Do you think I'll just check manually every day to see if you wrote a new post? That for each and every blog I follow?
That's like comparing old school Windows software updating where you "just have to go on the website and read the news" vs `apt update && apt upgrade`.
You don't have to maintain it, you make it once then it just works. As long as your website can print post titles and urls to a document the rss feed should work.
I don't know about you, but I don't know of any native (non website/javascript) software that supports h-feeds. IndiePass was only ever for smartphones and it's fully dead. h-feed is more of a html integrated mark-up for posts than any form of actual separate feed file. This is claimed to be a positive aspect of h-feeds, not being a separate file... but it really isn't. I keep track of all the other indieweb sites I care about via normal rss/atom feeds. h-feeds were an aspiration that did not actually come about. The rest of the indieweb protocols rock though.
I looked around andros.dev and found no (real) feeds so I'll probably just forget the site in a week. If it had had a feed I'd have added it to my desktop native readers.
> Well, don't shoot the messenger. I'm just letting you know what they recommend :D
The great thing about hosting your own website is that you can decide for yourself what "standards" and "recommendations" actually make sense for you.
> By the way, andros.dev has an RSS feed.
You should add <link rel="alternate"> links to the RSS/Atom feed. The way people (or at least I) discover RSS feeds is to paste the blog/article URL into my feed reader - if that can't find the feed then I more than likely just give up and move on. All I can find on your site is a button in the side bar that doesn't even work.
Thanks for the advice, but I intentionally removed `<link rel="alternate">`. I think if you take some time to explore the feed modal, you'll understand why I did it.
By the way, what you're saying isn't true. That link isn't present in either the HTML or the JS, the URL is sent via WebSockets. You had to open the modal to see it.
First, you're assuming my entire website should work without JavaScript. You don't understand my design reasoning, nor have you asked about the underlying cause.
Second, for a modal, I should use a `<dialog>` that opens via a `<button>`, which it already does. JavaScript does the magic. Not a `<a>` as you suggested.
Finally, if it's a bug, which I find very strange because it's a very simple piece of code and no one has reported it, you're not posting it in the right place. An email or the contact form would have been more appropriate.
I tried manually typing a handful of common feed URLs relative and absolute, a firefox feed auto-finder extension, and a quick ctrl-f for feed in the source. But I guess if running an application is required for your webpages I'm better off not subscribing. That's not my kind of jam but it is understandable if your blog is for profit or it's purpose is to get you a job or something.
That's why I created a modal that explains the different RSS feeds for subscribing and their possibilities.
My blog is over a decade old, and I've never used advertising, had sponsored articles, or tried to monetize it (except for asking for donations to maintain the server). I've written freely, sharing knowledge, creating tutorials, and developing courses. Your comment makes me lose the motivation to keep doing it.
I think he just means that you should add an autodiscovery link tag pointing to your RSS feed URL. Then it will automatically be picked up by RSS readers. See https://www.rssboard.org/rss-autodiscovery.
As unnecessarily snarky as this person is being with you, don't let a HackerNews comment stop you from being an great person.
I didn't mean to imply that your blog seemed commercial. I meant that there was no need for commercial patterns on your personal blog like putting links behind JS. Things like that have justification in commerce but rarely in personal stuff so I wanted to leave that conditional just in case your blog was for commerce so as not to offend.
If that's just the way you like things, sure, that's what personal sites are for. How you like it. I apologize for implying otherwise (it must come off that way since two different people took it that way). I just really dislike the web as 'executable application distribution layer' model and try to stick to websites that are HTML pages.
I accept your apology; it must have been a misunderstanding.
I believe that in my case, the use of JavaScript is justified because it's information that doesn't require a separate page; there are just a couple of configuration buttons. On the other hand, the page is rendered using HTML over WebSockets, and what you're experiencing is the vanilla SEO version... hut of course, that's just my opinion.
They're not just "important", a blog without RSS/Atom feed is like a car without wheels.
I’ve never had an rss on any blog/site I’ve ever hosted and never felt like I’m missing anything
What is the advantage to me of maintaining an rss?
Is there some giant rss feed following community I’m missing?
Chrome mobile used to have a native RSS Following feature since 2021.
https://blog.chromium.org/2021/05/an-experiment-in-helping-u...
It seems they killed it in 2025, maybe to make space for the AI button.
Is there some giant rss feed following community I’m missing?
Yes
Do you think I'll just check manually every day to see if you wrote a new post? That for each and every blog I follow?
That's like comparing old school Windows software updating where you "just have to go on the website and read the news" vs `apt update && apt upgrade`.
My assumption was that nobody checks rss feeds since the iPhone came out anymore, but apparently I’m wrong
Currently, the RSS feed is what's driving the most traffic to my blog.
You don't have to maintain it, you make it once then it just works. As long as your website can print post titles and urls to a document the rss feed should work.
h-feed is recommended for the IndieWeb, making your HTML your feed, and RSS/Atom for the rest of the planet.
I don't know about you, but I don't know of any native (non website/javascript) software that supports h-feeds. IndiePass was only ever for smartphones and it's fully dead. h-feed is more of a html integrated mark-up for posts than any form of actual separate feed file. This is claimed to be a positive aspect of h-feeds, not being a separate file... but it really isn't. I keep track of all the other indieweb sites I care about via normal rss/atom feeds. h-feeds were an aspiration that did not actually come about. The rest of the indieweb protocols rock though.
I looked around andros.dev and found no (real) feeds so I'll probably just forget the site in a week. If it had had a feed I'd have added it to my desktop native readers.
Well, don't shoot the messenger. I'm just letting you know what they recommend :D
By the way, andros.dev has an RSS feed.
> Well, don't shoot the messenger. I'm just letting you know what they recommend :D
The great thing about hosting your own website is that you can decide for yourself what "standards" and "recommendations" actually make sense for you.
> By the way, andros.dev has an RSS feed.
You should add <link rel="alternate"> links to the RSS/Atom feed. The way people (or at least I) discover RSS feeds is to paste the blog/article URL into my feed reader - if that can't find the feed then I more than likely just give up and move on. All I can find on your site is a button in the side bar that doesn't even work.
Thanks for the advice, but I intentionally removed `<link rel="alternate">`. I think if you take some time to explore the feed modal, you'll understand why I did it.
No I don't think I will.
Have a nice day
It's at https://andros.dev/blog/feed/en/
Had to look at the page source to find it, since without JS, the bottom left button does nothing.
By the way, what you're saying isn't true. That link isn't present in either the HTML or the JS, the URL is sent via WebSockets. You had to open the modal to see it.
Modals use JS, that's normal.
It doesn't need to be a modal and can (should!) fall back to a simple <a> without JS. It also didn't work even with JS for me.
First, you're assuming my entire website should work without JavaScript. You don't understand my design reasoning, nor have you asked about the underlying cause.
Second, for a modal, I should use a `<dialog>` that opens via a `<button>`, which it already does. JavaScript does the magic. Not a `<a>` as you suggested.
Finally, if it's a bug, which I find very strange because it's a very simple piece of code and no one has reported it, you're not posting it in the right place. An email or the contact form would have been more appropriate.
I tried manually typing a handful of common feed URLs relative and absolute, a firefox feed auto-finder extension, and a quick ctrl-f for feed in the source. But I guess if running an application is required for your webpages I'm better off not subscribing. That's not my kind of jam but it is understandable if your blog is for profit or it's purpose is to get you a job or something.
That's why I created a modal that explains the different RSS feeds for subscribing and their possibilities. My blog is over a decade old, and I've never used advertising, had sponsored articles, or tried to monetize it (except for asking for donations to maintain the server). I've written freely, sharing knowledge, creating tutorials, and developing courses. Your comment makes me lose the motivation to keep doing it.
I think he just means that you should add an autodiscovery link tag pointing to your RSS feed URL. Then it will automatically be picked up by RSS readers. See https://www.rssboard.org/rss-autodiscovery.
As unnecessarily snarky as this person is being with you, don't let a HackerNews comment stop you from being an great person.
Thank you!
I didn't mean to imply that your blog seemed commercial. I meant that there was no need for commercial patterns on your personal blog like putting links behind JS. Things like that have justification in commerce but rarely in personal stuff so I wanted to leave that conditional just in case your blog was for commerce so as not to offend.
If that's just the way you like things, sure, that's what personal sites are for. How you like it. I apologize for implying otherwise (it must come off that way since two different people took it that way). I just really dislike the web as 'executable application distribution layer' model and try to stick to websites that are HTML pages.
I accept your apology; it must have been a misunderstanding.
I believe that in my case, the use of JavaScript is justified because it's information that doesn't require a separate page; there are just a couple of configuration buttons. On the other hand, the page is rendered using HTML over WebSockets, and what you're experiencing is the vanilla SEO version... hut of course, that's just my opinion.