Ok, yea, let's just keep it to ourselves that we have this blog going -- which we would want to do anyway. And then we can make it public enough to get the RSS feed going.
ReplyDeleteUnless you really prefer the Yahoo services, I would strongly recommend using Google Reader as the RSS reader. To do that, go to www.google.com/reader and set up an account there, and bookmark it. Then go to paulsontalk.blogspot.com and click the RSS button in the address bar. You will probably see a drop-down menu, where one of the options is to subscribe to the blog in RSS -- select that. It will then ask if you want to add the subscription to the Reader, or to the Google homepage -- choose the Reader. It should be there in Google Reader, with all the unread posts. Just mark the ones as read that you've already seen.
Seems to be working for me now. Here's what you do to subscribe to one post:
ReplyDelete- click the title of the post (make sure the address in the address bar indicates that you're at the web page for that post only, not the whole blog)
- click the RSS icon in the address bar
- a drop-down list appears; as you hover the mouse over the options, you'll see that one of them includes 'comments' -- select that one, then choose to add it to Google Reader
- in your RSS reader, add the new feed to a folder you've made for our blog (I called it 'Bros'); in Google Reader this is easily done in a menu at the top of the new feed called 'feed settings'
- wait for the comment goodness to come to your door...!
Friends,
ReplyDeleteI just noticed that you need to remove the listing for this blog from your profile. Otherwise it's not very private. Go to this address to do that:
http://www.blogger.com/edit-profile-displayed-blogs.g
comment test
ReplyDeleteIs it working for you, e?
ReplyDeleteI can't the comments to show as new ad-ons to the conversation.
ReplyDeleteIf you give me a call tomorrow (Tues) evening, I can help you set it up.
ReplyDelete