Comments on: RSS, why no full text???

By: Hias

Hias — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:08:28 +0000

Hey there,
for this iPod Touch issue I have a solution for you: Newsstand. It’s an iPhone app, you can preload all your rss and it has a button to show the full page in newsstand and you can switch between rss view and html (web) view in the app. So no more switching between rss viewer and Safari.
Downside of it is – no preloading of the full web page.

I think the real issue here is that the rss reader you are using is not able to preload and save the web page. the way I use rss with firefox as a dynamic bookmark I kindof dislike feeds that include the whole text. Basically I only need a headline, the read/unread status and the link to the webpage containing the whole article. I dont want the pictures embedded. Although nobody else cares I still think we ought to keep bandwith down. Why do we even have html when we get the same (is it the same?) on rss?

By: Keith Hobin

Keith Hobin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:30:38 +0000

@D
Uh.. maybe because this site is oriented for the consumer, not the webdesiger. And I know that I read so many more blogs by using RSS, and most stories have adds at the end of there articles. There are tons of ways you can still monetize off RSS.

And what makes us different is that this site has a college student focus, written by college students. It’s quality over quantity.
If you don’t like it, don’t read it.
- Keith

By: D

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:24:12 +0000

This is the stupidest thing I ever heard… RSS sucks for full text.. loss of ads and everything.. RSS will draw less views of your website.. causing peopl to just see the info.

THIS IS SUCH A n00b site. EPIC FAIL. P.S… nothing makes you ladies different than the thousands of other tech ‘blogs’ out there.

By: Keith Hobin

Keith Hobin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:43:30 +0000

I am definitely not saying that it is the same, but there are ways of getting ad revenue . Plus, I think its a bit harder to ignore ads in RSS feeds, since you can’t use tools like Ad Block Plus.
Also, you could use other tactics to get RSS views to your page (and looking at your ads) like offering the full text, but not putting in images and photo galleries, then show the alt text of the photo as a short description and saying to view the web page to see the image.
I really think that by just offering short text your just alienating readers and annoying them to no end.

By: Joe Schmidt

Joe Schmidt — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:43:10 +0000

If you’re under the impression (hah, get it?) that an ad in an RSS feed can in any way provide the same amount of revenue as an ad placed prominently on the front page of a big site like Ars Technica, then you’re just not that knowledgeable about online advertising.

If I had to guess, any ad in an RSS feed shown to the same user that might potentially see it on the front page of a site of that site would generate at least 10-20x more money for the site.

The economics, it would seem, are not in your favor.

By: Keith Hobin

Keith Hobin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:30:08 +0000

But you could still track visitors using tools like feedburrner, or tools built into word press (like we do), and if advertising is a problem, you could also put them in the RSS feeds like some other blogs do, or at the bottom of posts.
There are too many solutions to that problem to allow it to hinder how a reader gets info from your web site.

By: Felix

Felix — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:23:33 +0000

Page Views.

Any blog that’s trying to make money, needs page views to snag advertising dollars. If the blog allows the full text in the feed – nobody would visit the site. No visitors = no advertising = dead blog.