Help: RSS

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. An RSS “feed” is a periodically updated collection of information; you can think of it as a “channel.” As of February 2005, RSS is being adopted widely by consumers and producers of information. It's a convenient way to represent a stream of information.

How this site uses RSS


Figure: The RSS button in action,
on a user's page.

Every registered user of this site has a user page that displays what they're reading, the contents of their queue, and what they've completed. Because this information changes often, it can easily be thought of as a “channel” consisting of summaries and updates. Sometimes you'll see a little RSS button on the site; use its associated URL to subscribe to the content that's nearby the button.

By “use its associated URL,” we mean either drag the button over to your RSS aggregator and let go, or right-click the button, select “Copy Link Location” (or similar), and paste it into your RSS aggregator.

Your user page

Several RSS feeds are accessible from your user page. At present (February 2005), you can see your current reading, your queue, and what you've completed. There's also a feed that incorporates data from all these.

What's my RSS aggregator?

If you want to subscribe to channels of information, you need a program to show you that information. This is called an aggregator because it allows you to collect news and other information from different sources and read them using the same interface. Examples of such programs are:

Syndication guidelines

If you have a web site and would like to syndicate information you find here (say, your reading queue), be sensible. If your web site is busy, cache the information on your own server for a number of minutes. Also, syndicate only your own data (from your user page) unless you have specific permission from its owner.