RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried • Hacker News Board

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#11

Post by smcl » Sun, Jan 02, 2011, 4:54 PM UTC

"It gives less of a shite than a French man smoking a cigarette in public"

Um...what?

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#12

Post by Tichy » Sun, Jan 02, 2011, 4:54 PM UTC

bretpiatt wrote: post #2

It is pretty clear why Google doesn't like RSS, it stops you from browsing the web and that is how they get paid. As a user though I also don't like it anymore and I'll share why... This isn't 1970 anymore where I want to read "What's New" from a small list of new sources. I prefer to go each day to a list of curated aggregators like HN or what the people I follow on Twitter or saying. This is vastly superior to RSS…

The aggregators might need the rss feeds to do their aggregating, though. Although I always felt making it "pull" is a bit crazy. PubSubHubBub to the rescue?

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#13

Post by zoul » Sun, Jan 02, 2011, 4:56 PM UTC

RSS is dying because browser vendors do not want to implement or maintain integrated RSS readers? That does not sound very convincing.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#14

Post by rapind » Sun, Jan 02, 2011, 4:58 PM UTC

bretpiatt wrote: post #2

It is pretty clear why Google doesn't like RSS, it stops you from browsing the web and that is how they get paid. As a user though I also don't like it anymore and I'll share why... This isn't 1970 anymore where I want to read "What's New" from a small list of new sources. I prefer to go each day to a list of curated aggregators like HN or what the people I follow on Twitter or saying. This is vastly superior to RSS…

1970... back when RSS was huge!

You just prefer socially aggregated feeds is all. I actually like a mix of both. Setting up intelligent RSS feeds that will come in handy just takes a little upfront work is all. But then you've got an algorithm that you can constantly tweak and refine, which I find very useful, especially as a research tool. Give Yahoo Pipes a whirl and see if it changes your mind. http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#15

Post by Alex3917 » Sun, Jan 02, 2011, 4:58 PM UTC

bretpiatt wrote: post #2

It is pretty clear why Google doesn't like RSS, it stops you from browsing the web and that is how they get paid. As a user though I also don't like it anymore and I'll share why... This isn't 1970 anymore where I want to read "What's New" from a small list of new sources. I prefer to go each day to a list of curated aggregators like HN or what the people I follow on Twitter or saying. This is vastly superior to RSS…

"I prefer to go each day to a list of curated aggregators like HN or what the people I follow on Twitter or saying. This is vastly superior to RSS"

Vastly superior for looking well educated to others, less superior for actually understanding how the world works.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#16

Post by gurraman » Sun, Jan 02, 2011, 4:59 PM UTC

I have -- without giving it much thought -- stopped using RSS. Many friends have done the same. Now browsers seem to be dropping support. Maybe this is proof that RSS/Atom wasn't the panacea we thought it was. Maybe it is actually time for RSS to die?

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#17

Post by ghurlman » Sun, Jan 02, 2011, 4:59 PM UTC

It's hard to take the author's concern seriously, when I can't even find the RSS link on his/her page.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#18

Post by jonnii » Sun, Jan 02, 2011, 5:01 PM UTC

I'm glad my browser doesn't support RSS natively when other apps offer a far greater experience. Have you tried the safari rss reader? It's awful.

As a chrome user I'm happy that it does one thing well and that's displaying web pages. Now I'm free to use any online RSS reader I want and be able to access my RSS feeds from anywhere.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#19

Post by antidaily » Sun, Jan 02, 2011, 5:03 PM UTC

Most of what I need to read shows up on HN or Reddit or Twitter. I know that sounds incredibly lazy, but I don't have time to mark 233 Lifehacker posts as read every week.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#20

Post by corin_ » Sun, Jan 02, 2011, 5:04 PM UTC

I can't imagine that browser button pursuading anyone who doesn't already understand and appreciate RSS to start using it. Anyone tech-savvy enough to see it, and start googling to find out how to use it properly has certainly already heard of RSS.

And on the other side, anyone who does use RSS, and anyone in the future who learns to use it, won't be put off using it by the loss of that button.

The worse statement in this article (other than the french man smoking) is:

  Mozilla’s mistake here is to associate low usage with user dis-interest.

Ummm... they're correct. He claims that, just because only 3-7% use it, it must be kept in because "what regular user wouldn’t want this feature!?" Clearly the answer to that question is "93-97% of regular users". Touché?