This build started as a simple question:
Can news feeds be filtered into a cryon, ticker, or crawl?
The answer turned into a working feature called The Current.
The Current is now the first version of a live signal layer for No Signal Media. It can display short broadcast-style messages across selected pages, using either imported feed items or manually launched admin messages.
What Changed
The first version of the RSS intake system is now working.
We added a new flow:
Feed Source
↓
Feed Item
↓
Signal Item
↓
The Current
A feed source can now pull in RSS items, create reviewable feed records, and convert those records into ticker-ready Signal Items.
The system started with a manual approval path. Then we expanded it to support auto-import and auto-publish options. That makes it possible for trusted sources to feed The Current without needing every item approved one at a time.
Human Signals
The bigger realization was that RSS should not be the only source.
No Signal also needs a human broadcast layer.
That led to the Human Signals idea:
Human Signal
↓
Signal Item
↓
The Current
Human Signals are meant for admin-written messages, alerts, scheduled notes, and reusable announcements. They are not just one-off ticker text. They are a source type.
This creates room for things like:
SITE: Build Log 005 is live.
RADIO: Quiet Current is now featured.
SYSTEM: Maintenance window starts soon.
LIVE: New session starting in 20 minutes.
Human Signals can be drafted, scheduled, edited, launched, and eventually expired.
Signal Lifetime
Signal Items now support timing.
The working model is:
Timed signals expire automatically.
Always-on signals stay active until manually removed.
The practical defaults are:
RSS Signal Items: short lifespan
Human Signals: flexible lifespan
Always On: no end date, no auto delete
This lets The Current stay fresh without turning into another archive that has to be cleaned up manually.
Template Parts
The app shell also started to move in the right direction.
The old page template carried too much responsibility. Header, Rooms nav, Tools nav, page content, and footer were all living together inside one file.
We started breaking that apart into block theme parts:
parts/nsm-header.html
parts/nsm-nav-rooms.html
parts/nsm-nav-tools.html
parts/nsm-footer.html
The page template now acts more like a shell assembler instead of a giant markup file.
That is the right architecture for where No Signal is heading.
CSS Split
We also began separating the shell styles into smaller files:
nsm-header.css
nsm-nav.css
nsm-shell.css
nsm-footer.css
nsm-ticker.css
This was not a clean straight line. One functions.php pass broke the backend, so we rolled back to the older stable version and rebuilt carefully.
That was the right move.
The current rule is simple:
Make one change. Test it. Then move to the next layer.
Footer and Ticker Behavior
The ticker now behaves more like a fixed broadcast bar.
The important design decision:
The footer should never feel like it scrolls underneath the ticker.
The footer needs enough spacing so it lands naturally above The Current. The ticker itself can stay fixed, but the page should still feel like it has a real ending.
This is part of making the app shell feel intentional instead of patched together.
Current Status
Working now:
RSS intake works
Feed Items import
Signal Items display in The Current
Ticker styling is moving into theme CSS
Template parts are created
Page shell has started moving into parts
Footer, header, nav, shell, and ticker CSS are being separated carefully
Still in progress:
Final Human Signals workflow
Cleaner empty ticker behavior
Better scheduled launch controls
Final mobile ticker and bottom nav spacing
Full cleanup of duplicate or older CSS
Build Note
This was a useful build because it exposed the difference between a feature and a system.
A ticker by itself is small.
A ticker connected to RSS, Human Signals, scheduled alerts, page shell architecture, and member navigation becomes something else.
It becomes a broadcast layer.
That is the real feature.