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Topic: RSS Feed (Read 7224 times) previous topic - next topic

RSS Feed

I've been looking at: https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?type=rss;action=.xml

Looks useful for grabbing just the last few posts.
I have a problem with the format. Typically looks like this:
Quote from: rss header
Today, February 06, 2010, 28 minutes ago
This doesn't tell me who the poster is. But if the poster has his email address exposed in Profile Info, it is displayed.
Quote from: rss header
Today, February 06, 2010, 28 minutes ago|member@their.address
IMO, it would be more useful (and respectful of privacy) if the 'Member's screen name' was displayed, rather than the email address.
Registered user since 1996

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #1 –
We do not have near-term plans to modify how SMF creates its RSS/XML feeds.

I would note two things:

  • The XML data only seems to include the author field if you (the requester) are signed into the forum. This typically means that a browser is being used to fetch the feed.
  • The dates in the RSS feed are specified in GMT, so your XML viewer, which I am guessing is IE, must be translating that into a relative time stamp.

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #2 –
Quote from: NoteWorthy Online –
  • The XML data only seems to include the author field if you (the requester) are signed into the forum. This typically means that a browser is being used to fetch the feed.
Confirmed. This makes me feel less exposed.
I probably shouldn't care about who the poster is since I can only see a short snippet of the post.
Registered user since 1996

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #3 –
The fact that the information is harder to get via XML does not really mitigate the privacy issue that it is available via HTML. It is just as simple to automatically parse and aggregate HTML as XML.

If you have concerns, why not just protect your e-mail address? Authenticated users can still reach you via the forum's personal message feature.

On the other hand, if you want the general public to be able to reach you via e-mail, then such a desire is inconsistent with concerns about protecting your e-mail address.

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #4 –
Exposing my email address to those who have registered on this forum is a risk I accepted long ago.
I just want to be safe from web-crawlers who see an SMF Forum and start harvesting emails addresses from it. I am now resaonably sure that I am.
Registered user since 1996

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #5 –
The forum has been configured to only show e-mail addresses to registered users. However, it is absolutely true that this forum is under more or less constant assault, and a substantial number of anonymous (possibly unlicensed) users have signed up to the forum and activated their access. These forum users have not been authenticated as actual NWC2 users. This is something that everyone should be aware of...

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #7 –
I've been subscribed to the RSS feed for few weeks. Very handy. Shows if there is anything new when I start the browser or while browsing elsewhere. The way I have it set up with IE8, it gets about 5Kb of data every 30 minutes, which is a very light load.
Registered user since 1996

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #8 –
Interesting. Deleted posts (spam, etc.) are included in the RSS feed. No official comment solicited, it is probably "just the way it works."
Registered user since 1996

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #9 –
The feed will show anything that you can view (assuming you are sending your credentials via a browser). You should not see any truly deleted posts unless they are in a local cache on your computer.

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #10 –
Quote from: NoteWorthy Online –
The feed will show anything that you can view (assuming you are sending your credentials via a browser). You should not see any truly deleted posts unless they are in a local cache on your computer.
I am sending credentials. I'm seeing this:
Quote from: RSS Feed
Ajax
Today, March 25, 2010, 9 hours ago | rishyshi@ibibo.com
Ajax, shorthand for "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML", is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes...
It also gives me the link, which the forum says is off limits to me.
Registered user since 1996

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #11 –
That wasn't in the RSS feed at the time of your posting, although it was there earlier. You must be looking at a cached version.

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #12 –
RSS feed seems to be down. IE8 reports:
Quote
Internet Explorer was unable to update this feed and will try again later.
Registered user since 1996

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #13 –
It is working fine for me. Perhaps your system had a temporary glitch. For example, some overloaded DNS servers can cause this kind of thing on occasion.

Re: RSS Feed

Reply #14 –
Problem persists. I can do without it for a day or so. I'll report back later.
Thanks for checking.
Feed now working. Same instance of IE8 that reported it down. Go figure
Registered user since 1996