I Now Have a Working Comment Feed

Well, after hunting around for options, I finally found a way to successfully generate a feed of the comments to this blog in a way that is apparently valid and accessible to any feed reader.

CHECK IT OUT!

Why does this matter? Well, a comment feed is a crucial conversational-media tool, since it makes the content of your weblog comments as easily findable as your blog posts. This is because you can submit your comment feed to popular feed aggregation services like Technorati or IceRocket. When you do that, your blog comments will appear in their search results.

It's just one more way to clue people in to the entirety of conversations that happen on your blog. The easier it is to discover those conversations, the more likely it becomes that more people will join in.

Here's what I did....

My main challenge with generating a content feed is that Typepad (the service I use to create and host this blog) does not currently offer a standard option for generating a comment feed. Consequently I had to search for a hack that would tease Typepad into doing what I wanted it to do.

MY FIRST ATTEMPT

Yesterday I found one option that offered me a partial solution, courtesy of Matthew Oliphant. This did generate a comment feed for me. However, that feed was not universally discoverable or readable in all feed readers.

For instance, if I plugged the URL for the comment feed I generated using Matthew's solution into my preferred feed reader, Sage (a Firefox plugin), Sage didn't recognize that file as a valid feed -- and thus couldn't pull down content from it. I had the same problem with the free web-based feed reader service Newsgator. Also, the service Feedburner failed to recognize a valid feed at that address.

In contrast, two other web-based feed readers (Bloglines and Google Reader) could successfully subscribe to, and pull content from, that feed. So it did work -- just not universally, at least not in my case.

Matthew uses his method to generate a comment feed for his Typepad blog, Usability Works. Apparently his comment feed is generally valid with various feed readers. I don't know why I experienced difficulties while he didn't, except that my blog uses a mapped domain (rightconversation.com) rather than the address which Typepad automatically generated for it (agahran.typepad.com/amy_gahran).

So if you have a Typepad blog and you aren't mapping a domain to it, try Matthew's solution first.

If that doesn't work for you, then you can try this next option, which is currently working for me...

SECOND TIME'S THE CHARM: JIM REVEREND'S SOLUTION

Back in 2002, blogger Jim Reverend posted his option for generating a comment feed using Movable Type. See: "How to Add a Comments Feed"

I figured this option might apply to Typepad, since Typepad is just a simplified, hosted version of Movable Type.

...So I returned to the comment feed template that I'd created earlier using Matthew's solution, renamed the output file to "comments.rdf," deleted Matthew's code, and replaced it with Jim's code.

Presto! It worked! I plugged "rightconversation.com/comments.rdf" into Sage (my preferred feed reader). It recognized a valid feed at that address, and successfully pulled down the correct content.

Caveat: For either Matthew's or Jim's solution, you'll need a pro-level Typepad account. Also, your blog must use Typepad's Advanced Templates -- a bit of an added complication. If you're not already using Advanced Templates, make sure you understand them before making that conversion in your blog.

DRESSING UP AND GETTING CONNECTED

Of course, the formatting for my new comment feed was minimal. To make it a bit more user-friendly to people who might mistakenly view the feed directly through their browser, I regenerated that original feed using the free Feedburner service. If you look at the Feedburner version of my comment feed, you'll see it looks much nicer than the original version. Since many of my readers are new to using feeds, I figured this would be appropriate for my audience.

However, the main reason I regenerated my comment feed with Feedburner is connectivity. Feedburner makes it very easy to connect a feed to all the major feed aggregation services.

After you create a Feedburner feed, you have several options to manage or enhance that feed. Under "Publicize" is a very important feature called "PingShot." Once you activate that service for your feed, every time you add a new item to your feed, Feedburner will notify ("ping") several popular feed aggregation services such as Technorati. You also have the option of selecting up to five additional aggregation services to ping -- make sure you do that. You want as much exposure as possible.

Once you activate PingShot, you don't have to do anything extra to get the content of your feed included in these services. Just post items to your blog, and Feedburner takes care of spreading the word and making your content findable. And again, it's all free.

IF YOU DON'T USE TYPEPAD OR MOVABLE TYPE...

...Then you'll have to find another solution for generating a comment feed for your blog. Some blogging tools, such as WordPress (free open-source software I use for another blog, Contentious), will automatically generate a comment feed for you.

However, in other blogging tools or services, you'll either have to find a relevant and functioning hack somewhere online, or code your own solution. These options require a bit of geekiness. Personally I'm geeky enough to find and implement some existing hacks, but not geeky enough to do the coding. You'll have to find an option that suits your abilities and comfort level.

Still, if you offer a blog with comments, and if participating in the public conversation is an important part of your reason for blogging, then I suggest that you find some way to generate a comment feed and get that feed plugged into the major feed aggregation services.

You don't have to use Feedburner if you don't want to. You can ping aggregation services manually, or implement a script to do it. Feedburner just makes it fast and easy, so it's an option I recommend for non-geeks.

Anyway, that's how I solved this problem. I hope this explanation helps other bloggers who, like me, want to embrace conversational media fully. If you try this option (or others), please comment below about what works for you.

Thanks again to Matthew Oliphant and everyone else who helped me figure this out.

Comments

[Matthew Oliphant]

Glad to see things worked out. :)