Why isn't there any description in my RSS
 

I've added 2 RSS feeds on my forum, and when I run them the threads don't feature anything but the link to that post and the title. Where's the description, or excerpt for that post?

RSS2 is the type that shows a description.

View the URL of the feed in your browser and look at the data- there may not be a description included in the feed.

Hmmm, I can see that I can insert the whole body text too. Instead, is there any way I can trim it instead of getting the whole thing in.

Most of the RSS I want to use don't have descriptions.

Well there's no 'easy' (built in) way... I'm sure someone a little better than I could probably come up with a plugin to do this.

Hmmm, its almost a pointless feature without any options. Most of the RSS feeds I've tried don't have descriptions, and I don't want to put the full length article in the thread because it isn't my content nor do I have formatting options. So its either a thread with no content, or a thread with too much content which gives no reason for the reader to view it on their own website.

Perhaps I need to investigate the commotion regarding 'AboutToday' plugin as some sort of solutiuon.

It'd be great to get someone to whip up a quick addon to allow users to format, and modify how the content appears in the RSS thread (images, formatting, cut off points, redirects etc) should they choose to display the whole RSS feed. How do I go about doing this?

I don't know what RSS feeds you are using but 99% of the ones I've seen and used offer ONLY a short description with a link back to the full content.

However if the feeds you have contain the full 'article' then you are welcomed to show it in full- it means the feed author is letting you do this because they don't have to and most don't. Don't feel bad about it.

My RSS feeds are on a niche area, and are academic. And also they put other links as part as their RSS, like, submit to facebook, twitter etc. I don't want these links. Sometimes the picture is also not aligned properly. There are still changes to be made and a good plugin would be helpful to address these isues.