Tracking a comment thread by RSS
Unlike some sites, where the number of comments on a given article can reach triple-digits, most of the threads at johnaugust.com stay pretty short. Still, sometimes you want to keep on top of an interesting discussion without re-visiting the site every hour. That’s where RSS can be your friend.
On every article, down by the “Leave a comment” section, you’ll find a link for “RSS feed for comments on this post.”
If you click it, you’ll get gibberish. Rather, copy the link (which ends with ‘/feed/’) and paste it into your newsreader of choice (such as Bloglines, NetNewsWire, or the new Safari RSS). You’ll then get every comment on the article as it appears, without ever having to go back to check the original page. And when you’re done following a conversation, just delete the link. No fuss, no muss.
Incidentally, this technique works for almost any blog you visit. So definitely try to make use of it.
See also:
Finding the RSS feeds
More about the RSS feeds
Articles
April 19th, 2005 at 9:15 am
Hey John,
I’m glad you brought RSS feeds up again. I’m actually looking at RSS apps right now. Yep, I’m a late adapter.
Quick question: Do RSS apps only allow you to monitor feeds, or can you also post responses? If the latter is the case, are their in apps you’ve tried that incorporate spell/grammar check. I only ask because I suck.
April 19th, 2005 at 9:58 am
Doug:
I don’t know of any apps that will let you post comments, but it’s certainly possible. The API’s (the hooks that let applications work together) are pretty robust, so if it’s not possible yet, I’m sure somebody’s working on it.
April 19th, 2005 at 10:52 am
Also, FireFox has LiveBookmarking that is essentially an RSS feed in the browser. I use it, and it doesnt take up a ton of bandwidth.
April 19th, 2005 at 11:16 am
Mozilla Thunderbird allows you to check for new posts on your fave blogs the same way you check your mailbox.
Once you’ve talked your friends into adopting Firefox get them to try Thunderbird!
April 19th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
OMG!!!!!That’s what that means!!! Thanks for clearing that up. (Not being facioutious. Really had no idea. Can’t spell either, as you can see). Thanks!!!
April 19th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
Thanks for the response, John. Seeing how I even botched my spelling and grammar on that little post, perhaps monitoring is all I should have access to anyway.
April 20th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
No problemo Marla :)
Without spellcheck, where would writers be? hmmm…
Writers are notorius misspellers, as many pre-computer manuscripts have proven.
What?! Not satisfied? Check out Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for proof. The author’s English is horrendous, no wonder he stayed anonymous.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=HTML&rgn=TEI.2&byte=6161184
April 22nd, 2005 at 10:18 am
Well, it’ll work on almost any weblog that runs WordPress. :)
January 28th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Also, FireFox has LiveBookmarking that is essentially an RSS feed in the browser. I use it, and it doesnt take up a ton of bandwidth.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:06 am
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December 5th, 2007 at 11:25 am
thankiosso Cool!