If it's not an open-source client that I can run on my own machine, I wouldn't trust it. There's nothing preventing a service from tracking you or giving away your data, no matter what reassuring words they use.
Which client do you use?
Show HN: Feediary – RSS reader with zero tracking and zero ads
51–60 of 93 posts
Re: Show HN: Feediary – RSS reader with zero tracking and zero ads
#52If it's not an open-source client that I can run on my own machine, I wouldn't trust it. There's nothing preventing a service from tracking you or giving away your data, no matter what reassuring words they use.
Something like devdocs.io as an RSS reader.
Re: Show HN: Feediary – RSS reader with zero tracking and zero ads
#53Why would an RSS reader with zero tracking or ads be a selling point? Those are not things an RSS reader should have to begin with, it's like advertising that you made an offline garden planner without tracking or ads: that is the expected baseline. This seems a pretty strong case of the "having X is bad, so not having X must be good" logical reasoning fallacy.
that is the expected baseline
I don’t know what world you’re living in, but that is absolutely not the expected baseline for consumer facing software in 2018 (unfortunately).
Re: Show HN: Feediary – RSS reader with zero tracking and zero ads
#54Is RSS still alive? I'm asking this out of curiosity. I've stopped using RSS long time ago. It has nothing to do with Google Reader. I've stopped using RSS before Google Reader died.
In 2018 it is reasonably hard to find RSS feeds. There are no good directories, people are not sharing their OPML files (not in articles nor elements)
Finding smaller websites in 2018 is even harder. There are no good directories, people are not sharing their favorite websites but if they do their audience is so microscopic that it doesn't reach you.
I sort of ended up building my own box of tricks. Talking about those mostly generates feedback from the RSS oblivious who moan about RSS being dead and praising the glory of walled gardens that have some laughably inferior news implementation. (I'm not complaining, if not an accurate description it is an understatement)
The way I see it I would prefer to glorify with my subscription the (perhaps low audience) websites that really deserve it. People who worked to write and record things I'm interested in and ran that extra mile to make it informative.
But who cares about that if you can have the fcebook and twitter type of walled echo chambers?
It is not so much that RSS is dying. Why even make a website if you cant find readers for it? Arguably the whole concept of a website is changing from providing information for free to hard-sell commerce.
That said, while it is certainly getting more difficult every year to find new subscriptions, it can be done.
If you continue to put in the effort to find more you will reach a sweet spot where the number of dead feeds matches the number of new finds. One week you will be very happy with the results the next might be a sad display of the large older news outlets. It may give the impression of slow death.
It is rather weird... do you just delete feeds that don't work? Do you crawl the dead list every week? How long does it have to be dead before you purge it? Did it just move? Is the website it self still there? How valuable is its content to you?
Then, to repeat myself, since everyone and their mum is pretty much locked into walled gardens there is this huge echo chamber effect where, much like TV in the 80's, everyone is talking about the same topics. Trying to filter those out feels like reanimating a corps.
However: It continues to be worth it to find original thought. If I have to crawl the entire internet to find that last blogger who isn't parroting Ruppert Murdoch or Donald Trump ~ I will.
A long story short, if RSS is dead you've killed her. (lol)
Re: Show HN: Feediary – RSS reader with zero tracking and zero ads
#55Why would an RSS reader with zero tracking or ads be a selling point? Those are not things an RSS reader should have to begin with, it's like advertising that you made an offline garden planner without tracking or ads: that is the expected baseline. This seems a pretty strong case of the "having X is bad, so not having X must be good" logical reasoning fallacy.
that is the expected baseline I don’t know what world you’re living in, but that is absolutely not the expected baseline for consumer facing software in 2018 (unfortunately).
No it is, it's just not what our dogshit economic system brainwashes you into assuming.
Re: Show HN: Feediary – RSS reader with zero tracking and zero ads
#56Why would an RSS reader with zero tracking or ads be a selling point? Those are not things an RSS reader should have to begin with, it's like advertising that you made an offline garden planner without tracking or ads: that is the expected baseline. This seems a pretty strong case of the "having X is bad, so not having X must be good" logical reasoning fallacy.
that is the expected baseline I don’t know what world you’re living in, but that is absolutely not the expected baseline for consumer facing software in 2018 (unfortunately).
> I don’t know what world you’re living in, but that is absolutely not the expected baseline for consumer facing software in 2018 (unfortunately).
I don't know what world you're living in, but none of the "consumer facing" software I use has built-in tracking, including my RSS reader.
It's actually sad that apparently even the tech literate people on HN have given up and just accept that creepy corporate tracking is a way of life.
What's even more sad is that I know many people here work for companies that do this and they go along with it.
Re: Show HN: Feediary – RSS reader with zero tracking and zero ads
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you very much. We are thinking about offering a lifetime membership plan, but need to figure out the details first. How much would you be willing to pay for a lifetime licence?
What I would like to see is a membership where the price drops each year. First year, it's $5/month. Second, it's $4. Third year, it's $3. And so on. Ideally it's free year 6 and from then on as long as you have an active account. But it could be $1/year. I already have enough things I have to pay for every month for the rest of my life.
A service that has a non zero operating expense (which is, pretty much everyone) cannot survive if there is no revenue from users to support that OPEX (IT/cloud costs, dev pay, etc).
You need recurrent money to run the business. It comes from ads/tracking/data and/or from subscriptions. Some business want to protect your privacy by not tracking you or serve you ads, so you should expect a non zero recurrent cost.
It can be extremely small, but it needs to be there to be profitable: the business has to cover its costs somehow, or it won't last.
> I already have enough things I have to pay for every month for the rest of my life.
So does this business to provide a service to you, for as long as you remain a customer.
Re: Show HN: Feediary – RSS reader with zero tracking and zero ads
#58Well, NewsBlur gives you all that and is open source too. It's also less expensive if you use the hosted version ($36/yr for NewsBlur vs 48€ for feediary).
Re: Show HN: Feediary – RSS reader with zero tracking and zero ads
#59Thunderbird is already good enough.
Re: Show HN: Feediary – RSS reader with zero tracking and zero ads
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? I thought browsers encrypt their user data & such with some type of user credentials?
Suppose that's the case. How does the browser get the credentials? It's probably not from the user, because I never heard of a browser that requires a password at startup. It could be from the OS, but native "apps" aren't sandboxed, nor are they signed, so the OS has no way of differentiating between 2 apps.
> nor are they signed
macOS apps are increasingly signed, because there are additional steps a user must take to run unsigned apps.