281–290 of 370 posts
Two things that can help:
1. Have a prettified RSS feed that tells new users what it is, rather than showing raw XML. For example here's mine: http://interconnected.org/home/feed
2. (plug) Link to https://aboutfeeds.com which is a one-pager RSS explainer site, providing links to newsreaders and simple instructions on how to subscribe.
Podcasts are another element keeping RSS alive. The recent exponential growth of podcasts should help keep RSS going. Podcasts rely heavily on RSS syndication for distribution. This reminds me of how the internet used to work, hope we get some of that highly distributed non-centralized world back.
I've mentioned this on HN before, one pattern I've noticed is a lot of sites tend to truncate their RSS feed so you have to click through to see the full article etc. This is mostly OK but kinda frustrating, as in the before-covid times I used to ride the London Underground a lot where no celluar signal is available in the tunnels - so my offline RSS reader would be useless. So I wrote a little web service accepts an…
And then you subscribe to too many feeds, get information overload and miss content because you just "Mark all as read" when you're tired. Or skim through the headlines too fast.
I'd like an algorithm to process those for me. But specifically the sources I need. And there's nothing like that on the market.
Organize the entries by their importance so I could skim the top when I'm busy. Bundle the posts on the same topic. Create digest for high-frequency repetitive content. Combine RSS feeds, Twitter lists, and email newsletters in a single heap of organized content.
I love RSS but I also believe there's not enough innovation in the space. Feels like most developers are burnt by Facebook and don't ever want to do anything other than providing you with a chronological feed of all feeds. And then you subscribe to too many feeds, get information overload and miss content because you just "Mark all as read" when you're tired. Or skim through the headlines too fast. I'd like an algori…
I love RSS but I also believe there's not enough innovation in the space. Feels like most developers are burnt by Facebook and don't ever want to do anything other than providing you with a chronological feed of all feeds. And then you subscribe to too many feeds, get information overload and miss content because you just "Mark all as read" when you're tired. Or skim through the headlines too fast. I'd like an algori…
Feedly does this, although as a college student their Pro+ plan (which organizes by topic) is too pricey for me :-/. I still love the concept. https://feedly.com/i/pro/
RSS onboarding is a struggle for new users. RSS, unlike commercial products, lacks a "front page" to explain the benefits and how to get started. Two things that can help: 1. Have a prettified RSS feed that tells new users what it is, rather than showing raw XML. For example here's mine: http://interconnected.org/home/feed 2. (plug) Link to https://aboutfeeds.com which is a one-pager RSS explainer site, providing lin…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not only Feedly does this. Most of those feed readers do it.
In fact, Feedly was the only large centralized feed reader that didn't do subscriber count reporting via UA string for the longest time. They made you do a GET request on some API endpoint if you wanted to get your subscriber count. They implemented it some time back, but it's still kind of buggy - at least for my blog. Two or three different IPs periodically do a GET on my feed URL with the Feedly UA and they all re…