RSS feed is kinda broken

Off topic discourse and banter encouraged.
mdione
Asternaut
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun May 24, 2020 8:48 pm

RSS feed is kinda broken

Post by mdione » Wed Jan 04, 2023 8:53 am

I'm no RSS expert (although I once wrote my own client), but I think for ages the RSS feed was kinda broken:
  • The first entry always points to https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html, even when a dated page (ap{YY}{MM}{DD}.html) exists, which means the entry changes every day, and (some?) RSS clients get confused with this.
  • Entries are not dated, so less data for the clients to resolve the above issue.
And since Jan 02nd I have seen that:
  • Entries have and empty title.
I searched everywhere, but I don't know who to contact. Can someone forward this to the right person? TIA, cheers,

-- Marcos.

User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21593
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

Re: RSS feed is kinda broken

Post by bystander » Wed Jan 04, 2023 4:38 pm

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html is always the current apod.
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

mdione
Asternaut
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun May 24, 2020 8:48 pm

Re: RSS feed is kinda broken

Post by mdione » Wed Jan 04, 2023 10:11 pm

bystander wrote: Wed Jan 04, 2023 4:38 pm https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html is always the current apod.
Yes, I don't deny it is useful, what I'm saying is that it shouldn't be in the RSS feed, specially since it doesn't have a declared date. The RSS feed instead should include the date based URL for the first entry, since that URL is the canonical one for the resource.

SkySafari
Asternaut
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2023 9:54 am

Re: RSS feed is kinda broken

Post by SkySafari » Sat Apr 08, 2023 10:42 am

mdione wrote: Wed Jan 04, 2023 10:11 pm Yes, I don't deny it is useful, what I'm saying is that it shouldn't be in the RSS feed, specially since it doesn't have a declared date.
Moreover, I think the initial requirements for an RSS feed adressed this:
OgetayK wrote: Sun Nov 21, 2021 9:35 pm

mdione wrote: Wed Jan 04, 2023 8:53 am
  • Entries are not dated, so less data for the clients to resolve the above issue.
The lack of timestamps for entries is a big deal in general, not just for the above issue. My RSS feed reader is displaying all entries as having been published on Jan 01.
The current RSS feed (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss) also fails to meet another requirement, taken from Flipboard (https://ko-kr.about.flipboard.com/rss-guidelines/):
The entire body copy of your article, not just headlines and summaries.
This feed (https://apod.me/en.rss), from the Arabic APOD mirror (https://apod.me/), seems to address all of these issues.