This page will briefly explain what RSS is, why it's useful, and give a quick procedure to set up an RSS reader to subscribe to Sītavana's RSS feed.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." In a nutshell, RSS makes it very quick and easy for you to skim the "headlines" of several of your favorite websites or blogs. Rather than visiting each of your favorite websites and blogs one at a time (and having to waste your time seeing a bunch of ads and extra information you aren't interested in), it's much faster if all the "headlines" of each website are already gathered together for you, in your "RSS Reader." Then you can click on any headline to proceed directly to the story. RSS helps cut out all the "fluff" that you are not interested in seeing when you want to learn the latest news from all your favorite websites. Think of it as reading a newspaper without any ads, and without anything you are not interested in, but for the web. And that newspaper has all the news from all your favorite news sources (such as corporations, your friends, even your favorite monastery), all magically gathered together into one place, based on the choices you've made (about which RSS Feeds you want to subscribe to).

Most modern websites already have an RSS feed now (or even multiple RSS Feeds on separate topics), from corporate News websites (like the New York Times or cbc.ca), to personal "weblogs" (or "blogs" for short). Just search for the word "RSS" on the front page of any website, and you'll quickly find the "RSS feed," which you can drag and drop to your RSS Reader (which "subscribes" you to that RSS Feed). Also, keep an eye out for the RSS symbol, which you can also drag and drop to your RSS Reader:

For more general information about RSS, please read the explanation of RSS on Wikipedia.

A Quick Guide to Setting Up RSS (in order to subscribe to Sītavana's RSS Feed)

1. There are many different RSS Readers out there. We recommend Thunderbird, because it's free, and will work on any home computer connected to the Internet. You can download and install it from here. Note that Thunderbird is also an email-reading program, however (strictly speaking, for the purposes of this guide), we are only interested in Thunderbird's ability to be an RSS Reader.
2. Once you have Thunderbird installed, Run it. Since you are running Thunderbird for the first time, you'll be greeted by an "Import Wizard."
   
   
   
   Assuming that you do not want to make Thunderbird your default email client, select "Don't Import Anything", and click "Next".
3. Next you'll see the "Account Wizard:"
   
   
   
   Choose "RSS News & Blogs," then click "Next." It will ask for an "Account Name," and the default it gives is "News & Blogs." You can give this "RSS News & Blogs" account any name you like, however, an alternate account name of "RSS News & Blogs" (rather than just "News & Blogs") is recommended to help remind you that it is RSS Feeds that will be used inside this account.
   
   
   
   Click "Next." You'll be asked to "verify that the information below is correct." Click "Finish."
4. Now Press the little plus sign beside "RSS News and Blogs." Also click on "RSS News and Blogs." Your screen should look like this:
   
   
5. Now you are ready to add RSS Feeds. In your web browser, navigate to Sītavana's front page, and at the bottom, you'll see the orange RSS icon. Drag and drop that Orange icon onto "RSS News and Blogs" in Thunderbird:
   
   
6. Here is what it looks like once the RSS Feed for Sītavana is added:
   
   
7. In the upper rectangular are, you can see each of the articles that are seen on the front page of Sītavana's website, just as if they are incoming email messages. When you click a headline, it displays that article in the lower rectangular area:
   
   
8. Now that you've successfully subscribed to Sītavana's RSS Feed, don't stop there! RSS isn't any fun is you only subscribe to one RSS Feed. Why not make a list of your favorite websites, and see if you can also subscribe to their RSS Feeds as well. We also have our own list of recommended RSS Feeds, if you are interested.
9. Consider cancelling your subscription to your newspaper. You don't need it anymore, now that you've discovered RSS.