Talk About Bradford is back up and running.

For those of you that don’t know what “TAB” is, it is our virtual community, or discussion forum. It’s sort of like the old general store cracker-barrel. Hang around, listen to what’s going on, speak your piece if you have something to say. It’s also a good place to ask questions if you want to know about Bradford, PA.

Anyone can look to see what people are talking about. The sidebar on this page has an RSS feed listing the latest TAB posts. If you want to join the discussion, registration is free. It just helps us keep the discussion on track and prevents spammers from ruining things.

Our good friend Jason acted as administrator for a while while he upgraded and tuned the forum software. Thank-you Jason! TAB now has three moderators, Laura, Nic, and Spider. They run things on a day-to-day basis, and are tasked with enforcing the rules. Take a moment to check out Talk About Bradford.

Today there’s a strong interest on the web for pictures. I’m pleased to introduce the Bradford-Online.com PhotoGallery. The intent of the photogallery is two-fold. First, to keep visitors up-to-date on events and the changing face of Bradford, Pennsylvania. The other goal will be to give visitors a sense of what Bradford is.

Take a look around. You can even send an Ecard using any of the pictures. If you have pictures or video posted on a web site and you’d like to share it, please do! Send a link from our Contact Us page.

I’m sure everyone has noticed the big orange square at the top of the site. If you’ve wondered what it is, it’s a link to our RSS feed. Instead of checking here to see if Bradford-Online.com has been updated, wouldn’t it be great if we notified you of the update and then gave you a summary? Thanks to RSS now we can. There are over a billion web pages on the World wide web. Keeping up to date with the information can be difficult. RSS brings the information you want to you.

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. This means, you identify the content you like and have it delivered directly to your computer. It takes the hassle out of staying up-to-date, by showing you the very latest information that YOU are interested in.

Not all websites currently provide RSS, but it is growing rapidly in popularity. Many websites that add their own news items do provide it.

How do I start using RSS feeds?

The first thing you need is a “news/feed reader”. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are
down loadable applications. All allow you to display and subscribe to the RSS feeds you want.

Once you have chosen a news/feed reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want. For example, if you would like the latest CLC News stories, simply visit the Homepage and you will notice an orange RSS button in the middle of the page.

Where to Find the RSS icon

If you click on the button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader.

News Readers

Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, and Safari browsers all have feed readers built in. This is probably your simplest option because it’s already available to you. There are also several stand-alone feed readers you can download. Both options should allow you to download the updated content to read offline later.

An online feed reader cuts out the hassle of installing software and you can check it from any online computer. Google and Bloglines are free and easy to use. You can easily add feeds to your Google or Yahoo! home pages too.

Different news readers work on different operating systems, so you will need to take this into account when you make your choice.

Now you know how to get started with RSS. Once you have your feed reader setup you can click on our orange feed icon to be informed of changes on Bradford-Online.com, or you can copy and paste our feed url into your reader:

http://bradford-online.com/?feed=rss2

If you’re using RSS send us a comment and let us know.

Many of you will be wondering where Talk About Bradford has gone. After all, it was one of Bradford-Online.com’s most popular features. If you don’t know, it was our discussion forum. Membership was anonymous and people were free to say almost anything, with light moderation.

Over time Talk About Bradford has become its own neighborhood. The good news is, now it has it’s own zip code so to speak. TalkAboutBradford.com is up and running. Jason Wells, long time admin of TalkAboutOlean.com has also taken over as admin of TAB. Jason knows how to keep things running smoothly. You can also bet he’ll be adding the bells and whistles that make things fun.

As a neighborhood Talk About Bradford is full of personalities, some outspoken, some a little more laid back, but everyone has an opinion. Anyone who is interested in Bradford, PA is invited to join in the conversation. If you don’t feel like talking it’s always interesting to listen to what everyone else is saying.

I am currently in the process of updating Bradford-Online.com. Most of our regular visitors are saying, “It’s about time”! I agree. This new version will be a big improvement over the older, more static style.

The old design looked, well, old. It was also hard to maintain and update.

This new design is based on the WordPress blog. That means that it is easier to update in the form of “posts” or articles. Bradford-Online.com has an RSS feed that can notify you whenever a new article or comment is posted. I am going to update the following sections and they will be available soon:

I’ll be adding a “Churches” section because I’ve had several requests.

The Bradford-Online Free Classifieds will be all new. First, you’ll be able to include pictures in all ads. By registering you’ll be able to log in and manage your ads, and before they expire you will receive an e-mail reminder if you want to renew your ad. The registration will help to keep the ads spam-free and focused on the local area. Best of all, Bradford-Online Classifieds will continue to be FREE.

You’ll be able to make comments on articles, so let me know what you think. If you have an opinion, want to add information, or make a correction, just click the “Comments” link at the bottom of the article. I will read all comments and post them if they are appropriate.

I’ll be updating the site all this week so please keep checking back and sending your comments. If you have an RSS reader please add a link to our feed so you’ll know as things are added.