Can someone explain RSS feeds to me?

Jo.

Well-known member
I have to admit I'm completely clueless about RSS feeds, as I've never used them before. If you used them, you have to subscribe to them right? So what about if you subscribe to feeds from a forum where you're not a registered member? Would subscribing to threads etc. using RSS feeds give you access to threads that you shouldn't have access to as a non-member? Also, someone suggested that using RSS feeds might help increase traffic to our site... how would that work?

Sorry for the dense questions but I really have no clue how these things work lol
 
Subscribing to an RSS feed is not subscribing in the usual sense.
It simply means receiving the feed.

Essentially, an RSS feed is something a website (news, current events, forum) produces, consisting of headlines and snippets of stories.
You can then download that feed to your email client or any other application which can receive.

Rather than try and explain it in too much detail, you can see an example of RSS feeds on my home page in the side bar: http://www.cliptheapex.com/community/pages/home/
As my site is Formula One related, I have feeds from F1.com, the FIA, BBC Sport, etc.
It allows my members to quickly and easily see all the latest headlines from those sites.

XenForo also has the ability to receive those feeds and create threads from them.
This can stimulate discussion on your site if the content is relevant to it.
 
so the feed doesn't consist of posts from our forum, it consists of posts/news items etc. from other places that are all put together in the same place? What does the RSS feed button do on the xf forum then?
 
What does the RSS feed button do on the xf forum then?
It allows people to receive that feed in exactly the same way.

I could for example put the XenForo forum feeds in my sidebar or have threads created from them on my site by using the Feeder application in the ACP.

Anyone can 'subscribe' to any feed, assuming they have the permission to see that particular forum.
 
so if we had RSS feed buttons enabled, if people click on them does that mean that they then receive a feed of all new posts in that forum? But if they don't have permission to see a particular forum, they wouldn't receive any updates from that forum? Do we have to set up a feed list like you've got on your site or does clicking the RSS button just add updates from that forum for example, to the subscriber's own feed?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to get my head around it lol. Thanks for trying to explain. :)
 
so if we had RSS feed buttons enabled, if people click on them does that mean that they then receive a feed of all new posts in that forum? But if they don't have permission to see a particular forum, they wouldn't receive any updates from that forum?
Pretty much, yes.
Clicking on the RSS button will open the feed in a new browser tab/window.
You can use a dedicated feed reader if you wish.

Do we have to set up a feed list like you've got on your site or does clicking the RSS button just add updates from that forum for example, to the subscriber's own feed?
What I've done on my site is a custom template mod'.
If you just want to use some feeds for your forum, you set it all up in the ACP -> Applications -> Feeder
 
Pretty much, yes.
Clicking on the RSS button will open the feed in a new browser tab/window.
You can use a dedicated feed reader if you wish.

Okay thanks so much for your help Brogan! :)

Can I just check... if people click on the button to get the feed, they will only receive post updates or whatever from forums they actually have access to right? Just need to be sure in terms of privacy - a non-registered user who clicks on the button of one of our public forums (ie. one that a guest can view), will only receive updates from the forums accessible by guests right? They wouldn't receive any posts from forums that are members only forums or private forums they don't have access to?
 
What are other options in the title template?

Can you give me some example setting of a highly customized format for a registered feed?
The 4 tokens available are: {title} {content} {author} {link}

You can utilise BB Code in the template so you could do something like this for example:
Code:
[B][U]{title}[/U][/B], by [I]{author}[/I]
[COLOR=blue]{content}[/COLOR] [URL='http://{link}'] ...read more[/URL]
 
Thanks Paul
I know I can do that but I was curious about the title template (optional). If we don't do anything, it will just use the full title and trim to length. what options we have there?
 
You can use the same tokens in the title field, even the {content} token if you wish.

If the title field is left blank, the thread title will be generated automatically from the feed.
 
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