RSS for new comments

Please consider an RSS feed that triggers when new comments happen on an object or set of objects.

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Mark de LA says
When there is interest in a set of items or a long item it is nice to just get a feed when a comment or change has been added.

Seth says
Definitely!

I'm seriously considering putting all of the comments in the atom feed so that somone will see the entire dialogue. Prob with that is just making a comment should not push the item on top of the stream, so it won't ... just change in the text of the item itself. The basic prob is that if you are watching the feed in your newsreader then ideally you will want to see the changes since last you looked. .... hmm how to solve that prob .... hopefully solution will emerge ...

Seth says
... perhaps a second feed that is item+comments since last viewed ... but am not aware of where i get that "last viewed" date.

Seth says
... suppose you are reading feed from bloglines. hmmm ... ok ... the "updated date" i put in the feed would just be the date of the last comment. Once you read that feed at bloglines, then bloglines will not show you that item again, even if it is in the feed it gets from me, unless the "updated" date has been bumped up. Hmm ... i think that is it.

Seth says
So we have two feeds:

the main feed that where the "updated" date is updated when the item itself changes
a second feed where the "updated" date changes to be the date of the last comment that was added.

On the 2nd feed one wants to put only those comments in the feed since it was last viewed. But, again, where do i get that date. That date is between you and bloglines. Of course if each comment was a "item" in the comments feed it would work. But then you get a comment that is kind of out of context. But maybe that is best ... the comment would have a link in it back to the permanant link of the comment .. when you click on it i could show all comments past it in highlight. Hmmm ... i kind of like that solution.

Now how is that for thinking out loud.

Seth says
So here is the proposed solution: two feeds

The main item feed. shows all comments on the item when the feed was requested. Updated when the item is edited if author opts to push it on top.
Comments only feed. Date of update is the date the comment was updated. We will have comment-permalinks and that will be the link from bloglines on the comment. When you take that link, fastblogit will show all comments past that in highlight.

Actually i bet that is pretty much the common solution on the blogosphere ... sans this When you take that link, fastblogit will show all comments past that in highlight.

Discuss ...

Seth says
here is the proposed uri scheme

http://fastblogit.com/seth/feed/
http://fastblogit.com/seth/feed/comments/

Seth says
and the comment permalink

http://fastblogit.com/item/852/comment/5

Mark de LA says
"last viewed" = since you last got that feed

Seth says
... yes, and "last viewed" is not something that the system normally knows .. it is between you and your newsreader

Seth says
Actually when you are viewing your own group (your cookie group) at fastblogit, i could know the last time your viewd it and highlight comments beyond that point. All that is necessary is me stroing the last time you viewed your group in your cookie.

Actually i think it would be obnoxious to highlight all the comments past last view. Better to highlight only the first comment past that time. People can imply in their mind that everyting past that point has not been seen by you.

Mark de LA says
I think the problem is mostly with long items with lots of comments. perhaps a different shading on the background would work - somewhat like the background of the item itself.

Seth says
yeah good idea

Mark de LA says
Comments are FIFO - could make them LIFO and shade to grey when you get to "old" ones.

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