Cross-site is fine by default, though the script is small enough to easily self-host. If you have a content-security-policy, you'll need to allow the host in script-src.
One thing that would be nice is to have the feed be human readable. It is as easy as adding a single line to the XML and setting the content type [1].
Your feeds are also missing a bunch of the headers that readers use to avoid over-fetching your feeds. I build an feed analyzer [2] to help debug things like this.
RSS.style is my site. I'm currently testing a JavaScript-based workaround that should look just like the current XSLT version. It will not require the XSLT polyfill (which sort-of works, but seems fragile).
One bonus is that it will be easier to customize for people that know JavaScript but don't know XSLT (which is a lot of people, including me).
You'll still need to add a line to the feed source code.
There wasn't free hosting in 2003 when I first made it. I have thought about converting it to static, but it would be a complete rewrite, and there is always some other new shiny thing to play with instead.
The newer things I'm doing (like UnicodeSearch.org) are static, though I don't like forcing everyone to have JavaScript enabled.
I get where you are coming from, and have put some thought into it.
I built the site over 20 years ago, and while it was fun to make, I wouldn't have maintained it this long if is was costing me every month.
I've tried to minimize the intrusiveness: I disabled the pop-up and interstitial ads and I don't serve anything different to people with ad-blockers. And I've stuck with Google Adwords, despite requests from all sorts of questionable alternatives.
I'm not sure about the future: bots are causing all sorts of trouble, and the ad revenue is trending down and is now less than break even.
And these aren't niche/advanced features? I'm using Firefox now, and did not know about them. If I'm using them, it is only accidentally or because they are the defaults.
But I'm agreeing with you! These features are important to you, an advanced user. The more advanced users for Firefox, the better.
I don't disagree with you, but given (A) how will Firefox ever compete?
One possible way is doing things that Google and Chrome don't (can't).
Catering to niche audiences (and winning those niches) gives people a reason to use it. Maybe one of the niches takes off. Catering to advanced users not necessarily a bad way to compete.
Being a feature-for-feature copy of Chrome is not a winning strategy (IMHO).
Which is why Firefox is steadily losing market share.
If Mozilla wanted Firefox to succeed, they would stop playing "copy Chrome" and support all sorts of things that the community wants, like JpegXL, XSLT, RSS/Atom, Gemini (protocol, not AI), ActivityPub, etc.
What about people who don't "1) Know what RSS is"???
And what if you could make it friendly for them in 4 minutes? You could by dropping in a XSLT file and adding a single line to the XML file. I bet you could do it in 3 minutes.
But you are tech-savvy and know about RSS & feed readers and such like!
Think about it from a non-technical user's perspective: they click on a RSS link and get a wall of XML text. What are they going to do? Back button and move on. How are they ever going to get introduced to RSS and feed readers and such like?
I think a lot of feeds never get hit by a browser because there isn't a hyperlink to them. For example: HN has feeds, but no link in the HTML body, so I'm pretty confident they don't get browser hits. And no one who doesn't already know about feeds will ever use them.
1. This is pretty difficult for someone who doesn't know about RSS. How would they ever learn what to do with it?
2. Browsers don't do that. There used to be an icon in the URL bar when they detected an RSS feed. It would be wonderful if browsers did support doing exactly what you suggest. I'm not holding my breath.
I'm not looking to replicate my blog via XSLT of the RSS feed: that's what the blog's HTML pages are. I just don't want to alienate non-RSS users.
Huh? How would a static site generator serve both RSS and the HTML view of the RSS from the same file?
To be extra clear: I want to have <a href="feed.xml">My RSS Feed</a> link on my blog so everyone can find my feed. I also want users who don't know about RSS to see something other than a wall of plain-text XML.
I want to use it on an RSS feed: to make it sensible when a new users clicks on an RSS link.
I specifically want it to be served as XML so it can still be an RSS feed: I don't even need the HTML to look that great: I have the actually website for that.
I made a site with to get people started: https://www.rss.style/
Example RSS feed: https://www.rss.style/changelog.xml
Cross-site is fine by default, though the script is small enough to easily self-host. If you have a content-security-policy, you'll need to allow the host in script-src.