New Feature- RSS feeds

[Administrator]

Automated Article Bot- RSS poster

The article-bot will check every 5 minutes for new AP news from a variety of RSS feeds. It will then post it in it's own forum. That forum will be only for article bot news stories- members will not be allowed to post in that forum but feel free to start a new thread in another applicable forum to discuss anything you see posted.

The article bot will post a portion of the article with a link back to the original story which may link back to an unlimited variety of sources.

We welcome your suggestions for RSS feeds.

Yes, I realize links back to some sources (like the GLOB) will require registration on that site, but most do not. I recommend you sign and register on those sites if you are interested, because then the links will take you right to the story if you have your cookies enabled.

This is an experiment and, depending on member input, may be discontinued at a later date. We thought this feature may keep us all in the loop as to hot news stories as they hit the AP news-wire.

Let's watch for awhile and see how it works, then please give me your input. We can adjust the frequency and quantity of posts.

As always, you can put the article-bot on IGNORE to eliminate it altogether.

DBA1

[lurker]

Thanks for trying anything 'new' to spice up DodgeBoard.

I am not a news junkie and the headlines appear to be a rehash from local sources. That is not what I lurk here for.... so I'll select the ignore feature.

News of the Weird - Maybe.
Science News - Yes.
Entertainment News - Maybe. I don't read Entertainer Gossip,
Breaking News - OK.
"On this Day in ...." - OK


Just my 02.

[Administrator]

Article-Bot posts should be from sources that the members have interest in. Find me an RSS feed and I will look at it. We can setup separate bots so you can ignore some, but not all.

Thanks for your input, Lurker.

DBA1

[lurker]

I added 'him' to my ignore list and it accepted but the feeds are still in view...

Edit: the thread indicators are readable but the thread is shown as un-readable. I was just hoping I wouldn't have to do a mental sort and keep the unread thread page shorter.

Not a big deal.....

[Helper]

I have to agree with Lurker I don't really want to have to sort through those posts even though I "ignored them"

For me it really doesn't trip my trigger!

[Bubba]

I gotta say I don't really care for it myself, many stories seem redundant, and some had nothing to do with Dodge City as far as I could tell.

[Administrator]

We could very easily implement a "hack" that would allow members, on an individual basis, to opt-out of posts and search features for certain forums.

We may also think about turning down the posting frequency and doing like Lurker said; finding some interesting RSS feeds.

Also, this feature allows us to add keyword masks to fine-tune exactly what we want, or don't want. I have these turned off right now, so it is just grabbing everything associated with what it thinks is Dodge City news. We can also set it to mask out everything from Dodge City Daily Globe or other sites that require registration.

We also have the ability to port out our own RSS feed- which can be ported to a blog, messenger or website, although I cannot really see a benefit for that.

For now, our members have spoken, so I am turning off the RSS Bot. I may play with it a bit more at a later date.

Thanks for your candid input. We appreciate it.

[Lone Gunman]

I don't care for it either too much clutter.

[TexKan]

geesh never saw so many posts!!..... course I look for member's posts - maybe if these posts went to one thread - then folks could choose to read them or not and maybe if they fell off after so many days. I like gettin news here and there from other sources but I'm with the fellas - too much of a "maybe" good thing......... good call Admin!!

[Made in the USA]