Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

camendesign.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 197 posts

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#71

Post by Groxx »

lftl wrote: post #28
ianl wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3%-7% that use the button are most likely power users. It would be unwise to disenfranchise them as they are the ones who normally advocate your software to their friends (regular users).

In chrome at least you can install a plugin to add an RSS icon to the URL bar. Easy enough for power users.

That seems like it's the best option, actually. For power-users, a 3rd-party built extension is more likely to be updated / have the options you want than the button built into every version of the browser.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#72

Post by gergles »

corin_ wrote: post #20

I can't imagine that browser button pursuading anyone who doesn't already understand and appreciate RSS to start using it. Anyone tech-savvy enough to see it, and start googling to find out how to use it properly has certainly already heard of RSS. And on the other side, anyone who does use RSS, and anyone in the future who learns to use it, won't be put off using it by the loss of that button. The worse statement in…

The argument is that more people would use the feature if the UI were better, and that hiding the feature because "nobody uses it (because it sucks)" is not the same statement as "nobody uses it (because nobody wants it)".

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#75

Post by Groxx »

tlianza wrote: post #54

Curious why none of the comments, nor the original article, mentions Internet Explorer. They've continued to add new features in this area ever since IE7. The icon is hidden now in IE9 (as are most of the icons... less browser chrome is fashionable) but I believe they still consider this a first-class feature. They are still the world's most popular browser... and presumably their users are less technical, so presuma…

>They are still the world's most popular browser

Because of their history. Because users aren't technical. Because IE is bundled with Windows. And look how quickly they've been falling in use. Methinks they won't be the most popular for much longer, which is an incredible mark against their design decisions because of how fast and how far they've fallen from such complete domination.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#76

Post by gnosis »

liuhenry wrote: post #48
reader5000 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think aggregators obviate the need for rss. I don't really like the idea of the masses entirely determining what content I have awareness of. Furthermore, aggregators simply don't offer the sheer volume of content pumped by an rss feed with a good couple hundred subscriptions. And if you are into niche content like say arxiv's math.OA you pretty much need rss.

How much time does it take you to sort through it all? That's the tradeoff you make with aggegators vs. rss. Personally, I'm also subscribed to a few hundred feeds on Google Reader, and I usually go through them first by deleting everything older than a day, and then sorting by "magic". But that has major limitations: I lose occasional posts and older, but still interesting, content, and magic just skews the sort tow…

And where do the aggregators get the news item they aggregate?

They often get their news from blogs, news websites, word of mouth, and web searches. RSS is very useful for keeping up with some of these sources.

Sometimes aggregators do get their news from other aggregators, but at some point that incestuous chain has to be broken and someone has to read the original news somewhere and pass it on to an aggregator.

Finally, most aggregators themselves (including HN), publish their news via RSS (or Atom). I know that's how I read HN headlines, and virtually every other news source I regularly read.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#77

Post by codeup »

Groxx wrote: post #73

> IF RSS DIES, WE LOSE THE ABILITY TO READ IN PRIVATE Based on what causal chain? At best, it's an incredible stretch of a slippery slope fallacy.

Disagree. The author clearly refers to corporations like Facebook and Twitter tracking your reading behavior.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#78

Post by thirdsun »

angrycoder wrote: post #34

I have used RSS for years now. I check google reader about as often as I check hacker news. I start my morning off with a cup of coffee while I read my feeds using Reeder on the iphone or ipad. Not once have I used any of the RSS features of a browser. I really don't see the point. I guess google doesn't either.

i couldn't agree more. Breakfast, Coffee and Reeder is my morning routine.

And a browser's RSS features are indeed too limited - third-party web- and mobile apps are much more sophisticated when it comes to RSS.

What I'm more worried about is the trend to only show an excerpt or introduction of an increasing number of articles. Given the fact that most of those sites rely on ads, it's fair to do that though.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#79

Post by ugh »

DougBTX wrote: post #65
kroc wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because the browser is supposed to provide the button . Why do you think I’m worried? I don’t want to have to clutter my site with a button to an XML feed that nobody understands. I want the browser auto-discovery to do the right thing and present the right interface to make RSS worthwhile. Turning the key in a car shouldn’t present you a diagram on how to connect the battery. Browsers shouldn’t sit there dumbfounded…

Why do you think I’m worried? Because auto-discovery isn't working on his site either? (At least in Safari)

It is working. Safari changed the way it displays RSS feeds. You have to click and hold on the “Reader” button to display any RSS feeds.

Re: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried

#80

Post by shaver »

What would an RSS reader good enough for Kroc's grandmother and 419,999,999 other Firefox users look like? I would be genuinely interested in his designs for one. Of the many different RSS reader add-ons I've tried for Firefox, for example, there haven't been any that made me say "we've gotta put this in Firefox, let's delay $otherwork instead". If we had an energetic contributor like Kroc, though, it's quite possible that we could end up in a great place. I'm not trying to say "patches talk, chump", though of course they do speak quite compellingly. I'm trying to indicate that via open projects like Mozilla technical people can have agency beyond voting in bugzilla (!) or a letter-writing campaign.

It'll be interesting to test Kroc's thesis, though: if he's right that RSS will be harmed a lot by Firefox removing the RSS icon, then hits to the RSS stream from Firefox UAs should change trend-line between 3.6.x and 4. I look forward to such a follow-up, it would be interesting data!

Post reply on HN