🎬 ReelFeed

A Discord bot that automatically shares Letterboxd activity from your favorite film critics, friends, and influencers directly to your Discord server.

What is ReelFeed?

ReelFeed monitors Letterboxd RSS feeds and posts new diary entries, reviews, and ratings as beautiful Discord embeds. Perfect for film communities, Discord servers, or groups of movie enthusiasts who want to stay updated on what everyone is watching.

Features

• 🔄 Automatic Monitoring: Checks for new Letterboxd activity every 10 minutes
• 🎯 Admin-Only Controls: Only server admins can manage followed users
• 📝 Rich Embeds: Beautiful Discord embeds with movie titles, ratings, and reviews
• ⚙️ Persistent Settings: Remembers your followed users and settings across restarts
• 🔍 Feed Testing: Test any user's feed before adding them
• 📍 Channel Management: Set which channel receives the updates

Commands

All commands require Manage Server permissions:

Command	Description	Example
/reel-add <username>	Add a Letterboxd user to follow	/reel-add criterion
/reel-remove <username>	Remove a user from the follow list	/reel-remove criterion
/reel-list	Show all followed users and current channel	/reel-list
/reel-channel <channel>	Set which channel receives updates	/reel-channel #movie-feed
/reel-test <username>	Test a user's feed and see their latest entry	/reel-test nolan

Quick Setup

1. Prerequisites

• Node.js 16+ installed
• A Discord application/bot token
• Basic familiarity with Discord bot setup

2. Installation

# Clone or download the bot files
npm init -y
npm install discord.js rss-parser

3. Create Discord Application

1. Go to https://discord.com/developers/applications
2. Click "New Application" and give it a name (e.g. "ReelFeed")
3. Go to the "Bot" section
4. Click "Add Bot" and copy the bot token
5. Replace YOUR_BOT_TOKEN_HERE in the code with your actual token

4. Bot Permissions

Your bot needs these permissions:

• ✅ Send Messages
• ✅ Use Slash Commands
• ✅ Embed Links
• ✅ Read Message History

5. Invite Bot to Server

1. In Discord Developer Portal, go to OAuth2 → URL Generator
2. Select scopes: bot and applications.commands
3. Select the permissions listed above
4. Use the generated URL to invite the bot to your server

6. Run the Bot

node reelfeed-bot.js

You should see: ReelFeed monitoring started - watching for new Letterboxd activity...

How to Use

Initial Setup

/reel-channel #letterboxd-feed

Add Users to Follow

/reel-add criterion
/reel-add karynkusama
/reel-add nolan

Check Your Setup

/reel-list

Test a User (Optional)

/reel-test criterion

That's it! ReelFeed will now automatically post new Letterboxd activity to your designated channel.

How It Works

1. RSS Monitoring: ReelFeed uses Letterboxd's RSS feeds (https://letterboxd.com/username/rss/)
2. Smart Tracking: Remembers the last check time to avoid posting duplicates
3. Rich Formatting: Extracts ratings, reviews, and metadata to create beautiful embeds
4. Persistent Storage: Saves all settings to bot-config.json

Example Output

When someone logs a new film, ReelFeed posts an embed like this:

👤 criterion on Letterboxd
🎬 Citizen Kane (1941)
⭐ ★★★★★
📝 "Welles' masterpiece remains as relevant today as ever. The cinematography and narrative structure were revolutionary for their time..."
🔗 View on Letterboxd

Configuration

ReelFeed automatically creates a bot-config.json file to store:

• Followed users per server
• Designated update channels
• Last check timestamps

Troubleshooting

Bot Not Responding

• Check the bot is online in your server
• Verify you have "Manage Server" permissions
• Try re-inviting the bot with the correct permissions

No Updates Posting

• Ensure you've set a channel with /reel-channel
• Check the bot has "Send Messages" permission in that channel
• Verify the followed users have recent activity (use /reel-test)

Invalid Username Error

• Letterboxd usernames are case-sensitive in URLs
• Make sure the user exists at https://letterboxd.com/username
• Some users may have disabled their RSS feeds

Advanced Usage

Multiple Servers

Each Discord server has its own independent configuration. The bot can run on multiple servers simultaneously with different followed users and channels.

Rate Limiting

ReelFeed is designed to be respectful:

• Checks feeds every 10 minutes (not real-time)
• Uses Letterboxd's public RSS feeds (no API scraping)
• Handles errors gracefully without spamming

Hosting

For 24/7 operation, consider hosting on:

• Railway
• Heroku
• DigitalOcean
• Your own VPS

Contributing

This is an open-source project! Feel free to:

• Report bugs or issues
• Suggest new features
• Submit pull requests
• Fork and modify for your needs

Privacy & Data

ReelFeed only stores:

• Discord server IDs
• Letterboxd usernames you choose to follow
• Channel IDs for posting updates
• Last check timestamps

No personal data, message content, or private information is collected.

License

This project is open source. Use it, modify it, share it!

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Enjoy discovering great films with ReelFeed! 🍿