Yes, as far as I can tell there are two ways to subscribe to this and receive notification. I welcome feedback from those who try these to let us all know how each works for you:
- News feeds. In the navigation bar to the right, you should see two buttons under the "Subscribe To" heading. One will take you to a subscription page for the posts (new questions and topics), and the other will subscribe you to all the comments that are made to the topic on that page. Unfortunately, it looks as though you will have to subscribe separately to the comments for each post -- by clicking the button to subscribe to comments on each page -- if you want to follow all the various questions and answers.
When you click one of these buttons, you have to choose which news feed service to use. If all of these are new to you and you have no idea what you're doing, I recommend that you use the "Atom" selection at the bottom of the list. If you're already using one of the other services, you should select it.
Once you click the "Atom" selection, a new page will open with the blog news feed and all the recent activity on the blog. In the colored box at the top of this page, you'll see a "Subscribe to this feed" link. If you click that link, a new "feed" will be added to your browser, probably within your "Favorites" or "Bookmarks" section. (Again, feedback on how this works with various browsers will be helpful.) From this point on, the feed will automatically send an update to your browser once a day. If you want an update more often, look for the "View feed properties" link in the right-hand column on the blog news feed page and change the default setting.
In my browser, if there are new items on our blog that I haven't read, there is an indication in the "Feeds" heading. I use Internet Explorer (IE), and it shows a small star in the corner of the Feeds icon when there's a new item in my subscriptions.
To check for new activity, I click on the "Feeds" section in my Favorites. The feed name is bold on any feeds with new items. If I just point to the news feed in IE, I get a tool-tip type box that gives a summary, including how many new posts there are and how long ago the feed was updated. To see the new questions or answers, I click on the feed name (either "Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island" or "Comments on ...".
There's also a link to subscribe to the news feed through Atom at the bottom of the page, below the comments. So that's it on following this blog via news feeds. - Email. There's a "Subscribe by email" link next to the button to submit a comment. To use this link, you need to have a Google account (or perhaps OpenID) and be signed in. If you want to receive notifications by email and you don't already have a Google account, you might consider creating one. It's free, but you will have to submit some information to Google.
Posts
Well I've been fiddling around with this for about 45 minutes. I've never done any blogging before so this is all new to me. It isn't quite like falling off a log but I think I'm beginning to get the picture.
ReplyDeleteI managed to subscribe using the RSS button on the tool bar. It gave me a choice of RSS or Atom. I choose RSS based on hte word simple in 'really simple syndication.' It worked but I don't know if I'm subscribed to posts or comments or both!
Next I tried to subscribe using the method Nancy described. I did both the posts and comments and I now have 3 feeds under favorites/feeds. I've named them different things so I can see if they differ in any way.
I think it's good we are trying this to work the bugs out. One of the oddities (to me) is that when I click on one of my 3 RSS GSSWI feeds, what appears on my browser isn't anything like when I first linked from Nancy's message. I find that puzzling.
I'll keep you posted on what ever I find as we get further and further into this process.
Doreen
Here's something I don't understand. On one of my 3 GSSWI feeds it told me there were two new posts (i.e. comments). I clicked on it and there was a comment from Bev and one from me. However, there is no indication what you are commenting on (i.e. the original post or what we would eventually think of as the member's question.) I went back to the original URL that Nancy sent in her e-mail and Bev's comment is under one posting (question) and mine is under the second posting but I wouldn't know that by just clicking on my GSSWI feed. Something doesn't seem right here. I'm thinking my GSSWI feeds should be going to the generic gsswi.blogspot.com rather than where it's currently going.
ReplyDeleteAny comments or thoughts?
Doreen
Just did a little fiddling around and I found (as the rest of you probably already know) that if I select the feed to see new comments (i.e. answers to questions) I see every comment regardless of the initial question (or post). If you point to the gray area at the top of each comment (which tells who sent the comment, etc.) you can click there and go to the gsswi.blogspot.com (the one that Nancy's link sent us to) and see the post and all the comments specific to that post. Also - if you hold your cursor there it will tell you the title of the post (question) the comment (answer) belongs to.
ReplyDeleteThis is all so new - I'm doubly glad we are working the kinks out.
By the way - in Internet Explorer, if you point to the feed link in your favorites it will tell you if there are anything new to look at. Also, creating a favorite link from the feed button on the toolbar creates a 'post' link but not a 'comments' link. Better to use the options Nancy described on how to link.
Doreen
I seem to be subscribed to the posts to this blog even though I don't recall setting up any 'feeds'.
ReplyDeleteThe title of each comment appears as a 'pulldown' list on the toolbar of Firefox which is my normal browser.