It’s Time to Get Back to RSS • Hacker News Board

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#361

Post by hopesthoughts » Thu, May 28, 2020, 5:02 AM UTC

SllX wrote: post #359

hopesthoughts wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter RSS works fine if you want to follow certain users and/or searches, which is what I use it for.

No, I understand that basic premise, it's what I did too, it's just, well this is an old outstanding complaint I've had about Twitter and not so much Twitter RSS, and really the main reason I don't consistently use it anymore. Every now and then I re-install Tweetbot on my phone, create a new account, carefully curate a list of Accounts to follow based off whatever I'm thinking Twitter might be useful for this time.…

Twitter got rid of RSS years ago, I use a service for that. I did the Tumblr thing for a while as well, and the hole reblogging thing was extremely annoying. It's a blogging platform, which is exactly how I used it.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#362

Post by hopesthoughts » Thu, May 28, 2020, 5:04 AM UTC

SllX wrote: post #355

hopesthoughts wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use userscripts to try and find those hidden feeds, but sometimes they still can't be found. Sites like that are the bane of my existence!!!!!!

I mean if browsers hadn't gone out of their way to remove RSS discovery, it wouldn't be necessary. I don't remember if I mentioned this in my above post and I don't want to re-read every word I wrote, but I've got the NetNewsWire Safari extension which finds feeds for me. Pretty sure I also have some extension in my current Firefox install, but I haven't opened that in a while. Sometimes the feed really doesn't exist…

I use a service to create feeds from pages if they really don't exist. It's a paid service, but worth it!

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#363

Post by hopesthoughts » Thu, May 28, 2020, 1:29 PM UTC

jadell wrote: post #144

thelazydogsback wrote: post #7

RSS is the only way I consume content regularly -- if Innoreader can't see a feed at a site that I may come across, I won't be visiting regularly. Too much of a PITA otherwise. No Twitter account either -- I don't want a "push" model, and the S/N ratio is way too low...

Same. A site having a feed is much more likely to get consistent recurring traffic from me than a site I can only consume via social network posts.

I turn those into feeds too.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#364

Post by hopesthoughts » Thu, May 28, 2020, 1:32 PM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #55

hkt wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience RSS is at its best when dealing with infrequent publishers or niche audiences. People who don't expect to be paid for their writing because they want a wider audience, like think tanks or university departments.

That's definitely where it shines for me. I follow hundreds of infrequently-updated sites using Newsblur. It's sort of the same value proposition for me as Twitter. I'd never follow the New York Times in either place; what I want is to get beyond what's commercially viable to publish.

The nice thing about RSS is a lot of sites offer filtered feeds. I only follow a few feeds from the NYT, for instance.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#365

Post by hopesthoughts » Thu, May 28, 2020, 1:34 PM UTC

encom wrote: post #186

gmoore wrote: post #5

I love RSS - it's how I found this article :) I've been using The Old Reader every since Google reader shut down...I love it.

Though I don't use it for reading HN, I've been using The Old Reader since Google Reader shut down. It's basically a copy of Google Reader as it was. https://theoldreader.com/

RSS is pretty much the only way I read HN.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#366

Post by hopesthoughts » Thu, May 28, 2020, 1:40 PM UTC

lildata wrote: post #95

I believe Mastodon should support RSS, at least some users would use it at first as a feed aggregator as then progressively switch to the social media aspects of the platform.

They do, or at least they used to. What I mean by that is they used to offer RSS feeds for user timelines.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#367

Post by hopesthoughts » Thu, May 28, 2020, 1:42 PM UTC

andrewnc wrote: post #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…

For me personally, I always click the link to read any articles I'm interested in. If there are comments, and I'm really interested in what you said, I'll probably post one.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#368

Post by hopesthoughts » Thu, May 28, 2020, 1:44 PM UTC

andrewnc wrote: post #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…

Could you give me a link?

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#369

Post by hopesthoughts » Thu, May 28, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

hkt wrote: post #28

I love RSS, but do think it needs to be developed. For a start, clients aren't great. Most have poor UX and are clunky, and I've used very few which don't choke on large numbers of feeds. Second, having lots of subscriptions really shows the value of an editor. I don't often want to scroll through everything that has been published by a recently hyperactive feed in order to see things with a lower cadence. There is n…

Google reader used to do the recommendations thing. I loved that!! Also not having to scroll through everything at once is the beauty of the feeds list format. In other words, you have a list of feeds, that should be the only thing on the page. When you open a single feed, the content is displayed. I won't use a reader that doesn't do things that way. They might have articles on the bottom, after the list of feeds OK fine I guess. I never use that part of the page willingly. The problem is that too many feed readers are being developed to look like HN. No, that isn't how readers should be.

Re: It’s Time to Get Back to RSS

#370

Post by hopesthoughts » Thu, May 28, 2020, 2:00 PM UTC

PappaPatat wrote: post #19

Thristle wrote: post #16

After google reader went dark i used "The Old Reader" and when they moved to pay only (or they closed? i can't remember) i moved to inoreader its the only way i consume news/blogs. there is no way im checking 40+ websites every day for new content and that way i won't miss anything if a site has no RSS or its RSS feed doesn't work right chances are i just won't use that site

The Old Reader works like a champ. I went the same route as you did, and have the same attitude towards sites that do not provide a RSS feed: they drop of my radar.

I have an accessibility issue with The Old Reader, I contacted them about it and they never fixed it. In list view, there are no links to articles at all, if you're using a screen reader like I am. That makes me have to use the reader in expanded view. While I love the use of headings, it's one of the features on my wishlist for my absolute most epic RSS reader ever, (and it was a design feature of Google Reader,) I don't want to navigate passed the heading with the title, and 15 additional headings, because people seem to think that using headings is good for SEO. Also, limiting the amount of feeds is a big nono in my book!! IF they didn't do that, and charged $10 monthly, I'd pay.