Planet Skeptic

The Planet of Skepticism

This repo contains the code and data that powers the site Planet Skeptic. The site aggregates news and information from skeptics in various corners of the internet.

The site is built using Perlanet which is a tool for aggregating web feeds (it's a version of the Python tool "Planet" written in Perl - hence the rather silly name).

The way it works is this:

• perlanetrc contains YAML with the data that drives the file. Most importantly, it has the feeds list which defines the feeds that are aggregated into the web site (and a new Atom feed).

• index.tt is a template which is expanded (using the Template Toolkit) into the web site's front (and only) page. The template is passed a number of variables which can be used to display the new, aggregated feed. For example the feed variable is an an object (actually an instance of XML::Feed which contains the new feed.

• index.html and atom.xml are the generated files which make up the web site and the new Atom feed. They are generated on a schedule using GitHub Actions.

• .github/workflows/buildsite.yml is the file that controls how the site is built.

• cpanfile defines the Perl libraries that are required to generate the web site.

• Everything else is a file that is used to display the new web site - fonts, images, CSS files, etc

The generated web site is hosted on GitHub Pages.

Important Note: The files index.html and atom.xml are automatically generated. Please don't send pull requests that change them - as any changes will be overwritten the next time the site is rebuilt.