RSS News Feeds are terrific for delivering information to others, but in and of themselves, do not support incoming messages from others. Until now.

With Enfeedia's "FeedBack" channels, your feed viewers can post comments for feed items, with the comments staying attached to the items. The collection of such comments form a channel of comments for that item, providing a way for others to interact with each other and with you regarding the topic of that item. Because the comment channel stays attached to the item, no matter where your feed is syndicated or embedded, your viewers can access the comments.

Typically, the FeedBack links for items will appear wherever your feed is syndicated or aggregated, such that clicking the FeedBack link for the item of interest will present the item with all the comments. If the syndicator strips links from the item description, then one must first click the round orange RSS icon item associated with the item to open the NewsPage for the feed, and click the FeedBack link for the item of interest there.

How can you, the feed owner, protect yourself from objectionable commenting?

By exerting editorial control over the comments.

An "admin" link is provided for each and every comment. If a comment is objectionable, click the admin link, log in, and select an editing action, ranging from deleting the single comment, to preventing the commenter for ever posting on any of your feeds ever again. If you post a comment for an item, you will receive a notification email whenever anyone posts a comment if you so choose, so you need not keep checking back to evaluate the quality of your comments.

How Do You Post FeedBack comments?

By simply clicking the "FeedBack" link that appears in the beginning of each item in the feed, if the feed owner has enabled FeedBack for the feed. You will need to log in to your Enfeedia account, or open a free account if you do not already have one. We must have an email address on record for anyone wanting to post comments. Instructions are provided.

Once logged in, you will be presented with a form for entering your comment. Additionally you can specify one link (full URL) i the space provided that you might choose to refer to in your comment. And you can also select to receive, or not to receive, notification email whenever anyone posts a comment in that same item, so you can stay on top of the communications in that channel without having to check back.

How Does the Feed Owner Enable a Feed for FeedBack?

When setting up the feed in the first place, or later when editing the feed (by clicking the "Set Up Feeds" link in the menu bar), an option if provided for specifying whether or not to enable FeedBack for that feed. The account owner can choose which feeds for which to have FeedBack enabled on a feed-by-feed basis.

What Are the Benefits to the Person Posting a Comment?

When you post a comment, your Enfeedia account name will appear directly above the comment, as a link. When clicked, your Account Directory will be displayed in a new page. Other commenters and the feed owner may choose to click over to your Directory and interact with your feeds, this extending the interaction across the enabled feeds of many Enfeedia members.

If you do not have any feeds yet published, your account name will not be a link. Once you choose to publish a feed of your own, your account name for all comments you've posted will be shown as a link to your Directory. You need not publish a feed to participate in the FeedBack system, but if you have an endeavor you wish to promote, think of the advantages of publishing and promoting a feed.

Even without publishing a feed, you can benefit from posting comments by reaching others who are following items in a feed and communicating messages to them regarding the item topic, to advance your opinion and develop relationships with others. But be careful, the feed owner can delete comments (s)he feels objectionable, at his/her own discretion, and can go so far is preventing you from posting comments on that item again, that feed, or even any feed in his/her account.

What Are the Benefits to Feed Owner for Enabling Comments?

Interacting with one's audience has proven to be a powerful way to engage others in one's endeavor, leading to supporters who will forward your item to others using any of the many social networking methods, or even just relaying your item in an email to friends. Current customers can post testimonials -- another powerful tool in advancing your endeavor -- or simply offering real-world experience working with you. What others say about you can be more compelling than your own messages! If the comments in the channel are sufficiently interesting, provocative, humorous, entertaining, or educational, you might find your feed going viral -- especially if you embed a YouTube or Vimeo video in your item, both of which are supported by Enfeedia by simply specifying share code with your item when entering it; it's a breeze.

BUILD AND INSTALL A FEED-DRIVEN BLOG ON YOUR WEBSITE!

What? How does that work? You probably know that with many blog sites, you can get an RSS feed for the postings on the blog. But with Enfeedia, you can take it the other way, from feed to blog. And with the FeedBack feature, your feed-driven blog can be interactive. We refer to the method for presenting your feed-driven blog on your website as "BlogBlender" because it blends the feed into your website seamlessly. Note: Your website host must support PHP, but must all do because of the popularity of PHP programming for dynamic site designs.

The lines of distinction between an RSS feed and a blog are a bit blurred. Typically, a blog is published at a blogging site by an individual about a topic of personal interest: a hobby, politics, sports, music, recipes, philosophy, and so on. And usually the blog design is that of the blogging host where you select from one of many templates. An RSS feed, however, is usually published by a person representing an organization, small or large, to advance the mission of that organization. The RSS feed is a file that is not human-readable until it is published by a feed reader, or syndicated (embedded) on some website ... or viewed in a browser when that familiar orange RSS logo is clicked.

Feeds can be easily imported into other websites, most notably Facebook, using an app such as RSS Graffiti. You can think of a blog as an application and a feed as an information delivery channel for applications to consume. So your feed-driven blog can appear in many places, whereas you typically view a blog on a page of the blogging site appearing as if it is part of your website. There are exceptions of course, and that's why the lines of distinction are blurred.