Possible GUID isPermalink=false option? about hnrss HOT 6 CLOSED

Interesting. The NYT produces a bad feed nine years ago and we're still living with the consequences :)

So right now Thunderbird and Feedly use the URL in <guid> instead of the URL in <link>? And you'd like for an option to enable isPermalink=false on <guid> so they use <link> instead?

Out of curiosity, how does ?link=comments fix it? That just makes the values of <link> and <guid> equal.

FWIW, I'm not opposed to making this change if it helps improve the feed.

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Yup, that's exactly right. They're ignoring the <link> as they're assuming <guid> is set to true - if you add isPermalink=false to <guid>, they should use the <link> instead.

You can see it in action on Thunderbird--

Using news.ycombinator.com/rss (which doesn't have a guid):

Using hnrss:

Using hnrss with ?link=comments:

?link=comments alleviates it by still keeping the direct link on the page. It only falls short for certain workflows such as using keyboard shortcuts to open an item's 'Website' link in Thunderbird (and possibly Feedly if they have a similar shortcuts).

In Feedly, the ?link=comments feed with an item's "Visit Website" or title hovered over looks like:

Also for reference, here's what a link with 'isPermalink=false' set looks like in Thunderbird:

That's from http://blog.acolyer.org/feed/ which has a different <guid> than <link> (though both evaluate to the same address).

Definitely not a critical bug but thanks for taking a look at it!

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Hey @Zweihander42 — Haven't forgot about ya! Just haven't had the time to dig into this yet.

Great examples, too. Very helpful. I hope to spend some time on this soon.

Thanks again.

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@Zweihander42 — Not exactly the quickest turnaround, but this is now live :)

I went with setting isPermaLink="false" unconditionally because I think it just makes more sense than making it optional.

If RSS feeds hosted on Wordpress.com set that attribute unconditionally, we're probably in the clear. I'm sure they thoroughly researched the pros/cons and decided it was worth it.

Let me know if this clears up your Thunderbird issue.

Have a great day!

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@edavis -- Works as expected!

Thunderbird and Feedly both look good:

and with title hovered over:

Thanks so much, appreciate it!

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Happy to help!

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