Alternatively, if you would rather simply be added to our e-mail list just click below, send us the mail and we'll add you to our distribution list. Mails go out at roughly the same time as the news feed updates.

Note that we'll send the updates to whatever e-mail address is on the request sent to us.

Please let me know of updates by e-mail
 

In a nutshell, RSS (generally accepted as Really Simple Syndication) lets people with something to say connect automatically with people who want to hear it. So, unlike email for instance, which is sent out to lists of people whether they want to receive it or not (Spam), items published to a news feed (because that's what it is) are only picked up by those people who subscribe to that feed.

There are many news feeds around nowadays and they provide a really effective way of letting people know what's going on.

There is a great overview of RSS and News Feeds at www.bbc.co.uk which will give you the basics.

Even if you choose not to use our site on a regular basis, you can still subscribe to our RSS feed to receive regular updates and news. Once you have one you'll wonder how you ever managed without it!

As things change on the site we'll issue news bulletins via our news feed, so anybody who wants to keep an eye on changes will always know if something of interest has cropped up.

In general, the first thing you need is something called a "reader". There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. All allow you to display and subscribe to the RSS feeds you want.

Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want. For example, if you would like the latest BBC News Entertainment stories, simply visit the Entertainment section and you will notice an orange RSS button on the left hand side.

If you click on the button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader or by cutting/copying and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader.

Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, have functionality which automatically picks up RSS feeds for you. For more details on these, please check their websites.

Note that you may see an orange or button rather than an button - they all do the same thing. XML is the technical standard used for the feeds, whereas RSS is the pretty consumer name. 

There are a range of different news readers available and new versions are appearing all the time. Some are subscription based, and some are free. See www.rssreader.com for a quick, easy and free reader for PC's.

Different news readers work on different operating systems, so you will need to take this into account when you make your choice... but basically they all work in the same way.