RSS Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an easy way to keep up with your favorite news and information. Our RSS feeds contain headlines, summaries and links to full news stories either on AVN.com or an AVN Member station Web site. If you click an RSS link, you will see XML (eXtensible Markup Language) code in your browser. This is to be expected, since you do not view RSS content through a browser. You view the headlines through an RSS news reader (also called an RSS aggregator). Our main RSS page provides links to our feeds.

2. What are RSS Readers?

RSS news readers are small software programs that aggregate RSS feeds and display the story information. They allow you to scan headlines from hundreds of news sources in a central location.

3. Where Do I Get an RSS Reader?

A wide range of RSS readers can be easily downloaded from the Web. Some readers are Web-based while others require you to download a small software program onto your desktop. Most are free to use. (Several readers require Microsoft's .NET framework on your computer. They may be slightly more complicated to install if you do not have .NET.)

Google and Yahoo! offer comprehensive lists of RSS readers. A few sample readers are also offered below for the purpose of evaluation:

• Awasu - http://www.awasu.com/ (Windows)
• Bloglines - http://bloglines.com/ (All OS, browser-based)
• Amphetadesk - http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/ (Windows)
• RSS Reader - http://www.rssreader.com/ (Windows .NET)
• NetNewsWire - http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/ (Mac OS X)

4. How Do I Use These Feeds?

The first step, as described above, is to choose an RSS reader. Each reader has a slightly different way of adding a new feed (also called a "channel"). In most cases, here's how it works:

1. Click on the small XML button near the feed you want. You'll see a page displaying XML code.
2. From your browser, copy the URL that appears in your address bar. For example, the URL you would copy for AVN Internet Articles is:
   http://www.avn.com/topstories.rss
3. Paste that URL into the 'Add New Channel' section of the reader. You should be all set! The RSS feed will start to display and regularly update the headlines for you.

5. Where Can I Learn More about RSS?

There are a range of articles about RSS available online. The Lockergnome Web site offers a beginner's tutorial ; extended RSS resources are available from Radio Userland. Here are a few additional resources:

• An informative RSS article from the Online Journalism Review
• What is RSS? from IBM Developer Works
• A technical RSS tutorial from the Utah state government
• RSS Reader Information in an article by the Guardian

6. Why is AVN Offering RSS feeds?

Many users have requested RSS feeds from AVN. They make it easy to stay up- to-date on our comprehensive adult industry news headlines. Our main RSS page provides basic information about RSS and links to our feeds.

7. How often are the AVN RSS feeds updated?

The AVN RSS feeds are updated constantly throughout the day. Every time a news story is added to our Web site, it will also be added to the RSS feed.

For questions regarding AVN RSS feeds, please email rss@avn.com.