I'm really frustrated with the forum RSS. I've been using FeedDemon (switched from GreatNews) and testing out Google Reader (FeedDemon might sync with this in the future) and constantly there are missed posts.
I just realized that in FeedDemon, (only some of?) the missed items are updated (content & time) but FeedDemon doesn't unmark them as read. The topics I tested this with is "REACT 2 Released" and "CUETools 1.9.2" (I had more items but the feed shows only last 15), both of these items had "Recommendations" in feedvalidator.org:
This feed is valid, but interoperability with the widest range of feed readers could be improved by implementing the following recommendations.
line 47, column 837: description should not contain relative URL references: index.php?act=findpost&pid=619953 (3 occurrences) [help]
... your needs, the source code is free.]]></description>
^
line 54, column 0: description should not contain emoid attribute (4 occurrences) [help]
<description><![CDATA[Quote Gregory S. Chudov:<br />"Nevertheless, i'll pr ...
line 114, column 0: Missing atom:link with rel="self" [help]
</channel>
And here's the problematic items in order (couldn't copy the line numbers).. the first two (the last "recommendation" is not for an item):
<item>
<title>REACT 2 Released</title>
<link><![CDATA[http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=50273&view=getnewpost]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[<!--quoteo(post=619953:date=Mar 8 2009, 17:41:name=Bill02888)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Bill02888 @ Mar 8 2009, 17:41) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=619953"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Is there a way to make REACT2 stop dead in its tracks and/or notify me in a wonderfully blatant way that one or more track on a CD -- or that an entire CD -- uses Pre-Emphasis so that I don't miss it? (I'm easily distracted.)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--><br />No, sorry. Can't you remember to check the Pre-Emphasis column on the main EAC window before you start ripping? Since the information is so easily available, I'm not going to put this into my ToDo list. If you are familiar with programming, amend the program to your needs, the source code is free.]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:49:24 +0100</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=50273</guid>
</item>
...
<item>
<title>CUETools 1.9.2</title>
<link><![CDATA[http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=66233&view=getnewpost]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Quote Gregory S. Chudov:<br />"Nevertheless, i'll probably add lossy formats support to filename corrector."<br />Thks a lot !!! I'll save a lot of time <img src="http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" /> I have high hopes.<br /><br />PS: I promise I will not use it to encode my Pink Floyd collection to lossy <img src="http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/whistling.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":whistling:" border="0" alt="whistling.gif" />]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:38:13 +0100</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=66233</guid>
</item>
I wonder if these have anything to do with the failures of FeedDemon and Google Reader updating these items correctly. I doubt it.
With Google Reader, the above 2 topic contents are updated BUT the "CUETools 1.9.2" item is dated as Jan 31, 2009 (the tooltip hover over that date shows: Received: Jan 31, 2009 8:59 PM ... Published: Mar 9, 2009 1:38 AM) and the "REACT 2 Released" item is dated as Feb 3, 2009 (and the tooltip: Received: Feb 3, 2009 10:40 PM ... Published: Mar 9, 2009 1:49 AM). Hovering other item dates show sometimes similar funny dates.
I wonder if the <pubDate> in line 7 is to blame. There seems to be much talk on interwebs with this and <lastBuildDate> tags. Some talk something about "future datetimes" that will "hide" RSS items or something like that. Also when I read some of the date tooltip dates in other (working) feeds, the "Received" date is ALWAYS (minutes, hours, days) newer or same as the "Published" date. Is this the culprit? Those feeds don't have the channel <pubDate>, only item <pubDate> tags. One feed has just the <lastBuildDate> tag. And I just found other thread where this same problem happens; feed channel <lastBuildDate> (no <pubDate> tag) date is older (about 2 hours) than the 1st feed item <pubDate> tag date! FeedDemon shows the updated content and date but doesn't unmark it as read (just like with HA RSS), and Google Reader tooltip "Received" date is about ½ day older than the "Published" date (again just like with HA RSS). I think this information should be enough to nail this SOB RSS problem.
Could somebody put up a test RSS feed with different channel <pubDate> and <lastBuildDate> tag variations? E.g. omit both tags, add both or just the lastBuildDate (with a date that is same or newer as the newest (1st) item). One dude on web said: "Be Sure To Use pubDate And lastBuildDate!". Dunno if he's right or not.. seems that omitting those will work too. I can test. I've spent several hours already with this today.
And why does the RSS item links sometimes direct you to old posts? Sometimes I'm shown (showed? which one is correct?) the first post of a long topic, sometimes a random post (not the first nor the last) and sometimes the last. I though that the http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=XXXXX&view=getnewpost link always goes to the last post.