3 ms·

Please add a link to comments in the RSS feed

9 points by cmars232 19y ago

cmars232 19y ago
Hi, I mainly read YC Startup News through a news aggregator. Could ya'll add a link to comments for each entry in the feed? (This might be a good idea for Reddit's feeds too...)
- Sam_Odio 19y ago
  Good suggestion, but it has already been posted in the features request thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=7851 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=7851 (This might be a good idea for Reddit's feeds too...) Regarding the reddit request, you might want try posting that @ http://request.reddit.com http://request.reddit.com
  - knome 19y ago
    Also, reddit already does this. Looks like this on iGoogle : [-]Bad Software Design: Getting the Level Wrong [link][more]
- pg 19y ago
  We do (look at the source) but most feed readers seem to ignore it. If anyone can tell us how to format the feed so that stops happening, we're all ears.
  - busy_beaver 19y ago
    Feedvalidator finds a couple of problems, but I'm not sure that they're related. http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2Frss http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2Frss Maybe try generating an Atom feed? Atom seems to be much better defined than any of the myriad competing RSS implementations. Or maybe toss a hyperlink into the description tag rather than the comments tag ... from what I see in the RSS 2.0 spec, comments is a more of a "should" rather than a "must". The spec itself refers to it as an optional element, and Winer (I think) says in a note that implementers "should" support it. Clearly some of them don't. :-)
    - busy_beaver 19y ago
      Someone mentioned below that it's working on Reddit. I just looked at their feed, and it looks like they are indeed putting the comments link inside "description" rather than "comments".
  - brett 19y ago
    Like I (opaquely?) said last time this came up (http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=12380 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=12380 ) you could try giving each <item> a <description> child with an escaped link in it a la reddit (http://reddit.com/.rss http://reddit.com/.rss )
3KWA 19y ago
+1 reddit does it indeed ... very convenient ;)
ralph 19y ago
Paul, might you modify the submissions page to have some guidelines? Point people to the Feature Requests thread as they clearly don't notice the link at the bottom of the page. Remind them that this is Startup News so it would be good if the posting was applicable. Tell them where to find Slashdot if that's what they want. And explain that they are not the only ones with RSS feeds so they don't need to just copy links from there to here. Personally, I think news quality has degraded since karma came along. Some people are clearly keen to move up the leader board and starting a new thread is one way to do that. How about not rewarding karma for a thread's score? It can still be voted up by others to show it's interesting but karma must be earned by quality comments on the thread. Either that, or let us down vote threads to penalise non-applicable threads. Better statistics may help show some light. http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=18085 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=18085

9 points by cmars232 19y ago

Hi, I mainly read YC Startup News through a news aggregator. Could ya'll add a link to comments for each entry in the feed? (This might be a good idea for Reddit's feeds too...)

Sam_Odio 19y ago
Good suggestion, but it has already been posted in the features request thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=7851 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=7851 (This might be a good idea for Reddit's feeds too...) Regarding the reddit request, you might want try posting that @ http://request.reddit.com http://request.reddit.com
- knome 19y ago
  Also, reddit already does this. Looks like this on iGoogle : [-]Bad Software Design: Getting the Level Wrong [link][more]
pg 19y ago
We do (look at the source) but most feed readers seem to ignore it. If anyone can tell us how to format the feed so that stops happening, we're all ears.
- busy_beaver 19y ago
  Feedvalidator finds a couple of problems, but I'm not sure that they're related. http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2Frss http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2Frss Maybe try generating an Atom feed? Atom seems to be much better defined than any of the myriad competing RSS implementations. Or maybe toss a hyperlink into the description tag rather than the comments tag ... from what I see in the RSS 2.0 spec, comments is a more of a "should" rather than a "must". The spec itself refers to it as an optional element, and Winer (I think) says in a note that implementers "should" support it. Clearly some of them don't. :-)
  - busy_beaver 19y ago
    Someone mentioned below that it's working on Reddit. I just looked at their feed, and it looks like they are indeed putting the comments link inside "description" rather than "comments".
- brett 19y ago
  Like I (opaquely?) said last time this came up (http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=12380 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=12380 ) you could try giving each <item> a <description> child with an escaped link in it a la reddit (http://reddit.com/.rss http://reddit.com/.rss )

3KWA 19y ago

+1 reddit does it indeed ... very convenient ;)

ralph 19y ago

Paul, might you modify the submissions page to have some guidelines? Point people to the Feature Requests thread as they clearly don't notice the link at the bottom of the page. Remind them that this is Startup News so it would be good if the posting was applicable. Tell them where to find Slashdot if that's what they want. And explain that they are not the only ones with RSS feeds so they don't need to just copy links from there to here. Personally, I think news quality has degraded since karma came along. Some people are clearly keen to move up the leader board and starting a new thread is one way to do that. How about not rewarding karma for a thread's score? It can still be voted up by others to show it's interesting but karma must be earned by quality comments on the thread. Either that, or let us down vote threads to penalise non-applicable threads. Better statistics may help show some light. http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=18085 http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=18085