Whats New RSS feed

[msbc]

Michael,

A LL site usability suggestion:
I use your Whats New RSS feed to watch for new articles. Problem is that the RSS items link to the Whats New page entry rather than directly to the item in question. Can the feed be updated to link to the news items?

Thanks,
Mark

[Mark Guertin]

Michael,

A LL site usability suggestion:
I use your Whats New RSS feed to watch for new articles. Problem is that the RSS items link to the Whats New page entry rather than directly to the item in question. Can the feed be updated to link to the news items?

Thanks,
Mark
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=122550\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

They actually link back to anchors within the page, so it should "jump" you directly to the post in question (which in turn links to whatever the post is about), with the excpetion of articles older than 60 days, which can be found in the new what's new archive page.

[msbc]

Yes, it is a 2 stage process to get to the article. Can the RSS entries link directly to the article - this is how most RSS feeds work - check Rob Galbraith DPI or Inside Lightroom at O'reilly.

[Mark Guertin]

Yes, it is a 2 stage process to get to the article. Can the RSS entries link directly to the article - this is how most RSS feeds work - check Rob Galbraith DPI or Inside Lightroom at O'reilly.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=123630\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

You'd have to take that one up with Michael, but the what's new feed here is for a lot more than just article posts so I doubt things would go in that direction.

[ototo]

One more issue related to RSS feed. Images, which are inserted into RSS item are not correct. For instance in "Ringflash; a product review" item from July 7, 2007 images are referenced by URLs like "http://www.luminous-landscape.com../../../images63/LRT_1.jpg", which are just not working.

While it's not a show stopper it would be great to have images showing up correctly in RSS feed.

And one more note - as there are lots of different RSS readers people are using (I'm using gooogle reader) the markup for RSS should be as simpe as possible. I mean - if you put some glowing yellow/green text to emphasize some information it looks ok on the LL site (as teh site has black background), but in readers it will look much worse on a tipical white/gray background.  

Is it possible to use more reader-friendly colors for what's-new RSS feed?

/Serge

[michael]

I hate to have to be blunt about it, but the entire LL operation is run by just a very small number of people. Chris concentrates on videos and the store, Charlene on customer support, Mark is a contract technical support person, and I do all of the writing, page creation and so forth.

I have a finite amount of time. If I spent more time on the niceties of the site, I'd have less time for writing, researching, teaching, and of course, shooting. So of necessity the site may not be as technically slick as some others, but I hope that this is compensated for by a steady stream of high quality articles, reviews and tutorials.

Michael

[Don Libby]

Michael - Keep up the good work!

[ototo]

I have a finite amount of time. If I spent more time on the niceties of the site, I'd have less time for writing, researching, teaching, and of course, shooting. So of necessity the site may not be as technically slick as some others, but I hope that this is compensated for by a steady stream of high quality articles, reviews and tutorials.

Michael[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=129833\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Thank you, Michael, for your reply.

I understand that you don't have time for everything. I just wanted to add couple of items into your list of improvements to be done when there will be some time available for that

I'm just a "voice" from other side of TCP/IP connection that brings some feedback to you

/Serge

[Mark Guertin]

Yes, it is a 2 stage process to get to the article. Can the RSS entries link directly to the article - this is how most RSS feeds work - check Rob Galbraith DPI or Inside Lightroom at O'reilly.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=123630\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

The thing is that the What's New RSS feed has more things contained in it than just articles or reviews, it can have any number of items: links to external sites, straight textual information, info and links to local articles and reviews, etc ... so having it setup as a single jump for direct linking is not really feasible for the most part.  Instead, it's direct linked to the full What's New entry.

Mark