Could someone give me a layman explanation of RSS and the blog feature option?

[tenzan]

Specifically this checkbox:

 

 

 

Allow others to syndicate your Blog?
This will enable the RSS feed link on your Blog.

 

I don't know what RSS is, and I never really grasped 'syndicate' as a word either.

[varenne]

RSS (Rich Site Summary) Just follow the link for a more detailed explanation. 

 

Syndication, in this instance is referring to Web syndication.

 

Allow others to syndicate your Blog?
This will enable the RSS feed link on your Blog.

 

So essentially, if enabled you are publicly broadcasting and publishing your Blog, which can then be picked up by RSS Readers and others can subscribe to your Blog and automatically receive any updates you make.

 

Make sense now?

[tenzan]

Thanks for responding.

 

Not quite yet. No clue who RSS Readers are nor the breadth. Is this sort of like stumbleupon?

 

I know there's a google option. Is this then sort of like a reddit/fb/twitter thing?

[varenne]

Sort of. RSS, RSS Feeds and RSS Readers predate apps like stumbleupon, reddit/fb/twitter, etc. Goggle used to have a dedicated RSS Reader, which was retired mostly due to lack of interest and replacement by the more used social apps like stumbleupon, reddit/fb/twitter, etc.

 

They all basically achieve the same set of user functions and that is to act as a news (or anything published in that format on the Web) reader that you can both publish from or subscribe to.

 

Many email clients and most web browsers either have direct support for RSS, or plugins are available. Here is a list:

Comparison of feed aggregators

 

Here is a list of plugins for the browser I use the most now, Chrome: rss feed reader You can get them for other web broswers like IE, Firefox and Opera, or email clients like MS Outlook or Thunderbird. You can also find RSS Readers or Aggregator apps for smart phones and tablet PCs. The intended purpose is to basically allow users to subscribe to an information feed, in your case your Blog and anything you decide to post or publish to it.