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Reading RSS content is a skilled activity

doliver.org

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Re: Reading RSS content is a skilled activity

#11

Post by dandersch »

AstroBen wrote: post #8

I adore RSS. Some gems I've found: https://hnrss.org/ https://rsshub.app/twitter/user/{username} for twitter accounts Append .rss to any subreddit URL you want updates on YouTube also has an RSS feed for channels

>rsshub

This has been one of the key programs for me to move 90% of my "timeline" into an rss reader.

If you self-host it, you can also pass it authentication tokens to RSSify things like:

- your twitter timeline

- github notifications, issues, commits

- discord messages

- youtube subscriptions

- spotify/twitch/steam/etc.

Re: Reading RSS content is a skilled activity

#12

Post by verisimi »

AstroBen wrote: post #8

I adore RSS. Some gems I've found: https://hnrss.org/ https://rsshub.app/twitter/user/{username} for twitter accounts Append .rss to any subreddit URL you want updates on YouTube also has an RSS feed for channels

Feeder

https://github.com/spacecowboy/Feeder?tab=readme-ov-file

Free, excellent

Re: Reading RSS content is a skilled activity

#13

Post by frosted-flakes »

safety1st wrote: post #10
bsnnkv wrote: post #6

> And that's also where the magic lies because it's that very process of engaging with content and deciding whether or not it has value to you that makes using an RSS reader a better experience and one where you own your attention. Back when RSS was more popular, the tyranny of never-ending backlogs was a topic that was discussed somewhat regularly, but it gets glossed over a little these days since RSS talk is natur…

RSS came of age in a very different time, when the world of computing was more, for lack of a better term, workstation-centric. People wanted RSS clients that were similar to email clients, or maybe even integrated directly into the email client, and they had this idea that they should 'catch up' on everything that was published since their last session, almost like it was a job. Nowadays people have an implicit unde…

In my opinion the answer is curation. If you're getting so many magazines and newspapers in the post that you can't read them all, the answer isn't to hire someone to cut out random pages for you to read (oh, why are they all adverts?), the answer is to stop subscribing to so many publications.

I never fail to read all of my social media feeds and email messages, because I actively cancel subscriptions to stuff that I don't have time to read. After all, it's entertainment/casual education, not mandatory learning.

Re: Reading RSS content is a skilled activity

#14

Post by thefranke »

dandersch wrote: post #11
AstroBen wrote: post #8

I adore RSS. Some gems I've found: https://hnrss.org/ https://rsshub.app/twitter/user/{username} for twitter accounts Append .rss to any subreddit URL you want updates on YouTube also has an RSS feed for channels

> rsshub This has been one of the key programs for me to move 90% of my "timeline" into an rss reader. If you self-host it, you can also pass it authentication tokens to RSSify things like: - your twitter timeline - github notifications, issues, commits - discord messages - youtube subscriptions - spotify/twitch/steam/etc.

An to add another project in a similar vein (scraping to turn pages into RSS): https://rss-bridge.org/

Re: Reading RSS content is a skilled activity

#15

Post by vaylian »

safety1st wrote: post #10
bsnnkv wrote: post #6

> And that's also where the magic lies because it's that very process of engaging with content and deciding whether or not it has value to you that makes using an RSS reader a better experience and one where you own your attention. Back when RSS was more popular, the tyranny of never-ending backlogs was a topic that was discussed somewhat regularly, but it gets glossed over a little these days since RSS talk is natur…

RSS came of age in a very different time, when the world of computing was more, for lack of a better term, workstation-centric. People wanted RSS clients that were similar to email clients, or maybe even integrated directly into the email client, and they had this idea that they should 'catch up' on everything that was published since their last session, almost like it was a job. Nowadays people have an implicit unde…

> firehose

This is what the modern information space feels like in one word. It's impossible to read everything. But at the same time, it's not necessary to read everything.

> What we lack is a presentation that is actually good! I don't have the answer. One thing I want to experiment with, though, is digests.

Do you have a RSS feed that I can subscribe to so that I get notified when you publish your experiment?

Re: Reading RSS content is a skilled activity

#16

Post by oceansweep »

karpathy wrote: post #7

I also find myself wanting to go back to RSS for the exact same reasons of 1st paragraph. You own your content and host it. Unfortunately all the RSS readers are too raw and I think one of them has to port over Twitter features, things like: more ephemeral feed instead of an inbox, reply, quote tweet, retweet, like, follow, and new: LLM-driven customizable algorithmic feed.

Do you think you could expand on that? Like how you might imagine an ideal workflow to go? Would there be like a sea of tags that you could wade through, or just an '/all', only items you specifically subscribe to + your connections subscriptions according to some ranking algo? Items would 'fall off' or out of view(?) after X time/X amount of browsing a differently weighted topic?

I ask because being honest, you're a big inspiration for myself, and inadvertently, adding an LLM-curated RSS feed reader as a planned feature to a project I'm working on. (I saw https://github.com/karpathy/LLM101n when I was getting interested in LLMs, and then got inspired by your project to start to attempt to build something like the primer from the diamond age.

Where that leads is that I see an RSS feed reader + curation via self-described or identified interests as being a 'core' piece of information gathering for the 'future' individual and have had it on the to-do list as a feature-add for my project.

Re: Reading RSS content is a skilled activity

#18

Post by ghaff »

safety1st wrote: post #10
bsnnkv wrote: post #6

> And that's also where the magic lies because it's that very process of engaging with content and deciding whether or not it has value to you that makes using an RSS reader a better experience and one where you own your attention. Back when RSS was more popular, the tyranny of never-ending backlogs was a topic that was discussed somewhat regularly, but it gets glossed over a little these days since RSS talk is natur…

RSS came of age in a very different time, when the world of computing was more, for lack of a better term, workstation-centric. People wanted RSS clients that were similar to email clients, or maybe even integrated directly into the email client, and they had this idea that they should 'catch up' on everything that was published since their last session, almost like it was a job. Nowadays people have an implicit unde…

Someone I know once described Twitter as being a river that you dipped into when you had the time and the interest. I think RSS was similar but, as you say, the clients had a somewhat different model. You could get around by having a priority category or something like that.

Re: Reading RSS content is a skilled activity

#19

Post by ghaff »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #13
safety1st wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RSS came of age in a very different time, when the world of computing was more, for lack of a better term, workstation-centric. People wanted RSS clients that were similar to email clients, or maybe even integrated directly into the email client, and they had this idea that they should 'catch up' on everything that was published since their last session, almost like it was a job. Nowadays people have an implicit unde…

In my opinion the answer is curation. If you're getting so many magazines and newspapers in the post that you can't read them all, the answer isn't to hire someone to cut out random pages for you to read (oh, why are they all adverts?), the answer is to stop subscribing to so many publications. I never fail to read all of my social media feeds and email messages, because I actively cancel subscriptions to stuff that…

Most people never read most of the magazines and newspapers they got cover to cover. I certainly read a fairly small percentage of the New York Times.

Re: Reading RSS content is a skilled activity

#20

Post by 1dom »

I think self curation is a theme not directly discussed.

The recurring problem is other people trying to tell you what information you should see, resulting in suboptimal aggregations. If you don't curate your own stuff, you'll slide into whatever state of mind your curator wants you to slide into.

Algorithmic feeds are widely accepted to cause doomscrolling, and my experience with RSS is similar to the author: it goes well, but then whenever an aggregate source of any kind is added, it drowns out everything else. This wouldn't be a problem if everything from the source was a good read. The issue is any aggregation by someone who isn't you isn't going to be perfect for you.

My brain wants to make a link between collateralised debt obligations causing the recession, and aggregate info sources and algo feeds causing the collapse of the modern internet. Basically, everyone realises 90% of what they have in their feed/inbox is actually worthless and we only have it because the people who we get stuff from mixed it with a few good/relevant pieces of information so we trusted/assumed the rest would be good/relevant.

Life takes effort, if you outsource the effort, your life requires less effort but is less likely to be what you want. The same applies to curating the content you consume. It's easy to accidentally outsource.

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