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Kill the newsletter: Convert newsletters into RSS feeds

kill-the-newsletter.com

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Re: Kill the newsletter: Convert newsletters into RSS feeds

#11

Post by icebraining »

tedmiston wrote: post #2

I'm so glad that someone built this. I have the same use case as the author where I just don't want newsletters to read, but that are time insensitive, intermingled with communication to people in my inbox. I'm excited to try this approach. I'd be interested to see what other solutions people have come up with to this problem.

A simple approach is to filter them in your email client into a folder/tag and out of the inbox. That's what I do for mailing lists (which aren't well suited for RSS, since they're threaded).

Re: Kill the newsletter: Convert newsletters into RSS feeds

#12

Post by iagooar »

Kudos for making the source code available and allowing to self-host the service.

If you are thinking about making some money with it, maybe one twist would be to be to offer a SaaS "proxy" between the newsletter and the subscriber, where subscribers enter their real email and search for newsletters they are interested in and convert them into a feed? Although TBH I'm not sure there is money in RSS readers...

Re: Kill the newsletter: Convert newsletters into RSS feeds

#13

Post by detaro »

chriswarbo wrote: post #10
ommunist wrote: post #6

Well, you can't effectively kill newsletter. Because newsletter COMES so you, and you have to CLICK to get feed.

It depends what level of abstraction you're working at. At the level of sockets, you're right that a mail server receives a connection from a sender when a newsletter is sent, whilst an RSS aggregator initiates connections to each feed's source when it polls, even if there are no new articles. At a lower level, the server's doing polling to check for new connections, but that's a fast local operation so it doesn't br…

And feeds also have a (close to) instant notification mechanism in the form of W3C PubSub aka pubshubhubbub.

Re: Kill the newsletter: Convert newsletters into RSS feeds

#14

Post by mike-cardwell »

I prefer to use my email clients to read my news. Means I don't have to run an additional application. I have a script which monitors RSS feeds and turns them into emails. I filter them into a "News" mail folder. I run K-9 Mail, Mutt and Webmail depending on what device I'm using. Thanks to IMAP my "news readers" stay in sync due to the "\Seen" IMAP flag, and the ability to delete messages. Thanks to IMAP PUSH I don't have to poll for new RSS items on my various client devices. Thanks to IMAPs subscribe I don't get News on devices I don't want it on.

[edit] I use sieve to filter real newsletters into the same "News" folder, so it's a mixture of content from RSS feeds and newsletters.

Re: Kill the newsletter: Convert newsletters into RSS feeds

#15

Post by Tepix »

akamaozu wrote: post #7

Out of curiosity, what's stopping me from using this to sign up for services and having this app mahically keeping their emails out of my inbox, but neatly filed away for when I need it?

That's the idea. You poll the RSS feeds whenever you want to see if there's anything new. I.e. probably not that frequently.

Re: Kill the newsletter: Convert newsletters into RSS feeds

#16

Post by chriswarbo »

bikamonki wrote: post #9

I think we are moving towards a descentralized Internet. The RSS feed needs a central server, the newsletter can be broadcasted and then forwarded peer to peer. I'd argue the opposite then: save the newsletter, just maybe evolve it into something better (maybe with schema email??)

Sounds like Usenet :)

RSS is probably easier to layer on top of those new fangled HTTP-over-P2P networks like IPFS.

Heck, I remember proposals for combining RSS and BitTorrent, so an RSS feed could be spread via BitTorrent, with incremental updates being applied, and with each entry containing BitTorrent magnet links. This was proposed as a distributed way to provide podcasts ("podcatching"). Not sure if it got implemented.

Re: Kill the newsletter: Convert newsletters into RSS feeds

#17

Post by shortformblog »

As a guy who runs a newsletter with a few thousand subscribers, I'm supportive of this idea.

In fact, I put a lot of work into my RSS feeds knowing that people like this would exist. http://feed.tedium.co/ (Using FeedPress, if you're curious.)

I see it less as killing the newsletter, and more as giving people options.

Re: Kill the newsletter: Convert newsletters into RSS feeds

#18

Post by snksnk »

thecabinet wrote: post #4

NewsBlur does something similar. Forward your newsletters and they appear as an RSS feed. Works with any kind of email...

This! NewsBlur is awesome. For newsletters: http://blog.newsblur.com/post/146752875548/newsletters-in-yo...

NewsBlur even has support for Twitter: http://blog.newsblur.com/post/145256277160/twitters-back-bab...

Re: Kill the newsletter: Convert newsletters into RSS feeds

#19

Post by Jaruzel »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #14

I prefer to use my email clients to read my news. Means I don't have to run an additional application. I have a script which monitors RSS feeds and turns them into emails. I filter them into a "News" mail folder. I run K-9 Mail, Mutt and Webmail depending on what device I'm using. Thanks to IMAP my "news readers" stay in sync due to the "\Seen" IMAP flag, and the ability to delete messages. Thanks to IMAP PUSH I don'…

> I have a script which monitors RSS feeds and turns them into emails.

I totally keep meaning to do this. Glad I'm not the only one with this crazy preference!

Re: Kill the newsletter: Convert newsletters into RSS feeds

#20

Post by rahimnathwani »

Jaruzel wrote: post #19
mike-cardwell wrote: post #14

I prefer to use my email clients to read my news. Means I don't have to run an additional application. I have a script which monitors RSS feeds and turns them into emails. I filter them into a "News" mail folder. I run K-9 Mail, Mutt and Webmail depending on what device I'm using. Thanks to IMAP my "news readers" stay in sync due to the "\Seen" IMAP flag, and the ability to delete messages. Thanks to IMAP PUSH I don'…

> I have a script which monitors RSS feeds and turns them into emails. I totally keep meaning to do this. Glad I'm not the only one with this crazy preference!

https://github.com/rcarmo/rss2imap
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