WordPress RSS Help

[DanielBrenton]

I'd like to ask for some help with my RSS feed.

To paraphrase Bones from the original Star Trek, "Dammit Jim, I'm a writer not a programmer!" And I feel pretty confident there's someone here who can answer this in no time.

I'm on WordPress (2.0.4 -- no, haven't upgraded yet, probably this weekend) and use the plugin "Adhesive" to keep a "sticky" post at the top of my blog page as a welcome note. I put this in it's own category so I could exclude it from my category list in my sidebar (I'm using Jim Whimpey's popular Day Dream theme, which has the "sidebar" at the bottom just above the footer). The problem is that this "sticky" post is also apparently "stuck" to the top of my feed listing. I'm thinking there's some probably really simple exclusion somewhere I could use to keep that category out of my feed listing, and keep it at the top of my blog page, but I haven't figured it out yet.

I've tried the WordPress support forums and sometimes with them I feel like I'm just beating my head against the wall. Despite how hard this is for me sometimes, the stand-alone WordPress, though, still seems like the way to go.

My feed is at:

The Meaning of Existence (and all that): The Odd Little Universe of Daniel Brenton

Any suggestions?

[Steve Rodgman]

I can't speak directly to your issue because I'm not familiar with the plug-in. But I'm guessing from past knowledge that you simply cannot cherry-pick the items you put into your feed (or exclude).

Your feed is based exactly on the order of your posts. So if you stick one at the top, it's going to show up on your homepage and in your feed.

My quick solution would be to hardcode your introduction into the HTML of your index page (which is fairly simple if your comfortable working with code). Then of course, you want to remove it from the article database. You may also want to look around for another plug-in that lets you specifically select which articles go in your feed.

Anyone else know if this is possible or a plug-in that does it?

Fantastic introduction and website I'll also say. The site looks great! Good luck!

[DanielBrenton]

Steve --

Thanks for the feedback on WordPress and on my site. Tried to make it look as good as I could, considering my understanding of the tools.

Since I've posted this I've done some fishing and have run across another plugin that may resolve the issue. Haven't worked with it yet but I'm going to give it a shot.

I originally launched the site using a CMS called Mambo, which is actually a pretty cool package, but is unfortunately a miserable blogging tool. I think what I learned from my Mambo experience helped me understand WordPress to the level I do, but I still have quite a ways to go to get the most out of it.

I'm working in a "theme" (a set of template files as you probably know), and though I don't think I'm too bad with HTML, my understanding of PHP and CSS is pretty sketchy, so I'm hesitant to try and hardcode the intro into what would have to be either the header or the "topbar" menu. I have thought about it, but it would probably take me a while to dope it out.

Of course, I'm a stubborn enough of a cuss that I want to understand how to do this myself, given the right clues.

Thanks again,