An Excellent Presentation of “What is RSS”

An explanation in plain English.

1. What is RSS?

   Well, it’s an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication. It’s best described as a news feed. Or even better, think of it as a magazine subscription, but instead of coming to your home mailbox, it comes to you in a special reader, which may be as simple as your browser (such as Firefox), your home page (such as Yahoo or Google), or a special program you can download and install, like Bloglines.

2. So how do I use RSS?

   It’s very simple, anytime you see the Orange button in your address bar in your browser, that website has a feed you can subscribe to. If you’re using a Mac, you’ll see a blue button that has RSS on it. But rather than give you directions for everyone, I found a site that has instructions for virtually every News Reader you can think of. It’s at Getting Started With RSS and I guarantee that site will get you up and running with your news feed in no time.

3. What’s a good newsreader?

   I cannot answer that. There are so many of them around. However, I’m using a super one (free) called Great News. It allows for many different ways to view stories. Unfortunately, it’s not available through Feedburner. So if you want to subscribe using that one, you’ll have to right click on the feed and you’ll have it added to the newsfeed. But you can use whatever you like, including Google Reader, NetVibes, Bloglines and more.

4. How do I post a comment?

   At the top of every post, there is a link to comments. It says Leave a Comment. Click on that and you’ll be taken to a page with the post and a comment box. Fill in your name and email, then type in your comments. Push the post button to publish it.

5. Can I preview a comment?

   Yes. There is a preview button. If you push that, the post as it will appear shows up below the comment box. You can change things if you don’t like it, then hit the post button when you’re ready to have it appear.

6. Why do I have to type in a word to post a comment?

   Unfortunately it’s due to spam. There are robots that go around finding pages and publishing comments with nothing but links to their sites, often porn. So, it’s one way to verify you’re human.

7. Why doesn’t my comment show up right away?

   Again it’s nothing but a defense against spam. I get a notice in email that a comment was made, then I check it out and approve it, delete it, or mark it as spam. Your post will appear as soon as I can check email.

8. Why do I have to give you my email? Will you spam me?

   Never in a million years. The system requires it, and you can be assured that you will never receive unwanted mail from me, nor have your email sold, given away, or anything bad. It will NOT appear on the website, so email harvesters won’t have a chance at it, either.

9. What does Subscribe mean?

   It means you can be notified when there is a new post. I have them set so you can read the whole post in a Reader, or in Email. If you want to subscribe with something like Firefox Live Bookmarks, Google Reader, or Yahoo, just click on the Subscribe in a Reader icon. You’ll be presented with a list of all the common readers to choose from. If you’d like to have the posts sent to your email, just fill in your email, and a popup box will appear. You will need to confirm the email, just to prove you’re human.

10. If I subscribe by Email, what happens?

    Actually, I don’t send you anything. It’s run by Feedburner, and they will send you an email (with the whole story) sometime after I write a post. They do not send you anything else, and they will never sell or give away your email. Remember, you will need to confirm your subscription in the email Feedburner sends you, and you can unsubscribe at any time, although I hope you wouldn’t.

11. What’s with these images? How do they work?

    The site uses a javascript called Lightbox which opens the small pictures in a window over the original page. It just darkens the page behind it. The important thing to remember is to use the X at the bottom of the photo to close the window. If there is more than one image in the article, you can mouse over the generated image to see back and forward arrows. I use this to make it difficult to copy the photos. There is always a link provided in the article if you want to see the original image.