[See update below, Jonathon has revised his stream generator so you don't need to look up the userid any more.]
I enjoy app.net. I like the conversations, but I particularly like the 'root' or initial posts shared by a few of my followed appnetizens. Problem is, these posts are lost in the streams of the app.net clients I use - Felix (iOS), Kiwi or Wedge (OS X), and Alpha or NoodleApp (web). They are mixed with replies and conversations. Current app.net client UIs aren't a great fit for how I'd like to follow folks; they are best suited to recreational engagement. Thanks to Jonathon Duerig (@duerig), there's a better option. He's providing a special RSS feed that accepts parameters. For example, here's mine:
http://jonathonduerig.com/my-rss-stream/rss.php?user=6172&replies=0&directed=1
In this example
- 6172 is my app.net userid (I was #6,172 to sign up)
- replies=0 means I see only root replies
- directed=1 (just include this, don't ask why) [2].
To find the userid you can mouseover the official (shows all activity) RSS feed icon on alpha.app.net profile pages, like https://alpha.app.net/johngordon. It shows the userid. I've created feeds for several people who I particularly like to follow, and put those feeds into a Google Reader folder called App.net [1]. Now that Duerig has also removed an unnecessary username prefix from each post, the results display very well indeed. Each post comes with a link to alpha.app.net, so I can respond easily in that environment. It's really quite elegant, and should be an inspiration for app.net app builders. I'm looking forward to more like this; Duerig will probably make this to a custom domain and tidy it a bit. For now I've put the feed URL into my Profile Bio to make it easier for others to copy.
[1] I haven't settled on a Reader replacement yet, I'll start doing serious testing in May. I do want folders. [2] Duerig: "A directed post is a post beginning with a mention ... to anyone. .. the concept of a directed post is immensely confusing ... Just do replies=0 vs. replies=1 and you will be happy."
Update 6/30/2013: Duerig has a new format with new header and the ability to use a username instead of a user ID. For example:
rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@duerig&replies=0&directed=1
I used a list of usernames scraped from the display of people I follow, and Numbers.app concatenate [2], to generate this list of feeds which I've been tediously [3] copy pasting into Feedbin. The current list is below, sorted by name [5].
This functionality makes app.net far more interesting for me. I really think it needs to be part of the API, a variation of stream. So we'd have two independent streams:
- Twitter-style conversational stream: see all posts by members of follow list.
- Prime stream: "Root" posts stream - akin to news, item share
For some people I want to follow conversations, for others just their initial item share, for others both streams. So these are independent.
Currently I do stream 1 from Kiki/App.net/Felix, stream 2 from Reeder/Feedbin/ReadKit[4].
- ffn -
[2] Numbers.app can't export as tab delimited, which tells one a lot about iWork. It also "escapes" quotes in CSV fashion when you copy to clipboard, so they're all doubled. Not a problem with this exercise, but very annoying when I tried to create OPML XML entries. iWork, not Apple TV, is a hobby.
[3] Feedbin has performance and reliability issues, especially on adding feeds, but those are improving. What's killing me is the extremely limited UI for manipulating feeds - review, sort, revise names, remove, tag. It doesn't scale past 25 or so feeds; I'm over 300. If this doesn't get fixed in the next few weeks I've gonna have to try something else.
[4] Readkit is promising but obviously in early state for consuming Feedbin, etc.
[5] Full list -- if you're name isn't on here don't worry, I'm building it out. See [3]
(I had to add bullets due to a longstanding Blogger/MarsEdit formatting bug.
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@adamlcox&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@adrianus&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@annatarkov&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@benubois&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@billkunz&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@clarkgoble&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@dalton&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@danfrakes&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@danielgenser&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@darnell&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@duerig&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@erikschmidt&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@fields&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@glennf&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@gruber&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@jdalrymple&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@johngordon&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@gruber&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@jdalrymple&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@marcozehe&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@martinsteiger&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@mfitz&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@mvp&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@prometheus&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@rikishiama&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@reederapp&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@brentsimmons&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@siracusa&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@sirshannon&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@snipergirl&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@spacekatgal&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@teawithcarl&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@thomasbrand&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@treestman&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@voidfiles&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@wickedgood&replies=0&directed=1
- rss-app.net/rss.php?user=@xwordy&replies=0&directed=1
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