Forum - increase usability via RSS feeds

Dagobert

There are so many useful tips in the forum but I just don't have the time to browse them on a regular basis. There are three dozen boards and it is simply too time-consuming to check them out in case a new thread has been started which might be of interest.

Most people won't have the time to check the boards on a daily or even weekly basis. The user misses out on many money saving tips this way and in particular on those that require instant reaction.

The problem is that the user has to pro-actively go out and look for threads of interest. Instant notification only works once the user has found and marked a thread.
It would be so much more convenient if the user had an incoming stream of posted topics. The ones which are not of interest can simply be ignored and the ones which are of interest can be checked out.

This could either be achieved via
1) NNTP (newsgroup rather than forum)
2) RSS feeds

I would find newsgroups most convenient because with a configurable newsreader such as Gravity it is so much easier to keep an eye on contributions and filter stuff out. But that wouldn't satisfy the needs of this website because you'd get less hits.

RSS feeds would be a great compromise which would benefit both the user and the website. The user could subscribe to RSS feeds for each board he is interested in and would receive a notification of every new thread this way. The RSS feed consists of subject and a link to the thread in the chat forum.

The chat forum would still get the hits. In fact, I believe the number of hits would increase because more people would be able to follow what's happening on an instant basis. The information would reach a greater number of people ultimately.

sra

Hi

The RSS feeds for the forum are listed here.

You can get to that link again via the Unofficial Forum A to Z link on the blue bar at the top of the 'This site:questions and suggestions page' (and this page because this thread is on that board