More on making feeds more user friendly
While hunting around for some more info on this topic I found an implementaion by Microsoft - when you click on the RSS button the feed is preceded by some explanotory text. Now, blogger feeds actually have the same thing, but just not as nicely or well implemented (in my opinion)...
The BBC also use this solution, also in a very clear and informative way for the user. The Blogger implementation just isn't clear enough or informative enough. And they're owned by Google FFS!! Surely they should realise the value of educating people about feeds - they're pushing adsense for feeds on the blogger interface after all! :(
I found an article on using css with feeds to achieve something similar. One shortfallin gof this simple solution is that links do not appear as links.
And another article on using XSLT to allow you even more control over the appearance of your feeds in browsers that support XSLT.
Eric Meyer also has an elegant solution, he has a link to 'Feeds' in his right hand column which leads to a page from which you can choose which feed you would like. If he also had some informative text about feeds it would be something similar to the idea I first had when thinking about feeds.
Obviously I didn't spend enought time researching or thinking when I first got into this, but now I'm making progress... pretty soon I will have uncovered all the lovely solutions people are coming up with for this little issue!
I also found a javascript solution that someone came up with, but I wouldn't be crazy about this approach myself - I think it's more likely to scare people away then help them. But that's just me!
I tend to think simple is best. For now, I personally will probably just go ahead with the subscribe button with the extra help button.
I'm happy with this given that:
1) My blog has a link in the head to my feed which facilitates auto discovery in many feed readers.
2) Blogger does format the feed, even if I do think they could do a better job!
3) Subscribe is more universally understood than just XML (and I might steal Alan O Rourke's lovely implementation)
4) I'll be offering further help with the help button.
And with that, I'm sick of feeds for now!
The BBC also use this solution, also in a very clear and informative way for the user. The Blogger implementation just isn't clear enough or informative enough. And they're owned by Google FFS!! Surely they should realise the value of educating people about feeds - they're pushing adsense for feeds on the blogger interface after all! :(
I found an article on using css with feeds to achieve something similar. One shortfallin gof this simple solution is that links do not appear as links.
And another article on using XSLT to allow you even more control over the appearance of your feeds in browsers that support XSLT.
Eric Meyer also has an elegant solution, he has a link to 'Feeds' in his right hand column which leads to a page from which you can choose which feed you would like. If he also had some informative text about feeds it would be something similar to the idea I first had when thinking about feeds.
Obviously I didn't spend enought time researching or thinking when I first got into this, but now I'm making progress... pretty soon I will have uncovered all the lovely solutions people are coming up with for this little issue!
I also found a javascript solution that someone came up with, but I wouldn't be crazy about this approach myself - I think it's more likely to scare people away then help them. But that's just me!
I tend to think simple is best. For now, I personally will probably just go ahead with the subscribe button with the extra help button.
I'm happy with this given that:
1) My blog has a link in the head to my feed which facilitates auto discovery in many feed readers.
2) Blogger does format the feed, even if I do think they could do a better job!
3) Subscribe is more universally understood than just XML (and I might steal Alan O Rourke's lovely implementation)
4) I'll be offering further help with the help button.
And with that, I'm sick of feeds for now!
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