RSS feeds for comments and tags? Maybe per user?

April 8, 2005 3:20 PM

I'd like to see individual comments feeds for all MeFi posts. This would make threads much easier to track. Also, could we get feeds for MeFi tags too perhaps? And what about feeds for each user's posts and comments, like how 43 Things uses them.
posted by sjvilla79 to Feature Requests at 3:20 PM (32 comments total)

and a feed for comments counts, and a feed for the metafilter: tag lines and a feed for the date stamp and a feed for everytime quonsar visits

and I'd like it not to slow the server down.
posted by bonaldi at 4:04 PM on April 8, 2005

Oh, and a pony. A white one.
posted by aine42 at 4:06 PM on April 8, 2005

Obviously server load is of some concern, but I agree with sjvilla79 that feeds for posts and users would be massively useful.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 4:15 PM on April 8, 2005

How would feeds for single users be massively useful, unless you are a (really lazy) stalker?
posted by fire&wings at 4:27 PM on April 8, 2005

It would be useful in the same way "contributions from my contacts" is useful, but I could subscribe to it and see updates in my aggregator. While I diligently attempt to read all of MetaFilter everyday, often that is simply not possible, and rather than read whatever bits happen to be current at the time I'm reading, I'd like to read posts from users I like and find interesting. It'd be like tivo for mefi.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 4:32 PM on April 8, 2005

bonaldi and aine42, great comments. You can't both be jerks can you? I thought MeFi members were beyond making cheap shots. Sadly I was wrong, hey.

@ monju_bosatsu
Thanks for the comment. Yes, it might slow MeFi's server down but perhaps we could contribute more (as members) to the site's running costs.

@ fire&wings
You've never used have you? Perhaps you've heard of Flickr too?
posted by sjvilla79 at 4:35 PM on April 8, 2005

Edit: @ fire&wings
You've never used del.icio.us have you? Perhaps you've heard of Flickr too?
posted by sjvilla79 at 4:38 PM on April 8, 2005

I thought MeFi members were beyond making cheap shots.
In the face of all evidence to the contrary?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:54 PM on April 8, 2005 [1 favorite]

sjvilla79, you've never encountered the term "massively useful," before? The wheel is massively useful. Aggregating a single users posts from this website is not massively useful. This isn't flickr. We share content by creating FPPs. Reading individual posts out of general context is not the same as sharing a wonderful photograph. If you know or admire the poster, great. Read their blog, IM them, or call them.

It is a quirky and marginal feature that could perhaps be implemented as part of a wider overhaul if resources allowed. I wouldn't object to it in that context, but then I was only asking another user why they would call it "massively useful," not trying to be a jerk, or spark debate on the issue.
posted by fire&wings at 4:55 PM on April 8, 2005

The discussion the last time this was requested.

I can see an RSS feed per tag being useful. But what's the rationale for one per post? Wouldn't you have to constantly be adding new ones, which defeats the whole point of RSS?
posted by smackfu at 5:05 PM on April 8, 2005

Thanks sjvilla49! I was trying to take a cheap shot.

It's bad enough to see wizened users demanding pony after pony in here -- what is it with requests recently? -- but to see someone who's been here all of eight days brusquely demanding new toys is utter wank. Hell, you're so new you think we're beyond cheap shots.

Possibly because you're reading upside down
posted by bonaldi at 5:06 PM on April 8, 2005

Well, I can see that this idea wasn't even worth mentioning now because there are people here who will shoot down any comment when they get the immediate chance. It makes no difference how long I've been here, hey. That's like saying the longer you're a member here the more respect you'll get when posting. MeFi doesn't support elitism does it?

@ ThePinkSuperhero
I was offended by the first two comments. I think they were hardly constructive and in direct contrast to what this resource is all about. But then again I've only been here a few days so what the fuck would I know.

Aggregating a single users posts from this website is not massively useful.
Fine. I'll scrape the content then. I know this is considered bad but what the heck. I'm sure other people are doing it.

not trying to be a jerk, or spark debate on the issue.
I didn't say you were either way. Just want to be clear on that. I appreciate your feedback, mate.

But what's the rationale for one per post?
I'd like to be able to track a post's comments. It's that simple.

bonaldi (spelt right because I'm nice), what's with all this pony talk? Is that "cool" MeFi speak? And I must say I wasn't "demanding new toys". As another user pointed out this discussion has been had before. Oh, and I guess you are one of a few people on here I'll soon be ignoring. Where's the ignore button?

[sarcasm] Should I make another feature request? [/sarcasm]

Possibly because you're reading upside down
Very fucking funny, mate. Is that the lamest Australian joke you could come up with?
posted by sjvilla79 at 5:31 PM on April 8, 2005

I was offended by the first two comments.

You offend easily. Those were a humorous explication of a real concern and an old in joke. If that's enough to upset you, maybe you should take up macrame.

This is MeFi. Wear a cup.
posted by jonmc at 5:39 PM on April 8, 2005

How to Win Friends and Influence People.
posted by crunchland at 5:42 PM on April 8, 2005

*blows whistle* "PILEON!"
posted by onalark at 5:45 PM on April 8, 2005

It makes no difference how long I've been here, hey. That's like saying the longer you're a member here the more respect you'll get when posting. MeFi doesn't support elitism does it?

No, but MeFi supports informed feature requests from those who share some understanding as to what MetaFilter is about and how it's intended to work (and not work). MeFi isn't simply "flickr for links."

If you are "offended" by a couple of tame snarks (very tame by MeFi standards) and are confused by ponies, then you really should lurk for a while longer to get a better sense of the place before insisting that the rest of us change our ways for a newcomer -- because that just isn't going to happen.
posted by DaShiv at 5:59 PM on April 8, 2005

I created metarss for personal use, but it should meet some of your needs. It's quite rough around the edges, but that shouldn't stop it from being useful to you. I intend to polish it, but I'd be happy to listen to any feedback.

You can:

• Get comments for any thread on MeFi as an RSS feed
• Get an RSS feed of MeTa
• Get an RSS feed of metafilter.com's status.

I could add support for RSS feeds for users, tags, MeTa threads and AskMe threads over the weekend.
posted by sequential at 6:31 PM on April 8, 2005

I like this new fellow. I imagine him wearing a golden monocle and a silk ascot while sipping tea.

He also picked an excellent day to make his request.

I wish companies really had open APIs that could let programmer creativity blossom like this, without having to resort to massive page scraping that can be broken/banned at any time.
posted by euphorb at 6:45 PM on April 8, 2005

That's great, sequential. Thanks.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:14 PM on April 8, 2005

I'd love to do this all, just not as active queries on the database for every request.

Any and all ColdFusion coders are more than welcome to suggest ways to help solve this problem for me. Here's essentially the crux of the problem:

- must create a caching mechanism so that if user A requests the feed in her reader and user B comes along 30 seconds later to do the same, the same flat file is sent to B, off the filesystem, if the contents of the feed haven't changed

- how to determine if there's new info with as little cycles as possible

- Do you: create a flat file anytime a tag, comment, or user does anything? (pros: easy to support tons of readers on any special feed, since they're all flat files / cons: lots of writing files to the db that might not be used by anyone, could produce 100k files that need to be updated constantly) or Do you create a table of recent changes/additions that duplicates data elsewhere in the db, and just query on that? (pros: fast processing on hopefully smaller tables (at first) / cons: duplicate data in your table, still need to build a caching mechanism.

I'd love to offer these, but I need some real programmer help to do it (and please refrain from the kneejerk "but PHP/perl/rubyonrails/BASIC" could do it so much easier!!!1!!!" even if you're saying it ironically)
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:16 PM on April 8, 2005

Oh dear! I threw out the bait and lurkers just had to bite!

sequential, thanks for your post. I'll check out your site.

It's heavy with all these people on top of me, hey.
posted by sjvilla79 at 8:30 PM on April 8, 2005

One way is to create the flat file the first time someone requests it. If there is no flat file, there won't be any updates to it, you can check for the existence of the flat file when the thread is updated and update the file accordingly or ignore and move on.

To avoid search bots creating new flat files for the feeds, make the links visible to members only with a hash instead of a predictable url, it sounds bad for usability but it is easier than someone building a bot that guesses the feed urls.
posted by riffola at 9:13 PM on April 8, 2005

I'd love to do this all, just not as active queries on the database for every request.

The way I do it is one query per hour per unique requested thread. So, if ten people request the same thread, the file is cached on the first request and fetched once an hour for thirty days. That's still 720 page views over 30 days, but every member can view the RSS without taxing the database.

must create a caching mechanism so that if user A requests the feed in her reader and user B comes along 30 seconds later to do the same, the same flat file is sent to B, off the filesystem, if the contents of the feed haven't changed

That's exactly what this does, except in perl. It's yours if you want it.

how to determine if there's new info with as little cycles as possible

A last modified date associated with each thread would do the trick, then you can tell if a new file needs to be created in one DB query.

Do you: create a flat file anytime a tag, comment, or user does anything?

I do it every hour. You could do it every n minutes. n could be user dependant or global.

lots of writing files to the db that might not be used by anyone

I write the files to the filesystem, saves resources all around. I use a a directory structure that is based on the site name and the thread number. This keeps too many files from building up in one directory.

and please refrain from the kneejerk "but PHP/perl/rubyonrails/BASIC" could do it so much easier!!!1!!!"

I'm not saying anything could do it easier than anything else. It's just done in perl.

As a side note, I support anything that XML::RSS supports, though it's currently a hidden feature. The translation can be handled on the fly by passing the version on the query string.

XML::RSS currently supports 0.9, 0.91, and 1.0 versions of RSS.

posted by sequential at 9:59 PM on April 8, 2005

But then again I've only been here a few days so what the fuck would I know.

Try this.
posted by CunningLinguist at 10:00 PM on April 8, 2005

Yes, yes, and more yes grasshoppers. Mind those manners!
posted by sjvilla79 at 12:22 AM on April 9, 2005

Do you even know that the guy posting up there called Mathowie is the one person in charge of this place, and codes it in his not-vast spare time? God, you don't say please in your list of demands and you don't say thanks when Matt bends over anyway.

Not even a "great site" passes your lips. Just LOL's and exclamation marks. Christ you're a dick, n00b.
posted by bonaldi at 5:01 AM on April 9, 2005

"Do you even know that the guy posting up there called Mathowie is the one person in charge of this place, and codes it in his not-vast spare time?"
Wow really! I guess I'm a fucking noob and I didn't know that (actually spoke with Matt via email last week)! Sorry about all the exclamation marks! I hope we can be friends, bonaldi! You can help me become a cool MeFi member like yourself! So mature and a perfect image for this site. I'm glad I joined! Honestly! I want to be just like you, moron!

I find it funny you had nothing constructive to add other than to further abuse me. It obviously shows that this topic is way over your head, bonaldi. Perhaps it's best to move on. Bullying will get you nowhere fast, hey. You questioning me just shows your own weaknesses. It's rather amusing.

Want to flame me further? Hit me: [e-mail]
posted by sjvilla79 at 5:16 AM on April 9, 2005

posted by gleuschk at 5:39 AM on April 9, 2005

Oh, fair enough, if it needs spelt out.

I think feeds for comments posts are utterly pointless. The point of RSS feeds is surely to allow aggregators to gather frequently updated sites for the user, to save checking all the time. Most of their interfaces expect a relatively static set of feeds, with changing content.

MeFi comments, however, are not a static source with changing content, they're changing sources with content that tends towards static rapidly. In fact, after 30 days they are closed entirely (you did know that sjvilla79, right?).

So how are people going to use these? Add a new RSS source for every post they wish to track? Right, and then a clump of them are going to stop removing the feed once a thread dies. The server will be polled to infinity on threads that never change. Yey.

A feed for user comments? That's just stalkerish. This is supposed to be a conversation here, not 43-things alike standalone statements. I can't see any value whatsoever in being fed one particular user's comments. Even the funny fuckers here are funny in context. Reading q's posts standalone would be bizarre, frinstance.

You didn't bother your arse to explain why you wanted any of these things in your post, sjvilla79, beyond "it would make threads easier to track", and you don't say why that is. That's what really got my back up: you haven't bothered to work out how the interface works around here and you're already trying to twist it to something else you're more used to. Make the effort already. Have you seen the "sort by" popup on the front page? You can use it to see what threads have been most recently updated, or what ones you've been splattering exclams in. All without battering the server.

Tags feeds seem fair enough.
posted by bonaldi at 5:42 AM on April 9, 2005

Hey, I think we're getting somewhere. gleuschk still doesn't get it, though. It's so easy to post and run, hey.

"The point of RSS feeds is surely to allow aggregators to gather frequently updated sites for the user, to save checking all the time."
RSS has a number of uses. Delivering comments on forum-like sites is a perfectly viable option. Have you ever seen blog posts with RSS tracking feeds available? This is a good, useful feature.

"That's what really got my back up: you haven't bothered to work out how the interface works around here and you're already trying to twist it to something else you're more used to."
Part of the reason why you keep pissing me off, bonaldi, is because you keep making assumptions about what I have or have not done. It's annoying because you've been way off the mark each time.

Essentially my reasoning in requesting these features was not really to demand anything of Matt. Rather, I wanted to raise the issue of accessing MeFi content in current and useful ways, right on top of already established methods (which I was already aware of by the way). There's obviously no harm in bringing this stuff out in the open. I mean MeFi just recently got into folksonomies and that seems to be going well. Surely any advances in the site's communicative technologies is a better thing. If Matt is successful in finding a method of doing this, as he said, the probability of more feeds for MeFi content is not too far away. I wish my programming brain was more strong enough to assist, hey. I'll put my hand up to that.

So bonaldi, I think we're cool now, right? I'd like to think so.
posted by sjvilla79 at 6:04 AM on April 9, 2005

Wow, I'm glad I resisted the urge to hit the back button on sight of sjvilla79's rather scary patter and made it as far as sequential - thanks awfully for making the metarss thing.

The server will be polled to infinity on threads that never change. Yey.

Good point, I know I'm polling a squillion dead feeds every day from briefly interesting weblog posts and the like. Can't think quite how it would be done, but perhaps once a thread closes, it could alert subscribers to the fact? Do aggregators pay attention to things like 410 Gone errors?
posted by jack_mo at 6:43 AM on April 9, 2005

An RSS for user's post is my number one pony. It would just be handy. I don't really read metafilter to watch everyone bicker at everyone, but I would like to read ever conversation that my friends, and especially me sweetie contribute to.
posted by corpse at 8:28 AM on April 9, 2005