UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads 7 Version 7 Support RSS Feeds options question

In the Control Panel under: "Forum Settings > Forum name > Edit > RSS" there is the option: Include Body in Feed.

I realize that this is probably self-explanatory, i.e., a designated # of characters will be included along with the Subject, or whatever... correct?

But what is generally recommended for this option:
1. Use it, or not?
2. If yes, use it what is a good number of characters to enter?

Subjective question.
Depends on where you are going to use it or for what.
You could start with say 300 and go from there.
If it is for a feed to say email then expand it a lot.
If it is for say a external island then you may want to go less than 300.

It really does depend on what YOU want... The body is the part of the post that has the content, the post itself.

Basically, do you want external RSS feed readers to be able to read the full content of posts (and if so, how much), or just their subject.

1. I know virtually nothing about RSS Feeds.
2. I am therefore assuming that users will subscribe to them and an e-mail will be sent out.
3. Again, assuming these RSS Feeds are sent via e-mail, what is "expand it a lot"?... 1000, 1500, 3000, etc.

Thanks for responding.

RSS feeds can or is for both. Email, news readers,etc.
If you visit mystuff>Feeds
Then you will see the default settings.
Beyond that for a user to see them then you need to inform them of a news feed to subscribe to. Or add a news feed to say something like a island in a page.

then I doubt you'll need them, unless you want other sites to be able to syndicate content.


What you see is what you get, they don't send emails out; they're just a "feed" of content.

again, they don't send out emails, they are just the rss feed; the amount is how much of the body do you want to have displayed.

An RSS feed looks like this. A user can use an RSS feed parser to display your content on their site (or you could use it to display content on your site) or a user could use a feed parser on their computer to "read" the info on their computer.

Really, they won't be much use to most people at all...

Again, showing my ignorance here. When you refer to "external RSS feed readers", does that mean that non-registered members have access to these Feeds and thus forum content?

The reason for my asking these questions is because a newly registered user is asking whether or not my board has RSS Feeds. I had to look in the CP to find out if it did... which obviously it does. I do NOT have any private forums enabled and only a select few.

So again... is including a portion of the body of each post and topic? desirable?

Well, at this point I'm still walking around in the dark about these RSS Feeds. I do remember a few years ago I noticed an option on another board to receive RSS Feeds. I enabled it and these updates of posts, etc., showed up in Outlook, my e-mail client. There were so many of them I disabled it, hahaha. Beyond that, I really have no idea how they work, what people want/use them, etc.

Again, someone asked if my board had them available and I'm just trying to figure out what these things are all about and how best to configure them in the CP > Forum Options > RSS section.

Okay then you need to goto:
Control Panel »Content Management» RSS Feeds
select the My Feeds option Tab.
And enable it then the user can at least see it in My Stuff.
And do what they want.

DONE..... thanks!