RSS feeds for dummies... - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

MercFan · #1 10-18-2010, 02:16 PM

Help me out here - Craigslist used to have a useful subscription/notification feature that would ping you everytime an item with your defined criteria was posted - it was awesome. The feature was discontinued (because apparently some have abused it).

I've tried turning to RSS feeds as an alternative to monitoring recent CL postings - just not sure how to get this thing setup properly.

I have an RSS reader (FF's add-on - Simple RSS Reader 3.1.x) - but it wants a book mark or something... The www.crazedlist.org provides and XML file that you can export then import into something to (hopefully) get this tool to monitor and filter out the postings I wish to see. Got the XML file with the links but I have no idea what to do with that file - the Simple RSS Reader has no option to import those links - at least I don't see how. Maybe I don't have the right tool...

If anyone is using RSS feeds help me out plz.

Thx,
James

MercFan · #2 10-19-2010, 10:25 AM

Nobody using RSS feeds... perhaps your experience is same as mine... who knows how to use the d&$n thing...

Eskimo · #3 10-19-2010, 10:51 AM

I was hoping someone with more expertise would step up, but since no one has, here's what I do with Firefox:

1. I run a search on Craiglist. In some cases, I use Boolean logic to catch multiple related things in one search (e.g., trumpet or cornet, country or western).

2. On the results page, I click on the "RSS" button on the lower right hand corner of the page.

3. A menu shows up at the top of the page showing "Subscribe to this feed using", along with a drop-down menu.

4. From the drop-down menu, I choose "Live Bookmarks". Then I'm given the choice of naming the bookmark and choosing the folder in which it will be created.

5. In regular use, when I left-click on one of those bookmarks (or hover over it if it's in a drop-down list of bookmarks), then a list appears showing all the results from that feed. If I right-click on a bookmark, one of the options is to "Reload Live Bookmark".

MercFan · #4 10-19-2010, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eskimo

I was hoping someone with more expertise would step up, but since no one has, here's what I do with Firefox:

1. I run a search on Craiglist. In some cases, I use Boolean logic to catch multiple related things in one search (e.g., trumpet or cornet, country or western).

2. On the results page, I click on the "RSS" button on the lower right hand corner of the page.

3. A menu shows up at the top of the page showing "Subscribe to this feed using", along with a drop-down menu.

4. From the drop-down menu, I choose "Live Bookmarks". Then I'm given the choice of naming the bookmark and choosing the folder in which it will be created.

5. In regular use, when I left-click on one of those bookmarks (or hover over it if it's in a drop-down list of bookmarks), then a list appears showing all the results from that feed. If I right-click on a bookmark, one of the options is to "Reload Live Bookmark".

Not bad - thanks for the tips - will give it a shot!

James