quote:
Originally posted by yogani
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It is still not clear what practical addition this exciting and time consuming RSS discussion is leading to. Well, maybe the forum RSS holds some promise, though redundant, as mentioned, and a little tedious. ![[8D]](http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/Smileys/akyhne/icon_smile_cool.gif "Cool")
The guru is in you.
Hi Yogani, Athma Shakti and All,
Okay - now that I got that other post out of my system, here are my "serious" thoughts:
ACTIVE TOPICS / RSS
I admit that I was not really converse with what Active Topics was all about -- and admittedly, it could be bookmarked and/or set as someone's home page, and (pretty much, it appears) provide the same information that the RSS feed provides. Please note, though, that this is just one side of the RSS coin - with the other side being potentially far more important to promoting AYP (more on that in a minute.)
YAHOO! NOTIFICATION OF NEW LESSONS
I was not aware that email notification for new lessons was still available via Yahoo! (and I scouted the AYP Home Page for reference to this "handy feature" and didn't see anything) - I had thought that "things Yahoo" had gone the way of the Dodo bird, as far as AYP is concerned.
AYP "ONLINE RESOURCES" PAGE?
Per those two points, maybe we should do an "Intro to AYP Online Resources" page, or something similar --- I'll be more than happy to help / take the lead with respect the content for that (and, unless there are any *other* resources I'm not aware of, I think I know most of them - and can run a draft list by Yogani for approval before it's published).
OTHER MAJOR BENEFITS OF RSS
As previously discussed, an RSS feed produces content that is much more like an "active channel" than a static web page. If desired, the AYP RSS Feed(s) can be added to services like Feedburner (some money is involved; no idea how much - but not a lot -- personal bloggers set up feeds for things like their hamster's maternity updates - so it can't cost too much.)
I believe there are RSS services that "sniff" for feeds, and can / will "pick-up" the AYP Feeds - at zero cost to AYP (not counting super-minimal bandwidth increase -- in the same way that new site visitors use a tiny amount of bandwidth, per person, per visit.)
RSS BENEFITS IN A NUTSHELL
RSS allows other people who are interested in AYP content for (potentially) a variety of reasons, to provide content that is automatically, dynamically updated through their web site or blog.
EXAMPLE: I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while -- and you can bet I'll add the AYP RSS feed(s) when I do.
As far as I know, with the Active Topics page, the best I could do would be to provide a link to that page -- where, with RSS, I can provide the actual content, displayed as all or part of a page on my blog (many - possibly most - blogs and web sites that are providing world news, or "industry news" of a specific type - are doing so via transparent RSS feeds that they've added --- and yoga / spiritual / health sites can do the same with the AYP feeds.
As tedious as it may have been (and apologies for any contributions I've made to that aspect .....) --- RSS Feeds are set up, "switched on" - and then become an essentially automatic (from the AYP side) for AYP to be promoted globally.
No one has to talk with anyone "at AYP" - they just add the feed(s).
This allows AYP content to spread in a "viral marketing" manner, that is 100% "opt in" (nothing invasive or "spammish" in any way).
For instance, let's say that my (potential) blog becomes popular as a resource for - oh, I dunno - chanting in Sanskrit, for instance (kirtan is growing in popularity, and there aren't many kirtan resources out there).
So, yoga studios and practitioners around the world, add *my* kirtan RSS feed(s) (which, being a big RSS fan, I will of course set up
![[;)]](http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/Smileys/akyhne/icon_smile_wink.gif "Wink")
) to their sites and blogs - and as a result visit my blog --- where they are exposed to the AYP RSS feed(s) --- which they can then add to their sites and blogs.
"They tell a friend -- who publishes dynamic AYP content (RSS Feeds), who tells a friend -- who publishes dynamic AYP content, who tells a friend -- who publishes dynamic AYP content ...."
KEY POINT
And sure, this can be done via links to the Active Topics page - but in that case, someone has to be motivated to click the link -- with RSS, they can see the actual content of the feed -- which is (clearly, I think) a *much* better "advertisement" for AYP than a link alone would be.
So, all in all -- this may turn out to be kind of fortuitous (if I had been a little more clear on the whole Active Topics thing, we may not have ended up having the RSS Feed(s) created -- not to mention this enjoyable conversation!
Peace & Namaste,
Kirtanman
PS - Once again MAJOR thanks to Athma Shakti, and whoever else did "behind the scenes" work, here (Ruirib?).
PPS - Future site-oriented conversations will probably not need to be so tedious --- this (RSS) required a lot of extra explanation, _and_ I was admittedly more verbose than needed, as I often am - and will take full responsibility for that, moving forward.
It's one thing if I'm "riffing" on certain yoga-related experiences (in other sections of the Forum) - but since this is an administrative section, dedicated to the growth of AYP - I'll do my best to respect everyone's time by self-editing more carefully, moving forward.
