this is by far my favorite way of browsing the internet nowadays. if they find a way to monetize or kill RSS, i’m getting off the internet
I think it would be hard to re-invent RSS for money, it’s part of why it’s so simple.
RSS as a service makes sense for backend, not front end where most of the money would be made.
And killing RSS is… Kinda here? It’s difficult to get a RSS feed on most websites, unless you can scrape it or find someone who’s done it for you.
Man I should use RSS more…
I get that the idea of rss is sort of a universal protocol for publishing articles, which is really cool, but damnit if you make me parse XML in 2025. As a developer, I would be ok if they modernized RSS feeds.
Hey, Joey, don’t say that shit out loud. Once they realize that there is a way to access content that isn’t sufficiently monetized, they will block it. Keep it secret!
The content creators should be shouting about RSS from the rooftops. The only people that lose out are social networks, and startups. It would be more difficult for a new person to get a foothold, but at least we decide what we want to read on our own.
I remember youtube creators recommending other creators small channels and stuff like that. I want that back.
Hard agree. I’ve had Gamers Nexus introduce me to a few channels but none have been small. I entirely skipped YouTube for most of my life so I missed the small town feel.
I use self hosted FreshRSS. I has:
- news straight from the section I care about in chronological order order
- new blog updates
- music review updates
- Bandcamp releases from artists/labels I follow
- open source software releases I follow
- YouTube updates from channels I follow.
- etc
It is by far the best way to get updates about just the things you care about.
I use Feeder on android, which just lives on my phone instead of on my server.
Would you say there are distinct advantages to self hosting an RSS reader? Most of the time when im browsing sites and reading it’s on my phone, not my desktop.
I started using FreshRSS around the same time Reddit killed their API, it has rapidly become one of my favorite self-hosted apps.
Also,
open source software releases I follow
You have just taught me that I can add github release pages to my feed, I love FreshRSS even more now.
Algorithms done right are useful. Make sure things that are likely important to be bubble to the top. I don’t have time to read/watch it all, so prioritize the important things for me.
Done right is the hard part. It is too easy to prioritize memes that make people angry even though if you really investigate you discover that while there is a little truth it is grossly exaggerated and whoever is being mocked isn’t that stupid - because things that make people mad tend to get attention.
The algorithm really needs a “there is plenty more but you have seen all the important stuff - go outside and do something” after I’ve seen what is important. Of course it then needs a “but I’m currently confined to a hospital bed so just show me something so I’m not bored out of my mind”. The likes of facebook of course cannot allow such a thing as once you stop scrolling their ad revenue is gone. However that is what the world needs.
The companies deploying the algorithms aren’t taking any of what you said into consideration though. They only want to feed you what has the most interaction as that can garner the most money from ad revenue.
Would be nice if open-source aggregators like Lemmy allowed users to “Subscribe” to community developed algorithms.
I’d love to (attempt) to build an “ethical” algorithm for content sorting, have it be open-source, and be able to have clients use it without having to actually modify the client itself.
The hardest part is when you have to curate by yourself. To me RSS feels like a lot of work upfront. Is there a tool to help discover items to add to your feed aligned with your interest?
Feedly does a great job of that.
You start with vlogs you like.
Then see who they have in their blog roll.
More seriousl, I have literally used RSS regular since like 2006 or so. And I will NEVER forgive Google for killing Reader.
Anyway, what I mean to say is, its just a growing process. Someone links an article and you say, “Well, this sote seems interesting” and you stick it in your RSS reader.
Next thing you know you are pulling 1000-2000 articles a day, even with limiting filters.
One last bit of advice. Most systems let you export your subs.
DO THIS FROM TIME TO TIME BECAUSE YOU WILL HATE YOUR PAST SELF WHEN SOMETHING GOES WRONG AND YOU LOSE ALL YOUR SUBS.
I went the Local RSS Reader -> Google Reader -> Feedly -> Self-hosted FreshRSS myself. Kinda went full circle on this.
