RSS Feeds in the Forums

[Thornysarus]

These don't seem to be working. Tried 3 different news readers with the same error: "The server returned an unexpected response: 503: Service Unavailable."

Any thoughts?

[Clay]

Is this the URL you are using?

http://www.gigposters.com/forums/external.php?type=rss

.. works ok for me.

[Thornysarus]

Actually that link you posted works for the feed for all forums. When I hit the orange RSS feed button to select a feed for a specific forum, I get a database error.

Here's the RSS Feed link for the silkscreening forum: http://www.gigposters.com/forums/ext...S2&forumids=17

[Clay]

Try changing the RSS2 in the URL to just RSS (should be more compatible with certain readers)

[Thornysarus]

That worked. Thanks.

Another related question though: The feeds are coming into my newsreaders with just the thread subject (headline), the Forum name, who posted and a timestamp. This info is repeated in the content pane where the message content usually appears.

Example - My last post in this thread appears in the message pane:

RSS Feeds in the Forums
GigPosters.com
04 Jan 2011 183 Forum: Problems Posted By: Thornysarus Post Time: 01-04-2011 at 12:57 PM

I was hoping to keep up with new posts in my newsreader, but without message content, the feeds are of little use. Is there any way to correct this on my end or yours?

Thanks for your help Clay.

[Clay]

I was hoping to keep up with new posts in my newsreader, but without message content, the feeds are of little use. Is there any way to correct this on my end or yours?

Thanks for your help Clay.

Well .. with message content in the RSS feed, that would defeat the purpose of coming to the site. My advertisers would not like that, and I can't run the site without advertisers. Sorry!

-Clay

[Thornysarus]

I get that. Really I do, but you'd still have to come to the site to post, view the posters and interact with the community.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but why not offer feeds on every new post and comment (complete with message) with your advertiser's ads in them as well? My marketing schmuck friends would call this "added value."

Wired Magazine does this and many others.

Do many users use the feeds anyway?

[Clay]

RSS feeds can be used on sites for syndication as well without consent (meaning, all content can be found elsewhere besides the original site). Yes - this can work if done properly, but it is more of a pride and a search engine thing. This site is very unique and people come here for gig poster discussion. With wired mag etc, there are thousands of sites that syndicate the content without even linking back to the original posts etc. Its a tough call, but so far, this is working very well for GP.