Discussion about RSS Feed Threads

[Joe Siegler]

This is a temporary test forum to show people how the RSS Poster Robot feature in vBulletin 3.6 works. Here's what I wrote from the thread on 3.6 stuff:

RSS Poster Robot: One intersting new feature is where vB can read rss posts, and create threads out of what it finds in there. I've been testing this for awhile on my test board here, and it does show promise, but the feature doesn't work exactly correct (has to do with formatting of inbound text). I reported it as a bug, and was told it'd get fixed in the next version of the software. For now I'm not using this, but eventually will, not sure exactly how quite yet. One intersting new feature is where vB can read rss posts, and create threads out of what it finds in there. I've been testing this for awhile on my test board here, and it does show promise, but the feature doesn't work exactly correct (has to do with formatting of inbound text). I reported it as a bug, and was told it'd get fixed in the next version of the software. For now I'm not using this, but eventually will, not sure exactly how quite yet.

Now you can reply to posts in here, but you can't start any. If anyone has any ideas on how this can practically be used (other than importing 3DR's own news stories - which I've already considered), post away.

[Micki!]

This sounds like a cool feature...

[Jokke_r]

this is pretty interesting, one less site to visit i you know what i mean :P

But yeah lets see what this leads too before jumping into conclusions!

[John]

I like it (i enjoy reading the random news articles), If it were to automatically post when game developers and other companys post interviews or anything else media related (videos, trailers, etc.) it'd be a really cool feature. :)

[Mr.Fibbles]

I was trying to figure out why my live bookmarks for FireFox look the same for both Slashdot and 3DR forums.
That is why. THis could be a good thing.

[ADM]

The only downside of this is that it clutters up the new posts search with these forums. It's ok but not everyone is interested in the same thing.

[Steve]

Very cool.

[Joe Siegler]

The only downside of this is that it clutters up the new posts search with these forums. It's ok but not everyone is interested in the same thing.

I can disable posts from these forums from showing up in the search, but if someone is looking for stuff in one of these forums, then it's not fair there either.

[hiob]

sounds like a nice feature.

[ADM]

I can disable posts from these forums from showing up in the search, but if someone is looking for stuff in one of these forums, then it's not fair there either.
Theres a plugin that you can install that allow per user customization on what forums show up in the new posts search. Might be an idea, I'll talk to you more about it when you're on IM.

[Rellik66]

Since this is a gaming centric site, it might be appropriate to have a "Gaming News" forum that gathers feeds from some of the better gaming news sites.

[Joe Siegler]

Rellik, that's kind of what I had in mind. BUt I'm not going to use this for real until they fix the parsing of the importer.

Got any ideas as to who I should track if I went that direction?

[Joe Siegler]

For a test forum, I have to say I'm seeing a lot more replies to posted threads than I anticipated. Makes me wonder if I shouldn't rethink my idea of waiting for the rss importer to be fixed to actually use this.

I also don't know if we honestly need to mod the rss feed stuff. Thought about it a bit, and the idea is to generate discussions, not just have read only raw feeds, and therefore are subject to being read on this forum's rss feed.

Should I make a seperate forum for each feed, or say import Shacknews's feeds into the General Gaming forum - that kind of thing? Thoughts?

[Otto von Keisinger]

Theres a plugin that you can install that allow per user customization on what forums show up in the new posts search. Might be an idea, I'll talk to you more about it when you're on IM.
That would be utterly amazing. If you implement this feature, I will love you forever (in a completely paternal way). :love:

[ADM]

For a test forum, I have to say I'm seeing a lot more replies to posted threads than I anticipated. Makes me wonder if I shouldn't rethink my idea of waiting for the rss importer to be fixed to actually use this.

I also don't know if we honestly need to mod the rss feed stuff. Thought about it a bit, and the idea is to generate discussions, not just have read only raw feeds, and therefore are subject to being read on this forum's rss feed.

Should I make a seperate forum for each feed, or say import Shacknews's feeds into the General Gaming forum - that kind of thing? Thoughts?
Even though you know I hate this heh, best to import it into the original forums rather then create new ones. That way it would solve issues like people posting double threads on things.

[avatar_58]

Should I make a seperate forum for each feed, or say import Shacknews's feeds into the General Gaming forum - that kind of thing? Thoughts?

One - won't that cram the section a little too much? I know shacknews only posts a few per day, but it would push all other discussions right off the page. :o

What you could maybe do is make an RSS forum section, and then each feed could be its own sub forum. Thats one suggestion anyway.

[Joe Siegler]

^

That's what I planned. Making the RSS feed forums a subform off of where they are. Especially if we start doing more than one of them for games (Shacknews, Blue's Voodoo Extreme, etc).

[Rellik66]

One - won't that cram the section a little too much? I know shacknews only posts a few per day, but it would push all other discussions right off the page. :oThose were my thoughts too. If a post has more relevance in another forum then it could be moved there, (especially if it is 3DR related,) or if a post gains a certain amount of popularity, then it could be moved to general gaming. But that would require more moderator work.What you could maybe do is make an RSS forum section, and then each feed could be its own sub forum. Thats one suggestion anyway.I prefer the single forum idea, however there is probably a threshold of feeds before needing their own forums.

[Joe Siegler]

I looked through the options available to me through the default options to not have posts in this forum be searchable.

It may for now be the only option I have without resorting to hacks.

Remember folks - this is all just a test.

[Kalki]

Bubye slashdot forum.

[Foxy]

I liked it. Saved me having to go to Slashdot anyway. :p

[Joe Siegler]

I'm going to use the feature, just not sure exaclty how I'm gonna make it work.