Goodbye, Feedly • Hacker News Board

Re: Goodbye, Feedly

#161

Post by slightwinder » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 5:11 PM UTC

blendergeek wrote: post #158

longrod wrote: post #12

Going through the article I realized this attitude is what eventually kills some really good software. If a software does what you expect it to do and does it well but includes a few prompts here and there for marketing purposes...is that really so bad? Live and let live, I say. Not everyone is running a charity and Feedly is nowhere even near the top of the list of software ripping off their users or selling their d…

> If a software does what you expect it to do and does it well but includes a few prompts here and there for marketing purposes...is that really so bad? According to the article, Feedly no longer upholds the basic promise of an RSS feed reader: to allow the user to curate a list of RSS feeds and follow them. From the article: > For example, I recently wanted to add an RSS feed for a Reddit user, but it was not possib…

I tried this out myself just now, and it turned out to be not entirely true. It's more a case of poor UX. When entering a reddit-url, be it a user-profile or feed, there is a auto-popup with possible actions, one named "feed". Naturally you would click it and then it demands a reddit-connections. I guess, they will use the reddit-API in this case, as it needs a Login, and maybe offers some benefit? But the thing, is you can also just press enter to let feedly discover targets under the entered url, and then it presents you rss-feed it discoverd, which you can follow without a login.

So it's still doing it's job, but in certain cases acts pretty poorly.

Re: Goodbye, Feedly

#162

Post by meanmrmustard92 » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 5:20 PM UTC

blacklight wrote: post #128

longrod wrote: post #12

Going through the article I realized this attitude is what eventually kills some really good software. If a software does what you expect it to do and does it well but includes a few prompts here and there for marketing purposes...is that really so bad? Live and let live, I say. Not everyone is running a charity and Feedly is nowhere even near the top of the list of software ripping off their users or selling their d…

RSS is basically impossible to monetize. It's a protocol to access content. Monetizing RSS is like trying to monetize HTTP. The problem is that companies try to monetize RSS, and the only way of doing so is to provide features that RSS can't offer. AI-curated feeds, integrations with X or Y, nudges to let go of RSS entirely for some applications and instead use whatever integration they've come up with... Some people…

I pay for Inoreader and really like it. Somewhat ironically, its killer feature for my use case is the ability to ingest emailed content will make emailed content look like any other RSS feed, since lots of scientific journals / sites have stopped using RSS.

Re: Goodbye, Feedly

#163

Post by pipeline_peak » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 5:40 PM UTC

Like the author and plenty of commenters have posted, even something as simple as an RSS feed is expensive when hosted among tens of thousands of users.

> One of the features is that I will get “new articles up to 10x faster”. What’s that supposed to mean? That I have not been getting new articles straight away when I visit Feedly?

This is a perfect example of what we take for granted, multi users RSS feeds have to poll missing pub dates, they don't just fetch the latest posts on a users request. This game where they pull the curtain and you realize how bottle necked you are as a free user, that's the sad game of running a business on these types of services.

I've had an idea for an RSS reader for quite some time. One with a layout like HackerNews or early Reddit where all users have their own RSS feed, they can look at and follow other users feed items. there's a main page with posts ranked by number of followers and comments on each post. then of course a personal feed.

But considering how much feature creep these services suffer, I don't see how I'd be able to keep it running without some premium payment system, certainly donations can't serve enough.

Re: Goodbye, Feedly

#164

Post by Andrew_nenakhov » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 5:43 PM UTC

I don't pay Feedly any money now because many years they were raising funds to buy new servers, and offered a premium service in perpetuity to anyone paying $100, which I did on the spot. It is a solid service that has grown to be a bit bigger than I'd love, but it does what it needs to. And if you don't like the 'marketing cruft' you can just block it with your adblocker of choice, not a rocket science.

Re: Goodbye, Feedly

#165

Post by wahnfrieden » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 5:46 PM UTC

wahnfrieden wrote: post #131

simonw wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is very little simple about running an RSS aggregator, especially at scale.

I run one at scale, it doesn’t need to be done in a complicated way

What I’m saying is by running so many heavy services in the backend, relying on a series of API integrations to provide service and taking custody of swaths of sometimes sensitive user data, they make their own problems

Re: Goodbye, Feedly

#166

Post by Derbasti » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 6:03 PM UTC

r2222 wrote: post #70

I’ve been very happy with https://feedbin.com It’s a paid RSS syncing service and web app too, costs $5 per month, I use it with Reeder (and NetNewsWire etc). It doesn’t have any social cruft or AI assistants or ML companions. I was also a Feedly user when I decided to try Feedbin, and I immediately noticed how much faster fetching the feeds was on Feedbin. I also like to have my email newsletters in same place (forw…

I've been using Feedbin ever since Google Reader died. It has been awesome!

I use it to subscribe to YouTube channels, Twitter, newsletters, Subreddits, HN, and, yes, RSS feeds. I frequently use its sharing feature to pinboard.

I think I still pay the original $2 a month. But even at $5, it is one of my favorite services of all time. Truly a gem.

Readably is a good reader for feedbin on Android.

Re: Goodbye, Feedly

#167

Post by astrostl » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 6:29 PM UTC

hairofadog wrote: post #154

protonbob wrote: post #71

Is there an easy to use self hosted solution for this?

If you’re on a Mac or iOS you can use Reeder, which syncs to iCloud and eliminates the need for any other cloud service. I think other RSS apps may do the same.

Reeder (et al.) + iCloud sync was a game-changer for me too.

Re: Goodbye, Feedly

#168

Post by bayindirh » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 6:34 PM UTC

Semiapies wrote: post #137

PaulHoule wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to say. Part of the appeal of advertising in Cosmpolitan or the New York Times is that the readers have qualified themselves by paying for a subscription. Netflix is playing a dangerous game by letting people pay to turn on ads because the kind of person who values their attention so little to save a few dollars isn’t going to buy anything. The really desirable people to advertise to are the ones who have more m…

My guess is that a person who subscribes to the entry level of a product is more likely to be upsold to something else than a free user is going to even think about paying. I think this is the crucial thing. If you offer a service with what you might call a "livable" or "comfortable" free tier, it will end up used as heavily as you allow by people who will cost you resources indefinitely, but who are far more likely…

I don't agree that having a comfortable free tier inhibits upward movement in the subscription structure of a service.

I've started all the services I pay from their free tiers. Most notable examples are Evernote, Trello, Dropbox and Pocket. As I continued using these tools, I've overgrown them, and the features they offer on subscription tiers started to make sense.

As a result, I've directly bought the highest tier of service which both makes sense and I can afford.

Feedly is different in that regard. They provide a free service, nag me, insert ads into the stream, all at the same time.

Turn down nagging, keep the ads, that's OK. Add a time trial, don't sell ads, that's OK too. But they bombard you, and it comes down to "pay us or go away", and I went away. Not in a decade, but in a week.

I'm a fan of "small web". Simple services which do one thing, and do it well. Simplymail, Source Hut, Mataroa, Smol.pub, etc. They're also paid services, and I also pay for some of them. It's a simple transaction. $X for a year, no tracking, no funny data business, for these services. This is beyond elegant.

I found out that I have got enough of the modern web, with sites overloading my senses and doing all kinds of funny business with my information even if I pay them.

Feedly is a business, they want to earn money and provide services, that's fair. They can operate the way they want, and I'm not entitled to tell them how to operate, or force them. On the other hand, they're not entitled to my money or continued patronage because I opened an account on their service and gave a test drive.

Re: Goodbye, Feedly

#169

Post by aflag » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 7:01 PM UTC

simonw wrote: post #114

aflag wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author acknowledged that though. He seemed to even had considered buying it, but thought it was not worth it. He eventually settled on something simple and free. It doesn't surprise me that running a simple RSS feed tool is not profitable.

There is very little simple about running an RSS aggregator, especially at scale.

The user doesn't really care about the scale, though. There are chrome plugins, local apps, etc. With dropbox and other similar tools, you can sync across devices and keep configuration stored in the cloud without much hassle.

I'm not saying that what feedly was doing was trivial. I'm sure it was expensive and required many developers, designers, etc. However, that doesn't mean that all the effort is necessarily important for the end user.

Re: Goodbye, Feedly

#170

Post by educaysean » Sat, Jul 02, 2022, 7:16 PM UTC

This article is music to my ears. As a Feedly user of 6+ years, it's everything that I've felt and more. Thanks for putting into words the frustration that's been building up inside me for a while.