Only 5 items in my RSS feed?

NeMo · July 19, 2014, 07:59:57 AM

Hello all,

This has been bugging me for a while. I use an RSS feed application in the menu bar to alert me to new postings on forums and blogs. Generally this works fine. But on the N Gauge Forum for some reason it only loads up to 5 posts. Never more than that. I've tried a different RSS feed application to my favourite, and the same thing. It's bizarre. If I set it to watch, for example, RMWeb, it'll show me *all* the unread posts.

Makes no sense to me. NGF is the only forum for which this is a problem. Any ideas?

Cheers, NeMo

PS Yes, I know I can get email notifications of replies and new topics, but they're intrusive and fill up my already busy email mailboxes; an RSS feed is a discrete way for me to see what's been happening on a forum and then choose to go to any particular page or posting that interests me.

Bealman · July 19, 2014, 08:08:07 AM

A fair enough question, methinks.... except I have no idea what an RSS feed is...

NeMo · July 19, 2014, 08:46:18 AM

Quote from: Bealman on July 19, 2014, 08:08:07 AM
A fair enough question, methinks.... except I have no idea what an RSS feed is...

Well, I shall leave it to Wikipedia to explain the details!

But the picture below maybe explains what I see at my end. I have a menu bar icon that leads off to various RSS "feeds" including one for the NGF, and as you can see, from there I can very quickly see recent (but no more than five) replies or postings. It's very handy.

Cheers, NeMo

Tank · July 20, 2014, 09:57:55 AM

Hi Nemo,

You're the first one to enquire.

I believe that I'd need to install a modification to the forum. If others are interested in it then I'll find out the cost.

Cheers,
Chris.

NeMo · July 20, 2014, 10:30:23 AM

Quote from: Tank on July 20, 2014, 09:57:55 AM
Hi Nemo,

You're the first one to enquire. I believe that I'd need to install a modification to the forum. If others are interested in it then I'll find out the cost.

Cheers,
Chris.

Ah, so maybe it's a feature not a bug! Part of the hosting package, perhaps? Makes sense. I wonder if I'm the only one who uses RSS???

Cheers, NeMo

Bealman · July 20, 2014, 10:50:38 AM

I just wish the two of you would start talking English....

NeMo · July 20, 2014, 11:06:05 AM

Quote from: Bealman on July 20, 2014, 10:50:38 AM
I just wish the two of you would start talking English....

RSS is an abbreviation (though annoyingly for several different phrases depending on who you're talking to) but according to Wikipedia stands for Rich Site Summary.

It's often described as a sort of syndication. So kind of like how a news agencies sends stories out to a variety of outlets, RSS is a way for websites (such as forums) to send out updates to any application that asks for them. So an RSS feed application on my Mac queries the NGF website (say, every 5 minutes) and if there's a forum posting that the RSS feed application hasn't seen before, it announces that news to me in the form of an discrete alert. For the application I have, RSS Feed, the menu bar icon changes colour, and if clicked on, there's a headline and the first couple sentences of the posting visible for me to read. If I'm interested in reading the post, I click the link and Safari opens up the NGF.

What this means is that anyone with an RSS feed can subscribe to as many blogs and forums as they want, and each time there's a change, they can see a summary of those updates in their RSS feed and then choose which ones they want to read.

Apple (in their infinite wisdom) are starting to hide RSS feed links and the built-in RSS reader in Safari (which used to be great) has gone. Supposedly, they're pushing users towards social media because that's what developers and advertisers prefer. Stupid move, Apple.

Cheers, NeMo