RSS Feeds Don’t Work

I pasted it. The URL is:

https://wordpress.pastebin.ca/795414

https://wordpress.pastebin.ca/795441
and that’s the corrected version

Thank you for your continued effort, Moshu.
I went to the pastebin’s corrected code (bottom window), copied it to a blank Notepad file, saved it in ANSI form, uploaded it to the proper directory, refreshed the main page of the blog site. Using IE, when I press the RSS button, the following opens in a separate IE Window:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″ ?>
– <!– generator=”wordpress/2.3.1″
–>
– <rss version=”2.0″ xmlns:content=”https://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/&#8221; xmlns:wfw=”https://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/&#8221; xmlns:dc=”https://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”&gt;
– <channel>
…[etc., etc., …]

A similar thing happens when I press the Comments RSS button.

However, Firefox (good old Firefox) behaves properly and goes to a formatted Window with icons, etc. saying, “Subscribe to this feed using…[etc.]”

Does your Internet Explorer by any chance display the same thing when you press these buttons? Or do you get a formatted box allowing a feedreader to be chosen?

I don’t understand this obesession with what YOU see in different browsers. Feeds are NOT for human eyes, they are for machines/software that can read it.

Your feeds are completely valid:
https://validator.w3.org/feed/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestfreetraining.net%2F%3Ffeed%3Drss2

So, what is the issue???

When I have visited other blogs and clicked on “RSS” icons, [no matter which browser I am using (IE6 or Firefox)], the result I see is a box with choices to direct the feed to a feed reader. So I simply thought that users of IE who clicked on my “RSS” icons and got a page of code in their faces would be confused. (I know my wife and other blogging newbies have been confused by this display.) However, the Firefox browser delivers a completely understandable box, nicely formatted, and set of choices to the newbie user. I was simply trying to get my blog’s RSS icons to behave like such icons behave in other blogs when displayed by IE… since IE is by far the most widely used.

However, if you say everything is okay and my blog is ready for prime time, then I’ll trust your judgment, since I’m new to this whole thing.

Finally, I would very much like to thank you for enduring what must have been very frustrating newbie ignorance on my part and for editing my code. And I’d like to properly credit your help. So please email me any real name, contact info, or however you’d like to be publicly identified to: [email protected]

Many, many thanks.
Mike G.

Hmmm…
I think I begin to understand what are you talking about. Not sure but let me give it a try.

By default WP produces the feeds – which is, as I said, a code to be read by machines, not human eyes.
On the other hand, a blogger can direct their feeds to an aggregator/feed service – most likely that’s what you saw on other blogs.

Please, visit this dev blog of mine:
https://www.transycan.net/blogtest/
and click on the orange button in the right sidebar. Is that what you would like to see?
– That’s feed through Feedburner services.
Next, scroll down to the Meta section of the sidebar and click on RSS link: it will give you the raw code view.

Are we talking about the same things?

re: “the orange button in the right sidebar. Is that what you would like to see?”

YES…YES… indeed, YES!

re: “the Meta section of the sidebar and click on RSS link: it will give you the raw code view.”

YIKES! this item behaves EXACTLY like mine does… and it is under “Meta” — ergo, mine is behaving as any knowledgable person would expect it to behave, right?

It seems I’ve been asking a pig to sing. Hmmm… can you recommend how I might get one of these orange buttons properly and surgically inserted into my sidebar, above the “Meta?” If there are step-by-step instructions somewhere, then I’ll go fetch them.

It is relatively straightforward…
1. Go to feedburner.com
2. Sign up
3. follow the instructions
4. it will give you the code to insert into your sidebar
5. edit your sidebar.php and put in the code; upload the file

IT’S DONE! And IT WORKS in both browsers exactly as hoped it would.

FYI: Feedburner suggests WordPress users should download and activate their suggested plugin (Feedburner Feedsmith) This is easy to do, and it works fine. Then you go to the part where you try to Optimize your feed and activate the chicklet (Feedburner icon) on your site. The code they generate is fine… works well. However, Feedburner’s instructions for placing this code in your blog using WordPress Dashboard did not work properly.

Feedburner recommended: [In WordPress Dashboard] Go to Presentation, Sidebar, Widgets, drag text box from “Available Widgets,” edit text [paste code], then save. This had no effect on my sidebar.

Here’s what worked (finally!): [In WordPress Dashboard] Go to Presentation, Theme Editor, and make sure you will be editing the right theme. Then select the theme element you want to edit — in my case, Sidebar. Now drop you Feedburner code in the Sidebar code box and click Update File. I had to experimment with the placement of the code by viewing the finished page, then rediting [dropping it in different locations].

OK. So now all is well. I wanted to document the above for anyone reading the archives who might be as ignorant of all this stuff as I am.

Again, THANK YOU, MOSHU for your patience and support. If you ever need any help copyediting something, please let me know [[email protected]]. In the meantime, I have listed your Playing with WordPress home page among my links in a category all its own: “Blog Builders and Maintainers.” If you want this changed, let me know.