RSS Feed not valid on Github Hosted Blog

Question

I have built a blog using Jekyll and have had almost complete success hosting it on Github. Where I am falling down is on the RSS feed.

I tried to set up the feed with feedburner.com, but got the error "The URL does not appear to reference a valid XML file." I tried using both sallyinstc.github.io.com/feed.xml and blueorchidweb.com/feed.xml.

When I check the validity using the W3C validator I get this error: "It looks like this is a web page, not a feed. I looked for a feed associated with this page, but couldn't find one. Please enter the address of your feed to validate," with the following code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

 <head>
 <meta charset="utf-8">
 <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

 <title>Blue Orchid Web Blog</title>
 <meta name="description" content="A blog about things digital and analog.">

 <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/main.css">
 <link rel="canonical" href="http://sallyinstc.github.io/feed.xml">
 <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Blue Orchid Web Blog" href="http://sallyinstc.github.io/feed.xml" />
</head>

  <body>
 <div class="wrapper">
<!-- Capture and store a URL -->
<header class="main-header" role="banner">

 <div class="grid">
   <div class="grid__col--12">
     <a class="site-logo" href="/" title="sallyinstc.github.io – Home">
       Blue Orchid Blog
     </a>
     <nav class="navbar" role="navigation">
       <ul class="nav">

         <!-- Compare the page title to the URL -->



         <li  class="nav__item" >
           <a href="/about/">About</a>
         </li>



         <!-- Compare the page title to the URL -->



         <li  class="nav__item" >
           <a href="/contact/">Contact</a>
         </li>



         <!-- Compare the page title to the URL -->





         <!-- Compare the page title to the URL -->





         <!-- Compare the page title to the URL -->





         <!-- Compare the page title to the URL -->



         <li  class="nav__item" >
           <a href="/resources/">Resources</a>
         </li>



       </ul>
     </nav>
   </div>
 </div>
</header>

 <div class="hero is-hidden-mobile"></div>
<div class="grid">
<div class="grid__col--12 page">

 <header class="post__header">
   <h1 class="headline-primary"></h1>
 </header>
 <article class="post__content">
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
 <channel>
   <title>Blue Orchid Web Blog</title>
   <description>A blog about things digital and analog.</description>
   <link>http://sallyinstc.github.io/</link>
   <atom:link href="http://sallyinstc.github.io/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
   <pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2015 19:33:22 +0000</pubDate>
   <lastBuildDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2015 19:33:22 +0000</lastBuildDate>
   <generator>Jekyll v2.4.0</generator>

     <item>
       <title>Let&#39;s Go Far</title>
       <description>&lt;blockquote&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. –African Proverb&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I read an article by Cade Metz on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wired.com&quot;&gt;Wired.com&lt;/a&gt; which you can see &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wired.com/2015/08/github-data-shows-changing-software-landscape/&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, that showed open source development has increased hugely in the last few years. This made me feel very happy for many reasons, not the least of which is the availability of tools to help make me a better programmer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Then I started really thinking about collaboration, working in teams, the common good. What we know, or think we know, about human history seems to point to collaboration being the way we have managed to survive this long. Hunter-gatherers worked in groups, and everyone benefitted. As agrarian society grew, those who shared the labor and the knowledge helped everyone be successful. Living in groups also has defensive benefits. And it’s not just about food-shelter-clothing. Every major world religion teaches that we are meant to live in fellowship with one another. Each of us keeps the other. So I started thinking about how I use collaboration in my life to make myself better. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The first place I looked was in my garden. For the last few years I have had a plot in the community garden in my town where I grow tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, and other things most people with gardens grow. I even can my harvest for the winter. Even though my parents, in-laws, grandparents, and many other family members had farms and gardens and “put up” supplies for winter, I went into this with just a little information. Over the seasons various problems have arisen, and I’ve had to go looking for answers. I talked to others at the community garden; I looked up various gardening and preserving websites; I spoke with elders around me (Please, speak to the elders of whatever community you are in. They are a wealth of knowledge and often pretty cool to hang with, too!). Every year  I learn more. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Next, I thought about my other hobbies: knitting and sewing. I’m not especially good at either one, but they keep me out of trouble. Knitting especially has a huge online presence in the form of the  &lt;a href=&quot;http://Ravelry.com&quot;&gt;Ravelry&lt;/a&gt; community, a social network for knitting, crochet, spinning, and all other related things. There are currently more than one-million members, all eager to help each other advance the craft. My experience has been the same with this as it has been with the garden. I am sure this is true of any art or craft out there. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This brings me to the newest thing in my life: website development. Again I find a community of people who want to help other learn, provide tools, and advance the craft. Now, the tech world is huge and varied. As with any business based on innovation, there are times that development should be kept private. After all, companies are in business to make money. I’m a big fan of money myself. But once new thing is released to the world, it benefits far more people to let others see what they can make it do, too. Plus, there are a lot more opportunities to find things that don’t quite work and make them better. That’s a big benefit.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In this new era of connectedness, people have found their groups in ways that just were not possible before and communities are being built.  At the outset I talked about how collaboration is built-in for humans. We have an opportunity now to embrace a way of thinking that can allow for innovation and benefit for everyone. I hope we can do it.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
       <pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <link>http://sallyinstc.github.io/lets-go-far</link>
       <guid isPermaLink="true">http://sallyinstc.github.io/lets-go-far</guid>


       <category>digital, analog</category>

     </item>

     <item>
       <title>I Made A Thing Today</title>
       <description>&lt;p&gt;A few months ago I left a job which was perfectly fine where I worked with a lot of people who were good at their jobs and were nice to me, but I hated it. The work didn’t feed my brain. The culture didn’t feed my spirit. And I was taking space from someone who could do it a lot better than I could. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have to believe that God was directing my steps, because a number of things happened and I was able to stop working for a while and start learning front-end web development. I really should have been doing this all along.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So I’ve been studying online with the good folks at &lt;a href=&quot;http://teamtreehouse.com&quot;&gt;Treehouse&lt;/a&gt; to begin learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery.  I’ve also picked up some Sass, Gulp, Jekyll, exposure to GitHub and CodePen,  and lots of other little things I will be putting into practice very soon.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Today, after finishing the lessons on creating a blog with Jekyll and hosting it on GitHub, I made this. It’s very basic right now, and mostly modeled on the example used in the lessons. The orchid logo is my own design. As time goes on and my skills increase, I will improve the site and posts will show you other things I have been working on. I’ll probably also share some very non-digital things because it’s important to exercise body and mind in as many ways as you can.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Thanks for reading this far. You can follow me on Twitter, sign up for the RSS feed, or click on the Contact link and send an e-mail.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;I will mention God and Jesus and my relationship with them from time to time on this blog. If you’d like to know more about what I believe we can chat separately. I’m not preaching; it’s an integral part of my life. I hope we can all respect each other in that.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
</description>
       <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
       <link>http://sallyinstc.github.io/i-made-a-thing-today</link>
       <guid isPermaLink="true">http://sallyinstc.github.io/i-made-a-thing-today</guid>


       <category>digital</category>

     </item>

 </channel>
=======
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<channel>
<title>Blue Orchid Web Blog</title>
<description>A blog about things digital and analog.</description>
<link>http://sallyinstc.github.io</link>
<atom:link href="http://sallyinstc.github.io/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
<pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2015 19:33:22 +0000</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2015 19:33:22 +0000</lastBuildDate>
<generator>Jekyll v2.4.0</generator>
<item>
<title>Let&#39;s Go Far</title>

<description>&lt;blockquote&gt;
 &lt;p&gt;If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. –African Proverb&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

</description>
<pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<link>http://sallyinstc.github.io/lets-go-far</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://sallyinstc.github.io/lets-go-far</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title>I Made A Thing Today</title>

<description>&lt;p&gt;A few months ago I left a job which was perfectly fine where I worked with a lot of people who were good at their jobs and were nice to me, but I hated it. The work didn’t feed my brain. The culture didn’t feed my spirit. And I was taking space from someone who could do it a lot better than I could. &lt;/p&gt;

</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<link>http://sallyinstc.github.io/i-made-a-thing-today</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://sallyinstc.github.io/i-made-a-thing-today</guid>
</item>
</channel>
>>>>>>> 7af57f3331d2445b4899fda4f817038e73a06890
</rss>

 </article>

</div>
</div>
<div class="push"></div>
</div>
<footer class="panel--centered" role="contentinfo">
 <div class="grid">
   <div class="centered grid__col--6">
    <img class="img--avatar" src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/84c28e5b3746afc8313e132a2b213235">
     <p>A blog about things digital and analog. <br>
       Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/YepItsSal">@YepItsSal</a>
<p style:"margin-top: 0;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/BlueOrchidWebBlog" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="//feedburner.google.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="" style="vertical-align:bottom;border:0"/></a>&nbsp;<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/BlueOrchidWebBlog" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></p>
     </p>
   </div>
 </div>
</footer>


<script type="text/javascript" src="../js/jquery.min.js"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript" src="../js/sticky.js"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript" src="../js/main.js"></script>

 </body>

</html>

I don't know why both of these seem to be looking at the HTML instead of the XML. Since this is a Jekyll project with many files, it would be easier to look at my repo https://github.com/sallyinstc/sallyinstc.github.io. Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1 · 2015-08-24T21:25:36Z

August 24, 2015 9:25pm

I forked your repo and found the problem. Your feed.xml has the rss code duplicated in it. It looks like you ran into a conflict during a Git merge and didn't delete duplicated stuff out of there. Change your feed.xml to look like this and it should work again:

---
layout: null
---
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <title>{{ site.title | xml_escape }}</title>
    <description>{{ site.description | xml_escape }}</description>
    <link>{{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/</link>
    <atom:link href="{{ "/feed.xml" | prepend: site.baseurl | prepend: site.url }}" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/>
    <pubDate>{{ site.time | date_to_rfc822 }}</pubDate>
    <lastBuildDate>{{ site.time | date_to_rfc822 }}</lastBuildDate>
    <generator>Jekyll v{{ jekyll.version }}</generator>
    {% for post in site.posts limit:10 %}
      <item>
        <title>{{ post.title | xml_escape }}</title>
        <description>{{ post.content | xml_escape }}</description>
        <pubDate>{{ post.date | date_to_rfc822 }}</pubDate>
        <link>{{ post.url | prepend: site.baseurl | prepend: site.url }}</link>
        <guid isPermaLink="true">{{ post.url | prepend: site.baseurl | prepend: site.url }}</guid>
        {% for tag in post.tags %}
        <category>{{ tag | xml_escape }}</category>
        {% endfor %}
        {% for cat in post.categories %}
        <category>{{ cat | xml_escape }}</category>
        {% endfor %}
      </item>
    {% endfor %}
  </channel>
 </rss>

Answer 2 · 2015-08-25T00:12:22Z

August 25, 2015 12:12am

Thanks for taking a look. I tried the corrected code, but still have the same problem. It seems that it looks at the HTML, not the XML.

Answer 3 · 2015-08-25T00:12:25Z

August 25, 2015 12:12am

Thanks for taking a look. I tried the corrected code, but still have the same problem. It seems that it looks at the HTML, not the XML.

Answer 4 · 2015-08-25T00:33:09Z

August 25, 2015 12:33am

Copy the code exactly how I have it. You didn't add the layout: null part at the top, and that is why you are getting HTML mixed with XML. The page will use the default layout if you don't set layout to null.

Answer 5 · 2015-08-25T00:38:09Z

August 25, 2015 12:38am

GAH!! Isn't it always something like that? Thanks so much!

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