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It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

danielmiessler.com

131–140 of 376 posts

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#131
post #39

The single worst offense against the usability of Atom/RSS right now comes from Apple and iOS. If you click a link to an Atom feed in Mobile Safari, iOS will launch the Apple News app. Which will then show you an error message saying the content is unavailable. As far as I can tell there is no way for an installed reader app to take over handling of feed URLs. It just makes the entire feed ecosystem look broken for a…

Stop using Apple products. Stop developing for Apple products. Stop treating Apple like they matter.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#133
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is why Google killed it. Is this true? It certainly doesn't feel like it. Reader was a first party branded reader. Google could put ads on Reader relevant to your interests (which they'd have been more keenly aware of than if you weren't using Reader), and they didn't have to pay out the publishers. Google killed Reader, I think, for the second reason you mentioned: publishers were neutering their feeds. Reade…

Google would have been rightfully sued to hell and back if they started putting ads in the reader client with no compensation back to the publishers.

Why? Many RSS readers have ads, and the publisher is making their feed available to readers.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#134
This could somewhat be the fault of web developers. Unless there's a paywall, the (client|customer|boss) probably wouldn't object to throwing in an RSS feed. Maybe it would require a little extra time, but it's easier than jacking around with HTML / CSS. Most of the time, developers probably don't even think about RSS or it's at the bottom of their list.

I read my feeds in Thunderbird. I don't want yet another 3rd party service for this. I get overloaded, but my web browser is a worse distraction. I probably waste less time surfing through RSS feeds than I do by mindlessly browsing. I can more easily develop a routine for browsing feeds and the view is less distracting.

There's probably a lot of opportunity in aggregation. Newsletters such as "Inside" do a great job of this, but it's just one small slice.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#135
I use RssDaemon on Android, which had been around forever (8-9 years maybe?) is apparently so dead that the author just released a new version with major UI update.

My most used been apps on my phone are RssDaemon and Twitter. I read Hackers news though RSS. Twitter on the other hand has been getting worse.

The backlash against centralized social media platforms is building, but it is hard to say what comes next.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#136
post #105
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the EU could, in theory, take action about this behavior. Apple is basically monopolizing the whole market for rss readers.

>Apple is basically monopolizing the whole market for rss readers. You can't be a monopoly with such a small userbase.

[deleted]

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#137
post #131
post #39

The single worst offense against the usability of Atom/RSS right now comes from Apple and iOS. If you click a link to an Atom feed in Mobile Safari, iOS will launch the Apple News app. Which will then show you an error message saying the content is unavailable. As far as I can tell there is no way for an installed reader app to take over handling of feed URLs. It just makes the entire feed ecosystem look broken for a…

Stop using Apple products. Stop developing for Apple products. Stop treating Apple like they matter.

Your other choice without lots of friction is Google, an advertising company. I hate that this is the world we live in.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#139
I remember that brief time when free email addresses were being offered up before RSS was created. You could get daily news emailed to your inbox from such as USA Today, Wired, and so forth. An electronic newspaper tossed at your digital front door every morning. I actually looked forward to it.

Then RSS was invented. Now RSS is supposed to be dead, and/or killed, what appears to be several times over. I never did get on the Google Reader bandwagon because I was subscribing to RSS feeds via other means.

Nowadays, I have the app ‘Podcast Addict’ [free with ads, $0.99 once for no ads; I'm just a user here] installed on my tablet through which I subscribe to over 50 RSS feeds – podcasts, webcomics, even a comedian’s “upcoming shows” feed. There are countless other RSS feeds available via in-app search and discovery let alone the “add your own” option.

By missing out on an RSS apocalypse folks seem to love to talk about from time to time, have I accidentally become one of those “welcome back” guys?

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#140
I had my first experience with RSS a few weeks back. I added a feed to my tech blog at request of one of those on my mailing list.

I ended up writing a python script that transforms the HTML of my blog's landing page into an RSS feed. Not elegant, but it got the job done.

My main problem is it seems hard for me to interact with my readers this way. They can, of course, reach out via twitter or some such.

Anyway, I'm not sure there has been much value added on my end. But I'm happy to oblige.

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