Two Basic Questions from a Beginner

  • itsallconnected · Member ·

    I have just started blogging on WordPress.com and I have two questions:

    1. Categories: I am using the Regulus 2 theme, and I have defined categories for posts and, as far as I can tell, properly assigned them, since the categories appear in a “categories” column in the sidebar. My question is this: Shouldn’t the categories to which an individual post is assigned also appear as part of that post? When I click on comments, that information appears, but the post itself does not display the category, and this seems to me odd since I would think it would be good for readers to know the categories as they read. Is this a function of the template, of wordpress or have I not done what I need to do for the categories to be displayed.

    2. Can someone give, or tell me where I can read, a good, basic and thorough definition of what a feed is, why I might want to subscribe to one and why I might want to have people be able to subscribe to one for my blog? And of how to use them on WordPress. It is, I am sure, a result of my own ignorance, but I have gone to several sites to find out about this, but I do not seem to be able to make sense of anything I have read.

  • marc · Member ·

    “When I click on comments, that information appears, but the post itself does not display the category.

    “That has nothing to do with WP per se, but just how the designer chose to code his theme.

    “Can someone give, or tell me where I can read, a good, basic and thorough definition of what a feed is”

    This should give you a basic knowledge. From a practical stand point it is a faster and easier way to keep up with all your favorite sites. Whether they be blogs, news sites, here is my personel example:

    In my RSS reader I have three categories set up. One for strictly auto racing, it contains over 100 blogs/racing sites.

    One contains about the same amount of political blogs and political news sites. The third contains general world news sites with over 300 entries.

    Imagine checking all those in your favorite browser (Hopefully FireFox) each day. Using the feeds and my reader (RSS Bandit) I check them all in about 15-45 minutes.

    BTW at the bottom of your index page you will see “Feeds” then orange “full” and “comments” boxes. Your visitors copy thoses urls into their reader and they are good to go.

    Most, and I think all, the themes for WP.com provide those links on the index page.

  • detroitso · Member ·

    When someone subscribes to your feed they will get an automatic update to your blog if a new post is submitted. For instance, My Yahoo or Google.com/ig completely consists of RSS feeds. If a site offers RSS such as wordpress or ESPN, just about any site, the new posts will be sent to the RSS reader.

  • itsallconnected · Member ·

    Thanks, both of you. That was very helpful.

    Richard

  • The topic ‘Two Basic Questions from a Beginner’ is closed to new replies.