We used to have an RSS feed for recent topics with the old forum. I can set it up again for the new one, but I am just curious if anyone uses them.

I did but then I stopped there was just too many posts. It was easier to check the site.

Adding my $.02 a bit late, but I sorely miss the RSS feed. It was my primary way of interacting with the site. I used to read posts several times a day. Now it's about once a week. RSS is the only way I can keep up with things. I just don't have the time to go to a bunch of different sites individually.

1SeventyZ wrote:We used to have an RSS feed for recent topics with the old forum. I can set it up again for the new one, but I am just curious if anyone uses them.

If that was the main homepage list of recent posts on the old site, then yes. That was one of the great things about BCP. Easy to see recent posts. I've been using the View Latest Topics link a lot.

For us less-than-tech-savy common folk, what the hell is an RSS feed?

blackrock wrote:For us less-than-tech-savy common folk, what the hell is an RSS feed?

Umm.......yeah, what is RSS Feed?

Hate to vote on something I don't know what the heck it is .

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." It's a protocol for simple XML output to make website updates available in a format other than "visual."

Say you like to follow many flying forums, blogs, news sites, etc. Rather than checking them one at a time, you can "aggregate" their feeds. If they all have an RSS "feed" URL, you can plug URL that into your RSS Aggregator application and have all the updates at your fingertips in one place. It might sound unnecessary at first, but once you start using it, it saves time and lets you check all your updates in one place.

For instance, I like to check occasionally to see if my Cessna 170 wiki site has been updated. Instead of going to the site, I just click a pull down in my bookmarks menubar and see the updates listed. Same for BCP threads, SC.org threads, CNN headlines, security releases for software. It makes what would normally be a time consuming and distracting process take only a few seconds. If I see something interesting, I can dig deeper.

Firefox is the most useful and accessible RSS Aggregator, and it uses the term "live bookmark." There are many other standalone applications that provide the same functionality, but it's nice to have it built right into the browser.

I added the RSS support tonight for the forum. Here's the feed URL for topics:

http://www.backcountrypilot.org/forum/rss.php?mode=topics

There are a few other options for feed types that you'll see if you click the blue RSS icon in the Firefox location bar.