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 Post subject: RSS Feed
 Post Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:27 am 
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So, who gets talked to about having one on the main site?

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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:12 pm 
Nifty Admin of Doom
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that would be Pete. as in the Email Us form on the main site.
He doesnt always respond, but i understand they all get read.

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 Post Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 11:11 am 
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Since Sluggy updates once a day at midnight, an RSS would really only be useful for the forums. Half the fun of staying up late for the update is refreshing a million times, hoping to first-post the reactions space.

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 Post Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:59 am 
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I raise this thread from the grave! Actually mainly because I figure it's better to bump a post than start a new thread. Maybe not, who knows?

An RSS feed would be awesome for those of us who have made the Switch. I've been using Google Reader as my morning coffee routine for the past week, and all the web pages I used to open in fourteen gajillion tabs are all nicely organized and summarized instead. There's only one site that was in my morning links that's not represented in Google Reader - Sluggy.com.

I don't even need to see the comic in the RSS stream, if that would interfere with the advertising revenues, just a little bump to tell me to go see the new one. I know it updates regularly, I know it's a small page. But I really like google reader (especially since I can read my internets from my computer and from my phone), and having two-tab solution is Very Unsatisfying. I'll also email Big Chief Pete about this, but I thought a little conversation might be in order.

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 Post Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:19 pm 
Nifty Admin of Doom
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I actually do the same thing as you--Google Reader for most of my comics-- and I certainly see your point. Perhaps if you suggested that the feed could still be a link through to the page to Pete, he might go for it. But honestly, any discussion here is a moot point. Pete doesnt read this forum, and it's his call, not ours.

But go Email Us to Pete and let us know if you get a positive response!

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 Post Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:25 pm 
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Yep, I emailed Pete, so we'll have to see if he likes the idea. If not, no big deal, I'll just get caught up on the comic less frequently, but it will be my special treat for lunchtime or something.

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 Post subject: Re: RSS
 Post Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:40 pm 
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I made an RSS feed that simply points to the new comic every day. You can get it at http://cwlq.com/sluggy.php

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 Post Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 11:58 pm 
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Digg recently had a very interesting discussion on this topic. The app the article links to isn't very good, but be sure to read the comments for all sorts of neat suggestions; some of the websites and resources mentioned there made my jaw drop. :)

Like cwlg, I've put together my own (quite advanced) site checker in perl. I read about 5 different comics without rss feeds, so I've had to make one that understands variables, compares pages based on hash functions you can specify (so not every ad change is a new update :)), cross-references URLs, and can be tuned to check at specific times... it requires an always-on computer with perl, cron and a web server installed though. It's in the 'arrenlex' digg comment. :)

Of course, sane people would use one of the great user-friendly websites instead.

Hope this helps.

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 Post Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 9:34 am 
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Just a fair warning to those writing site checkers:

Please make sure you're checking less than once an hour, or I will block your IP.

We have had problems with that in the past and I'm not easily amused by it anymore.

Someone about 2 years ago had a script that for some reason every 30 minutes crawled through the wholeeeeeeeee site and mirrored every single comic going back to the beginning of history.

Turns out he worked at a nearby ISP, and it was being done from his work machine. We had a nice visit :)

That said.... Part of being on a new server is that we have support to do a bunch of things we've wanted to do for awhile (We were on an ancient version of FreeBSD before, and upgrading ANYTHING from the version of Perl to just fixing bugs had become impossible - not to mention this machine is beefier by far). This DOES Include RSS feeds.

I've been working on some major updates to the site code in what little free time I have, and that will include a full RSS Feed. Pete and I have not yet discussed whether the comic will be included in the feed, or do it Penny Arcade style where it just notifies you of the new comic.

I'm of the camp that if we don't put the comic in the feed, someone will just write a pirate feed to do it anyway so we may as well. Your continued thoughst and impressions on this matter are appreciated.

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 Post Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 9:26 pm 
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If the RSS contains the comic then Pete doesn't get income from his add hosting right? cos we wouldn't need to go to the site? I'm don't actually know how the ad income works but I'd be happy with an update link to the comic. In fact if Pete is going to 'earn' more because of it then I'd prefer it.

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 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 9:48 pm 
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That could conceivably occur.

Unfortunately, if we put the comic in the feed, no ad revenue.

If we DONT put the comic in the feed, some asshole will just write a perl script to show it anyway.

We'll probably come up with a way ot do unobtrusive advertising (feedburner maybe) in the feed.

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 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 2:21 am 
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ok i dont wish to sound like a total noob (but i will so...:) but is there a RSS feed for the forums and how do i go about using it? i use Mozilla Firefox as a browser.
thanks much

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 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 12:00 pm 
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Loss of ad revenue sounds bad. I wouldn't want an RSS feed if it meant loss of revenue for Pete.

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 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 11:15 pm 
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rit wrote:
I'm of the camp that if we don't put the comic in the feed, someone will just write a pirate feed to do it anyway so we may as well. Your continued thoughst and impressions on this matter are appreciated.


I disagree. I mean, it's very possible that someone might make it, but it's highly unlikely that many people would use it, if there's an official one right there which is just as good. In fact, take a look at this list of comic feeds I am subscribed to:

-- comic in feed--
A Softer World (on the brink of being migrated to the third category)
Malfunction Junction
Questionable Content
xkcd

-- no comic in feed --
Cyanide & Happiness
Lackadaisy Cats
Purgatory Tower
Rob and Elliot
Sore Thumbs
The Book of Biff (ish... he puts a large thumbnail without caption, so you still have to click through)
The Perry Bible Fellowship
World Break
Zap!

-- made my own because official rss feed had crap like "news" in it all the time --
Penny Arcade
CTRL+ALT+DEL

-- my own because there was no offical rss feed --
Fey Winds
Boltcity - Copper

-- check manually because I love them enough to know exactly when they update and refresh until it happens --
Sluggy Freelance
Schlock Mercenary

As you can clearly see from this very representative single sample point, the number of sites without comics in their feeds outnumber the other kind. I don't at all care if I have to click my mouse wheel over a couple links when I'm perusing my google reader list. What DOES matter to me is being notified of when to check a site. That means the worst things you can possibly do are:
a) Too few notifications (no feed)
b) Too many notifications (junk like "news" and blog posts I don't want to be notified of)

Feeds are for notifying of content, not really for providing content -- as long as you set up a good means by which people can learn of shiny new comics, it won't really matter that they have to click to see it, definitely not enough for this "pirate feed" to become successful.

I mean, seriously. Creating my own feed with the comic in it is as simple for me right now as copying and pasting a conf file and changing four lines. As you can see from my list above, I've found it necessary to do so only when there is no feed or the feed is garbage.

People are inherently lazy, which is why RSS is so successful. :) They won't go and actively seek out\create alternate implementations of what already exists unless they have a very substantial reason to do so. One extra click, IMHO, does not qualify!

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 Post subject:
 Post Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 8:39 pm 
Nifty Admin of Doom
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I'm of the camp that just an RSS feed with a link that the new comic has been posted (ala PVP) would be great. I certainly dont mind clicking through, i just like to have all my daily reads in one place. it serves as a bookmark for me. Since a comic is graphical, it doesnt necessarily work well in an RSS feed reader anyway.

I would also rather have a RSS feed with a link through to the comic that i click on, than a feed with the comic included and an ad.

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