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Ask HN: Why do RSS Readers (mostly) suck?

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Re: Ask HN: Why do RSS Readers (mostly) suck?

#21

Post by danh »

neonfunk wrote: post #14

I haven't tested it, but I'm intrigued by Shuan Inman's Fever reader ( http://feedafever.com/ ). Basically the idea is that you separate your feeds into two distinct types: essential feeds that you read completely, and supplemental, high-volume feeds (aggregator-type blogs, like Engadget). Then the essentials are cross-referenced with the supplementals to see what you're likely to be interested in. I have a similar s…

I'm using essentially the same strategy. Basically I split feeds in two categories:

"Fresh" ones I either read on the spot, or mark-all-as-read. These are the ones I usually check frequently, and very quickly. And I don't have to feel bad about marking all as read :-)

"Evergreens" are ones I like to read entirely, but not necessarily now.

I'm using Google Reader, but these days mostly through the splendid Reeder on the iPhone (http://reederapp.com/).

Re: Ask HN: Why do RSS Readers (mostly) suck?

#22

Post by jerf »

Sit down and really write out your requirements.

Two things will emerge from that exercise: 1. there probably is in fact a reader out there that meets it, you just haven't found it yet or 2. your requirements require solving the AI-complete problem of perfectly determining what you are interested in.

Generally I find most people slot into #2. I am not kidding. I've been listening to this complaint for about 8 years now and every time I've worked with someone, it's one of the two above, and usually #2.

A third possibility is that you are just trying to read too much, period, if even an AI-complete filter would still leave you with too much. The suck may not lie with the software, it may in the requirements.

Re: Ask HN: Why do RSS Readers (mostly) suck?

#26

Post by davidwparker »

I think you just need to think about what you want, and think about what sources you read from. You say you have 68 sources in your feed, whereas I have ~100.

Personally, I like Google Reader, but I don't use that to read my RSS (just manage it). Instead, I use Google/ig. I have several different categories setup and I don't necessarily read everything. One of the categories I have setup is mRead (short for mark as read) and I don't really read those articles (often), but I still subscribe incase I see a headline that screams my name, or if I want to use Google Reader to do a search within my subscriptions for something specific.

If you have too much noise in your RSS versus signal, than you may want to double check what you've subscribed to and cut back, or add a "mRead" category of your own.

Re: Ask HN: Why do RSS Readers (mostly) suck?

#27

Post by nuclear_eclipse »

kes wrote: post #10

Try Fever: http://feedafever.com/

I love Fever. Putting the high volume news sites as "sparks", and the high signal feeds that I like to read everything from as "kindling", gives a great way of seeing trending topics when you have the time, but without seeing a giant unread count in your list.

Well worth the one-time fee and setting it up on my Linode box.

Re: Ask HN: Why do RSS Readers (mostly) suck?

#28

Post by tortilla »

danh wrote: post #21
neonfunk wrote: post #14

I haven't tested it, but I'm intrigued by Shuan Inman's Fever reader ( http://feedafever.com/ ). Basically the idea is that you separate your feeds into two distinct types: essential feeds that you read completely, and supplemental, high-volume feeds (aggregator-type blogs, like Engadget). Then the essentials are cross-referenced with the supplementals to see what you're likely to be interested in. I have a similar s…

I'm using essentially the same strategy. Basically I split feeds in two categories: "Fresh" ones I either read on the spot, or mark-all-as-read. These are the ones I usually check frequently, and very quickly. And I don't have to feel bad about marking all as read :-) "Evergreens" are ones I like to read entirely, but not necessarily now. I'm using Google Reader, but these days mostly through the splendid Reeder on t…

I really like Reeder for the iPhone. Google Reader fluid app on the desktop and Reeder for the iPhone works great for me.
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