Forum Moderators: open
However, some downsides:
a) higher bandwidth costs. The homepage rss feed uses approx 10 times more bandwidth in a day than the homepage itself (with approx 1/100th the visitors).
That would be just as true on the forum level, where some rss readers would dl the file once - twice - three times a minute as they now do on the homepage.
b) screen raiding considerations.
There are several sites out there just republishing our rss feeds now and using it as pseudo content. They often out rank even WebmasterWorld on some specific kws. How much worse would that be if we did it system wide? Would it hinder site searches on SE's?
c) lurk rates increase.
What I have seen is that the more rss feeds you offer, the higher the lurk rate. Apparently, people will read, and not be engaged. If you get them in the forum and reading and engaged, then they participate.
This is a community site of people and interaction. We are not a content dump for the sponging or the sales of ads.
