diff --git a/src/api/app/controllers/webui/feeds_controller.rb b/src/api/app/controllers/webui/feeds_controller.rb
index 4e37e24cb54..4db580af230 100644
--- a/src/api/app/controllers/webui/feeds_controller.rb
+++ b/src/api/app/controllers/webui/feeds_controller.rb
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 class Webui::FeedsController < Webui::WebuiController
   layout false
   before_action :set_project, only: [:commits]
+  before_action :set_timerange, only: [:commits]
 
   def news
     @news = StatusMessage.newest.for_current_user.includes(:user).limit(5)
@@ -15,12 +16,11 @@ def latest_updates
   def commits
     authorize @project, :source_access?
 
-    @start = params[:starting_at].present? ? starting_at(params[:starting_at]) : 7.days.ago
-    @finish = params[:ending_at].present? ? ending_at(params[:ending_at]) : nil
+    @terse = params[:terse].present?
 
-    @commits = @project.project_log_entries.where(event_type: 'commit').where(['datetime >= ?', @start])
-    @commits = @commits.where(['datetime <= ?', @finish]) unless @finish.nil?
-    @commits = @commits.order('datetime desc')
+    commits = @project.project_log_entries.where(event_type: 'commit').where(['datetime >= ?', @start])
+    commits = commits.where(['datetime <= ?', @finish]) if @finish.present?
+    @commits = commits.order('datetime desc')
   end
 
   def notifications
@@ -38,15 +38,14 @@ def notifications
 
   private
 
-  def starting_at(date)
-    Time.zone.parse(date)
-  rescue StandardError
-    7.days.ago
-  end
-
-  def ending_at(date)
-    Time.zone.parse(date)
-  rescue StandardError
-    nil
+  def set_timerange
+    start = params.fetch(:starting_at, 7.days.ago.to_s)
+    @start = Time.zone.parse(start)
+    finish = params['ending_at']
+    @finish = Time.zone.parse(finish) if finish
+  # Ignore params if the date string is invalid...
+  rescue ArgumentError
+    @start = 7.days.ago
+    @finish = nil
   end
 end
diff --git a/src/api/app/views/webui/feeds/commits.atom.builder b/src/api/app/views/webui/feeds/commits.atom.builder
index 5f46d317d5a..1a6207b08fd 100644
--- a/src/api/app/views/webui/feeds/commits.atom.builder
+++ b/src/api/app/views/webui/feeds/commits.atom.builder
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-# Don't ask me why atom_feed helper does not work. Reimplementing its logic
+# FIXME: atom_feed helper bails out with
+# ActionView::Template::Error (A document may not have multiple root nodes.)
+# Reimplementing its logic...
 feed_opts = { 'xml:lang' => 'en-US',
               'xmlns' => 'http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' }
 schema_date = '2013-11-22'
@@ -17,40 +19,44 @@ xml.feed(feed_opts) do |feed|
       user = commit.user_name
       reqid = BsRequest.find(commit.bs_request_id).number if commit.bs_request_id
       datetime = commit.datetime
-      url = ''
-
-      title = "In #{package}"
-      title += " (request #{reqid})" if reqid.present?
-      entry.title(title)
-      entry.content type: 'xhtml' do |xhtml|
-        xhtml.div do |div|
-          div.p commit.message
-          div.p 'Basic information:'
-          div.dl do |dl|
-            dl.dt 'Package'
-            dl.dd do |dd|
-              url = url_for(only_path: false, controller: 'package', action: 'rdiff', project: @project.name,
+      package_url = url_for(only_path: false, controller: 'package', action: 'rdiff', project: @project.name,
                             package: package, rev: commit.additional_info['rev'], linkrev: 'base')
-              dd.a package, href: url
-            end
-            dl.dt 'User'
-            dl.dd user
-            dl.dt 'Request'
-            if reqid
-              # prefer the request url
-              url = request_show_url(reqid)
+      request_url = request_show_url(reqid) if reqid.present?
+
+      if @terse
+        entry.title("New commit in #{package}")
+        content = "Revision #{commit.additional_info['rev']}"
+        content += " via request #{reqid}" if reqid.present?
+        content += ' via service' if commit.message == 'trigger service run'
+        entry.content(content, type: 'text')
+      else
+        title = "New commit in #{package} (#{commit.additional_info['rev']}) by #{user}"
+        title += " (via #{reqid})" if reqid.present?
+        entry.title(title)
+        entry.content type: 'xhtml' do |xhtml|
+          xhtml.div do |div|
+            div.p commit.message
+            div.p 'Basic information:'
+            div.dl do |dl|
+              dl.dt 'Package'
               dl.dd do |dd|
-                dd.a reqid, href: url
+                dd.a package, href: package_url
+              end
+              dl.dt 'User'
+              dl.dd user
+              if reqid
+                dl.dt 'Request'
+                dl.dd do |dd|
+                  dd.a reqid, href: request_url
+                end
               end
-            else
-              dl.dd reqid
             end
-          end
-          div.p 'Additional information:'
-          div.dl do |dl|
-            commit.additional_info.each do |k, v|
-              dl.dt k
-              dl.dd v
+            div.p 'Additional information:'
+            div.dl do |dl|
+              commit.additional_info.each do |k, v|
+                dl.dt k
+                dl.dd v
+              end
             end
           end
         end
@@ -62,7 +68,8 @@ xml.feed(feed_opts) do |feed|
 
       entry.published(datetime.iso8601)
       entry.id("tag:#{obs_host},2013-12-01:#{@project.name}/#{commit.id}")
-      entry.link(href: url)
+      entry_url = reqid.present? ? request_url : package_url
+      entry.link(href: entry_url)
       entry.updated(datetime.iso8601)
     end
   end