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I ditched the algorithm for RSS

joeyehand.com

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Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS

#221

Post by lrem »

bluGill wrote: post #100

A good algorithm is a good thing. However what a good algorithm is for me is often different from what it is for those who maintain them. Outrage gets attention and sometimes it is needed, but there is a level of too much, and also a lot of outrage unfairly represents the issues and so it makes me mad even though if I understood the details I wouldn't be mad just concerned. I want an algorithm that surfaces things of…

You seem to be behind on English as spoken. From what I can reconstruct:

Algorithm (n) - a secretive set of systems, procedures and data that Big Tech uses to maliciously manipulate unsuspecting general public. Example usage: "Algorithm-free music discovery app for DJs"

I'm not joking, that example usage is taken from a live example.

Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS

#222

Post by domysee »

cglong wrote: post #118

I've been trying to get back into RSS recently. The problem I keep having is the dramatic weight difference between a news site and a personal blog; I'm occasionally interested in what the news site posts, but its volume is so overbearing that it's all I see in my feed. I just walk away with FOMO every time. I'm currently thinking about trying Feedly AI as an algorithm that could surface good content for me.

I'm working on a feed reader that separates articles into Inbox and Library.

New content shows up in the inbox, where you can bookmark or archive. Bookmarked content shows up in the library.

Going through the Inbox and bookmarking interesting content is fast, and in the Library the high volume feeds don't matter as much (because you curated before and only have interesting content there).

https://lighthouseapp.io

Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS

#223

Post by noufalibrahim »

inopinatus wrote: post #193
Beijinger wrote: post #152

My 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…

On the rare occasions I still look at Twitter I use lists instead of follows, and this avoids both the awful algorithmic noise and means I'm not contributing to anyone's bullshit engagement KPIs. I would still prefer an RSS feed, if there was a logged-out solution.

I was a heavy bloglines user back in the day and loved it. It was like a custom newspaper people printed for me and worked great.

I moved to twitter in 2009 and, for the most part, it was a better RSS experience. The udpates were smaller, more frequent. It was text only and had a size limit which automatically filtered for some level of linguistic ability. I used to only see people who I wanted to. It felt like a cross between IRC (which I used heavily at the time) and RSS and I quite loved it.

Over the years, the experience has degraded. Not just because of "the algorithm" but also because of influencers, social media marketing, spam, etc. But I had the frog in hot water experience and never really felt like moving away. I've blocked it on my work machine and use it only my phone via. the browser and a monochrome screen which makes it less compelling.

I've made a few friends and relationships on the platform and I think it peaked in 2015/2016 or so. Especially when you're in a city that's mostly on it. You run into people who you know "via. twitter". It's been a great ride but I do wish for some of the things of the RSS days.

Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS

#225

Post by maxglute »

throwawayq3423 wrote: post #171
acidburnNSA wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've always described (the old) Twitter as an RSS feed but for people, which I loved. Is there a way to recreate this without all the slop?

https://github.com/dimdenGD/OldTwitter

Works fine. Reverse chronological sorting with just who you follow.

For automated... apart from self host RSS options or nitter instance, neither of which I've tried...

For semi automated I have a manual but not too laborious google sheet:

https://imgur.com/a/S5xTlPp

Uses: https://github.com/dimdenGD/OldTwitter

https://github.com/BlackGlory/copycat

TLDR workflow:

1. open "old" twitter

2. scroll down multiple pages (autopagination supported)

3. search for C2 which contains first 20 characters of last tweet in the sheet

4. copyeverything from that point to first tweet (basically all new tweets since reverse chronological sorted), use copycat to copy the BB code

5. paste BB code in sheet F4 (yellow column), I have a bunch of helper columns in another tab that parses through the code to which sorts into date, url, username, tweet

6. i have another page with list of usernames and next to them labels/tag (emoji)

7. run a script, and it outputs everything into a digest, sorted by label/tag, then user, then tweet from oldest to newest

I spend a few minutes in the morning finding where i left off previous day, copy paste, and run script and it gives me a digest of last 24 hours of tweets.Before this, it was hooked into nitter list RSS which auto refreshed and did it all automatically. Before that there was a nice service called streamspigot or something that did it all with API access. It is unnessicarily annoying / difficult to just get a daily digest of tweets you're interested in.

Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS

#227

Post by mattlutze »

Beijinger wrote: post #152

My 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…

Does the world need another RSS reader/mousetrap? We already have so many.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=rss+readers

What is your friend's idea to revolutionize with their new reader?

Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS

#228

Post by mro_name »

mattlutze wrote: post #227
Beijinger wrote: post #152

My 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…

Does the world need another RSS reader/mousetrap? We already have so many. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=rss+readers What is your friend's idea to revolutionize with their new reader?

yes it does. The world is full of 'another's.

Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS

#229

Post by Avamander »

Dalewyn wrote: post #111
netghost wrote: post #87

The one thing that kills me is the number of "modern" blogs/sites that don't offer rss or atom is really frustrating. If I really like your site, please let me be an engaged reader and let me know when you have something valuable to say again! I've even resorted to adding features in my personal feedreader to seek out common feed locations or APIs that common blogging tools leave on mostly unnoticed.

Back like 15 to 20 years ago when I ran or helped manage some hobbyist websites, I added RSS functionality if only because it was "popular" back then. I can confidently tell you not a single bloody soul used it, at the height of adoption no less. If I run a website again I definitely won't bother, it's additional maintenance for a feature nobody uses. The cost-to-benefit ratio makes no sense because the benefit is ze…

It heavily depends on the target audience, I'd say. Especially if it's not ubiquitous.

Re: I ditched the algorithm for RSS

#230

Post by Avamander »

parski wrote: post #215

I started doing this a couple of years ago. In fact, I found this post when going through my RSS after breakfast. My biggest problem so far is that the RSS data is often very lacking (body, images, etc) and that there are still lots of content I'd like to filter out by sentiment. Like if I follow a technology outlet I don't want to know that there's an absolute steal on Sonos Arc on Bestbuy because I'm generally not…

I use Feedbin (self-hosted) and it has no difficulty with displaying images.
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