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Google Reader Apocalypse Extremely Fucking Nigh

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Re: Google Reader Apocalypse Extremely Fucking Nigh

#181

Post by veidr »

zeckalpha wrote: post #171
anon1385 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A proper standard for syncing rss? So that, like email, you just have to point your various clients at the address of the sync server you are using. That can be one you run yourself or one from some third party provider. If your provider closes you can just point your clients at the new service, without each client needing to implement a new custom API. You are also free to use whatever client(s) you want. It seems t…

What about something as simple as reusing IMAP for RSS?

I actually hacked up a feed-horfer that populated an IMAP account some years ago. IMAP gets you like 90% of the way there.

There's no facility for updating items, that was about the only thing really wrong with it from the end user perspective, assuming you are okay with storing the full text of tens of thousands of items when you will only read 2% of them.

But I don't see anything wrong with that in an era where even our phones have 64GB of storage...

EDIT (my touch device over zealously submitted): but IMAP isn't the right solution, even though it could work, and work better than google reader even. A RSS sync system really shouldn't require the user to download all the items and then sync against their own copies of them---it should be able to sync what has been read[1] based on the canonical URI of the item, with some intelligence to grok the mod dates to track updated items. Storage isn't a problem anymore for mostly-textual content, but mobile latency and data caps are.

[1]: and, in my opinion, notnjust what has been read, but what has been flagged, labeled, tagged, reposted, liked, hated, and／おr assigned whatever other arbitrary metadata

Re: Google Reader Apocalypse Extremely Fucking Nigh

#182

Post by coldtea »

seldo wrote: post #33

I appreciate his position but I have trouble taking advice on UI from somebody whose blog is eye-burning neon green text on a black background and has been since 1995. We know you're l33t, Jamie, you are a living legend. Can I get a readable color scheme already?

>Can I get a readable color scheme already?

Yes. In your OWN blog. This one is retro styling for the intended audience, and we won't have it any other way.

"Eye-burning"? Maybe lower your brightness? I have -3.00 diopters myopia and can read it just fine.

Not to mention people worked for 15+ hours on green on black displays and you didn't see them complaining -- and that was with phosphor displays, with an electron gun blazing, and tons of others issues, from flickering to v-sync.

Re: Google Reader Apocalypse Extremely Fucking Nigh

#183

Post by ernesth »

mehrzad wrote: post #24
voltagex_ wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I installed the feedly extension and it proceeded to trash every page I viewed by inserting itself at the bottom. Even in plain Javascript files I was viewing

Yeah it's a weird default that is quickly disabled but the point is moot now that we have a full web client of Feedly.

Unfortunately, if you get disconnected from feedly (like you do not use it for two weeks or you are in incognito mode), it no longer respects your preference. So the default should definitely be the other way around

Re: Google Reader Apocalypse Extremely Fucking Nigh

#184

Post by 6cxs2hd6 »

anu_gupta wrote: post #67
snogglethorpe wrote: post #46

I don't really share most of jwz's specific complaints, but I've been trying to use feedly, and boy .... it's really hard to believe so many people are recommending this as a general Google reader replacement. Besides its somewhat quirky UI, the main problem I have with feedly is that it seems predicated on the assumption that you will more or less read through all articles, one by one, in order, and finish them. Tha…

The closest replacement is The Old Reader - unfortunately they seem to having problems with feed update speed (probably due to load)

I wanted to try this a couple months ago, but it had crazy permissions (contact book, and IIRC even more). No way.

Today I see it's just (a) email address and (b) know who you are on Google. Glad to see they changed it.

Re: Google Reader Apocalypse Extremely Fucking Nigh

#185

Post by eli »

zeckalpha wrote: post #167
eli wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't find it buggy? For example, right now it claims several of my feeds are 404 and it won't let me fix them -- I have to delete and re-add them.

I find exactly which feeds are 404 varies, so I believe it is an upstream issue in the feed itself.

The "fix a misbehaving feed" dialog claims every URL I give it is 404. And now it has helpfully renamed all my broken feeds to "[Untitled]" so I can't tell them apart in the list.

Re: Google Reader Apocalypse Extremely Fucking Nigh

#186

Post by xradionut »

melling wrote: post #180
RockyMcNuts wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, you seized control of an open RSS ecosystem with Reader and Feedburner, made those a platform no one could compete with, and then pulled the plug on the ecosystem. If you don't even understand that, that's why you can't be trusted.

Open Office has seized control of the document suite. Any day now Microsoft is going out of business, and the GIMP is about to destroy Photoshop... Bottom line is if there is a real market for something and someone makes a better product.

Your analogy sucks and you could have easily fixed it: "If Microsoft gave Office away, destroyed the competition, then killed Office..."

Google killed Reader and trust.

Re: Google Reader Apocalypse Extremely Fucking Nigh

#188

Post by raamdev »

Nican wrote: post #141

I am surprised nobody mentioned CommaFeed yet; How are people using CommaFeed holding out?

+1 for CommaFeed. I had been in denial about Google Reader shutting down simply because all the alternatives were painful in comparison. Thankfully, I discovered CommaFeed a few days ago and now I'm not dreading July 1st.

CommaFeed almost seems too good to be true: it's free; the code is open-source; you can run a self-hosted version. I made a $10 donation to the developer a few days ago and I've stopped looking for my Google Reader replacement.

Re: Google Reader Apocalypse Extremely Fucking Nigh

#189

Post by zeckalpha »

eli wrote: post #185
zeckalpha wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find exactly which feeds are 404 varies, so I believe it is an upstream issue in the feed itself.

The "fix a misbehaving feed" dialog claims every URL I give it is 404. And now it has helpfully renamed all my broken feeds to "[Untitled]" so I can't tell them apart in the list.

File a bug report: https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/issues

Re: Google Reader Apocalypse Extremely Fucking Nigh

#190

Post by xradionut »

coldtea wrote: post #182
seldo wrote: post #33

I appreciate his position but I have trouble taking advice on UI from somebody whose blog is eye-burning neon green text on a black background and has been since 1995. We know you're l33t, Jamie, you are a living legend. Can I get a readable color scheme already?

> Can I get a readable color scheme already? Yes. In your OWN blog. This one is retro styling for the intended audience, and we won't have it any other way. "Eye-burning"? Maybe lower your brightness? I have -3.00 diopters myopia and can read it just fine. Not to mention people worked for 15+ hours on green on black displays and you didn't see them complaining -- and that was with phosphor displays, with an electron…

Complain? We had options to change the intensity or use amber/black or white/black. No one in the day would have used intense green characters for a whole shift, it would have "burned" the CRT.
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