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I have my feed all setup with feedburner and is working well.
However, at this time, I just have a link for readers to subscribe to my feed. I tried putting in the code in a text box, which enabled users to enter their email address in a box and hit subscribe. But the text box does not render through.
Is there a specific way the code for the 'email address box' to be seen??
You need the 'email update' entry in the faq.
The code you have is being removed for security reasons.
Thanks Mark,
I did just that. I ran through the process again, but all I can see is text without any box for readers to enter their email address;
Enter your email address:
(<<<<<< This is where the text box should be, but nothing there)
Delivered by FeedBurner
Are these the instructions you followed?
I ask because they seem to work for other bloggers. http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/10/11/how-can-i-offer-email-updates/
TT,
Yup. Did the same thing before posting on this forum and also did a step by step follow of the FAQ at the link you have added...
Nothing. Just text.
Well then you'll have to wait until after the weekend and send a feedback to staff. :(
TT, I guess.
It's not a biggie, so can wait. Till then I'll put in the alternate 'click to subscribe' link to feedburner.
You mean people actually volunteer their email to subscribe to an RSS feed when any reader will do it without an email?.......or am I misunderstanding this idea?
If that's right, then wow; there are some gullible people online.....it's a spammers paradise.
Dirkgently,
The email address is not visible to anyone.
There is box to enter the email address to which the readers wants the feed to be delivered. Once entered, [subscribe] button is to be clicked which will throw up a pop-up or new window taking the reader to the next step in the process. Each and every email address entered is verified by feedburner. No verification, no feed.
The other method of subscription is a straightforward link. Clicking that takes the reader to a pop-up or new window, where the email address needs to be entered and then follow the next steps of verification etc.
I find the 1st option, seemingly shorter and a little more attention-catching.
So, there is no room for spam.
I meant that the surfer / subscriber has to trust that their email will be removed if they opt out.....and that you don't use that email list to send them lots of spam. Personally I wouldn't give up my email for something I didn't have to. For an email newsletter.....the expected transport method is email, so it's kinda important, for an RSS feed...every program I know of lets you subscribe or unsubscribe with NO email and NO risk of your email being abused.
I am curious.....how many potential subscribers do you lose if you demand their email? It's all about trust I guess, and given a recent estimate of around 90% of email traffic is spam.....would you give away your email when you didn't have to? People have to be assured that your "feed" does not consist of LOTS of marketing feeds...with a non-working opt out button....why should they risk that when they don't have to?
Seriously though.....why expect people to jump through more hoops than needed? Personally if I found a site that demanded this type of info for a feed my first assumption would be that the site either has a sideline in email harvesting for marketing or spamming purposes or that's their main line and the site is just a cover to make it appear legit. Either way, they wouldn't get me...regardless of how enticing the content was.....because I could never be sure if my email would be abused, and would suspect it probably IS being abused if I was stupid enough to hand it out.
When people are used to RSS readers, they are used to adding a URL to their reader, and know they have the safety of no email......what do they think when you demand an email? You are aware that many people have been burned by newsletters in the past and that unsubscribing does not often end the emails right?
Unless I am reading wrong......your options are "email" and "email"...just two different sign up screens.
@dirk
I'm just as suspicious as you are and I avoid giving out even my throwaway email addresses unless I have to. My personal email address is only for family and close friends. I prefer rss feed subscriptions over email hands down.
Dirk,
Your thoughts on this are based on the assumption that each and every reader to your site is sufficiently 'computer/web-literate'; enough to entertain the trend of thought you suggest. Heck! I would think the same thing.
1.
My forum post was focused on a 'requirement' for my particular 'community' based blog, which as readers ranging from 'computer/web-experts' to 'computer/web-dunces'. I have to use the benchmark that the dunces set to make the blog site 'easier' and 'no-hassle' for these dunces. The 'computer/web-experts' dont even bother with feedburner, they use various feed readers of choice.
2.
This email subscription service is via a very reliable service - Feedburner. (Let not the fact that Google is supposed to be in the last stages of buying Feedburner for a purported $100million, cast any aspersion, if you are so inclined, on Feedburner's reliability)
In my earlier response, I was not trying to justify using "email" and "email", but explaining what I wanted to achieve.
Most people who have been online for a while are suspicious. If a site demands an email to provide a service others provide with no email, they tend to ask why.....and to what use it's going to be put.
A similar concept here is the forums that you need to join to look around inside....only to find there's hardly any members or topics, and the forum owners just got your email for nothing....and you have potentially just given your email to a spammer, which saves them the hassle of scanning for it elsewhere.
It's always good to have throwaway emails, I like the Trashmail extension for Firefox to get round the forum thing.
To see how many feel like that, why don't you set an RSS feed like most of the RSS feeds, and let people subscribe spam-risk-free (no email.....just a URL) as an option, and see how many people give you their emails. Look at the ratio.....after a while remove the risk free option and tell the people they have to supply an email from a certain date....and watch your subscription numbers plummet through the floor.
So why start the PC illiterate people down a path that will encourage them to be deluged with spam? To think that giving out their email is just fine and normal? Why not act a little responsibly and encourage the risk free option? Would that not set them on a healthier path for the future?
This kinda smacks of Microsoft thinking...."keep 'em stupid so you can keep screwing 'em" rather than educating them right from day one to protect themselves.
Believe me, what you suggest is easier said than done.
As an example: do you find 'leaving a comment' on a post challenging or hard? I expect not.
I have had to get on a long-distance call on numerous occasions just to talk a few of the 'dunces' through the process of making a comment.
I agree with all your thoughts. Not fighting it. But..there's always that but....
@mu50m4
This is your thread and your problem has not been lost.
Don't forget after the weekend and send a feedback to staff.
TT,
Thanks for re-aligning the focus! ;-)
I am an MCP (not that it means much)....I am trained to explain PC concepts in plain non-tech speak....to people who are not technically minded. For some services that is not worth trying.....for others it's a piece of cake, RSS is one of the latter. I'd suggest that if you can't explain something as simple as that in plain speak then you really need to look at yourself.
How difficult is Sage for Firefox? All you do is click the Sage icon which brings up sage in the sidebar, and when you're on a site you want to subscribe to click "search".....it'll find the feed, just say "yes". Most RSS readers are pretty close to this simplicity....it's not like your showing them how to edit the registry.
As things are, by opting for an email only option you are screwing your subscribers when they don't need to be....you are setting them up for an unnecessarily painful start to the internet. One which they may well resent you for down the line.
You said many experienced net users would use their own readers anyway, I agree.....that leaves the newbies (who you are playing the role of teacher to) who must have done the same research and found that both feedburner and google are trustworthy companies right? Or are you encouraging them to just take the word of a website owner that everything is fine......again, setting them up to be screwed.
Sorry if this appears to be confrontational, but where I took issue with it was that you're harvesting for no reason. You're kinda in the role of teacher to some...and you're taking an easy way out which is VERY detrimental to the people you're teaching.
If a student does not learn properly......whose fault is it? The student for not learning right or the teacher for not teaching right? You've probably already guessed my answer to that question.
@ Dirk,
The student needs to learn to write before dealing with math and fractions?!
Excuse me for not taking this further. Like I said, I agree with your thoughts and comments on the 'spam' related issues....I'll just concede then that you are a better teacher....But....
Thanks for all your input on this.
It's not about conceding anything, but your right...it's your call, and your readers. I'll bow out of this one now.
IMO blogs are the best place for these kinds of debates ;)
@mu
The box for entering their email address is on a FeedBurner-hosted page. What you should have is merely an HTML link that takes them there. If you would like an example, feel free to click on my username (the subscription link is right under the calendar).
Judy,
Like your blog. Great use of the theme. I noted the subscribe box and understand what you are saying. Prior to moving from Movable Type, I had the same setup that I am querying in this thread.
As an example please see: http://www.chrisg.com/subscribe/. What you see in the post is what I had in the my sidebar. Hope this makes sense.
Mu,
Thanks for the compliment. You won't be able to do what you show with that link, because the code will stripped for security reasons.* We can't use forms, iframes, javascript, or flash on our blogs here.
Sorry :(
*someone chime in if i have jumped to the wrong conclusion about the code being used, please.
No you are correct. Way back at the very beginning and in the first response to this original post Mark pointed to the FAQs. What he meant was that way that was the only way that was available at wordpress.com wp-MU and somehow that got lost in ensuing debate.
Mark, dirk, TT, Judy,
Thank you for your inputs on this. I'll [resolved] this thread now and stick with the link to subscribe.
This topic has been closed to new replies.
mu50m4
mark
