Less shadow banning features definitely :-))
RSS Is Better Than Twitter
231–240 of 259 posts
Re: RSS Is Better Than Twitter
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good idea! Maybe one day Google will create an ecosystem around RSS. They could call it something like “Google Reader”...
TheOldReader is a really nice RSS reader built after the demise of Google Reader. They've been consistently solid. https://theoldreader.com
I second the recommendation for TheOldReader. It's where I eventually ended up after Google Reader's demise.
Re: RSS Is Better Than Twitter
#233> On the surface, Twitter’s main value proposition is that it delivers up-to-the-second news. Not really. Most of the people I know , including me, go there for just one reason: To know the public opinion.
> To know the public opinion
But always remember that you're only getting to know the opinion of the twitterverse. That may or may not track public opinion overall.
Re: RSS Is Better Than Twitter
#234I've tried to use RSS before, but the big hangup for me is most sites don't put the full article in the feed, just a title and summary. To me having to go back and forth just kills the whole thing.
> the big hangup for me is most sites don't put the full article in the feed'
If you're using Android, check out gReader Pro. You can have it automatically download and store the full articles for later reading.
I also run my own RSS aggregator, tt-rss (this is how I replaced Google News after Google ruined it). tt-rss has a plugin that will also download and store the full articles for later reading. It provides its own RSS feed as well as a web interface.
Re: RSS Is Better Than Twitter
#235"the charming pop-ups that everyone uses because fuck you" Between the cookie popups, the GRPD "choice" popups, and the sign-up-for-some-email-crap popups, each of which takes 1-2 seconds to appear - sometimes in parallel and sometimes in sequence - the web is a garbage fire. There definitely needs to be a retraction of sorts in terms of technology and content delivery. I also think we have passed "peak information".…
>The current rate of decline of value of the internet suggests that there will be some significant disruption this decade. I wish I had the solution (or knew who to bet on!)
Books.
That's what I've retreated to as the internet has been ruined. It's all about low barrier to entry that ruins anything with the shiftless/idle masses becoming involved. No one wants to pickup a book and read, they want to offer smart ass one-liners or harass people on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. That's most people's entire life, same behavior in the workplace, then they die. That's why I'm a developer, the barrier to entry is high enough that I enjoy and appreciate most people that I work with. Same concept as with media.
Books are proof-read, edited and vetted for reasonably accurate sources in most cases. In general, publishing them is hard enough that as a consumer I can rely on them being one of the better mediums.
Re: RSS Is Better Than Twitter
#236I just wish Mozilla introduce subscribing to RSS as a first class feature in Firefox. If they can introduce and integrate Pocket, I think an open technology like RSS deserves a fair chance. But they'd need to invest a little bit to make it easy to subscribe—similar to following on Twitter/Instagram or Liking pages on Facebook—to receive site updates. Having to find and enter byzantine URLs is not the way to go althou…
> As one commentator said in the linked article: protocols are better than platforms.
You're right! For users this is absolutely true.
Yet, almost all the companies that you might think of as potentially interested in RSS are platforms. You cannot sell ads in a protocol.
This is the core of why Twitter has replaced RSS. RSS is better for users, but Twitter is better for publishers and platforms. So users wind up following content.
Re: RSS Is Better Than Twitter
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
The solution to “too much RSS” is the same for Twitter. Unsubscribe/unfollow. Twitter does not require you to follow someone to interact with them. I follow relatively few people directly yet I have themed lists following other accounts. If I want local news I check my local list. Twitter works quite well in this regard vs. Facebook where you need to be “friends” to interact.
No, that doesn't work, because Twitter shows tweets to you if their algorithm thinks you will like them, whether you have a follower relationship to it or not. Twitter's newsfeed is nothing at all like an RSS feed. You can turn twitter into an RSS feed with various other apps (I like Feedbin), and it greatly improves the experience.
I do not use Twitter.com not the Twitter app. I use third-party clients exclusively.
Re: RSS Is Better Than Twitter
#238WordPress now powers 30% of websites. Get an RSS feed from a WordPress site by adding /feed/ to the URL. You can also get RSS feeds from WordPress categories and tags.
Re: RSS Is Better Than Twitter
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is an add-on called Awesome RSS [1] that brings back the web feed icon to the address bar. It doesn't implement the "live bookmarks" feature though, but you can use some external reader such as Newsboat [2] which will also let you read the content of the articles. [1] - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/awesome-rss/ [2] - https://newsboat.org/
I was looking at this the other day[0] I actually think Brief[1] might even be better than the RSS support that was in Firefox. I haven't tried it yet but I intend to. I use Thunderbird as well, and that has RSS support but to me that seems counter to my workflow. Typically I'll be on some site and want to subscribe, and then view in my browser. Doesn't really make sense to be in an email client. On my phone I use Fl…
I tried out Brief. It looks nice but there are a couple of problems:
1) There also doesn't seem to be a way to sort them by date or alphabetical order or domain.[0][1]
2) It seems like it should be possible to 'group' feeds, but I couldn't figure out how.
3) When Firefox updates certain things break
I think as a result of this I will try out newsboat. I found this tutorial[2] that seems to explain it nicely.
[0]: https://github.com/brief-rss/brief/issues/208
Re: RSS Is Better Than Twitter
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not Google? Google failed to gain traction in the social network space with G+. If you can't beat them commoditize them! Why not make interoperable networks based on open standards first class citizens in chrome/chromium? Not just by adding support but also by helping move the RSS standard forward.
RSS is anti-ads. If people don't leave their reader, they don't visit websites, don't load ads, don't ping tracking services. So any alternative to RSS, content creators relying on ads will fight tooth and nail to not make it mainstream ever.
Mails are also ad-free, and they have no problem showing them in gmail. Same would be possible for newsfeeds. Actually, it would be even simpler, as they know the urls and could link this directly with ads shown in web search or on the specific pages. Though, majority of people using RSS are technical competent people, using adblockers, so likely it would be just pointless.