Wanted to talk about feedreaders and RSS stuff.
Now that so many of us are communicating via blogs I just wondered how everyone is ‘managing’ their stuff.
Awhile ago I subscribed to Bloglines, which seems to work quite well. I can subscribe to new posts and/or comments – though so far I have only been able to subscribe to both on other WordPress pages. For example, Blogger pages don’t seem to have the comments option . But with Bloglines I get a little ‘ping!’ to notify me when a new comment or post comes through and the icon also changes colour, in case I don’t hear the ping.
This is especially good for when people reply to older posts, so you don’t have to check pages back in case you’ve missed anything.
Meanwhile, I’m still not sure what that RSS feed thingy at the bottom of my sidebar is all about – when I click on it I just see a lot of coded stuff. Also curious about other people’s experiences with various feedreaders/aggregators such as Bloglines.
And for those of you still not using a feedreader perhaps this will help you see how easy it is to ‘get connected’ because it really does make staying in touch a lot easier.
So my first two questions are:
- Does anybody know how I can also subscribe to comments for blogsites other than WordPress? I can subscribe to new posts okay elsewhere, but not new comments.
- What’s the point of the RSS feed thingy on my page?
casa azahar 
I can’t answer either of those questions – in fact, I’m not entirely sure that I understand anything at all about the whole RSS concept – so I’ll just sit here and watch, and maybe even learn something.
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I have those RSS links at the bottom of my sidebar, too. I’m not 100% positive, but I believe that someone who does not blog at WordPress but does use a feedreader, like Bloglines, can click that link, copy the URL for the feed page, and paste it into their feeds subscriptions. How nice that there is an option for both posts and comments.
I still haven’t figured out how to subscribe to feeds for comments for other blogsites, either, so I’d also love to know!
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That’s exactly whath the “RSS Feeds” bit is for – when I subscribed to you in Bloglines, I copied the link from there 🙂
As to blogger.com, there are comments, but they don’t seem to give themselves up for RSSing. I’ll try to find out if or how…
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Is that what it does? (duh) I just typed in people’s WordPress URLs and put ‘/feed’ or ‘/comments/feed’ after them – read about doing that somewhere here.
I can’t see anything like that for Blogger.com – for people from there I think I just typed in their URLs on Bloglines and that worked for posts (but not comments).
The reason the RSS feed thingy confused me was because when you click on it, at the top of the page it says – “This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it” – and I thought that was something I was supposed to have done but hadn’t. Easily confused, me. 😕
Meanwhile, I wonder why some WordPress people have that little orange RSS icon on their sidebars and others don’t – and if having the icon does something different.
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Learned anything yet, Ivan?
It’s really simple to get the feeds on Blogline – just go there, sign up, and then subscribe.
Which feed reader are you using, PC?
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I’m using Bloglines, too! So far, I really like it- especially the fact that it’s web-based, so I have the option of accessing my feeds from other computers, should the “need” arise.
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SGV, ever thought of switching to WordPress? I tried Blogger.com as well and found WordPress much more user friendly and with many more options available. Also the staff here is wonderful – always coming up with new ‘treats’ for their bloggers. Like the new custom header thingy. Apparently you can import all your Blogger.com posts (including comments) very easily should you want to do this. Just a thought …
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Hi PC,
Yeah, that’s why I went with Bloglines too, because it’s a web-based thing. So when I’m using Nog’s laptop I can also be updated.
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So has anyone figured out how to add comments from other blogsites yet?
SVG, I’ve subscribed to your blog on Bloglines but can only get new posts, not new comments.
I have a similar problemita with Agapanthus’s blog – only get new posts.
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Been googling this afternoon, trying to find a way to get RSS comment feeds from Blogger but it seems that it just isn’t possible.
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Seen this? Very handy indeed for connecting people.
My Comments
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That is dead handy.
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Still a bit limited though, in that it just works with WordPress blogs and you only get one page of comments, but it’s probably a marked improvement for those too stubborn to use Bloglines. 😉
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I´ve got something called Sage in Firefox. It adds feeds quite easy, but I must update them manually by clicking. When I click it searches my feeds and puts an asterisk on the ones that are updated since my last clicking.
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I’m not too stubborn, just too, um, preoccupied or something. Or easily distracted, perhaps.
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I use Firefox too, dragonqueen, but prefer a web-based feedreader because I’m often using Nog’s laptop, usually while I have my morning coffee in bed (and sometimes in the wee hours during insomniac moments) so I prefer having one I can access from either computer.
So, okay you’re not stubborn Ivan. And I’m the Queen of Sheba. 😉
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Hence the presence of Solomon/Noggin, in all his wisdom. 😉
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I also use Firefox, but find Bloglines works well because it allows me to check my feeds from my work computer without downloading a whole bunch of stuff and getting “busted” for it. 😉
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Has anyone else noticed recently that Bloglines hasn’t been working all that well?
Sometimes a new post or comment goes through straight away, other times it takes more than 24 hours. Hmmmm…
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I can honestly say that I hadn’t noticed. There’s a fairly obvious reason for that… I’ll get around to setting up Bloglines one day, honest I will.
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What does everyone think of the new dashboard?
I like the idea of seeing all the comments made and received, though it might be a bit easier to read if all the New Comment, New Post and Commented thingys were grouped together.
Also, Commented seems to disappear after the ‘this week’ listing.
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