Old Settler's Music Festival Performance Workshops - Driftwood, T

[NewsFetcher]

On tap from our workshop/camps calendar:

April 11-14, 2019 - Old Settler's Music Festival Performance Workshops, Driftwood, TX

See event details...

For a full list of all known future mandolin workshops and camps, visit the Mandolin Cafe's comprehensive Workshop and Camps page.

Subscribe to the Cafe's workshop news feed using this link.

[Gary Hudson]

I think the link to subscribe is busted.

[Mandolin Cafe]

I think the link to subscribe is busted.

It functions correctly. Your're expecting something it is not. That refers to a News feed address or RSS as it's more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. That's what the orange icon stands for as well. Not every web browser interprets those--requires special tools. Still widely used for various functions across the web. For example, the forum software looks at these files every few hours and if it sees a new entry it will report them here. An easy way to widely distribute information across the web in an automated fashion. Much of the Happening Now section of the front page is created this way. Reduces redundant labor by automating simple work.

Simple technology but has a specific purpose that's not necessarily reader friendly unless you have the right software or a web site that makes use of it. Additional info if anyone is interested.

[Mandolin Cafe]

A good example of how this is used, because I like to talk about web development but rarely get to out here, and an example is better than an explanation of technology (my opinion):

The Mandolin Archive has a news feed (RSS) for new instruments that get added. That's an entirely different web site. Lets say Dan, the guy that runs the site, adds a new Loar or a late 20s Fern to the site. As soon as it's there it's automatically entered into an RSS (or .xml) file as part of the process. The software on this Forum is instructed to look at that file every 12 hours--it's nothing more than a web URL with an .xml ending, most of the time. If it sees a new entry it reports that information here without either one of us every having to do anything.

Everything in the RSS section of the forum is created in this fashion. Some of that is internal content from this site, much of it is external content from other mandolin related sites. Bottom line is it automates the creation and posting of content we deem of value to this audience. We get to see notices of stolen instruments from the Classifieds, additions to the Cafe's MP3 page, upcoming mandolin workshops, sometimes new instruments for retailers we work closely with, a new mandolin related title at a publishing house, etc., etc. Just did a count and we watch 19 news feeds across the web. Other thing this achieves is it inserts non-member content into the forum, something I value highly.