RSS

RSS is a data format for syndicating web site content. It is a subset of XML.

Reference

• Wikipedia

See Also

• RSS feeds for this site

User Gripes

• RSS has the potential to let a user "subscribe" to a particular MediaWiki page or author, and to receive alerts only when that particular page is updated or that author makes an edit. Of the two RSS (or Atom) readers I've tried, however, neither one lets you filter by these attributes (or any attributes other than the title, as far as I can tell). You can set up a temporary filter for word-in-article-title, but it only does "name contains", not "name is" or anything more sophisticated, and the filter cannot be saved. The MediaWiki software could get around this by offering pre-filtered feeds (e.g. there should be an RSS feed for each page's "history" tab) as well as for "my contributions" for each user. (This gripe has much more to do with how RSS is implemented and used than it is with the format itself.) --Woozle 14:32, 30 January 2006 (EST)

Notes

• RSS-related extensions for MediaWiki:
  • Extension:RSS Reader lets you insert RSS feeds within text of a page
  • Extension:SimpleFeed is much the same, but apparently gives you more control over the formatting
  • Extension:SimplePie seems to have a slightly awkward installation process