# Please enable RSS feeds **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 13, 2007, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808 "2007-01-13T06:01:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/1 "2007-01-13T06:01:02Z")
Now that we have a fancy new server, please enable RSS feeds. I have done the math in this forum before, and users who use RSS for lurking use less bandwidth than people who read the actual board. I also offer my services in creating an RSS feed for the main Straight Dope homepage. It would take around two hours of my time and would require zero maintenance and intervention. Cheers, ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/2 "2007-01-13T06:03:02Z")
When I say services, I do of course mean that I will do it for free, so long as I have the assurance that it will actually be used. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/3 "2007-01-13T14:30:45Z")
RSS feeds are a vuilt-in feature of vBulletin. No mods necessary. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/4 "2007-01-13T17:37:39Z")
[straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com) does not use vBulletin ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/5 "2007-01-13T17:39:22Z")
[QUOTE=alterego] [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com) does not use vBulletin [/QUOTE] > [@The boilerplate at the bottom of every page](#): > > Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.0.7 > Copyright ©2000 - 2007, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. So there you go. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/6 "2007-01-13T17:47:14Z")
This isn’t that confusing is it? That’s _boards_.straightdope.com. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/7 "2007-01-13T18:31:45Z")
There already is an RSS feed for the main homepage. [http://www.jwz.org/cheesegrater/RSS/straightdope.rss](http://www.jwz.org/cheesegrater/RSS/straightdope.rss) ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/8 "2007-01-13T18:46:57Z")
I chose not to create a rogue feed because there are obvious legal problems. If the Reader was so inclined, they could send a DMCA takedown notice to anyone republishing their content in such a manner. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/9 "2007-01-13T18:51:44Z")
Okay, whatever. I’m not familiar with RSS technology beyond what I need to make it work in my RSS reader. I found the feed I mentioned when someone else linked to it on these very boards, if I recall correctly. Carry on with your demands, by all means. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/10 "2007-01-13T22:02:38Z")
**alterego** , you’re not making any sense. First you talk about the new server for “the board” and using RSS for “lurking,” but then you seem to be talking about [www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com), which already has an RSS feed. So which is it? ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/11 "2007-01-13T22:59:07Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] **alterego** , you’re not making any sense. First you talk about the new server for “the board” and using RSS for “lurking,” but then you seem to be talking about [www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com), which already has an RSS feed. So which is it? [/QUOTE] What are you talking about? He’s making perfect sense. He said “we have a new server” nothing about “the board”. From the OP: “creating an RSS feed for the main Straight Dope homepage”. Also, if there is already an RSS feed for [www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com) then why didn’t you link it? Unless you mean the one that’s already been linked and **alterego** mentioned his objections to. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/12 "2007-01-14T00:36:56Z")
[QUOTE=CarnalK] What are you talking about? He’s making perfect sense. He said “we have a new server” nothing about “the board”. From the OP: “creating an RSS feed for the main Straight Dope homepage”. Also, if there is already an RSS feed for [www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com) then why didn’t you link it? Unless you mean the one that’s already been linked and **alterego** mentioned his objections to. [/QUOTE] **alterego** said: > [@alterego](#): > > I have done the math in this forum before, and users who **use RSS for lurking** use less bandwidth than people who read **the actual board**. Then **elmwood** pointed out that vBulletin already supports RSS feeds, and no development work would be necessary, the admins just have to turn it on. _Then_ **alterego** said he was talking about the main Straight Dope site (which is and always has been on a separate machine anyway, but that’s beside the point.) > [@alterego](#): > > [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com) does not use vBulletin Then **MsWhatsit** helpfully pointed out that the main Straight Dope site already has an RSS feed: > [@MsWhatsit](#): > > There already is an RSS feed for the main homepage. > > [http://www.jwz.org/cheesegrater/RSS/straightdope.rss](http://www.jwz.org/cheesegrater/RSS/straightdope.rss) Subsequently, **alterego** continued to not make any sense. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/13 "2007-01-14T00:39:34Z")
[QUOTE=CarnalK] Also, if there is already an RSS feed for [www.straightdope.com](http://www.straightdope.com) then why didn’t you link it? Unless you mean the one that’s already been linked and **alterego** mentioned his objections to. [/QUOTE] I forgot this part. What objections did **alterego** refer to? The only thing he mentioned is that he did not create his own RSS feed, which seemed to imply that he was unaware of the existing one. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/14 "2007-01-14T05:16:50Z")
Allowing RSS feeds is a content issue, as it involves the distribution of content and we need express permission from the Reader to do so. I hope to get such permission after we move to the new server. Until then I don’t want to add to the load on the existing server; that’s why we hadn’t tried going there in the first place except for some testing we did a while back. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/15 "2007-01-14T20:02:35Z")
Sorry about the confusion. As you can see, I have been asking for RSS feeds [since 2004](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=268315&highlight=feed). They were even turned on, [once upon a time.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=338854&highlight=feed). Let me first quantify the savings and value the board will incur by enabling rss feeds. I picked a random forum from the [vBulletin.com](http://vBulletin.com) forums and it’s size is 82K. The rss feed for that forum is 36K. As you can see, this is a 43% savings in bandwidth. But it also saves in CPU cycles, simply because less content must be generated. The TTL (time to live) for that feed is 5 minutes. You might be inclined to think that this is a slippery slope - what if _everyone_ downloaded the rss feed every five minutes? Surely that would cost more in CPU cycles and bandwidth. The catch here is that web-based feed readers are wildly popular, and Google Reader, for example, only downloads the rss feed one time. It then farms it out to every person who has subscribed to it. I should also like to add that it would be trivial for the reader to insert their Google ads into the feeds, using [Google AdSense for feeds](https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=20012). As to the StraightDope Homepage - I enjoy reading Cecil’s columns, and I know a lot of other people do too. And I bet his column would be even more popular if there were an official RSS feed readily linked to on the homepage. And this is yet another monetization opportunity, because you can insert Google ads there also. So to clarify, I asked that the rss feeds for the board be enabled, and I offered my services in creating a feed for Cecil’s columns. This is a trivial thing for me to do, and I’ve done it many a time. I typically use [BeautifulSoup](http://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/) and [ScrapeNFeed](http://www.crummy.com/software/ScrapeNFeed/) for this purpose. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/16 "2007-01-14T21:24:06Z")
OK, I get it now. Thanks for clearing that up. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/17 "2007-01-16T19:28:03Z")
Got permission to test RSS/XML feeds on the new board. So go there already and check it out. [http://208.100.26.199/sdmb/](http://208.100.26.199/sdmb/) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/18 "2007-01-16T19:47:49Z")
[QUOTE=TubaDiva] Got permission to test RSS/XML feeds on the new board. So go there already and check it out. [http://208.100.26.199/sdmb](http://208.100.26.199/sdmb) [/QUOTE] I’d break that link, I think. It directs to [test.straightdope.com/sdmb/](http://test.straightdope.com/sdmb/) which doesn’t load. Works fine when cut and pasted though. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-enable-rss-feeds/387808/19 "2007-01-16T20:19:44Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] I’d break that link, I think. It directs to [test.straightdope.com/sdmb/](http://test.straightdope.com/sdmb/) which doesn’t load. Works fine when cut and pasted though. [/QUOTE] Sorry about that, it only takes one keystroke or lack thereof to screw up everything.