Getting started with FeedLand

The instructions on this page help you get started in FeedLand, and let you know the limits and features of the system.

What is FeedLand?

FeedLand is an application that runs in your web browser for managing lists of feeds, sharing them with other users (both in and outside of FeedLand), and reading and sharing news.

The goal of FeedLand is to make news a social thing, following the pattern of Twitter and other social media apps, but using open formats and protocols like RSS, OPML and the web.

So FeedLand is feeds, news and people and software that connects it all together.

Community

People subscribe to feeds, we squeeze news out of feeds, and shape it into products.

People can add new feeds. There's a limit of 250 new feeds for each user.

You can also subscribe to feeds other people have added. No limit there. Subscribe to as many as you like.

Everyone can see everything. Our lists and categories are there for everyone to use.

A FeedLand community works together shaping news flows.

If this is your first time using FeedLand, you'll need to create a new account.

Go to feedland.org.
You should see a dialog, with two choices: Sign on, for people who already have an account, and Sign up for new users.
Click the Sign up button. A new dialog appears, asking you to choose a name and enter an email address. Both must be unique. Messages below each will tell you whether what you have entered can be used. When you're ready, click the Send button.
Check your email for a confirmation message. Click the link in the email to take you back to FeedLand. If all goes well, you should see your name in the upper right corner of the screen.

After logging in, you're offered a chance to add some feeds to your empty feed list. It's easier to learn the product with a few feeds you're subscribed to. After they're added you will be taken to your Feed List page.

You might want to bookmark that page. While you're starting out with FeedLand, it'll be your home page.

Choose Recent users from the first menu. Click on a name to see what they're subscribed to.

If you see a feed you want to subscribe to, click the checkbox. That's all you have to do.

Another way to find feeds is to look in the Hotlist or the Subscription log, accessible from the first menu. When you see something you like, click the checkbox next to it.

To get back to your feed list, choose My feed list from the first menu.

Reading the new stuff

A quick way to see stories in a feed is to click the wedge next to its name in the feed list. You'll see the titles of the most recent five stories, with links to the full text. If you hover over the link to the story, the description of the story pops up. Screen shot.

To see the news from all feeds you subscribe to, choose My news from the first menu.

The 250-feed limit

You can import a feed list from other services, in the Subscribe sub-menu of the first menu, but it's important that you know there's a limit of 250 new feeds per user.

A new feed is one that no one else is subscribed to. So if you're clicking a checkbox in someone else's feed list, that won't count against your 250 feed limit.

And at some point we will provide a way to purchase more subscriptions if you run up against the limit.

Nothing is hidden

Something important about FeedLand. Almost everything is open to everyone. I can see your feed list and you can see mine. I can read the news as you see it and vice versa.

Obviously only you can sign in as you, that much is secret. But everythiung else is open.

BTW, you can browse the feeds other users subscribe to, and read the news from those feeds.

You can only subscribe to feeds if you're signed in.

Exploring, getting help

Check out the other docs pages to explore the product in more depth. (Links to be added.)

If you have questions about how to use the product, post an issue in this group.

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