The next piece of the puzzle to cover off is what we’re calling “News”. Once again, we haven’t developed anything groundbreaking with this piece, but this is definitely one to file under “yes, that’s pretty damn useful to have integrated with a motorcycle social network”. While the majority of the content on eatsleepride will come from our users, we feel there is a great benefit to having external sources too. Especially since there is a wealth of great original content out there (more on this further down).

So how do these external sources fit into the overall ESR experience? Beyond providing a good source of reading and keeping up on what’s going on in the world of motorcycling, having these external sources integrated with the site provides a seamless launching point for discussion. If you see something you find interesting in the news you can easily start your own thread from it, bring it to the attention of a group you belong to or just save it for future reference perhaps. Eventually, the idea is that we will learn more and more about what you like and your general areas of interest (not in an evil don’t respect your privacy sort of way though!!) and gradually the news feed that you see will be tailored exactly for you.

If you’re wondering if we’re just “stealing” content from people working hard to make it available, the answer is no we are not. RSS and similar feeds seem to be a bit of a “fuzzy” thing for some when it comes to what’s an appropriate way to use the content that’s provided and I’ve certainly seen a few scuffles with commercial sites republishing other authors content without permission and worst of all, without credit. So, we decided to keep our toes well out of the shark infested water from day one. Any news feed included within the site is authorized to be there. We’ve reached out to providers to ask permission and we’re pleased to have a great selection of providers that we’re able to offer and yes, we provide full credit to the authors / owners. We believe in supporting the people who put their time and effort into giving us something to read.

You will find a range of content in the news feed. From racing news to maintenance, personal blogs to commercial operations. We hope you’ll find something of interest right away, but we do also plan to add more on an ongoing basis as seems appropriate. Most importantly, if you’ve got ideas on what you would like to see in the feed, or have your own feed you would like to make available then please contact us, we would love to hear from you.

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