Full content should be the default for RSS feeds

Every RSS feed that is associated with a blog or news site should have the full content within the <content:encoded>.

Go to a free feed validator. Here is a link to this blog’s RSS feed validator. Type in your blog, and then add /feed or /rss to the end of the url. If you have a blog on Wordpress, Ghost, et cetera it will have already automatically made the RSS feed for you. If you don’t have a feed, configure it.

If the entire post is not within <content:encoded>, configure it to include the full post content. It takes very little technical know how to fix it, especially when we have tools like ChatGPT.

I use NetNewsWire as my feed reader. It drives me nuts when a blog includes something like a summary of the post in the <content:encoded>, because then I have to use the Reader View. When you use the Reader View, it takes a few seconds to load. When it takes a few seconds to load, I don’t feel like reading what you wrote.

Normalize making feed readers accessible. Stop making it hard for people to read your work. If you need a feed that has summaries, make a separate feed.

January 22, 2025