If you have been browsing the web at all, you are probably hearing about RSS or maybe seeing buttons like this...
...popping up on sites all over the place.
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. In short, it is a way to share the content of your site with folks without them even having to visit your site. Most often it is used for publishing content that is updated on a regular basis, such as blogs, news headlines or podcasts.
When you provide this syndication, you are providing a "feed", and RSS feeds make it possible for people to get updates from their favorite web sites automatically using special software called "feed reader", "RSS reads", "aggregator" or "news reader".
Generally a reader can subscribe (add a feed to their reader) just by looking for and clicking the RSS icon
- each reader can have other features to help with organizing and keeping up with your feeds. There are programs you can download and run on your computer to manage your feeds, or there are online services that you can use so your list of feeds is available from any computer with an internet connection (some even work with your web-enabled phone).
Here on the forums for the MN Tartan Day site, you will see each main topic has the RSS icon in front of it, this means you can subscribe to each topic as a separate feed. For example, if you want to keep up with the general news, click the icon next to the
What's New! topic. If you want to track general event postings made by various users, click the icon next to the
Scottish Events topic.
And one of the main reasons we added this feature was to give folks an additional option for receiving the SNIM newsletter. If you have not signed up to receive it via email, you can click the icon next to
the SNIM topic, and when the monthly SNIM or any special editions get sent out, you will find out from your feed reader.
If you have questions on using the RSS feed for this site, or general questions, feel free to post them here.
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