I must confess my ignorance about this topic. What does an RSS aggregator do, and why do I want one? (Sounds like something I might want to avoid in a Florida swamp!)

Mike,

You have probably noticed in MT where there are two index templates called RSS 1.0 and RSS 2.0. The file names generated are "index.rdf" and "index.xml", respectively. Your main template most likely links to the RDF one, saying, "Syndicate this site."

RSS aggregators can use either of these two files to "subscribe" to various blogs. (I think RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication.) In the aggregator, you add the blogs that you want to read (usually the RDF or XML file, although some blogs may use a different file name). When you run the aggregator, it goes out and looks at all those syndication files for new posts. The posts are presented in a list, with the new, unread ones showing in bold. (It works very much like an email program.) You can then click and read the plain text of the post, or double-click to go to the actual blog and see the post in all its HTML glory (and to follow links and read comments).

I like it because it shows when somebody has posted something new, and because you don't have to spend a lot of time surfing around. The newest stuff is all in one place. Now, there are some blogs that don't have RSS feeds -- like most Blogger/Blogspot blogs. But most MT blogs should have it, unless the user has chosen to turn it off (which they really shouldn't do).

I hope this helps. I'm just learning about this stuff myself.