Say on a feed's Directory page why it is failing, and who subscribes (#142)

daily-quests, one subscriber and no items, showed "Nothing read from it yet. A feed nobody here
subscribes to is checked once a day." on its page in the Directory: the second sentence was
written whatever the count, and the feed had been failing since #119 said so, which the page
never showed, /api/directory/{id} sending no error.

It sends `failing` now, the reason a feed's own page gives (explain_failure), or that the last
check failed, never the error itself, which can name the feed's address, and the Directory names
none. The page shows it under the header in the error colour, and says a feed is checked once a
day only when nobody subscribes and nothing is wrong.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ### Fixed
 
 - A publisher's correction to an item already in iPX, a retitled episode, mended text, new artwork or a fixed length, arrives on the next read. Since 0.9.1 an item kept what it first said: Ain't It Cool News's items each showed the text of the one before, long after the feed was fixed.
+- A feed's page in the Directory says when the feed is failing, and why, and no longer says nobody here subscribes to a feed someone does.
 
 ## [0.10.1] - 2026-10-05
 

src/web.rs

@@ -1024,9 +1024,17 @@ struct ListedItem {
 struct Listed {
     /// What the feed says it is (#130), sanitized as its items are.
     description: Option<String>,
+    /// Why its last check failed, when it did (#142), in the words a feed's own page uses.
+    failing: Option<String>,
     items: Vec<ListedItem>,
 }
 
+/// A feed's last error as its Directory page says it: explained, or that the check failed, never
+/// the error as it stands, which can name the feed's address, and the Directory names none.
+fn failure_words(err: &str) -> String {
+    crate::feed::explain_failure(err).map_or_else(|| "Its last check failed.".to_owned(), |f| f.reason.to_owned())
+}
+
 /// A listed feed's description and latest twenty items. Only a feed the Directory lists, so a
 /// guessed id reaches nothing private, as `subscribe_popular` checks.
 async fn get_listed(
@@ -1041,6 +1049,7 @@ async fn get_listed(
     let rows = state.ctx.db.entries_in(user.id, Some(&id), crate::db::Filter::parse("all"), None, 0, 20, &order).await?;
     let mut sanitizer = feed_sanitizer();
     let description = state.ctx.db.feed_description(&id).await?.map(|d| clean_description(&mut sanitizer, &d, None));
+    let failing = state.ctx.db.feed_summary(&id).await?.last_error.as_deref().map(failure_words);
     let items = rows
         .into_iter()
         .map(|e| ListedItem {
@@ -1052,7 +1061,7 @@ async fn get_listed(
             duration: e.duration,
         })
         .collect();
-    Ok(Json(Listed { description, items }))
+    Ok(Json(Listed { description, failing, items }))
 }
 
 fn sort_name(p: &PopularRow) -> String {
@@ -1146,6 +1155,14 @@ impl IntoResponse for ApiError {
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
 
+    #[test]
+    fn a_failing_feed_says_why_in_the_directory_without_its_address() {
+        assert_eq!(failure_words("the feed's address answered with nothing at all"), "This address answers with nothing; the site may be gone.");
+        // reqwest names the URL; the Directory names none.
+        let raw = "error sending request for url (http://daily-quests.com/comic/?feed=atom): connection closed";
+        assert_eq!(failure_words(raw), "Its last check failed.");
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn a_relative_image_resolves_against_the_post() {
         let mut b = feed_sanitizer();

web/app.css

@@ -717,6 +717,7 @@ body.scan-this .fhead [data-a=scan] .i,body.scan-any .fhead [data-a=scanall] .i,
 .show .meta{min-width:0;flex:1;display:flex;flex-direction:column;align-items:flex-start;gap:5px}
 .show h2{margin:0 0 2px;font-size:30px;line-height:1.15;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:-.02em;overflow-wrap:anywhere}
 .show .sub{margin:0;color:var(--dim);font-size:13px;font-variant-numeric:tabular-nums}
+.show .dfail{color:var(--bad)}
 .show .acts{margin-top:8px}
 .dlink{padding:0;font-size:13px;color:var(--accent);text-align:left}
 .dlink:hover{text-decoration:underline}

web/src/dialogs.ts

@@ -138,6 +138,7 @@ function drawDirectory(box=$('#directory'), focus?: string){
         // Its category's page is one click away from here.
         show.category?`<button type="button" class="dlink" data-go="${esc(show.category)}">${esc(show.subcategory||show.category)}</button>`:''}
         <p class="sub">${n?`${n} ${n===1?'person here subscribes':'people here subscribe'}`:'Nobody here subscribes yet'}</p>
+        <p class="sub dfail" id="dfail" hidden></p>
         <div class="acts"><button class="btn ico primary" data-a="sub" title="Subscribe" aria-label="Subscribe">${ICON.plus}</button></div></div></div>
       <div class="about" id="dabout" hidden><p></p><button type="button" class="dlink" aria-expanded="false" hidden>More</button></div>`
       +sec(show.podcast?'Latest episodes':'Latest posts','<div class="latest" id="dshow"><p class="hint">Loading…</p></div>');
@@ -217,6 +218,8 @@ async function fillShow(box,p){
       more.textContent=open?'Less':'More'; more.setAttribute('aria-expanded',String(open));
     };
   }
+  // A broken feed says so, or it reads as a quiet one (#142).
+  if(got.failing){ const f=$('#dfail',box); f.textContent=got.failing; f.hidden=false; }
   const items=got.items;
   list.innerHTML=items.length?items.map(e=>{
     const name=entryName(e), text=name.derived?'':plainText(e.description).slice(0,500);
@@ -224,7 +227,8 @@ async function fillShow(box,p){
     return `<article class="lep"><b>${e.link?`<a href="${esc(e.link)}" target="_blank" rel="noopener">${esc(name.text)}</a>`:esc(name.text)}</b>`
       +(text?`<p>${esc(text)}</p>`:'')
       +(when.length?`<small>${when.map(s=>`<span>${s}</span>`).join('<span class="dot"></span>')}</small>`:'')+'</article>';
-  }).join(''):`<p class="hint">Nothing read from it yet. A feed nobody here subscribes to is checked once a day.</p>`;
+  }).join(''):`<p class="hint">Nothing read from it yet.${p.subscribers||got.failing?''
+    :' A feed nobody here subscribes to is checked once a day.'}</p>`;
 }
 
 /// A category as a tile: its name, how many feeds, and the covers of its three most subscribed