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Something I've wanted since the day the "Responses" tab was added: An RSS feed for replies to my questions/answers..

There's feeds for about everything else, but not this.. The obvious problem is authentication with OpenID, since you need to be logged into access the feed.

One possible solution to this is, protect the feed URL with a unique token. This is how many private torrent trackers resolve authenticated feeds. Basically the RSS feed address would be something like http://example.com/users/recent/0/recent.rss?token=94ff6f5039d60ea569182dcd3e64df7c and the user would have a "regenerate token" button should they wish to invalidate the old feed address.

(the email responses option isn't what I'm looking for, and routing the emails through an email->RSS system seems kind of.. backwards)

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7
  • so is there solution for that or I missed it?
    – Radek
    Apr 12, 2010 at 23:28
  • @Radek No. Nothing yet..
    – dbr
    Apr 13, 2010 at 13:19
  • 2
    it would be great if @Jeff Atwood could make some comments on that. I'm sure he can make hundreds of people happy :-)
    – Radek
    Apr 15, 2010 at 1:16
  • flickr also uses the token approach although they call theirs "secret"
    – Gordon Wrigley
    Apr 22, 2010 at 7:26
  • 2
    This is sorely needed. It's been intentionally left out.
    – Matt Joiner
    Dec 31, 2010 at 12:04
  • +1 for the feature request
    – user
    Apr 17, 2011 at 4:09
  • Note Jeff's statement: we are moving away from RSS to more email and web-based solutions to some of these things these days -- like newsletter subscriptions and tag subscriptions. and see the nice Stack2RSS in that same post.
    – Arjan
    Dec 15, 2011 at 19:57

5 Answers 5

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2

The activity tab on your profile/activity ( http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/<number>/) has a RSS Feed.

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  • 4
    I don't think this is the same thing dbr asked for. It seems the feed on this tab is the same that's on the user's main profile page, which is a "feed of the 30 latest questions, answers, and comments from this user". What they're asking is for a "RSS feed for replies to my questions/answers".
    – Derek Morrison
    Mar 27, 2012 at 14:22
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I agree with this, it would help me keep up with responses to my questions. Plenty of other sites use the token method without any problems.

I'd especially like to see this implemented in tandem with this suggestion, so I'd know when someone has responded to a comment I left somewhere.

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8

Why not just having an opt-in preference to allow all my "Recent Activity" be public and set a regular RSS feed on it?

I would sure use it, while there is no instant e-mail notification. Though I've been using Newt for a while.

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8
  • Go here: stackoverflow.com/feeds/user{userID}
    – random
    Feb 18, 2010 at 1:51
  • @random you again! :P c'mon, this is not "recent activity". By the way, I just noticed meta doesn't have a feed even for that! o_O
    – cregox
    Feb 18, 2010 at 2:06
  • Are you saying this: meta.stackoverflow.com/feeds/user/143411 doesn't show your recent activity? Otherwise, complete your sentence.
    – random
    Feb 18, 2010 at 2:16
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    That's the second half of what I meant, but it wasn't showing! Now your link does. Maybe I miss-spelled something. My bad. o_O It's still not the "Recent Activity" (meta.stackoverflow.com/users/recent/143411) I meant. That's just my activity.
    – cregox
    Feb 18, 2010 at 2:24
  • Okay, you're talking recent responses directed at you. That's different.
    – random
    Feb 18, 2010 at 2:33
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    Not just responses. It's on the question title and that "/users/recent/" link: "Recent Activity" - But yeah. :)
    – cregox
    Feb 18, 2010 at 2:36
  • Naming is bad, but the envelope is information directed at you only and only you really get to see that.
    – random
    Feb 18, 2010 at 2:42
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    And what I'm saying is that I don't care if it's public, specially if it means better functionality for myself.
    – cregox
    Feb 18, 2010 at 2:49
3

I created a feedfier for the user's recent activity page (the envelope button): http://code.google.com/p/authfeed/

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1
  • not working anymore ;-( I talked to the author of the code
    – Radek
    Apr 15, 2010 at 4:40
3

Nowadays there is a per-site feed, the "user feed", linked in the bottom right corner of the "info" tab, sub-tab "stats". One could follow just anyone, and the icon and link are always shown to everybody. So: no authentication required at all.

(Likewise for your responses, or anyone's responses for that matter, even though for responses the icon and link are shown on your own profile only.)

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3
  • Does this means my suggestion was "accepted" without the opt-in part? :P
    – cregox
    Jun 14, 2011 at 12:22
  • (@Cawas, did you see this?)
    – Arjan
    Dec 15, 2011 at 19:58
  • I have seen stack2rss and similar amazing stuff from George (who's Nathan?), but not that official post. But I must say Newt has been much nicer to me than RSS could ever be. And I'm really glad to read the email hater man himself prioritize it over the sacred RSS. Still hoping for a brither future on mail notifications! And thanks for the heads up!! :)
    – cregox
    Dec 16, 2011 at 1:11

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