In this update:
- Skimfeed story so far.
- Feedback responses.
- Future Planning.
Let’s start with the skimfeed.com story to date. Development work on Skimfeed has halted for now because I need to get back to running other projects. Skimfeed contains approximately 100 RSS and XML news feeds in 6 main catagories; Tech, Business and Investment, Design, Break/Fun, News and Future Tech/Trends.
Skimfeed feedback response
I turned back the clock on the Skimfeed.com front page to now show the complete tech news page. This is a middle ground of what some of you asked for in the feedback, which was you wanted all feeds on a single page. As discussed in the last post, having all feeds on a single page is not scalable as the site grows, so the catagory system remains, but you can see the tech on the front page. So it’s all a compromise.
I’ve also increased the number of links shown to 10 from the previous 7. This format of 10 links doesn’t fit as nicely on an iPad screen, but it does show more information. An improvement I think. This was not requested in the feedback comments.
RE: incomplete titles. This is a part of SkimFeed that just is as it is. Skimfeed uses a monospace font, which allows a cut off at a certain number of characters. Part of the design choice was to cut the titles and not let them run to 2 or more lines. This keeps the boxes in order and nicely laid out for quick viewing. You can hover the mouse over the titles to show the full title, plus description.
HN Hacker news comments on the feed – this is possible I think, added as a possible todo to look into for future dev.
The Verge RSS news feed. The Verge website uses ENTRY and not the usual ITEM for separating the XML components in it’s feed. This means it needs custom coding to work. In total there are about 5-6 feeds I’ve found that use Entry and not item to separate things out. A check and reprocesing system is added as a todo if I ever rebuild the SkimFeed codebase.
Future work
Short term steps are to add more RSS and XML feeds to the pages while maintaining quality. If you have any feed suggestions drop them in the feedback box.
The code has turned into a bloated patchwork. The long term goal is to rewrite the entire Skimfeed backend. This should take about half a day. The goal before rewriting is to fix exactly what style to use. I like the catagories, I liked the front page with only a large list of Popular, Random and Latest feeds showing. Feedback said you guys didn’t…
Plan: wait and see what feedback continues to come in. Start rewrite as a “beta” as a side area on the site, if the beta becomes popular, move it into the main site.
Keep the feedback coming in guys, either here or in the feedback box. Keep it positive!
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