Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago · 4 min. reading time · ~10 ·

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How to Get Insanely Excited About Boring Old RSS

How to Get Insanely Excited About Boring Old RSS

<h2>Hello People</2>
<p>This is what a simple HTML
fle looks Iike</p>
<p>You put stuff bewteen
specific tags Your browser
knows what they mean </p>
<p>XML and RSS look simitar
but you decide on the tag
rames</p>Gary Sharpe wrote about RSS feeds a few weeks ago. My first thought was, "Oh boy! The Digital Sherpa is slipping." RSS is about as exciting as day-old bread.

RSS is old news. 

RSS is nothing special. 

RSS is so damned boring that even its name sounds like it's falling asleep.

So, what was Gary thinking?

I should point out that everybody has People with a capital "P." 

You know the ones I'm talking about. They're the People you always listen to. They're the People you respect. They're the People whose ideas and opinions really matter. 

You consider their viewpoint even if it disagrees with yours. Heck, you probably reconsider your opinion when they disagree. 

At the least, you give you opinion a good once-over.

Gary Sharpe is that type of Person to me. He has the knack of making me think. Even my wife has given up trying.

Gary said he liked RSS a lot. I was rather, "meh," on them. But, this was Dr. Gary Sharpe, "The Digital Sherpa," talking.

Maybe I should revisit RSS feeds?

I did. Gary was right . . . Again.

Before I explain, some of you are wondering what the heck RSS is. RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." It's an old tech. It's a stable tech. It's a way to reach people who want to be reached. 

It works like this. An RSS reader monitors a URL. When it notices a change, it pumps that change to subscribers. 

People subscribe to a feed to get notified of new stuff. Even Outlook has native support for RSS. 

Its power lies in its simplicity. (tweet this)

Steno KML

<titie> Hello, People</titie>

<em>
<desc>Tha is what an XML file
might look like. </desc>
<cost>Freeking free! </cost>
<pa>i's made customizable.
We can pass data slong in it.
We decide what the ags are
alled</ps>
</aem>RSS is that orange icon that looks like this 

That's cool. I like orange.

That's especially cool these days when every platform and their uncles are clamping down on organic reach.  All platforms but one, anyway. Any wonder that one's my favourite? 

Yeah, I really, really like orange.

But, not everyone has seen the beBee light. For them, ever more restrictive algorithms deliver bitch-slap after bitch-slap. 

RSS lets authors get their reach, and their pride, back. (tweet this)

Yeah, that's very cool.

That's not the coolest thing about it, though.

I don't want to confuse the issue, but RSS is just an implementation of yet another older, stable tech, XML. Feel free to scroll down to examples of possible uses if you feel your eyes rolling into the back of your head. 

Vr

 

Blog Poets

About the Author

I'm a ghost but not the kind that's to pottery
wheels I'm the wnting kind

Toften wonder if Im a tech-savvy writer or a
writing-savvy technologist Maybe I'm both. As
one CMO put it, "Paul makes tech my bitch!
That might be going a hittle too far

QbeBee VIP, AmbassadorThink of XML like HTML that doesn't have pre-set tag definitions. so instead of <h2>My Post</h2> you can use <title>My Post</title>. Your browser is really a HTML reader. It knows what <h2> means. 

A reader script knows what <title> means. We even decide to use <title> or <thingie> or <whatever_the_heck_we_want>. XML does not set limits

Both HTML and XML are just text files. They are platform agnostic.


Big whup, you say? 


da69515f.png

It is a big whup. It's a freaking humongous whup!

XML can pass data around in its tags. RSS is XML. RSS can pass data too. Do you see it now?

No?

It's just text. PHP, the language of web/data, is also "just" text. So are HTML, JQuery /JavaScript, CSS, and AJAX. 

It's all "just text."

Still no?


Let's try this. 

Since it was created way back in 1997, we always looked at RSS as a "push" technology. You write something, and it gets pushed to your subscribers. 

That's old-school RSS thinking. Wrap data in a specific XML format and pass it along to everybody. 

Clean, simple, and boring. 

Or, maybe it's not boring. Maybe it's just dependable? (tweet this)

What you're passing around is just text. Now, remember all those other things that are "just text." Those things are what make the living web possible. 

You're using them right now. Really, you are. You may think PHP means Piled-High, Please, and AJAX is a household cleanser. No matter. 

You use both every day.

Yet, they're "just" text.

This is when I started getting excited . . . 

Pushing works fine and has for nearly twenty years. What about the "Pull" side? Can I push to myself? Can I push to my colleagues/associates?

Pulling is just the flip side of pushing. (tweet this)

We can use RSS to pass stuff around, collaborate on it, act cooperatively on it, populate scripts/actions with it, and curate quality content through it.

We authors can support each other 

I could have an RSS feed that holds my posts. Other authors could subscribe to it. When I would post something new, RSS lets their scripts know. Their scripts automatically tweet in support. 

They would only tweet it only once unless they decide to set the scripts to tweet more often.

When they write something new, their RSS informs me. My scripts retweet them. 

So, although I might miss Cheryl Snapp Conner's latest post. My RSS scripts wouldn't.

Multiple accounts become easier to manage

Can multiple accounts support each other? (tweet this) 

Sure. 

A new post in one account is added to the RSS feed. Sub-accounts get notified by RSS. Their scripts send out retweets. We can even decide how many tweets each should put out and when.

It's all "just text."

Content Curation becomes ridiculously easy

The servers don't know if a feed is internal or external. 

I like Anne Handley's articles. Her feed is at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/ANNARCHY . 

The scripts that support my author friends can just as easily support an unconnected feed. I can automatically retweet any of Anne's posts just as easily as I retweet Gary's.

All this stuff was obvious to Gary. It took me a little longer to figure it out.

RSS is getting a promotion. 

It will move from driving the truck for the Content Distribution Department to being the Dispatcher and Traffic Controller for the Content Promotion Department. 

RSS will also head up the new Team Building Department.

Sure, we can still publicize our RSS feeds to distribute our fresh content. Why not? That's old hat. 

More importantly, we will use it internally to pass stuff around. We will have scripts to act on that stuff as it moves around.

We will use it to import and curate both external and internal content.

Who says you can't teach Old Tech new tricks? Let's shake things up.

I'll be using Gary's http://feed43.com/garysharpe-bebeeproducer.xml feed and Candice Galek's https://www.bikiniluxe.com/collections/new.atom to test just how far I can push this envelope.

I'll also look into how I can create RSS feeds from Producer pages. That may take a while.

Stay tuned, same RSS-time, same RSS-station.


a5759a54.png
"""""
Comments

Lisa Gallagher

7 years ago #18

#18
Ok, phone. LOL, I was joking about driving to Quebec (well sort of, maybe ha ha). I will send you a PM and ask when it's a good time. This week still good for you? If not, next week is fine too! Paul \

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #17

#21
Thanks for the comment, David. Right now, I'm stuck deciding between RSS 2.0 and ATOM. When I get stuck, I usually just let everything percolate in my subconscious for a bit. It always comes back with a solution. Not to geek everybody out, but .... Right now, I think I will have to support both "standards" and translate back and forth. I'm tempted to just accept both on the inbound side, convert them to JSON for storage (A good 30% smaller in file-size than XML. Servers aren't free.) Later, I can rebuild them as either RSS 2.0 or ATOM as the user desires. That might be easier than translating the dialects. I think that's actually what Feedburner does. That's just an educated guess on my part, BTW. For those wondering, JSON is not an acronym, it's shorthand for JavaScript Object Notation (JS O N) and is usually pronounced like the name, "Jason." Some people pronounce it jays-ON, though. Both are acceptable. It's a cleaner, simpler and shorter way to store data without many of RSS/ATOM's shortfalls. Now that I think about it, I wonder why no one uses it for RSS type functions. (at least none that I know of) I can probably use JSON as the "RSS" internally. Hmmm, maybe my subconscious is done analysing?

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #16

#19
don't bother. Message me and I'll give you the link to become a beta tester for my web app. The links to IFTTT recipes will be posted this week. We use rotating hashtags to trigger the recipes that cross post the tweets

Candice 🐝 Galek

7 years ago #15

#13
Possible I am in the process of looking for someone to hire to set us up an IFTTT recipe. Perhaps something that includes a livestreaming network..

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #14

#15
LOL, I think a phone call would be plenty. Wordpress has RSS functions built in (actual RSS, not ATOM, if I'm not mistaken). Where RSS, and I use the term to include both forms, falls down is in the subscriber base. To me, that's secondary.

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #13

#16
That's the thing, Nick Mlatchkov, there's nothing particularly special about them if they are used in the same old way.The pull side of the equation opens up possibilities, particularly when used between associated authors or for multiple-account managers.

Lisa Gallagher

7 years ago #12

Phone call or should I just drive to Quebec to get hands on training from you Paul \?!! I understand the concept and I believe I used to use RSS feed with an older blogsite I had. I don't think I use it on wordpress. I haven't checked my wordpress site in a while. Thanks, you put out so much relative geeky, tech info that really is good to learn. I appreciate you're help!

David B. Grinberg

7 years ago #11

Thanks Paul \. You certainly have the 411 on the RSS!

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #10

#8
Is it possible that the ones that redirect through feedburner are from Tumblr?

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #9

#11
Well, Candice Galek, at least your choice was made easy for you. I just spent 4 hours trying to decide which standard to support. Bottom line: Each has strong points and weaknesses. Although, in my book, ATOM is the better tech. For internal use between authors/users I'll use RSS simply because it's easier for me ( I already have half the code written). When it comes to linking outside feeds to the system, I will have to support... wait for it.... BOTH. Facebook champions RSS, Google sided with ATOM. No matter which I choose someone will want to load the other. So I'm screwed. I have to support both. Besides, I wouldn't want to miss out on an atom feed called string-bikini. (I may be an Old Guy, but still a guy) I'm sort of stuck in a Beta vs VHS conundrum. No, wait, you're too young to know what that means... Let's say I'm stuck between two equal techs with no clear winner on the horizon. The differences are minimal but important. They are both dialects of XML. RSS has s, ATOM has s. RSS uses one set of headers to identify the feed, ATOM has another. They even use different time formats. Freaking annoying. Scripts will need to read the file and decide which one they are looking at.

Candice 🐝 Galek

7 years ago #8

#10
Honestly Paul \ I don't know what is best, I believe we are stuck to using atom for now due to the platform we are using.

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #7

#8
atom and RSS are different syndication standards. Both still work. There are pluses and minuses for each. I still haven't decided which I will use. Suggestions?

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #6

#7
I haven't started playing yet. I want people using my web app to be able to create as many RSS feeds as they need. That means I need to build them on the fly as changes happen. There's also the question of multiple languages. The first step is to allow people to create their own feeds. THEN I'll go play with the cross-posting and feed support scripts. I think playing with https://www.bikiniluxe.com/blogs/string-bikini.atom will be more fun.

Candice 🐝 Galek

7 years ago #5

And does adding .atom pull up the feed for every blog? Some seem to redirect to feedburner, some do not.. https://www.bikiniluxe.com/blogs/luxe-lifestyle https://www.bikiniluxe.com/blogs/meet-the-brand https://www.bikiniluxe.com/blogs/fashion-blog https://www.bikiniluxe.com/blogs/fitness-blog https://www.bikiniluxe.com/blogs/beauty-blog

Candice 🐝 Galek

7 years ago #4

Looking forward to Bikini Luxe being a guinea pig Paul \ we love experimenting with new technology and working on creative new ways to do things! Ideally if we could push the new product feed here that would be amazing! We use Bufferapp currently for Linkedin, but load them manually 50-100 at a time. Did you already play around with this one? https://www.bikiniluxe.com/blogs/string-bikini.atom

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #3

#5
Yeah, I was afraid of that possibility, Gary. The trouble is how to give examples without turning the post into "War and Peace" RSS is easy to use, not so much to explain concisely. Let me try to add one or two quick examples.

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #2

#2
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. (I thought I mentioned that) It is most commonly used to just push notification of new content to a subscribers list. I think it can, should, and will do more.

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #1

Gary Sharpe are mentioned in this post

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