Who is Rss Bot and where do News Feed posts come from?

[bradl]

I was asked if the sudden gust of posts in the News Feed subforum were intentional. Short answer: yes. They are an experiment.

Good question and thanks for asking, as they are not spam, although they are auto-posted by what is called an RSS feed. When adding a new feed it typically pulls in a handful of current posts from the source site (I'm not clear on how the number is determined).  After that the feed settles down and only auto-posts when new content is posted on the source site.

Because these posts are general-interest and not Cairn-related they go into the Dog Park forum, into a special News Feed subforum to identify and isolate them. They are assigned to an infrastructure account with @Rss Bot as "author" so you can recognize that they are not posted as original content by a live member.

I also set the feeds all up to have a prefix identifying their source, such as WOOF(ipedia), AKC, etc. so they are easier to recognize and skip over if they are of no interest. Because they are associated with an account you can ignore that account if you want — hover your mouse over the @Rss Bot profile link and choose Ignore user from the hovercard popup.

I've tried to be selective about choosing sources that may have interesting and reasonably nonspammy content, such as Health and Training topics from AKC, assorted dog videos, and the like.  I will drop feeds if they seem to add nothing of value over time. I am also open to syndicating particularly good feeds if you locate them (the site must offer RSS or Atom format feeds to be syndicated into the News Feed subforum).

For example if The Daily Puppy syndicated just the daily puppy photos, I would add that in a heartbeat. However the feed they do offer is not compatible with our site, in my view. 

So that's what's up with RSS feeds. I'd ask folks to give them a week or two to see how they behave in real life (after this initial setup).  Let me know which feeds seem useful and which add no value or interest at all.  I like to experiment and if the idea is a dud I'm fine with dropping it after a trial period too.

I could also try setting them as a series of blogs instead of feeding into a subforum. If you have a preference, which and why? 

[Sam I Am]

Thanks for the info Brad. I was worried we were  being invaded .

[bradl]

I appreciate the vigilance! I'm pretty much zero-tolerance on the spam front. I hope I don't end up having to ban myself.  

[hheldorfer]

Ditto what Terrier Lover said.  I thought we were being spammed.  Now that I know the posts are legit I'll check some of them out.

[Hillscreek]

Think I'd like a series of blogs. When I go Browse WOOF seems to clog up the page and I have to seek out the other posts. I'll keep looking a t them but not sure how interesting they are to me. Might be a useful reference stored in a blog though.

[bradl]

I'm leaning toward putting them in blogs too.  I don't like the way they defocus from actual member content on the front page. Unless somebody loves them there I may delete them and recreate in the blog section. 

[_whits_]

I like the idea of having them as a resource for interesting news, but I have noticed it's more difficult to find new posts by actual human posters (I'm assuming none of the accounts are Cairns who've mastered computers). I would probably prefer them in blogs, but that's just my opinion and I sure do appreciate your continuing hard work on the forum and the effort you've put into adding these RSS feeds 

[Islander]

Ditto for me. Would prefer blogs. Some really interesting stuff.

[hheldorfer]

1 hour ago, _whits_ said:

I like the idea of having them as a resource for interesting news, but I have noticed it's more difficult to find new posts by actual human posters (I'm assuming none of the accounts are Cairns who've mastered computers). I would probably prefer them in blogs, but that's just my opinion and I sure do appreciate your continuing hard work on the forum and the effort you've put into adding these RSS feeds 

I agree . . . although you can never be sure that our Cairns *haven't* mastered the use of a computer . . . 

[bradl]

Hm, I *do* keep getting Amazon packages full of treats and toys I don't remember ordering...

[sanford]

15 hours ago, bradl said:

... I don't like the way they defocus from actual member content on the front page...I may delete them and recreate in the blog section. 

I agree. My vote is for deleting... They clog up the front page.

[bradl]

*poof*

Moved to blogs.

[sanford]

 

7 hours ago, bradl said:

*poof*

Moved to blogs.

Thanks, O Fearless Leader!