Does anyone use this RSS stuff?

[Sgeir]

OK - I lost the place place after Windows3.1, so I'm behind the times. But things used to work(ish). This RSS seems to make the site slow/unstable and even more surreal. It has its entertaining moments.

But what does it do? I presume peeps use as a link on their websites - izzatit?

Does anyone actually use it in real life?

Why can't we just forget it?

What does this mean:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
- <!-- RSS generation done by UBB.threads(tm) on 09/05/2005 20:56
-->
- <rss version="2.0">
- <channel>
<title>Latest ybw.com Scuttlebutt posts</title>
<link>http://www.ybw.com/forums/ubbthreads.php</link>
<description>Latest ybw.com Scuttlebutt posts</description>
<generator>Yachting and Boating World - UBB.threads(tm)</generator>
- <item>
<title>Big Richard</title>
<link>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731204</link>
<description>But isn't he in the Lounge. I wouldn't go in there with the deviants. -- LakeSailor</description>
<pubDate>09/05/2005 20:44</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731204</guid>
</item>
- <item>
<title>Re: Trials and tribulations with AIS</title>
<link>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731203</link>
<description>Are there are already VHF manufactors, which deliver there normal VHF set with AIS signal output via -- Gerard_Niersman</description>
<pubDate>09/05/2005 20:44</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731203</guid>
</item>
- <item>
<title>Re: Tunes for the night watch?</title>
<link>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731201</link>
<description>Correct. I was just testing you. You passed! -- LakeSailor</description>
<pubDate>09/05/2005 20:41</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731201</guid>
</item>
- <item>
<title>Re: Winchester? Goggle agrees.</title>
<link>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731199</link>
<description>Quote: well b#%#r me ..... said the captain of HMS Conway, on returning from the pub to find hi -- bignick</description>
<pubDate>09/05/2005 20:37</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731199</guid>
</item>
- <item>
<title>Re: Like a Stone...</title>
<link>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731197</link>
<description>I think you have probably misunderstood. You have heard of Big Richard, the 25stone grizzly bounc -- bignick</description>
<pubDate>09/05/2005 20:33</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731197</guid>
</item>
- <item>
<title>Re: First time crossing the English channel?</title>
<link>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731192</link>
<description>Steve, For starters PM 'Yanita', as he is based at Oostende, but more importantly is arranging a gr -- NAS</description>
<pubDate>09/05/2005 20:28</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731192</guid>
</item>
- <item>
<title>Radar/Chart Plotter - which way up?</title>
<link>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731190</link>
<description>I have been agonising over buying something for quite a while- until last weekend when I couldn't se -- bignick</description>
<pubDate>09/05/2005 20:27</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731190</guid>
</item>
- <item>
<title>Re: Tunes for the night watch?</title>
<link>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731189</link>
<description>hm, but they are RIDING along on the crest of a wave. Really, it's a motorboaty song, see, and a pl -- tcm</description>
<pubDate>09/05/2005 20:24</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731189</guid>
</item>
- <item>
<title>Re: Like a Stone...</title>
<link>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731188</link>
<description>wahoooo..... The lounge is dead.... long live Skuttlebutt..... welcome back SB..... I've missed yo -- NAS</description>
<pubDate>09/05/2005 20:24</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731188</guid>
</item>
- <item>
<title>First time crossing the English channel?</title>
<link>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731187</link>
<description>Preparing to get our westely Konsort across to Ostend from Woolverstone at Spring break (weather per -- Wardy</description>
<pubDate>09/05/2005 20:24</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=731187</guid>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>?

Oooh, my brain hurts.

 

[woody001]

It's pretty simple really - this code "obtain's" the "feed's" from ybw's website or you can use it to push data with instant/realtime feedback.

May i ask why you want to know?

 

[Moose]

What is RSS apart from Really Stupid Stuff?

 

[Captain Haddock]

I've seen RSS bandied about before, but I have no idea what it is, can someone explain?

 

[lockwood]

A bit hard to explain, but I'll give it a go......

Web pages are viewed in a web browser which displays HTML. A static code. RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, an XML format. XML data can be streamed in realtime (like video). Therefore, if you have an RSS reader (sometimes called an aggregator or feed reader) it can keep you constantly updated with the latest posts.

A good example of this is the BBC news ticker. For those of you using the Firefox browser (and if you aren't, why not?) you can have a bookmarked tab of the RSS feed - so no matter what you are looking at on the web, you can always see the most recent posts changing in realtime.

Hope that helps.

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Yeah it helps a lot - I've just decided I don't want it !

 

[BrendanS]

To give you an example. I've been using an RSS reader called 'Pluck' for some time now. It gives me the latest updates from about 30 different sites (mainly news, technology news, science etc) Rather than having to log onto all those sites everyday to see what's happening, I get the summaries fed from them several times a day it a browser window automatically, and I can quickly scan the summaries and read what interests me.

Instead of taking a half hour or more to open and read all those sites, I can scan the summaries and read interesting articles in under a minute or two

 

[woody001]

good description, just had a look at your website couchpearl, not bad i must say, i can see you use rss

 

[lockwood]

Have you tried 'RSS Popper', it is an Outlook plugin that collects the data from RSS feeds and stores them in a folder like email. You cn set the refresh interval yourself. Very good little add-in.

 

[BlueChip]

Persevere with RSS feeds - its worth it.
Would be useful to have a for sale feed as well though

 

[BlueSkyNick]

I've already got a foresail feed, it guides the genoa into the furler foil.

 

[Captain Haddock]

Thanks for the explanation, I'll download a couple of readers and take a look, sounds interesting.

 

[woody001]

I vote we start a web business together, as we seem to know alot about it, iam a business analyst for internet services, there's such a market out there, any ideas?

 

[Sgeir]

[ QUOTE ]
May i ask why you want to know?

[/ QUOTE ]
In another thread, I took Kim to mean that it's jumbling up threads and causing the site to slow down and generally become unstable.

My reason for raising the issue, and asking if people were using it is this: If people aren't actually using it, why let let it run down the forum? Can't see the point.

MAybe it's just there to give the IT people at IPC a challenge. And what's wrong with that. Looks good on the CV etc etc...........

 

[EdEssery]

<pedantic>

RSS=Really Simple Syndication - see WIKI

</pedantic>

 

[woody001]

This whole website ybw.co.uk is what i call "90's"
It slow, very slow, bad design, bad interface, bad news, bad homepage, bad forum software (good users), crappy backup system which stops there website, I reckon i could get this website with a decent team and make ybw so much more money.
I know a little....Last website i did clean's £800k a month

 

[lockwood]

ACTUALLY, it was labelled (RSS) Rich Site Summary by Netscape when XML was in its infancy. More recent feeds have labelled themselves Really Simple Syndication as they do not want to associate themselves with the early slow versions of RSS.

Call it what you will...

 

[lockwood]

The reason this forum can be slow is that it is built with PHP - fine for normal uses, but VERY server intensive with high traffic.

What more do you want, the site is free to its users, and it does the job. The only real alternative would be a custom Python script.

 

[woody001]

this website does not get high traffic......

 

[BrendanS]

Tried Popper, prefer Pluck. It pulls up feeds in similar way, and has similar folder layout to Outlook, but keeps things separate, which is an issue for me.

Feeds are automatic, and in XP, you get a transparent box bottom right telling you when feeds are being brought in

Highly recommended if you want browser rather than Outlook RSS reader