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I'm surprised how often RSS is mentioned on Hackernews, and how infrequently some recommends Feedly. It has wonderful features, like saving articles, collection

I'm surprised how often RSS is mentioned on Hackernews, and how infrequently some recommends Feedly. It has wonderful features, like saving articles, collection boards, team features, and popularity-based sorting options. (Full disclosure, I don't work for Feedly nor do I own any of the company. I just like the service!) http://feedly.com http://feedly.com

findjashua 8y ago
I have been a happy user of Inoreader (no affiliation, just a happy user)
LoSboccacc 8y ago
yeah feedly has been my alternative since google reader died. but the issue is that even if some sources still have feeds, many sources strip feed of all the content and only give you a list of titles and links. that quite sad to witness if one lived trough the rss golden age
kungfooguru 8y ago
Agreed. But it has been very frustrating that they haven't allowed boards to be public. Maybe someone knows a service that lets you mark posts from your feed to be shared as a public collection?
- Notre1 8y ago
  Newsblur kind-of has this. You can "Share to your Blurblog," but I don't see a way to have multiple Blurblogs. You can also tag stories and each tag can have a RSS feed that others to subscribe to, but I don't think there is a web page to send people to for your taggged stories.
mongol 8y ago
I can recommend Inoreader.
dfee 8y ago
My use of RSS has fallen (very recently) so I only consume a few feeds every day. However, I both enjoy and dislike Feedly. Here’s the rundown: Pros) - advanced features like highlighting, team management - pure free offering that just works - integration with pretty much every feed reader app out there Cons: - no ability/willingness to pull full text - iOS app is honestly kind of clunky I emailed them that I’d willingly migrate from a different app that I pay a subscription for if only they’d pull the full text, but they told me that is an intentional non-feature. Big bummer.
- ocdtrekkie 8y ago
  Given that one of the blogs I follow charges for access to a full-text RSS feed, my guess is that some sites might be upset with them if they did that.
  - justonepost 8y ago
    Or pretty excited depending on how they charge.
  - dfee 8y ago
    Ah yes, one of the resources I follow is a newspaper where I pay for the news weekly (FT). I only get the title and a link.
- jklinger410 8y ago
  In regards to your full text request. The publisher has the option what to syndicate, truncated or full. What you are asking them to do is have a crawler go to the site and pull the full text whenever they feel they are being served truncated. Not only does that go against the nature of RSS, but would be costly for them. What app do you pay for that does this? Is it even using RSS?
  - dfee 8y ago
    Quite a few apps provide this. One is called Newsify. I don’t know that it goes against the nature of RSS. I kind of feel that providing only a title of the article and a link goes against the spirit. But nature and spirit are different.
joshschreuder 8y ago
I use Newsblur and have been a happily paying customer since Google Reader went down.
meteor333 8y ago
Shameless recommendation - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16876636 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16876636 (I built this)
ASalazarMX 8y ago
When Google Reader died, I tried several alternatives including Feedly. At that time it could import your feeds, but it didn't do export. I don't now, but I didn't want to use a service that locked-in RSS feeds.
- smsm42 8y ago
  I think you can back up OPML to Dropbox, which should provide kind of export facility, since OPML is a generic format.
  - essayist 8y ago
    Feedly does OPML import/export now. It worked for me the other day. I'm just a (non-paying) customer. https://blog.feedly.com/opml/ https://blog.feedly.com/opml/
    - smsm42 8y ago
      Ah, didn't know that. Even better, thanks for the pointer!
- beefsack 8y ago
  I'm in exactly the same boat, and ended up on Go Read, but recently I was looking for a solution which had better mobile support and came back to Feedly. Created an account first and checked whether you can export your OPML, and indeed you can in the feed settings: https://i.imgur.com/ttPNrd1.png https://i.imgur.com/ttPNrd1.png The mobile app is great too, it has become my main RSS reading platform.
- some_weirdo 8y ago
  Same. I used google reader heavily when it was around. Now I don't bother using any 3rd party service and I just host my own RSS server (tt-rss). Not going to start using a service and get used to it, only for it to shut down.
- diminoten 8y ago
  I didn't even use a service like Google Reader, but when it died, I got caught up in the flood of alternatives, and am now a very happy Feedly user. Didn't even know what I was missing!
mud_dauber 8y ago
Major, major thumbs up for Feedly. The first site I check every morning. >250 sites tied to it.
arsa 8y ago
I use it daily for years and was shocked to find that it supports pinch zoom on iOS - but not android (where i use it). Feels like it that's just tip of the iceberg re. things they could improve - for example they finally, finally!, added ability to create categories/tags for free (was paid feature). I understand it's tough to run a business like this (and why google killed this, at least officially) - but i wouldn't actually mind an occasional ad.
- stevenwoo 8y ago
  I vaguely recall Apple getting the patent for pinch to zoom for a while, and not getting native support on Android after Apple lost it, and having to reimplement it for the longest time when doing things on Android.
eecks 8y ago
I just signed up. I added one RSS feed (Reddit programming sub) and then tried to add another Google keyword.. it popped up trying to charge me..
Glench 8y ago
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Bazqux. It's cheap, fast, and has all the features I want.
eeZah7Ux 8y ago
Feedly is nice but centralized. We should have learned the lesson.
- daveFNbuck 8y ago
  All feed readers are centralized, even one you run on your laptop. I learned from Reader's shutdown that a centralized service shutting down is no big deal. I can easily export my feeds from Feedly and move them somewhere else if the need arises. I learned from Google that if I want a nice centralized feed reader I need one that I can support. That's why I pay for Feedly.
  - Jaruzel 8y ago
    > All feed readers are centralized, even one you run on your laptop. How so? I'm sure there are plenty of RSS readers on GitHub you could fork and then be safe from the developer abandoning it.
    - daveFNbuck 8y ago
      RSS readers are a dime a dozen, and it's trivial to switch between them. I don't really care which one I use, so developer abandonment isn't my concern. The only important things are the list of my feeds and which items I've read. If my laptop goes down, I lose those if I haven't backed them up. If Feedly goes down, I lose those if I haven't backed them up. The difference is that Feedly is more likely than my laptop to give me notice first. So Feedly is actually better about centralization than using a local reader. As a bonus, everything is synced across all my devices and I can quickly read a few articles on my phone while waiting for my name to be called at the pizza place.
  - eeZah7Ux 8y ago
    > All feed readers are centralized, even one you run on your laptop. Care to justify that statement?
    - daveFNbuck 8y ago
reitanqild 8y ago
Seems everyone is recommending their preferred feed reader here so I'll mention the one I use as well. Feedbro is a Firefox extension that lets me subscribe to and read feeds. Multiple layouts/formats. I use it to subscribe to blogs, github repos etc. I still miss a feature from the Googlr Desktop Search sidebar where it would autosubscribe/unsubscribe to rss feeds as you browsed around the web. I think it looked at what sites I visited, tried a few entries in the feed and continued/canceled based on if I read them or not.

findjashua 8y ago

I have been a happy user of Inoreader (no affiliation, just a happy user)

LoSboccacc 8y ago

yeah feedly has been my alternative since google reader died. but the issue is that even if some sources still have feeds, many sources strip feed of all the content and only give you a list of titles and links. that quite sad to witness if one lived trough the rss golden age

kungfooguru 8y ago

Agreed. But it has been very frustrating that they haven't allowed boards to be public. Maybe someone knows a service that lets you mark posts from your feed to be shared as a public collection?

Notre1 8y ago
Newsblur kind-of has this. You can "Share to your Blurblog," but I don't see a way to have multiple Blurblogs. You can also tag stories and each tag can have a RSS feed that others to subscribe to, but I don't think there is a web page to send people to for your taggged stories.

mongol 8y ago

I can recommend Inoreader.

dfee 8y ago

My use of RSS has fallen (very recently) so I only consume a few feeds every day. However, I both enjoy and dislike Feedly. Here’s the rundown: Pros) - advanced features like highlighting, team management - pure free offering that just works - integration with pretty much every feed reader app out there Cons: - no ability/willingness to pull full text - iOS app is honestly kind of clunky I emailed them that I’d willingly migrate from a different app that I pay a subscription for if only they’d pull the full text, but they told me that is an intentional non-feature. Big bummer.

ocdtrekkie 8y ago
Given that one of the blogs I follow charges for access to a full-text RSS feed, my guess is that some sites might be upset with them if they did that.
- justonepost 8y ago
  Or pretty excited depending on how they charge.
- dfee 8y ago
  Ah yes, one of the resources I follow is a newspaper where I pay for the news weekly (FT). I only get the title and a link.
jklinger410 8y ago
In regards to your full text request. The publisher has the option what to syndicate, truncated or full. What you are asking them to do is have a crawler go to the site and pull the full text whenever they feel they are being served truncated. Not only does that go against the nature of RSS, but would be costly for them. What app do you pay for that does this? Is it even using RSS?
- dfee 8y ago
  Quite a few apps provide this. One is called Newsify. I don’t know that it goes against the nature of RSS. I kind of feel that providing only a title of the article and a link goes against the spirit. But nature and spirit are different.

joshschreuder 8y ago

I use Newsblur and have been a happily paying customer since Google Reader went down.

meteor333 8y ago

Shameless recommendation - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16876636 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16876636 (I built this)

ASalazarMX 8y ago

When Google Reader died, I tried several alternatives including Feedly. At that time it could import your feeds, but it didn't do export. I don't now, but I didn't want to use a service that locked-in RSS feeds.

smsm42 8y ago
I think you can back up OPML to Dropbox, which should provide kind of export facility, since OPML is a generic format.
- essayist 8y ago
  Feedly does OPML import/export now. It worked for me the other day. I'm just a (non-paying) customer. https://blog.feedly.com/opml/ https://blog.feedly.com/opml/
  - smsm42 8y ago
    Ah, didn't know that. Even better, thanks for the pointer!
beefsack 8y ago
I'm in exactly the same boat, and ended up on Go Read, but recently I was looking for a solution which had better mobile support and came back to Feedly. Created an account first and checked whether you can export your OPML, and indeed you can in the feed settings: https://i.imgur.com/ttPNrd1.png https://i.imgur.com/ttPNrd1.png The mobile app is great too, it has become my main RSS reading platform.
some_weirdo 8y ago
Same. I used google reader heavily when it was around. Now I don't bother using any 3rd party service and I just host my own RSS server (tt-rss). Not going to start using a service and get used to it, only for it to shut down.
diminoten 8y ago
I didn't even use a service like Google Reader, but when it died, I got caught up in the flood of alternatives, and am now a very happy Feedly user. Didn't even know what I was missing!

mud_dauber 8y ago

Major, major thumbs up for Feedly. The first site I check every morning. >250 sites tied to it.

arsa 8y ago

I use it daily for years and was shocked to find that it supports pinch zoom on iOS - but not android (where i use it). Feels like it that's just tip of the iceberg re. things they could improve - for example they finally, finally!, added ability to create categories/tags for free (was paid feature). I understand it's tough to run a business like this (and why google killed this, at least officially) - but i wouldn't actually mind an occasional ad.

stevenwoo 8y ago
I vaguely recall Apple getting the patent for pinch to zoom for a while, and not getting native support on Android after Apple lost it, and having to reimplement it for the longest time when doing things on Android.

eecks 8y ago

I just signed up. I added one RSS feed (Reddit programming sub) and then tried to add another Google keyword.. it popped up trying to charge me..

Glench 8y ago

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Bazqux. It's cheap, fast, and has all the features I want.

eeZah7Ux 8y ago

Feedly is nice but centralized. We should have learned the lesson.

daveFNbuck 8y ago
All feed readers are centralized, even one you run on your laptop. I learned from Reader's shutdown that a centralized service shutting down is no big deal. I can easily export my feeds from Feedly and move them somewhere else if the need arises. I learned from Google that if I want a nice centralized feed reader I need one that I can support. That's why I pay for Feedly.
- Jaruzel 8y ago
  > All feed readers are centralized, even one you run on your laptop. How so? I'm sure there are plenty of RSS readers on GitHub you could fork and then be safe from the developer abandoning it.
  - daveFNbuck 8y ago
    RSS readers are a dime a dozen, and it's trivial to switch between them. I don't really care which one I use, so developer abandonment isn't my concern. The only important things are the list of my feeds and which items I've read. If my laptop goes down, I lose those if I haven't backed them up. If Feedly goes down, I lose those if I haven't backed them up. The difference is that Feedly is more likely than my laptop to give me notice first. So Feedly is actually better about centralization than using a local reader. As a bonus, everything is synced across all my devices and I can quickly read a few articles on my phone while waiting for my name to be called at the pizza place.
- eeZah7Ux 8y ago
  > All feed readers are centralized, even one you run on your laptop. Care to justify that statement?
  - daveFNbuck 8y ago

reitanqild 8y ago

Seems everyone is recommending their preferred feed reader here so I'll mention the one I use as well. Feedbro is a Firefox extension that lets me subscribe to and read feeds. Multiple layouts/formats. I use it to subscribe to blogs, github repos etc. I still miss a feature from the Googlr Desktop Search sidebar where it would autosubscribe/unsubscribe to rss feeds as you browsed around the web. I think it looked at what sites I visited, tried a few entries in the feed and continued/canceled based on if I read them or not.