6 ms·

How come noone has managed to crack the RSS rock yet? Everything has an RSS feed (though it's decreasing). Rss readers have more content than any social network

How come noone has managed to crack the RSS rock yet? Everything has an RSS feed (though it's decreasing). Rss readers have more content than any social network. It seems like you should be able to build something with this that has broad adoption. There has to be something missing. My theory has been for a while that what is missing is publishing. People don't just want to consume, they also want to share what they find and like and what they made themselves. I even started working on a web-based rss-reader/(micro)blogging thing at one point. Maybe I should give that another crack.

older 8y ago
Isn't ActivityPub supposed to fill the gap?
- rakoo 8y ago
  Yeah its predecessor, OStatus, was pretty much that: you start with a feed of anything, then you add another feed for the reader to comment, then a way to send the comment back to the source so everyone can see it, and lo and behold you've got yourself a social network brewing. Activitypub is a rethinking of the whole thing with clear requirements and specs instead of some informal pieces added here and there, which is a good thing. Except all the existing RSS feeds can't be used as such.
grumph 8y ago
If you don't know it, take a look at Shaarli[1], it's a bookmarking web app that allows you to share your bookmarks via RSS, you can add tags and comments, but you can also have "notes" without a link that can be used as microblogging posts. It's a project from Sebsauvage[2] (an old school french blogger), who wanted to build a social network around the RSS technology. I know there are projects around it to aggregate multiple shaarli and use it as an actual social network based around sharing links with RSS. I didn't search about it, but it seems that shaarlo[3] is one of them. EDIT: actually, projects like this are listed in shaarli's documentation[4]. EDIT2: tt-rss-shaarli seems to be what you want, Tiny-Tiny RSS with Shaarli, an aggregator with a sharing/commenting functionality. [1] https://github.com/shaarli/Shaarli https://github.com/shaarli/Shaarli [2] http://sebsauvage.net/wiki/doku.php?id=php:shaarli http://sebsauvage.net/wiki/doku.php?id=php:shaarli [3] https://github.com/DMeloni/shaarlo https://github.com/DMeloni/shaarlo [4] https://shaarli.readthedocs.io/en/master/Community-&-Related-software/ https://shaarli.readthedocs.io/en/master/Community-&-Related...
vsund 8y ago
This is exactly what I don't understand about all the feed readers out there. It seems so obvious that the next step for feed readers would be social interactions like sharing, also it would be to easy to add I guess. Additionally the aspect of consuming YouTube via RSS feed. Feed readers could simply add small logic which transforms a given YouTube account into one of https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<account_id> https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?user=<account_name> And so on for similar services. RSS has such great potential but somehow nobody uses all of it. Is there anything I miss? Why don't feed readers support external services (like the YouTube example from above)? Why don't feed readers add social features?
- grumph 8y ago
  You can add the RSS feed of a youtube channel with the Tiny Tiny RSS bookmarklet, it's working for most channels, but not all for a reason I don't understand yet.
  - jasonkostempski 8y ago
    YouTube channel feeds, if they have one, are at: www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id={channel_id} Some channels have a custom url and the id isn't obvious but it should be in the page source somewhere. For example, "It's Okay To Be Smart" is at "www.youtube.com/user/itsokaytobesmart". Right click, view page source, search for "/channel/". That finds "<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH4BNI0-FOK2dMXoFtViWHw">" https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH4BNI0-FOK2dMXoFtViWHw">". So the feed url is: https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCH4BNI0-FOK2dMXoFtViWHw
    - bhrgunatha 8y ago
      I'm not sure what the relationship between channels and users is. I think it's many-to-many and I'm aware of 3 feed types: https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?user=<username> https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<channel id> https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?playlist_id=<playlist id> Would love to hear if there are more.
AltruisticGap 8y ago
Simple: - most RSS readers suck so bad you can't even retrieve years old articles. So if you follow blogs that don't post often, you simply can NOT get any of their older posts. Imagine a blog that has one seriously good article once a month. Typically you can't get more than a year's worth of posts, so that's like 12 articles. Why? - the best RSS app I had on iPad let me archive feeds for a LONG time. I used it as a kind of a library. Returned to articles many times (philosophy and such). Most RSS readers out there have ZERO functionality in terms of archiving content indefinitely. (meaning : they typically have some leeway in max articles stored, or how old to archive feeds.. but you know you simply can not realy on the app to save your favorite articels, at some point they will be deleted). - inability to highlight text. Again, if I read something I want to be able to at least highlight some text. Most RSS readers don't do this. Instead RSS readers do the same thing every other RSS reader does. Basically, it's like the developers of RSS apps think that the only purpose of retrieving articles is for fueling some kind of "feed" addiction. Like the only purpose of content on the web is to satisfy an urge to quick scan and move to the nex article. It's like the devs of RSS apps are so drugged out themselves in this day and age of short attention span, that they can't envision other uses for a feed reader than satisfying this urge for the daily/hourly doses of "novelty". Click click click. Swipe swipe swipe. /rant off
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- tannhaeuser 8y ago
  You're free to develop an RSS reader with those features yourself. RSS is - on paper - an extremely simple protocol, but since many feeds are broken (not wellformed/improperly escaped XML, often incompetently copied from HTML, with spam, etc. etc.), RSS readers must integrate individual feeds almost on a case-by-case basis, with feed-specific fixes and heuristics. And there goes your project budget. Considering RSS isn't exactly growing (because the number of valuable news site isn't neither), the state of RSS is as good or bad as it always has been. I don't know if that is actually a good thing, because when big media (Google) last turned their eye towards it, it monopolized and almost ruined it.

older 8y ago

Isn't ActivityPub supposed to fill the gap?

rakoo 8y ago
Yeah its predecessor, OStatus, was pretty much that: you start with a feed of anything, then you add another feed for the reader to comment, then a way to send the comment back to the source so everyone can see it, and lo and behold you've got yourself a social network brewing. Activitypub is a rethinking of the whole thing with clear requirements and specs instead of some informal pieces added here and there, which is a good thing. Except all the existing RSS feeds can't be used as such.

grumph 8y ago

If you don't know it, take a look at Shaarli[1], it's a bookmarking web app that allows you to share your bookmarks via RSS, you can add tags and comments, but you can also have "notes" without a link that can be used as microblogging posts. It's a project from Sebsauvage[2] (an old school french blogger), who wanted to build a social network around the RSS technology. I know there are projects around it to aggregate multiple shaarli and use it as an actual social network based around sharing links with RSS. I didn't search about it, but it seems that shaarlo[3] is one of them. EDIT: actually, projects like this are listed in shaarli's documentation[4]. EDIT2: tt-rss-shaarli seems to be what you want, Tiny-Tiny RSS with Shaarli, an aggregator with a sharing/commenting functionality. [1] https://github.com/shaarli/Shaarli https://github.com/shaarli/Shaarli [2] http://sebsauvage.net/wiki/doku.php?id=php:shaarli http://sebsauvage.net/wiki/doku.php?id=php:shaarli [3] https://github.com/DMeloni/shaarlo https://github.com/DMeloni/shaarlo [4] https://shaarli.readthedocs.io/en/master/Community-&-Related-software/ https://shaarli.readthedocs.io/en/master/Community-&-Related...

vsund 8y ago

This is exactly what I don't understand about all the feed readers out there. It seems so obvious that the next step for feed readers would be social interactions like sharing, also it would be to easy to add I guess. Additionally the aspect of consuming YouTube via RSS feed. Feed readers could simply add small logic which transforms a given YouTube account into one of https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<account_id> https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?user=<account_name> And so on for similar services. RSS has such great potential but somehow nobody uses all of it. Is there anything I miss? Why don't feed readers support external services (like the YouTube example from above)? Why don't feed readers add social features?

grumph 8y ago
You can add the RSS feed of a youtube channel with the Tiny Tiny RSS bookmarklet, it's working for most channels, but not all for a reason I don't understand yet.
- jasonkostempski 8y ago
  YouTube channel feeds, if they have one, are at: www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id={channel_id} Some channels have a custom url and the id isn't obvious but it should be in the page source somewhere. For example, "It's Okay To Be Smart" is at "www.youtube.com/user/itsokaytobesmart". Right click, view page source, search for "/channel/". That finds "<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH4BNI0-FOK2dMXoFtViWHw">" https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH4BNI0-FOK2dMXoFtViWHw">". So the feed url is: https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCH4BNI0-FOK2dMXoFtViWHw
  - bhrgunatha 8y ago
    I'm not sure what the relationship between channels and users is. I think it's many-to-many and I'm aware of 3 feed types: https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?user=<username> https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<channel id> https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?playlist_id=<playlist id> Would love to hear if there are more.

AltruisticGap 8y ago

Simple: - most RSS readers suck so bad you can't even retrieve years old articles. So if you follow blogs that don't post often, you simply can NOT get any of their older posts. Imagine a blog that has one seriously good article once a month. Typically you can't get more than a year's worth of posts, so that's like 12 articles. Why? - the best RSS app I had on iPad let me archive feeds for a LONG time. I used it as a kind of a library. Returned to articles many times (philosophy and such). Most RSS readers out there have ZERO functionality in terms of archiving content indefinitely. (meaning : they typically have some leeway in max articles stored, or how old to archive feeds.. but you know you simply can not realy on the app to save your favorite articels, at some point they will be deleted). - inability to highlight text. Again, if I read something I want to be able to at least highlight some text. Most RSS readers don't do this. Instead RSS readers do the same thing every other RSS reader does. Basically, it's like the developers of RSS apps think that the only purpose of retrieving articles is for fueling some kind of "feed" addiction. Like the only purpose of content on the web is to satisfy an urge to quick scan and move to the nex article. It's like the devs of RSS apps are so drugged out themselves in this day and age of short attention span, that they can't envision other uses for a feed reader than satisfying this urge for the daily/hourly doses of "novelty". Click click click. Swipe swipe swipe. /rant off

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
tannhaeuser 8y ago
You're free to develop an RSS reader with those features yourself. RSS is - on paper - an extremely simple protocol, but since many feeds are broken (not wellformed/improperly escaped XML, often incompetently copied from HTML, with spam, etc. etc.), RSS readers must integrate individual feeds almost on a case-by-case basis, with feed-specific fixes and heuristics. And there goes your project budget. Considering RSS isn't exactly growing (because the number of valuable news site isn't neither), the state of RSS is as good or bad as it always has been. I don't know if that is actually a good thing, because when big media (Google) last turned their eye towards it, it monopolized and almost ruined it.