Have you ever missed a ride out, training event or an important update because you forgot to check namrider.com? Do you wish that someone would tell you when namrider.com and your other favourite websites are updated so that you can spend more time in the garage polishing your pipes and less time looking out for updates?
You can make sure that you’re always the first to know when new content is added by subscribing to one of the namrider.com news (RSS) feeds.
What is an RSS feed?
You’ll be familiar with the news feeds that scroll along the bottom of television’s 24-hour news channels. These feeds provide continuous updates on developing stories so that you’re quickly up-to-speed whenever you tune in. In much the same way, ‘Really Simple Syndication’ (or RSS) feeds broadcast entire sections of a website in a format that can be read by news reader and email software. RSS readers (sometimes called news ‘aggregators’) are available for desktop computers and mobile phones. These allow feeds from many different websites (including namrider.com) to be collected, categorised and monitored so that it is easy to keep track of new content.
What software do I need to subscribe to an RSS feed?
To discover and read RSS feeds, you will need to install a news reader program on your desktop (Windows or Mac) or mobile device (Android or iOS). Alternatively, there are a number of online (web based) services that you can subscribe to. Most programs and services offer a free version, though you may need to pay if you need advanced functionality or you want to read articles ad-free.
(There are options to self-host your own news reader using open source software. However, these are best avoided if you want to spend more time out on your motorbike rather than fiddling with php code and port numbers.)
Some of the key features of news reader services include:
- customising the layout and appearance of subscriptions
- tracking which articles have been read
- searching within subscriptions
- highlighting keywords or search terms in content
- monitoring Google keywords and news alerts
- saving articles to other services including Dropbox, Evernote, OneNote, Google Drive
- adding automation rules to categorise articles
- integrating social media feeds (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
Desktop new readers
Some of the best known desktop news readers include:
- Cappuccino
- Feedy
- Feedly
- Leaf
- Newsflow
- NewsBar
- News Explorer
- News Menu
- NetNewsWire
- Pulp
- ReadKit
- Reeder
- RSS Reeder
- Stripes
Web-based news readers
Popular online services for reading RSS (and other types of feeds) include:
- Feedbin
- Feedly
- FeedHQ,
- Feed Wrangler
- Inoreader
- NewsBlur
- The Old Reader
- Minimal Reader
- BazQuz Reader
Many (Feedly, Inoreader, Reeder, NetNewsWire) offer iOS and Android apps and the ability to synchronise with your online account. This means that you can continue to read content and keep track of updates whenever you’re out and about.
Browser extensions or plug-ins
Most web browsers have extensions (small utility programs) that help to discover the RSS feeds that are available within a website. Usually these extensions make it possible to add feeds to your preferred news reader with a single click of a bookmark in your browser toolbar.
Search for ‘RSS’ in webstore or app store associated with your browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, etc.).
Email subscription
An alternative to using a news reader is to have an email sent to you whenever new content is added to namrider.com or other websites. To do this you will need to register with an email subscription service such as:
- Blogtrottr
- Feedrabbit
- Feed2Mail
Theses services also offer basic plans which allow you to subscribe to a small number of feeds for free.
If you already use the IFTTT (‘if this then that’) automation service, you can create an applet to send yourself an email notification whenever an RSS feed is updated.
If you only follow a few RSS feeds, receiving email alerts when new content is added can be convenient. However, once you subscribe to many different feeds you need to be prepared to spend more time managing a busy inbox. For that reason I prefer to use a news reader to manage RSS subscriptions.
What RSS feeds are available on namrider.com?
The following RSS feeds are available :
The main feed consolidates all items from each of the news, events and articles sections. Subscribe to these feeds using one of the following methods:
- drag the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader
- cut and paste the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader
Some websites only include summary paragraphs in their RSS feeds and it is necessary to follow links back to site to read the full article. This is often done to ensure that website visits can be recorded, especially if the site needs ‘clicks’ to make money from advertising.
All namrider.com feeds contain complete articles so that you can read them in full, right from within your favourite news reader.
Comments
What is your ‘go-to’ news reader application? Do you prefer RSS feeds or email subscriptions? Please send your comments to email.