Incoming links error message?

From my feed:
The item from https://eatingbees.brokentoys.org has invalid characters. However, if you validate the individual feed for that site directly (https://eatingbees.brokentoys.org/feed) it doesn’t have the invalid characters. So it appears that google search feed is actually replacing valid characters with invalid characters.

Validator results:

https://www.joshlobe.com – Results | Feed
https://www.plugins.joshlobe.com – Results | Feed

So it appears that google search feed is actually replacing valid characters with invalid characters.

That wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. ??

@josh: They’re your site’s feeds – not the Incoming links feed. ??

That was my fault. Comment has been updated.

So it seems we have two issues.

1) If your feed is empty (i.e. Google doesn’t believe anyone links to you) it should just say it’s empty but is instead throwing an error (first post).

2) If your feed isn’t empty but contains certain html characters, Google appears to be replacing them with invalid characters and an error is being thrown (second post).

@josh: Both feeds are valid although they do have a couple of minor errors. Are you seeing the force_feed message too? I’ve sent out an email on this asking if there is any way that force_feed() can be used.

@esmi, I believe that @josh has the same issue I do, we get the error message (referencing force_feed) thrown up in that panel regardless of a valid feed, invalid feed, empty feed

@esmi,

Yes I do. On all three sites. The message is the same (except the url):

RSS Error: A feed could not be found at https://www.google.com/search?
ie=utf-8&partner=wordpress&q=link:https://joshlobe.com/
&tbm=blg&tbs=sbd:1&output=rss. A feed with an invalid mime type may fall
victim to this error, or SimplePie was unable to auto-discover it.. Use
force_feed() if you are certain this URL is a real feed.

Hmmm… I guess SimplePie, as utilised in WP, is a lot fussier than I thought. If I don’t get a response in a few hours, I’ll try poking some people.

Poke away, Diva Mod!!

Thank you, kindly.

I’ll post back if I find anything in the meantime.

The invalidness of the feed won’t cause that error, I think. But having something blocking your site from retrieving that feed URL will cause it.

Maybe your site is firewalled, somehow?

I know we’ve got about 4 different hosts listed in the thread now, on which we are experiencing the issues….

Mine happened probably a month (ish) after being on bluehost… I wasn’t informed of any changes on my host, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot.

Could it perhaps be a plugin? I use BulletProof Security plugin. I hate to deactivate with all the hackers on standby…

But I’ll give that a try and see.

@rev. VooDoo,

Are you by chance also using this plugin?

Nope, no plugin of that sort

Actually on my test site, its bare, no themes, no plugins, no nothing

Hmm.

Yeah, I just installed a fresh copy in a subdomain and immediately received the same error.

It’s definitely not plugin or theme related.

Again, the host is HostGator.