Great Lakes District | The Christian Missionary Alliance

Many of you may be wondering what the button at the bottom of our home page that looks like this is all about?  This is called an RSS feed and it is another great way to stay connect with what is happening in the district.

Is RSS really simply simple?

RSS is an acronym that many people don’t understand the meaning of.  To answer everyone’s question, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is an XML-based format for content distribution. Basically, webmasters create an RSS file containing headlines and descriptions of specific information. RSS feeds make obtaining information for news headlines, blogs, or breaking information extremely simple!  In other words it makes it easy for you to follow along.

 What does an RSS feed do? 

RSS feeds bring automatically updated information right to your desktop. Once you subscribe to an RSS feed, you can check your RSS reader at any time to find recent updates.  You can monitor news, blogs, job listings, personals, and classifieds. More and more sites offer feeds, which you can identify by a small button that says either RSS or XML. However, if you click one of these links, you will most likely get a page full of code in your browser unless you have an RSS reader.  Most search engines come equipped with a reader; therefore, most people have access to RSS feeds free of complication. 

 What should my you or we subscribe to an RSS Feed? 

RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. Looking for great resources right now? Sign up for a Great Lakes District RSS feed  and get updates right to your desktop. See, that’s pretty simple! 

Another great thing is that you ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site’s email newsletter. Instead of plugging in all your info, you can simply click on a few buttons and have instant access to that contents updates.  The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News.

 How to subscribe to an RSS Feed:

In order to subscribe to an RSS feed or newsfeed you will need two things, an RSS reader (also known as a news aggregator) and url (web address) of the RSS feed that you wish to subscribe. One way to subscribe would be to click on the small orange RSS icon located in your tool bar after you have landed on the URL you wish to feed.  If the site you are on has an RSS feed, the icon will be orange.  The other way is listed below:

• Download an RSS Reader. i.e. Google Reader
• Locate the web address (url) of the RSS feed (XML file) that you wish to subscribe.  i.e. http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/topstories
• Install the feed reader or news aggregator on your computer.
• Insert the url of the news feed (look for the “add feed” button or “subscribe to feed”)
• Many of the news readers will allow you to set the time interval for a feed update, others simply update daily.
• The information in the feed will be updated when the feed contains new content.

 This is just another great way to stay connected with all that is happening in the Great Lakes District.  If you have questions feel free to drop us a line at  office@greatlakesdistrict.com