Thu, 24 Apr 2008

Filtering Planet Debian authors

Several people have been discussing what material is appropriate or not for feeds syndicated by Planet Debian. It's basically the same discussion that also pops up every now and then in any big planet like GNOME's, KDE's, Ubuntu's or ours, with some people advocating for Free Software or techie stuff content only, and an apparent majority liking and defending that people write about their latest Debian hack, but also how wonderful their vacation in Paris were, or how their favourite politician did this or that.

For some time now, Planet Debian has a small new feature that might have gone unnoticed by many, and could help some readers get rid of undesired content from the post listings.

Steve Kemp added a cookie-based per-author filtering system to Planet a few weeks ago. Next to each author name you'll see a “−” link which can be used to collapse all entries by the author. This setting will be saved in a browser cookie, and can be reverted by clicking on the “+” link next to the collapsed author. To expand all hidden posts, use the “Show all” link in the Planet's right column above the subscription list.

So, if reading about baby Jesus annoys you, just click on “−” and be happy.

Thank you for that reminder! That sort of solves the problem, but I have to ask: Is there NO content that would be censored? Graphic rape scenes, actual murder pictures, etc? Surely there must be SOME line that we couldn't cross?

Posted by anonymous at Thu Apr 24 16:42:30 2008

I think we're all adult enough to know where the line is. Evidently everyone will have a different view on where the line is, but I'm pretty sure nobody would post child porn or a rape scene and just get away with it.

At least the Planet maintainers would probably take some action, as has happened in the past.

Posted by Jordi at Thu Apr 24 16:46:37 2008

For sure, it's a nice tip, but i don't think it apply if you read planet debian on a feed reader.

Posted by er:k at Fri Apr 25 17:11:42 2008