xplaining email subscriptions and RSS Feeds are a bit like the old Tortoise and the Hare race. In this case, the Tortoise is email and RSS Readers are the bunnies- both win the race but the bunny really gets to the finish line faster.
For the real techs, this is far from a real technical description so for those techies out there, unclinch thy buttcheeks and we will all be in for a gas! This explanation should help the average email user understand enough to be confused - lol. At least that is what happens when I gain just a little bit of information. Here we go...one step at a time together.
RSS FEEDS...
Really, it is easy to think who the $%*# cares, right? Well, the beautiful thing is we don't really need to know how it works on the back end but understanding that it could be useful to us could be enough for us to make an informed choice. Especially if we want to browse through a lot of different content on the web in one consolidated place. RSS Feeds allows us to do this in a nifty way. So I will break it down just a little for us. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary.
Basically, RSS is a way that information is broken down and sent in smaller increments to a READER in our mail program that already exists. You don't even know this is happening behind the scenes. If you have gmail, yahoo, aol, Windows Live, gator, excite and many many more you have a Reader. A Reader is how you will Read the posts and it is glorious! You will fall in love...it will change the way you view the internet and the amount of information you can read and share with others.
Once you subscribe to a FEED, the FEED will send any update from the website you have subscribed to- to your READER IMMEDIATELY. ***This is the advantage of having a FEED vs an EMAIL subscription. *** You would receive the GayZette as soon as I post it. Unlike email subscriptions that are sent usually 1x a day at a pre-determined time by the writer.
How do you know if you can subscribe to a FEED? If a website has this icon which is the
recognized RSS icon in the http:// bar, that means it can be subscribed to. Simple, huh? If you are familiar with bookmarking, this is a similar concept as you can 'mark' the feed quickly for the websites you want to subscribe to. You can mark it in the same way as you bookmark a website by clicking on it (it will provide RSS or Atom options, if you click on one of them you will often see the list of posts that are recent. You then subscribe from that page). Or follow the directions below.
How do you subscribe?
1. Simply click on the RSS icon
and it will take you to the Subscribe page.
2. Pick your Reader based on your email account (I LOVE GMAIL but yahoo works fine too).
3. You will need to confirm the subscription in the Reader.
4. You will now receive Posts to the Reader.
1. You can also click on the 'Subscribe in a Reader' in the first column of Seattle Announcements.
2. Pick your Reader based on your email account.
3. You will need to confirm the subscription in your Reader.
4. You will now receive Posts to the Reader.
How do I find my *#@%$ Reader?
In gmail:
1. Good question. I like inquiring minds.
2. In gmail, when you are in your email, LOOK at the top of your page and locate: GMAIL CALENDER DOCUMENTS
READER WEB MORE.
3. Click on
Reader
4. At the very bottom left side: Subscriptions / manage subscriptions
5. You will find the subscription you have subscribed to and can toy with all the settings in a separate window that will open. They are similar to your email settings.
6. You may also see in the right area a request to accept the subscription. Do so!
7. The right side has a slide scroll up and down that you can move. This is where you will view your subscriptions and can read the posts of your choice. It can be set to: uncheck your articles when you scroll through OR uncheck only if you click on the article.
8. The Reader will recommend other sites for you based on what you read (Recommended Sources). This is very cool as you will find others items of interest to read.
9. Home/All Items (#) = All unread items for your subscriptions
10. Next to the Search box at the top middle is 'All Items' and is a Drop down box that contains all your subscriptions plus 'All Items, Read Items, Starred Items, Shared, People you follow', etc.
In Yahoo:
1. Go to 'My Yahoo' http://my.yahoo.com
2. My Main Tab/More Options/
3. CLICK My Yahoo Reader (at top of page) Turn On/OFF
4. Click 'I'm Done'
5. It will take a moment to load & will give you options of other RSS Feeds to add (other news source like our local papers, the Times, USA Today etc). Add what you would enjoy as you can delete what you don't want later.
6. The pages will load.
7. Each item will have an 'Options' tab and you can delete item entirely or make relevant changes. Items can be moved around too.
8. Your email is also on this page but you can also read it by clicking on the Mail icon on the left sidebar.
9. Check back and look for content from the GayZette. Remember it gets posted immediately and if you are subscribed via email AND to a RSS Feed, the Feed will be quicker. The only downside is occasionally I will post an article and do an 'opps' and immediately find an error and repost it. My RSS Readers will get 2 will similar posts. They are so easy to scroll past and delete so it is not too much of a big deal.
Try both and see what you like...it won't hurt anything. There are so many advantages to the Readers. I just found this link that explains the
basics.
Keep me posted on what you think about all this. I sure have been learning and my brain has not exploded yet. I am happy to help any of you with the knowledge I have gleaned and will always seek out the answer when I do not know it (that will be often - lol).
If anyone of you wants to write a tutorial on any of the other Readers I invite you to. I will gladly publish your 'how to' and provide you with much deserved credit and even a latte on me!
Enjoy from the heart,
Ms T
