As the author of an RSS reader, I would agree with most of that article, except the HTML / Styling section. It is full of misleading information.
1. You can use CSS, but expect that most readers will completely ignore it. Even widespread ones, like Feedly. Those that do support it will offer a small subset, like text styles, but don't expect positioning or flex-layouts to work. If you want to try the capabilities of your reader, this is a test feed: https://test-rss.downread.com/styles.rss.xml
2. Don't just prefer inline CSS, use it, because any sane RSS reader will filter <style>.
3. Yes, semantic elements will generally work. And not only those listed: also things like <table>, <figure>, and sometimes <aside>.
4. Agree about JavaScript. Don't use it.
5. Decent readers will support <video> and <audio>. But <iframes> are even better, as long as you use common providers, especially YouTube. Embeds from X, Instagram, and Facebook are also relatively widely supported.
6. Agree about forms. At best, they will be used as rendering hints, but forms won't work.
Well, it's downread.com, still in beta, but very usable and nearly feature-complete. Not sure what else to say. I strive to make it better than the competition :) HTML/Styles is one aspect. I am not aware of any other RSS reader that supports styles in articles as well. Downread even supports CSS, CMS-specific CSS classes, Tailwind, and custom styling for difficult, popular feeds.
Regarding the habit... I don't know, doing it forever. Whenever I have a moment to read, I open it. Before Downread, it was Feedly, and before Feedly, Google Reader, and before Google Reader, I don't know, some desktop app. It's pretty much the only way I read, and I read a lot.
7 comments:
As the author of an RSS reader, I would agree with most of that article, except the HTML / Styling section. It is full of misleading information.
1. You can use CSS, but expect that most readers will completely ignore it. Even widespread ones, like Feedly. Those that do support it will offer a small subset, like text styles, but don't expect positioning or flex-layouts to work. If you want to try the capabilities of your reader, this is a test feed: https://test-rss.downread.com/styles.rss.xml
2. Don't just prefer inline CSS, use it, because any sane RSS reader will filter <style>.
3. Yes, semantic elements will generally work. And not only those listed: also things like <table>, <figure>, and sometimes <aside>.
4. Agree about JavaScript. Don't use it.
5. Decent readers will support <video> and <audio>. But <iframes> are even better, as long as you use common providers, especially YouTube. Embeds from X, Instagram, and Facebook are also relatively widely supported.
6. Agree about forms. At best, they will be used as rendering hints, but forms won't work.
I didn't know I could insert iframes, but now I see that I can I'll update my RSS feeds with this, thanks!
Typically only with whitelisted URLs/hosts.
I’d be interested to hear a bit about your reader.
I keep coming back to RSS, but that sadly also means I keep forgetting about it. How do you build the habit and routine?
Well, it's downread.com, still in beta, but very usable and nearly feature-complete. Not sure what else to say. I strive to make it better than the competition :) HTML/Styles is one aspect. I am not aware of any other RSS reader that supports styles in articles as well. Downread even supports CSS, CMS-specific CSS classes, Tailwind, and custom styling for difficult, popular feeds.
Regarding the habit... I don't know, doing it forever. Whenever I have a moment to read, I open it. Before Downread, it was Feedly, and before Feedly, Google Reader, and before Google Reader, I don't know, some desktop app. It's pretty much the only way I read, and I read a lot.
I would add to this that tag URIs (see RFC 4151) are a fantastic way to mint entry IDs.
Yes, use Atom 1.0 <3