It's time to head back to RSS? • Hacker News Board

Re: It's time to head back to RSS?

#431

Post by singingfish » Sun, Apr 01, 2018, 3:28 AM UTC

orbitur wrote: post #344

Zhyl wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Podcasting feels like an alternate reality where none of the massive players took over and everything stayed federated.

Some "players" like Stitcher are trying their best to get away from that, though. And they're seeing moderate success, too. I feel like podcasts have simply been overlooked by big media types, and the day is coming where enough power will concentrate and advertisers will only want to give money to networks instead of individual podcasts. Enjoy the freedom while it lasts. I think 5 years from now, no individuals will…

I did Stitcher for a bit. It was kind of ok. But the walled garden felt wrong and at some point I couldn't find a podcast on stitcher I wanted. So I found Downcast (iOS app). While it's not perfect, it does let me access my spaghetti-and-duct-tape BBC radio downloader easily.

Re: It's time to head back to RSS?

#432

Post by Havoc » Sun, Apr 01, 2018, 3:29 AM UTC

hnarn wrote: post #249

Havoc wrote: post #243

RSS isn't conducive to advertising. That in itself makes it a non-starter

What makes you say that? Text based advertising sure could be a part of RSS.

>Text based advertising sure could be a part of RSS.

Nobody cares about text based adverts

Re: It's time to head back to RSS?

#433

Post by daddosi » Sun, Apr 01, 2018, 3:41 AM UTC

I role my own aggregator, its 1000 years ahead of the rest. Im only half kidding.

Ill share my most recent idea: sort news items by the amount of time between its pubdate and the previous pubdate in that feed. (Discard items older than x where x is since last time you read the results, a fixed amount of time or more if the number of "winning" results is insufficient.)

The idea is simple. That guy who never says anything. When he opens his mouth it should be interesting to hear what comes out.

He will be delighted to have 1 reader. A much more enjoyable position than listening to some screaming news anchor or other attention whore.

Re: It's time to head back to RSS?

#434

Post by brownbat » Sun, Apr 01, 2018, 3:42 AM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #398

ghaff wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that a lot of it's just historical happenstance. Podcasting as we think of it today started ~2003 and was very intertwined with the development of RSS. The click-wheel iPod (which was really the breakout model) wasn't until the next year. And the current era of podcasting didn't really take off until it became easy to sync with smartphones. So this was a case where Apple sort of came along for the ride and…

Yeah another thing I'm surprised at, being a relatively new podcaster, is how often I approach people/businesses to interview them and they tell me they either don't listen to podcasts or don't even know what they are.

On a recent trip back home, I had some downtime and my device was broken, so I threw a bunch of podcasts on the Apple TV.

A few weeks later my dad calls to tell me he doesn't know how any of this works, but now he gets amazing content while driving, instead of just listening to the mostly ads that came through his antenna.

So.. just lack of awareness? Just fiddly enough to keep people away?

I have a sneaking suspicion that if tomorrow Apple or Google just subscribed everyone to 99% Invisible and waited, FM radio would be dead in a year.

Re: It's time to head back to RSS?

#435

Post by brownbat » Sun, Apr 01, 2018, 3:43 AM UTC

macspoofing wrote: post #225

Zhyl wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Podcasting feels like an alternate reality where none of the massive players took over and everything stayed federated.

Yep. It's perplexing that a YouTube for podcasts (with centralized ad serving and similar profit sharing) hasn't emerged. The space is endearing - maybe that's why it is so vibrant?

Stitcher is trying to do this.

I love their UI, but the fact I can't load RSS feeds directly is making me look around for alternatives, so maybe it's a risky bet.

Re: It's time to head back to RSS?

#436

Post by daddosi » Sun, Apr 01, 2018, 3:49 AM UTC

bogomipz wrote: post #303

toasterlovin wrote: post #5

If you haven’t tried RSS as your main mode of information consumption in a while, you should give it a shot. I went all-in on RSS recently and it’s been great. Way more thoughtful, long form content. Smaller dose information sources (Twitter, etc.) are useful in their own way, but I’ve found that the amount of time required to create a unit of media is a pretty good reverse indicator of how likely it is to use the ba…

> Way more thoughtful, long form content." Isn't RSS the same content as on the publishers page or site though? Maybe I am misinterpreting you comment?

You can gaze over (recent) publications from thousands of sources in about the same time it takes to look at a single website.

Re: It's time to head back to RSS?

#437

Post by daddosi » Sun, Apr 01, 2018, 3:55 AM UTC

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #99

sago wrote: post #55

RSS is awesome. Bring on its resurgence. But. It is fundamentally not fit as a Facebook or social media replacement because of it's lack of simple commenting support. It suits some curmudgeonly old farts like me, perhaps. But even I want to feedback sometimes or join in the discussion (hence this comment). Are there solutions that a content creator can provide, via RSS, without requiring its readers to install partic…

RSS is, fundamentally, just links to web pages. Why would it need to have built-in commenting? Just go to the linked page and comment there.

It actually has

Re: It's time to head back to RSS?

#438

Post by fiddlerwoaroof » Sun, Apr 01, 2018, 4:45 AM UTC

iamdave wrote: post #382

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TinyTinyRSS lets you use xpath to specify which element on the linked page is the “real” content. It was a life-saver when dealing with snippet-only feeds.

Ohh I didn't know of this, thanks for the recommendation will definitely check it out.

BTW, you'll need the feediron plugin for the functionality I was talking about.

Re: It's time to head back to RSS?

#439

Post by daveFNbuck » Sun, Apr 01, 2018, 4:57 AM UTC

mandelbulb wrote: post #389

daveFNbuck wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I tried the keyboard shortcut without the addon, it just triggered a popup saying I needed the addon.

Ah, yeah, you're correct. Firefox had changed the permissions for this some time ago. You can optionally toggle the browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground value in about:config to true, then the v shortcut will open in background. That said, I find the add-on a must-have. I'm always using it to save web pages. Do not forget to check the HTTPS option in setting, though. As a reference [1]: browser.tabs.loadInBackground…

Thanks! That actually fixes my biggest problem with Feedly if this Inoreader trial doesn't work out for me.

Re: It's time to head back to RSS?

#440

Post by Digital-Citizen » Sun, Apr 01, 2018, 4:58 AM UTC

The article asks if "anyone weary of black-box algorithms controlling what you see online" and then offers choices which are either hosted web services or proprietary programs, both of which grant someone else the power to control what you see via that reader. So even though standards everyone is free to implement (RSS is certainly in that set) are critically important it's hard to take some of the article seriously.

The real way to avoid the problem of non-freedom and deny the admins/programmers the power to control your reading is to use free software RSS feed readers instead of hosted services you don't host yourself or proprietary programs. Choose RSS readers that respect a user's freedom to run, inspect, share, and modify the program. https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Category/Internet-application... points to some.