Use the proper RSS tags for sorting episodes

Feature request
1

App version: 3.1.2 F-droid

Problem you may be having, or feature you want:
Episodes are not sorted according to the order podcast makers want them to, but are automatically newest to oldest. This works fine for traditional talkshow pods, but it creates issues for audio drama makers, as 9/10 times we expect listeners to start with episode one.

Built into RSS are tools for each podcaster to determine episode order, but if antennapod disregards this the system doesn’t work. A friend of mine, the creator of Eeler’s Choice are using tags correctly trying to have the trailer always be on top and the episodes in chronological order, rather than the antennapod default reverse chronological. This creates unnecesary fiction when listeners have to scroll before they can start listening and is a bad user experience, and it’s disrespectful to the creators

Suggested solution:
Do not override RSS tags with your own sorting algorithm, trust that podcasters know what they want for their show. The screenshot shows antennapod (right) that doesn’t respect RSS tags, and pocketcasts (left) that does. These things makes a difference for indie creators, as the listenership is already small as it is

Screenshots Drawings / Technical details:

image
image1920×2080 181 KB

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2

The word disregard seems like a harsh way to describe the lack of functionality.

That would be the RSS feed located at https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/eelers-choice, would it?

Are these tags something internal to Acast:s system, or something which appears in the RSS feed?

You’re referring to the reverse order of how the episodes actually occur in the RSS file? I.e.:

  1. Teaser - Out Eeling
  2. Episode 1- Ran
  3. Episode 2- Merry
  4. Episode 3- Prin
  5. Episode 4- Nama
  6. Episode 5- Shoaling Eve
  7. Episode 6- Shoaling Night
  8. Eeler’s Bloopers - Season 1
  9. Morning at the Sawbones Surgery
  10. Ask The Eelers- Season 1 Q&A
  11. Interview with The Surprised Eel Historian
  12. Meet our Siblings- Waterlogged

AntennaPod defaults to sorting on date, but is configurable to also be use episode_title or duration as keys. What you are really suggesting is to have a fourth, feed_order, option? I guess that seems like a reasonable feature to request.

Which RSS tags are you referring to? From the looks of the eelers-choice feed there appear to be no explicit tags to determine sort order from.

While I’m very sympathetic to the idea of respecting the wishes of the savvy, truth is probably closer to that the vast majority of podcasters do not know all required technical detail and rely on the podcatchers to sort feeds for them.

One could imagine adding feed_order sorting, but I doubt it would be reasonable to always make it the default. Maybe one could make it the default if the podcast meets some certain critera? Looking at the mentioned feed, the only tag I see which might be relevant is:

<itunes:type>serial</itunes:type>

I have no idea of common that tag is and whether it would be problematic to make it an indicator for determining how to sort any freshly added feed.

Some, but not all, episodes also have tags like these:

      <itunes:episodeType>…</itunes:episodeType>
      <itunes:season>…</itunes:season>
      <itunes:episode>…</itunes:episode>

Would those be the ones you referred to? It might be tricky to get great user experience with tags which are not always present.

1 Like
3

RSS feeds is pretty old way nowadays

4

RSS feeds are not old. All podcasts build on RSS feeds.

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