In FeedLand there are three ways to view a feed and a menu to switch between them. To try this out, go to your Feed List (choose My feed list in the first menu) and click on the title of one of the feeds. This takes you to its Feed Info page, one of the three views. #
1. Here's a link to the Feed Info page for Ars Technica. This page has basic info about the feed, when it was added and who added it. It says when it was last checked, last updated (a new item appeared in the feed), how many items we've retrieved from the feed, how long it took to read the feed (an indication of how healthy its server is) and most important, who is subscribed to the feed. When you click on a user's name, you're taken to their feed list (example), where you may find other feeds to subscribe to. This is what we mean about FeedLand being made of people (and feeds and news too, of course). #
If you look in the menu bar, you'll see there's a View menu. It gives you a way to switch between the three views. For the next step choose View as mailbox.#
2. The Mailbox view presents a feed as if it were a collection of email, with the titles and descriptions in the left column and the full text of each item in the right column. You'll find this familiar if you use most other feed readers, it's the most common way of presenting feed content. I patterned my mailbox reader after the one in NetNewsWire, designed by a former colleague, Brent Simmons. #
3. To see the River view, choose View as river from the View menu. In this view you see the feed contents presented as a river of news -- a format I've used in all my feed products going back to My.UserLand in 1999. The River view is different because it presents just the items from one feed, not a set of feeds. The full text of the item is not displayed by default, but you can see it by clicking on the down arrow in the lower right corner of each item, if it has text that is hidden. Screen shot.#
Last update: Thursday October 27, 2022; 8:26 PM EDT.
You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)
