5 ms·

RSS should be a core rather than a 'micro' feature.

fabianholzer 2y ago
Should, but sadly I have lost count how many feeds in my reader became dysfunctional because they were rewritten to be using nextjs (or the likes).
- afiori 2y ago
  What is a good guide on how to implement basic RSS functionality?
  - oopsallmagic 2y ago
    [dead]
  - fabianholzer 2y ago
    If you start from scratch, factor it in when deciding on a cms, platform or site generator. I think RSS/atom owes a lot to WordPress, which has it enabled by default since ages. When you want to add it retro-actively, the specifications are relatively straight forward and don't have many mandatory properties. RSS is a tad simple than Atom, but I'd probably rather go for Atom if I were to start over. https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/atom.html https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/atom.html In any case: add a link rel=feed to the header of every page to enable discovery (https://www.rssboard.org/rss-autodiscovery https://www.rssboard.org/rss-autodiscovery - but works regardless of the format)
    - WorldMaker 2y ago
      Also, JSON Feed [0] is still better than nothing, many of the major RSS readers quietly support it, and does have the small advantage that JSON is much easier to work with in more platforms than XML today. [0] https://www.jsonfeed.org/ https://www.jsonfeed.org/
  - Vrondi 2y ago
    Most CMS/blog apps have it built in. You might need to look up how to enable it (Drupal) or you might already have it enabled, even if you don't realize it (Wordpress). Check the documentation for your blogging/site content framework of choice. If you're super old school and do an actual manual HTML site, just create the RSS file and add entries to it, then link to it. This is well documented and not in any way complex. It's just a text file, after all.
    - account42 2y ago
      > If you're super old school and do an actual manual HTML site, just create the RSS file and add entries to it, then link to it. Make use to add an <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="feed.rss"> element and not just a normal hyperlink so that users can just paste your blog URL into their feed reader to subscribe without having to search for the feed link. Ideally this should be present in the page for both the index as well as every article.
- eXpl0it3r 2y ago
  Unless it's a corporate-ish site, I've found that asking the authors to add an RSS feed can work quite well.
- andrewaylett 2y ago
  There's nothing stopping a website that's written using NextJS from having an RSS feed. Like mine: https://github.com/andrewaylett/aylett.co.uk/blob/main/src/app/articles/rss/route.ts https://github.com/andrewaylett/aylett.co.uk/blob/main/src/a... for example.
xnorswap 2y ago
I might cop a lot of hate for saying this, but it's been 10 years, it's time to stop mourning RSS and move on. I loved RSS, I sorely miss the protocol based internet rather than the web based internet we have now. I miss when my emails didn't have adverts pretending to be emails at the top of my inbox. Advertising was a lot less prevalent when applications had protocols and you could simply move to a different client with fewer (or no) adverts. But that's not the reality of the modern web. And it doesn't do much good to pine for the past.
- ruszki 2y ago
  How is it better to not talk about that something became worse according to somebody?
- oliwarner 2y ago
  Mourning? Past? I'm still using it.
- the_gastropod 2y ago
  This take, popular though it is, seems to be more vibes-based than reality based. Most blogs I visit have RSS feeds. The site we’re both currently posting on has a fully functional RSS feed. It’s hardly dead.
  - mariusor 2y ago
    I always thought HN doesn't have RSS, that's why https://hnrss.org https://hnrss.org was created if I'm not mistaken. I just saw there is actually a feed for the main page.
    - Gormo 2y ago
      HN has never not had RSS, at least for as long as I've been using it (15 years): https://news.ycombinator.com/rss https://news.ycombinator.com/rss
- Gormo 2y ago
  > I might cop a lot of hate for saying this, but it's been 10 years, it's time to stop mourning RSS and move on. I can't comprehend where this notion that RSS is somehow "dead" is coming from. RSS is ubiquitous: every major blogging platform, aggregator, and other media site continues to offer feeds, including all of the major video sharing sites. The entire podcasting ecosystem is based on RSS. I consume HN, Reddit, Lobste.rs, about a hundred blogs, a hundred podcasts, YouTube and lots of other sui generis stuff all via RSS feeds, subscribed in TT-RSS with Liferea as a frontend. RSS hasn't gone away and is not going away. > I loved RSS, I sorely miss the protocol based internet rather than the web based internet we have now. It hasn't gone anywhere. If you miss it, consider the possibility that you yourself have followed the garden path away from it, and forgotten the way back.
xigoi 2y ago
Unfortunately, it only supports a limited subset of HTML.
- account42 2y ago
  That's OK though - it should be enough for text content. I think it's also OK to just have the RSS feed contain the title and summary of the article since I prefer to read the content in my browser anyway - but there are definitely different opinions here.

Should, but sadly I have lost count how many feeds in my reader became dysfunctional because they were rewritten to be using nextjs (or the likes).

afiori 2y ago
What is a good guide on how to implement basic RSS functionality?
- oopsallmagic 2y ago
  [dead]
- fabianholzer 2y ago
  If you start from scratch, factor it in when deciding on a cms, platform or site generator. I think RSS/atom owes a lot to WordPress, which has it enabled by default since ages. When you want to add it retro-actively, the specifications are relatively straight forward and don't have many mandatory properties. RSS is a tad simple than Atom, but I'd probably rather go for Atom if I were to start over. https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/atom.html https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/atom.html In any case: add a link rel=feed to the header of every page to enable discovery (https://www.rssboard.org/rss-autodiscovery https://www.rssboard.org/rss-autodiscovery - but works regardless of the format)
  - WorldMaker 2y ago
    Also, JSON Feed [0] is still better than nothing, many of the major RSS readers quietly support it, and does have the small advantage that JSON is much easier to work with in more platforms than XML today. [0] https://www.jsonfeed.org/ https://www.jsonfeed.org/
- Vrondi 2y ago
  Most CMS/blog apps have it built in. You might need to look up how to enable it (Drupal) or you might already have it enabled, even if you don't realize it (Wordpress). Check the documentation for your blogging/site content framework of choice. If you're super old school and do an actual manual HTML site, just create the RSS file and add entries to it, then link to it. This is well documented and not in any way complex. It's just a text file, after all.
  - account42 2y ago
    > If you're super old school and do an actual manual HTML site, just create the RSS file and add entries to it, then link to it. Make use to add an <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="feed.rss"> element and not just a normal hyperlink so that users can just paste your blog URL into their feed reader to subscribe without having to search for the feed link. Ideally this should be present in the page for both the index as well as every article.
eXpl0it3r 2y ago
Unless it's a corporate-ish site, I've found that asking the authors to add an RSS feed can work quite well.
andrewaylett 2y ago
There's nothing stopping a website that's written using NextJS from having an RSS feed. Like mine: https://github.com/andrewaylett/aylett.co.uk/blob/main/src/app/articles/rss/route.ts https://github.com/andrewaylett/aylett.co.uk/blob/main/src/a... for example.

xnorswap 2y ago

I might cop a lot of hate for saying this, but it's been 10 years, it's time to stop mourning RSS and move on. I loved RSS, I sorely miss the protocol based internet rather than the web based internet we have now. I miss when my emails didn't have adverts pretending to be emails at the top of my inbox. Advertising was a lot less prevalent when applications had protocols and you could simply move to a different client with fewer (or no) adverts. But that's not the reality of the modern web. And it doesn't do much good to pine for the past.

ruszki 2y ago
How is it better to not talk about that something became worse according to somebody?
oliwarner 2y ago
Mourning? Past? I'm still using it.
the_gastropod 2y ago
This take, popular though it is, seems to be more vibes-based than reality based. Most blogs I visit have RSS feeds. The site we’re both currently posting on has a fully functional RSS feed. It’s hardly dead.
- mariusor 2y ago
  I always thought HN doesn't have RSS, that's why https://hnrss.org https://hnrss.org was created if I'm not mistaken. I just saw there is actually a feed for the main page.
  - Gormo 2y ago
    HN has never not had RSS, at least for as long as I've been using it (15 years): https://news.ycombinator.com/rss https://news.ycombinator.com/rss
Gormo 2y ago
> I might cop a lot of hate for saying this, but it's been 10 years, it's time to stop mourning RSS and move on. I can't comprehend where this notion that RSS is somehow "dead" is coming from. RSS is ubiquitous: every major blogging platform, aggregator, and other media site continues to offer feeds, including all of the major video sharing sites. The entire podcasting ecosystem is based on RSS. I consume HN, Reddit, Lobste.rs, about a hundred blogs, a hundred podcasts, YouTube and lots of other sui generis stuff all via RSS feeds, subscribed in TT-RSS with Liferea as a frontend. RSS hasn't gone away and is not going away. > I loved RSS, I sorely miss the protocol based internet rather than the web based internet we have now. It hasn't gone anywhere. If you miss it, consider the possibility that you yourself have followed the garden path away from it, and forgotten the way back.

xigoi 2y ago

Unfortunately, it only supports a limited subset of HTML.

account42 2y ago
That's OK though - it should be enough for text content. I think it's also OK to just have the RSS feed contain the title and summary of the article since I prefer to read the content in my browser anyway - but there are definitely different opinions here.