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I Still Use RSS

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Re: I Still Use RSS

#251

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

I thought what the Internet stood for died when the Internet became more about the Web than vice versa.

RSS should have just been mailing lists. Mail is a much better protocol than HTTP + RSS. Think about it. Store-and-forward subscription-based eventful push messaging with a simple extensible protocol that has been around forever and is supported by everything. Or hell: NNTP! A protocol literally designed for subscription to syndicated news feeds!

Yet they landed on a pull-based, client-server, new complex protocol that didn't work with anything else, because for some reason web browsers can't deal with a protocol that's not running on port 80.

The internet will truly be reborn when we have a network layer that finally doesn't enforce limitations on the kind of traffic that can pass between any of its hosts. It will eventually happen. (It has to; we literally can't build all network technology for the rest of eternity on a single transport protocol using a single TCP/IP port) But hopefully I'm not dead before then.

Re: I Still Use RSS

#252

Post by timqian »

djhworld wrote: post #38

I've mentioned this on HN before, one pattern I've noticed is a lot of sites tend to truncate their RSS feed so you have to click through to see the full article etc. This is mostly OK but kinda frustrating, as in the before-covid times I used to ride the London Underground a lot where no celluar signal is available in the tunnels - so my offline RSS reader would be useless. So I wrote a little web service accepts an…

I think this kind of service is actually harmful to content providers. They can not benefit from the content they created if readers always consume it on the RSS readers. That's one of the reasons many blogger/website don't provide RSS feeds anymore.

The RSS aggregators should encourage readers to go to the original website. So when I got the chance to build my own RSS reader(https://feeds.pub) I only shows a title and link of an article to readers to drive them to the original website.

Re: I Still Use RSS

#253

Post by jamesponddotco »

herodoturtle wrote: post #247
jamesponddotco wrote: post #105

I think my digital life would be a mess without an RSS feed reader. Because of its existence I do not need to touch Twitter, Reddit, YouTube[1], or any Mastodon instance, for example, as I can just have the updates that interest me from these networks in the comfort of my Feedbin[2] feed. While Hacker News does not provide an interface that notifies you when someone replies to you, hnrss.org provides an RSS feed for…

Damn, as someone who has only ever subscribed to RSS feeds on the odd occasion in the past, your comment here has really shone a light on just how powerful this tool can be. Thanks for sharing this insight! Is your daily driver OS also Ubuntu? How do you organise / consume your RSS feed(s)? Seems like you've really streamlined your setup to the point of it having minimal friction - I'd be keen to try emulate this.

I use Ubuntu as my only operating system, yes, on both the desktop and on servers.

There really is nothing special about my workflow, though, I just keep Feedbin open in the browser and check it throughout the day, acting when necessary[1]. I am currently subscribed to 182 feeds, so I spend a considerable amount of time reading and acting on what I read.

The most "unusual" piece of the workflow is probably YouTube, since I watch without access their website. When a new video is posted, Feedbin notifies me and I copy the URL of the video from inside the application. I then paste that on a terminal to feed mpv or youtube-dl depending on when I want to watch it, and move on. Since I use a tilling window manager and the browser I use for day to day use is on a workspace where an empty terminal window is always open next to it, everything happens faster than it probably reads from my larger than it should description.

[1] Acting means either reading an article, notifying customers, or testing and updating servers based on releases and vulnerabilities in this context.

Re: I Still Use RSS

#254

Post by jamesponddotco »

Shorn wrote: post #248
jamesponddotco wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using rss2email crossed my mind a few times since I already spend most of my day in the terminal anyway, but it always end up being left for tomorrow. I should take a look at it tomorrow.

I run a paid email forwarding service that allows you to redirect mail sent to a burner address to be published as an RSS feed. Link in my bio if you're interested.

With very rare exceptions[1], I prefer to self-host everything I use and pay a licence fee instead. If that is an option, let me know.

[1] Feedbin being one of them.

Re: I Still Use RSS

#255

Post by dialamac »

breischl wrote: post #195
blakesterz wrote: post #15

This quote is exactly right: "Having only the content I want to see only be shown when I want to see it with the freedom to jump between readers as I please, all with no ads? For me, no other service comes close to the flexibility, robustness, and overall ease-of-use that RSS offers." I always wonder why they aren't as popular now. It takes more work to add site to a reader, and more effort to even use one I suppose.…

>I always wonder why they aren't as popular now. IMO it's a lot of reasons. A big one, that was the case even before social media, is the inherent geekiness of it. "RSS" is an acronym after a geek's heart, most people don't like it. The subscription process is complicated. Go to the site, find the feed (which one? There might be a bunch! eg, main feed, topic feed, comments-per-post feed, etc), take that URL and paste…

> A big one, that was the case even before social media, is the inherent geekiness of it. "RSS" is an acronym after a geek's heart, most people don't like it.

Like WWW, RCA, GE.. (the latter two of the most recognizable and successful brands of all time). got it. (And no one cares what an acronym stands for anyway.. you don’t need to know this to make use of it, it has no bearing. RSS is pretty catchy as far as branding goes.)

The subscription process is simplicity itself and there are still some tremendously mainstream popular and well designed for a general audience readers like Feedly. I’ve almost never had to manually cut and paste a feed link (I think the cases were dealing with someone’s broken Linux desktop). Clicking on a link on an iPhone will open it in a reader or take you the App Store to install one.

RSS is simply missing the key feature of social networking “engagement” and these walled gardens are heavily promoted and in your face. It’s not a geekiness issue it’s an attention issue.

Re: I Still Use RSS

#256

Post by herodoturtle »

jamesponddotco wrote: post #253
herodoturtle wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn, as someone who has only ever subscribed to RSS feeds on the odd occasion in the past, your comment here has really shone a light on just how powerful this tool can be. Thanks for sharing this insight! Is your daily driver OS also Ubuntu? How do you organise / consume your RSS feed(s)? Seems like you've really streamlined your setup to the point of it having minimal friction - I'd be keen to try emulate this.

I use Ubuntu as my only operating system, yes, on both the desktop and on servers. There really is nothing special about my workflow, though, I just keep Feedbin open in the browser and check it throughout the day, acting when necessary[1]. I am currently subscribed to 182 feeds, so I spend a considerable amount of time reading and acting on what I read. The most "unusual" piece of the workflow is probably YouTube, s…

> Since I use a tilling window manager and the browser I use for day to day use is on a workspace where an empty terminal window is always open next to it, everything happens faster than it probably reads from my larger than it should description.

This was the key insight I was hoping for - thanks!

Also, TIL that I can watch YT with MPV and terminal-fed URLs. That's a game-changer for me. Cheers.

Re: I Still Use RSS

#257

Post by hombre_fatal »

Blikkentrekker wrote: post #230
hombre_fatal wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, just looking at my RSS list, most of them I discovered from just checking the usual /rss endpoints that are completely unadvertised on the website where you see in the XML it's generated by Wordrpress. I have no doubt that it's the only reason most feeds exist. Any RSS reader really needs to be able to crawl websites to create its own feed as only consuming websites that support RSS is a pretty weak prospect.

None of the RSS that I follow are from blogs, however. Most of it is from webcomics that I follow, YouTube channels, and media aggregator websites that inform me whenever a new episode is out of a television series I follow. All of these websites surely added it themselves deliberately.

Most news sites I checked on my RSS reader use Wordpress or another PHP framework like Drupal.

Example of what I'm talking about where I think the RSS feed isn't necessarily deliberate or perhaps it's vestigial:

- [Wordpress] https://maldita.es/ (https://maldita.es/feed/)

- [Drupal] https://vanguardia.com.mx/ (https://vanguardia.com.mx/rss.xml)

My point isn't that everyone is incompetent and doesn't even mean to host RSS feeds but rather I'd wager that early turnkey CMS were the reason we have RSS. I'm rather thankful.

Re: I Still Use RSS

#258

Post by jamesponddotco »

herodoturtle wrote: post #256
jamesponddotco wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Ubuntu as my only operating system, yes, on both the desktop and on servers. There really is nothing special about my workflow, though, I just keep Feedbin open in the browser and check it throughout the day, acting when necessary[1]. I am currently subscribed to 182 feeds, so I spend a considerable amount of time reading and acting on what I read. The most "unusual" piece of the workflow is probably YouTube, s…

> Since I use a tilling window manager and the browser I use for day to day use is on a workspace where an empty terminal window is always open next to it, everything happens faster than it probably reads from my larger than it should description. This was the key insight I was hoping for - thanks! Also, TIL that I can watch YT with MPV and terminal-fed URLs. That's a game-changer for me. Cheers.

> This was the key insight I was hoping for - thanks!

You are welcome! I separate workspaces by their purposes so to speak, so the one with qutebrowser[1] is divided in four squares, with qutebrowser, aerc[2], profanity[3], and an empty terminal window.

When I need to focus on one, I just switch it to full screen with a keyboard shortcut.

> Also, TIL that I can watch YT with MPV and terminal-fed URLs.

  mpv --ontop --no-border --on-all-workspaces --autofit=1280x720 --geometry=98%:98% "${YOUTUBE_URL}" &> /dev/null &
Just to complete my previous comment, the command above gives you an YouTube video played by mpv in picture by picture mode, which should always persist on top when switching workspaces in i3wm.

[1] The browser I use daily for personal things. Work stays in another browser in another workspace.

[2] Command-line email client.

[3] Command-line XMPP client.

Re: I Still Use RSS

#259

Post by RMPR »

herodoturtle wrote: post #256
jamesponddotco wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Ubuntu as my only operating system, yes, on both the desktop and on servers. There really is nothing special about my workflow, though, I just keep Feedbin open in the browser and check it throughout the day, acting when necessary[1]. I am currently subscribed to 182 feeds, so I spend a considerable amount of time reading and acting on what I read. The most "unusual" piece of the workflow is probably YouTube, s…

> Since I use a tilling window manager and the browser I use for day to day use is on a workspace where an empty terminal window is always open next to it, everything happens faster than it probably reads from my larger than it should description. This was the key insight I was hoping for - thanks! Also, TIL that I can watch YT with MPV and terminal-fed URLs. That's a game-changer for me. Cheers.

> Also, TIL that I can watch YT with MPV and terminal-fed URLs. That's a game-changer for me. Cheers.

You can even pass youtube-dl parameters using mpv. The one I use the most is --ytdl-format which corresponds to -f on the youtube-dl side.

Re: I Still Use RSS

#260

Post by Something1234 »

_jal wrote: post #99
djhworld wrote: post #38

I've mentioned this on HN before, one pattern I've noticed is a lot of sites tend to truncate their RSS feed so you have to click through to see the full article etc. This is mostly OK but kinda frustrating, as in the before-covid times I used to ride the London Underground a lot where no celluar signal is available in the tunnels - so my offline RSS reader would be useless. So I wrote a little web service accepts an…

I still heavily use RSS, but usually unsubscribe from feeds that truncate (unless it is a very long article). It isn't a religious thing - the vast majority of the time, the truncation is way too short to properly advertise the content. The mystery doesn't move me to click-through, quite the opposite - it is annoying, so I remove the annoyance. I understand the tradeoffs for folks who want to be paid via ads, but the…

I personally truncate the RSS feed for my site, because it's mostly interactive experiences, and I would rather them experience the interaction. I don't have ads on my site though. I've been trying to come up with a good middle ground though.
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