RSS feed - did you know?

[cgutzmer]

Did you know we have an RSS feed here? It is set for the entire forums (all hobbies) but I know there is a way to limit it to just sections (Like cardmodels only) I just dont understand it well enough. If anyone would like to post a little how to on how to use RSS I would appreciate it
Thanks
Chris

[Amazyah]

The following is located in our FAQ.

Where can I find the RSS feed? The administrator may have enabled RSS syndication, this allows you to view newly created threads in guest viewable forums without visiting the board.
The feeds are currently provided in two formats, RSS and RSS v2. The differences are as follows:

• RSS 0.91 - This feed is based on a standard written by netscape and provides a link and the title of the thread.
  http://forum.zealot.com/external.php?type=rss
• RSS 2.0 - This feed contains title, author, date and the contents of the first post of the thread.
  http://forum.zealot.com/external.php?type=rss2

To add this to MyYahoo click here.
The forums to which this applies can also be limited to specific guest viewable forums by adding another parameter to the URL containing the forumids as follows:
http://forum.zealot.com/external.php?type=rss2&forumids=123

If you would like the content to be generated for multiple forums you can separate the forumids by commas.

I hoped that helped you some.


Russell

[cgutzmer]

Actually no, it doesnt help a bit :P

I found that but I cant figure out how to get the modifications into a feed. Also it doesnt seem like our naming conentions follow that format exactly. I was kinda hoping for someone to give an example they have working and how they go it going.

Oh, and firefox seems to work quite differently from IE with RSS feeds.... I installed wizrss at home for firefox and thats what I have been trying to figure out. At work i have IE and not even sure if I can do RSS on ie5.... yet....
Chris

[rickstef]

no, IE 7 is the only one i know that is RSS compatible.

none of the other version have that.

Rick

[cgutzmer]

Thanks Rick! I hate it when work limits my fun

[gnAsher]

Thanks for the tips on limiting posts. I didn't mind the trains, they are quite good fun, and my son likes'em, but the slot cars, gold and football cars are getting a bit too much. I'm starting to skip messages just because of the increasing volume of . . . uninteresting stuff (to me anyways). If forum id 123 is all of card modelling, whats the id for the trains? I might start a seperate list for them.

[gnAsher]

Sorry, me again! I found the id for card modelling (7). It shows up when you roll over the forum name as the link ( http; . . . /f7/). Model trains is 6, rc 8 etc.
I tried to create a new list in my rss reader (Feedreader) for the trains i.e. forumids=7 and refreshed . . . nothing happened! It should have filled with the latest model train threads. So I have another question, if I specify a fourm, are all the sub-forums also included? If not, it's not going to be much help. I will have to add ALL the modelling sub forum ids to the list I be at 'til next week!

[cgutzmer]

I havent been able to get the rss feed to work to my expectations in firefox - prolly just me.....

[gnAsher]

Chris,

Try a dedicated RSS reader. I tried serveral RSS readers for IE and Opera. Even tried Google's RSS, whatever the proper name is. I ended up with a standalone RSS reader (Feedreader). There are several freeware ones out there. Try some out as each one has a different feature set and it will depend on your liking as to which one to get. Now I sit and stare at the system tray waiting for the little icon to change colour to tell me there are new messages

[cgutzmer]

cool! I will look thanks man!
Chris

[cgutzmer]

Originally Posted by gnAsher

Sorry, me again! I found the id for card modelling (7). It shows up when you roll over the forum name as the link ( http; . . . /f7/). Model trains is 6, rc 8 etc.
I tried to create a new list in my rss reader (Feedreader) for the trains i.e. forumids=7 and refreshed . . . nothing happened! It should have filled with the latest model train threads. So I have another question, if I specify a fourm, are all the sub-forums also included? If not, it's not going to be much help. I will have to add ALL the modelling sub forum ids to the list I be at 'til next week!

I have been trying to play around with this and RSS really isnt doing what i want. I was looking for exactly what you mention here and I think we need to do each forum in addition. I am going to try one and see how it works. If I get it managed I will post it.....
Thanks
Chris

[cgutzmer]

OK, if you want to get an RSS feed just for cardmodels use.....

http://forum.zealot.com/external.php...28,429,432,433

still doesnt behave just how I want but I will let you know as I try new stuff!
Chris

[gnAsher]

Originally Posted by cgutzmer

forumids=7,358,390,453,365,366,367,369,430,441,359 ,368,403,405,369,370,371,372,373,374,375,376,377,3 78,379,380,381,404,402,408,411,452,415,363,391,440 ,392,393,394,395,434,396,397,449,398,399,400,401,4 47,360,382,383,361,384,385,386,387,388,426,448,427 ,450,428,429,432,433

Chris, you have wwwaaayyyy to much time on your hand! But you are da man! Good job and thanks for that. I wouldn't have had to patience to track down all the forums.

One thing I notice is that the rss feed doesn't seem to catch follow up messages. I missed you last post , and only saw it because I checked UserCP. I wonder if anything can be done?

Note that with an RSS reader you only get the latest 15 ( I think) messages. If you turn off your RSS reader or have the update time too long, you will miss messages, i.e. if you check every hour, but 19 messgaes are posted in that hour you will loose the first 4. The problem will not be so bad if you restrict the forums to the card modelling, as there will be less posts per unit time.

Mr. Admin, is there any way to increase the number of pushed posts, especially for the entire hobby forum. It is especially a problem for us our here 16 hours (or so) away from most of you, as my computer (and me) sleeps during the time most people post, and so many posts drop off the end.

[cgutzmer]

I am Mr Admin (well one anyway) and I have been working on the showing posts problem. I have no idea why I cant get the darn thing to show new posts. It seems to be a limitation of the way vbulletin has rss feeds setup. I didnt know about the 15 messages problem but I will check. As it stands its not a problem cause the darn thing only shows new threads, not posts. It WILL be a problem if I get it to show posts though...

What reader are you using? I am using feedreader. Seems good but I dont know that much yet
Chris

[cgutzmer]

I changed the number of messages kept in cache to 30. That should fix ya up there. Still working on the showing new posts instead of just new threads though...
Chris