Not a single mention here of FeedFlow, available on F-Droid. An absolute gem of an app.
I ditched the algorithm for RSS
161–170 of 283 posts
Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
That would be such a killer feature. And it could find other friends in the area and that are also free. Not like Meta doesn't have some kind of model for all that data already probably.
Yes. I'd love to find other nerds into retro computing, UNIX, and pottery in my area without wading into groups or joining a forum. They know everything about me, match me up with some people I'd most likely get along with!
Isn't this what ancient local BBSs did? Back in the 90's when in my teens/twenties that was how I found interesting local groups of people/organic raves (i.e. not ones organized by promoters) outside my established circles in Santa Cruz/the bay area. Also some of the most uncomfortable/awkward unsocial/nerdfest social evenings so not everything was a hit.
I'm guessing that there are now Discords that fill this niche?
Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS
#163miniflux is where it's at
what we need next is a way to categorize, group subscribe to similar rss
Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS
#164I love RSS. I use RSS daily. I use link-aggregation websites like HN to find interesting authors and subscribe to any RSS feeds that they have. Highlights from my reader sync automatically into my Obsidian vault. It's great. But I know I, and everyone else posting in this thread, are in the minority. It's clear that most people prefer algorithmic drip in a walled garden. There's a reason everyone flocks to those plat…
Build tools to make it easy for people to assemble their own chronological feeds that have quality UI / UX. IMHO the algorithmic feed's principle benefit is how easy it is for a user to curate something close to both what they want, and what they didn't know they want. We too often view things in terms of technical implementations and such, and lose focus on the core problems the user is actually having. Algorithmic…
In my experience beyond some basic filtering you should gaze over headlines then dig 2-3 interesting items out of a few thousand manually.
After you-ve hoarded a decent amount of feeds You should find 2-3 new ones on average per day and unsub 1-2.
Two good articles per day/session is enough if they are good enough. If it isnt you dont have enough feeds.
Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS
#165I love RSS. I use RSS daily. I use link-aggregation websites like HN to find interesting authors and subscribe to any RSS feeds that they have. Highlights from my reader sync automatically into my Obsidian vault. It's great. But I know I, and everyone else posting in this thread, are in the minority. It's clear that most people prefer algorithmic drip in a walled garden. There's a reason everyone flocks to those plat…
I don't think that's something that RSS (or any other alternative) can fix. I don't think RSS is as toxic as algorithmic feeds, but they are still cut from the same hyper-connected cloth. If you want to fight the algorithmic drip, promote people to connect with others in their community on a small scale. Even if you have to use the internet to do it, making time to talk (with your vocal cords) to a friend on a regula…
Find long form blogs that publish 1 time every few months. The reader will just be empty which is a useful thing to have that doesnt consume time
Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS
#166My buddy will soon offer an RSS reader. I will post it here. Yes, you can create an RSS feed from a Youtube Channel. You can can create an RSS feed from Reddit. You can't to my best knowledge create an RSS feed anymore from Twitter Newsletter to RSS: https://kill-the-newsletter.com/ More stuff: Blogs & RSS https://rssfeedasap.com/ https://code.rosaelefanten.org/rssparser.lisp/dir?ci=tip This one you have to pay. I am…
Rsshub can give you a RSS feed for Twitter but you have to give it a web session cookie which kinda freaks me out and probably violates the current TOS.
Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS
#167I started using RSS in ~2007, and I haven't stopped. I think i used thunderbird first, then google reader, then feedly, then a self-hosted freshrss for the last few years. I have a graveyard of old blogs and webcomics whose URLs I can't bear to delete. I have a crapton of feeds still happily churning out articles.
A lot of folks say the worst thing to happen to RSS was the shutting down of Google Reader.
I say the worst thing to happen to RSS was Google Reader in the first place.
Native apps! Forever!
Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
> you have seen it all, go outside Or "you've seen it all. Bored? Click here to let your friends know you're looking for something to do/see who else is bored". Or "Bored? X needs volunteers!" Or some other positive suggestion to try to prevent a "eh guess I'll doomscroll something else" reaction.
That would be such a killer feature. And it could find other friends in the area and that are also free. Not like Meta doesn't have some kind of model for all that data already probably.
> That would be such a killer feature.
"Alice, what if we made a button that improved overall human wellbeing, while somewhat reducing our ad-revenue and lowering the engagement-metrics we use to sell shares to investors?"
"*sigh* We've been over this, Bob: We only build features for customers--not cattle."
Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS
#169> I waste too much time scrolling through social media. It's bad for my health, so why do I keep doing it? Because once in a while, I'll find a post so good that it teaches me something I never knew before, and all the scrolling feels worth it.
Intermittent reinforcement, the technique companies use to get people addicted to social media. Similar to how slot machines are designed.
Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS
#170RSS is great, Nostr is potentially greater. A lot of work is being put in "transparent" and customizable algorithms for discoverability.
Nostr is frustrating. The protocol is indeed pretty awesome--partition tolerant in a way that RSS isn't. I want to get to know it because that's a property that I want for an app that I want to build.
So I started using it, just to get a feel for how it all comes together. You can set up a browser extension (or hardware device) which holds your signing key and you can configure it to auto-sign on your behalf or to prompt you for each required signature. So if you leave it in prompt mode you can use the apps and see what gets signed by your key (which they don't have, supposing you're "doing it right"). It's a really neat transparency feature and I felt like it was better helping me understand what was going on as well as putting me in more fine-grained control over which code I trust to act on my behalf. It's a usage mode that I hope becomes more popular, though it's inconvenient so I have my doubts.
But the content which happens to move through nostr is on average pretty awful. Mostly it's just memes where crypto bro's convince each other that they're superior to the rest of us--despite the fact that their precious blockchains would totally fail in the kind of partitioned-internet scenario which nostr is resilient against. The mismatch between its own design principles (partition tolerance > consistency) and the enthusiasms of the people who use it (consistency > partition tolerance) makes me uneasy for the same reasons I'm uneasy about Web 2's social media: made by us, for you, but we're not you and our agenda is unclear.
I'm still probably going to use it, but until I can get an app going that I actually want to use I don't expect to be consuming much content from it.