Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do you read RSS feeds?

news.ycombinator.com

11–20 of 44 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you read RSS feeds?

#11
I use Bloglines because their mobile versions (simple mobile version and iPhone version) are superior to Google Readers. I have 114 feeds divided up into folders by interest area. Some folders like "Development", "Design" and "Competitors" are higher priority reads. I have a few top-level feeds that aren't in folders that are the highest priority.

Re: Ask HN: How do you read RSS feeds?

#12
post #9

Currently I use rojo, although I heard they are undergoing a transformation (new name, etc.). I think theres a lot of room for improvement in the RSS reader space, but they currently offer the best type of reader from what i've seen out there.

What's different with rojo v. Google Reader? How is it better?

They both share a lot of similar features (user ratings, tags/labels, discovering new feeds, etc.), but overall I enjoy the design/layout of rojo better. In addition to that, as far as actually discovering new things online, rojo provides a better platform for that (imo). I can see whats popular, whats popular with people in my network, etc. I've used google reader quite a bit and its really good, but I enjoy the rojo experience more.

Re: Ask HN: How do you read RSS feeds?

#13
I use Opera's feed reader at present, but mainly because I read some cookie-protected feeds and an in-browser one seems like the best solution. I keep a pretty tight leash on the feeds I subscribe to (twelve or so at the moment), and delete any I ignore for several days.

Re: Ask HN: How do you read RSS feeds?

#15
post #6

I use irssi (CLI Linux IRC client) for a ton of things -- it's basically my dashboard -- and have eventually hit upon the strategy of running an rbot (a Ruby infobot-alike by linuxbrit) and using its RSS plugin to monitor about 60 feeds in a private channel. It sits in a separate irssi window along with IRC, email, AIM, and stocks, and is nice because I can use irssi's controls (or rbot's) to do things like highlight…

Points for creativity!

Re: Ask HN: How do you read RSS feeds?

#17
I'm embarrassed to say that not once, but several times, I've collect loads of feeds and then rarely made good on reading them all.

The stuff I was interested in would change over time, so I was left with feeds I wasn't so interested in anymore. I tried different feedreaders. And I would always feel overwhelmed when I saw 4,283 unread messages.

So I'm back trying it again with a "must read" folder in Google Reader and only putting feeds in that I definitely want to read.

But when I do subscribe and am committed to reading, I try to make an effort to at least open every post and start reading it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you read RSS feeds?

#18
Strange, this thread is full of luddites who don't use RSS!

Anyway, I use Google Reader. I tend to read everything I subscribe to. If I don't read it, I unsubscribe to it after I've ignored it long enough. I have maybe 30-40 subscriptions, all to sites that post infrequently, so I rarely have more than a handful of articles unread.

I get a lot of interesting articles via Hacker News too, and also via Google-Reader recommendations (one of GReader's killer features imho).

Re: Ask HN: How do you read RSS feeds?

#19
Top to bottom, left to right.

Seriously, I'm subscribed to about 40 feeds, but I usually don't even start my feed browser because it's a time sink.

The S/N ratio with most blogs isn't very high, but I subscribe just to get that occasional important nugget of information/insight.

But I am coming to the realization that RSS is a bit of a distraction - if I start my RSS reader, I feel obliged to read everything just to get rid of the 'unread' icon. It doesn't really help me build great stuff.

Re: Ask HN: How do you read RSS feeds?

#20
I'm using Google Reader for mostly personal blogs but visit sites like HN directly since they tend to clutter my whole feed reader. I had subscribed to the HN feed for a long time but since the feed displays every blog post that hits the frontpage there were a lot of uninteresting entries.

I would re-subscribe to the HN feed if there were some option for a feed which only displays entries with X upvotes and/or X comments (and X could be specified in the options).

The general problem with subscribing to the feed is that I don't see which entries are popular and which not because stories tend to hit the frontpage rather fast on HN compared to other big sites.

For now, I just visit HN and click on a few stories on the frontpage (mostly these with many comments or upvotes).

Post reply on HN