doing some initial investigation of how to serve RSS feeds for GtS profiles
RSS stands for really simple syndication and holy shit, it is really simple, it’s just some XML
so I think we can probably implement this soonish, if time allows between fixing bugs and implementing other core features
I think Mastodon has RSS feed capability turned on by default for accounts (can it actually be turned off?) but for GoToSocial–like with many other features related to exposing your posts–it’ll be strictly opt-in.
Looking forward to writing the code for this!
@dumpsterqueer
If I understand correctly, only public toots appear in a Mastodon user's RSS feed ( @feditips also seems to confirm this notion in this toot: https://mstdn.social/@feditips/108357998963885456 ), which is the correct choice in my belief.
For some reason there is absolutely no documentation of how it works in the official docs site
Also it seems Mastodon also supported .atom feeds in the past but not anymore? as I said, no docs, so idrk.
@dumpsterqueer
update: I found the PR removing atom support digging through the GitHub page: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/11247
honestly digging through the GitHub PRs might have a better chance of actually explaining how it is implemented than trying to find anything official about this. ffs Mastodon docs.
@dumpsterqueer
also I forgot - I couldn't find a way to turn this feature off in the settings nor did I find anything about it on GitHub. It's not that huge of a privacy issue considering that only public toots go there but it's still... not great. so I appreciate you making it an explicit opt in.
@feditips
Yeah, the RSS on Mastodon only shows posts that are public anyway.
If you use non-public posts on Mastodon, they will not appear in the RSS feed.
So, the RSS feed doesn't really affect privacy on Masto.
And yes the .atom feed seems to have gone.
By the way, I've got RSS instructions on the fedi.tips website too:
https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-advanced-tips/#FollowingAccountsThroughRSS
Unlisted posts (despite their slightly misleading name) are a form of public post.
They don't appear on Explore or Local or Federated, however they do appear on public profile pages etc so anyone can see them.
The non-public options on Mastodon are followers-only (as long as you have requests switched on) and direct/mentioned.
@feditips @kaedechan exactly. Also, I've just tested to confirm, and yes, unlisted toots do appear in RSS feed. which again, isn't great.
To be fair, Unlisted does say "visible to everyone" when you're posting, but the name is definitely misleading. Maybe it should be "Public but not listed" or something...?
By the way, unlisted isn't an option on the official Masto app. No idea what this signifies though!