RSS feeds per user?

November 26, 2004 1:08 AM

RSS feeds per user?
posted by nthdegx to Feature Requests at 1:08 AM (20 comments total)

On my MetaFilter posts page, Firfox tells me a feed is available, but it just seems to be that of the front page.

I don't know how easy this would be to implement, but I think it'd be very handy!
posted by nthdegx at 1:13 AM on November 26, 2004

All the better to stalk you with, my dear ;)
posted by adampsyche at 6:25 AM on November 26, 2004

RSS feeds for everything: posts per user (MeFi, MeTa, AskMe), comments per user (ditto), posts per user's contacts (ditto), comments per user's contacts (ditto), comments per thread, an actual MeTa RSS feed, a sidebar RSS feed -- everything.
posted by mcwetboy at 6:52 AM on November 26, 2004

That's a pretty pony you described. Good idea.
posted by terrapin at 7:19 AM on November 26, 2004

mcwetboy - indeed, but let's prioritise! RSS feeds per user, I say!
posted by nthdegx at 7:32 AM on November 26, 2004

I'm tempted to post this, but yeah, I've been planning on doing this someday soon.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:30 AM on November 26, 2004

Matt can't stop giving ponies, even when he wants to.

Damn.
posted by chicobangs at 9:17 AM on November 26, 2004

Isn't this pony just the bizarro-world version of the kill list pony? I want both, but nthdegx's idea is del.icio.us anyway.

There's a joke here about ponies, kill lists, and "They Shoot Horses, Don't They", but I'm perhaps a bit too postprandial to think it up. Or at least I'll use that as an excuse.
posted by Stoatfarm at 9:36 AM on November 26, 2004

mathowie: I doubt any of the code would be particularly useful, but a while back I wrote something for Scoop that can do main, section, and user feeds *and* give a choice of RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, and Atom (because goddamnit, the world *needs* multiple subtly different feed standards that do the same thing). The big thing is caching the feeds until they're a certain age, after which you generate a new one.

The ideas might come in handy, anyway.
posted by Captain_Tenille at 10:09 AM on November 26, 2004

Might I suggest a giant, man-eating pony: Along with user-specific RSS feeds, build a diaries.metafilter.com where users can post political stuff, fark-type links, and doubleposts to their hearts' content. Crappy FPPs would get "demoted" to the diaries section instead of removed completey.
posted by PrinceValium at 10:23 AM on November 26, 2004

"build a diaries.metafilter.com"

Thankfully, MetaFilter is not K5. Notice how Kuro5hin is an enormous flaming fucking trainwreck, and Metafilter is just an ordinary sort of messy? If at all possible, I'd like to keep it that way, and a good way to do that would be to stay far, far away from the diaries that killed K5.
posted by majick at 10:28 AM on November 26, 2004

Again, I plea that before any other thing is added in RSS, that we PLEASE get Titles for Ask.MetaFilter.com!!!

(also author data for the main page, would be nice as well)


:)
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 10:58 AM on November 26, 2004

I'll add my request for per-user rss feeds, so I can track my (and others) posts and comments.
posted by Caviar at 11:35 AM on November 26, 2004

I could write per user, per thread, and per anything rss feeds in about ten minutes of copying and pasting, the only thing stopping me is figuring out a way to make it light on processing power.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:48 PM on November 26, 2004

...so I can track my ... posts and comments.

Do it because Caviar has multiple personalities. Or so it would seem.

(Although I don't know that this might achieve something spectacular, it just sounds funny.)
posted by Dick Paris at 1:23 PM on November 26, 2004

I think amberglow's RSS would break the server. :)
posted by falconred at 3:11 PM on November 26, 2004

mathowie: the way I did it was to stat the cached rss file and compare the age with (now - cache_time). If the cached rss file was newer than that time, it serves up the file from the disk. If it's older, it generates a new file, writes it to disk, and then returns the new rss stuff as content.

That's the system DailyKos has been using for a while, and it seems to work pretty well. Way less intensive than generating a new feed every time someone wants one, plus it spreads the load out a bit (and you don't ever generate feeds for someone or something that never gets the feed requested).

Anyway, that was my way around the processing power issue.
posted by Captain_Tenille at 3:57 PM on November 26, 2004

We have multiple personalities?
posted by Caviar at 7:17 PM on November 26, 2004

Matt - are you concerned about being light on processing power or light on bandwidth? Or both?
posted by Caviar at 7:21 PM on November 26, 2004

the only thing stopping me is figuring out a way to make it light on processing power.

So ask MeFites for a nw serve ;)

Seriously, I hate not being able to track threads I post to via my Newsreader and would gladly chip in a few bucks.
posted by bkdelong at 8:06 AM on November 29, 2004