4 ms·

RSS is like articles without comment sections, completely pointless nowadays. If you can't read corrections, conflicting opinions for something, you might just

RSS is like articles without comment sections, completely pointless nowadays. If you can't read corrections, conflicting opinions for something, you might just as well go watch TV. The whole point of Twitter is that it's commentary, not a feed of published articles.

dragontamer 8y ago
90% of internet comments are low effort garbage that simply isn't worth anyone's time. The other 10% of high quality, high effort posts take more than 280 words, and need 5 to 20 twitter posts to get a full idea of their concepts. RSS is a different network of users, so it really can't be compared to Twitter. But those mega tweet 10 posts in a row threads would be far better served by a classic blog and RSS feed... Rather than 280 word chunks that have to be tracked and edited separately. Then comes the blogs out there which pretty much use Twitter as a glorified RSS feed. They just post announcements whenever they post a blog post. This is necessary because of the network effect, but I would argue that RSS is a superior technology for this use case.
- lazyjones 8y ago
  > 90% of internet comments are low effort garbage that simply isn't worth anyone's time. In line with blog articles and TV. At least on Twitter, it's easy to block someone forever. >The other 10% of high quality, high effort posts take more than 280 words That's simply not true. You can often deliver important information in 140 characters. > But those mega tweet 10 posts in a row threads would be far better served by a classic blog and RSS feed... Rather than 280 word chunks that have to be tracked and edited separately. That's not a huge problem compared to the issue of content quality and it's even less important when you accept that your previous statement is simply not true.
- mark_l_watson 8y ago
  When ever I (rarely) take the time and effort to write a blog, then I drop a link to the new blog article to twitter and FB. Most of the people I follow on twitter do much the same.
oneeyedpigeon 8y ago
Hacker News, and similar sites (including Twitter), do a much better job of supporting commentary than any on-site comment system ever did.
vshabanov 8y ago
I did a feed reader which supports blog comments years ago (https://bazqux.com https://bazqux.com) and first thing many people asked me is how to turn comments off. There are some good blogs with good communities and interesting discussions in comments but the majority of comments on popular sites are plain junk.
- lazyjones 8y ago
  > the majority of comments on popular sites are plain junk. That's a questionable conclusion from your little project and the feedback of a (non-representative) few users. The counter-argument would be the success of Twitter and FB, where most of the "junk" comments are. Readers want to decide themselves what is junk and what isn't and 1 useful comment easily trumps 20 junk comments. Ask all the newspapers that added comments to their articles despite all the moderation problems that brought with it.
shdh 8y ago
RSS is a feed of subscribable information in a programmably ingestible format. Imagine formatting your feed however you want, without distracting side content. A use case is using RSS for YouTube subscriptions instead of the horrible subscription page experience. Many publications do not post full articles, but instead summaries or excerpts. The HN RSS feed is simply a link to the original article and comments.

dragontamer 8y ago

90% of internet comments are low effort garbage that simply isn't worth anyone's time. The other 10% of high quality, high effort posts take more than 280 words, and need 5 to 20 twitter posts to get a full idea of their concepts. RSS is a different network of users, so it really can't be compared to Twitter. But those mega tweet 10 posts in a row threads would be far better served by a classic blog and RSS feed... Rather than 280 word chunks that have to be tracked and edited separately. Then comes the blogs out there which pretty much use Twitter as a glorified RSS feed. They just post announcements whenever they post a blog post. This is necessary because of the network effect, but I would argue that RSS is a superior technology for this use case.

lazyjones 8y ago
> 90% of internet comments are low effort garbage that simply isn't worth anyone's time. In line with blog articles and TV. At least on Twitter, it's easy to block someone forever. >The other 10% of high quality, high effort posts take more than 280 words That's simply not true. You can often deliver important information in 140 characters. > But those mega tweet 10 posts in a row threads would be far better served by a classic blog and RSS feed... Rather than 280 word chunks that have to be tracked and edited separately. That's not a huge problem compared to the issue of content quality and it's even less important when you accept that your previous statement is simply not true.
mark_l_watson 8y ago
When ever I (rarely) take the time and effort to write a blog, then I drop a link to the new blog article to twitter and FB. Most of the people I follow on twitter do much the same.

oneeyedpigeon 8y ago

Hacker News, and similar sites (including Twitter), do a much better job of supporting commentary than any on-site comment system ever did.

vshabanov 8y ago

I did a feed reader which supports blog comments years ago (https://bazqux.com https://bazqux.com) and first thing many people asked me is how to turn comments off. There are some good blogs with good communities and interesting discussions in comments but the majority of comments on popular sites are plain junk.

lazyjones 8y ago
> the majority of comments on popular sites are plain junk. That's a questionable conclusion from your little project and the feedback of a (non-representative) few users. The counter-argument would be the success of Twitter and FB, where most of the "junk" comments are. Readers want to decide themselves what is junk and what isn't and 1 useful comment easily trumps 20 junk comments. Ask all the newspapers that added comments to their articles despite all the moderation problems that brought with it.

shdh 8y ago

RSS is a feed of subscribable information in a programmably ingestible format. Imagine formatting your feed however you want, without distracting side content. A use case is using RSS for YouTube subscriptions instead of the horrible subscription page experience. Many publications do not post full articles, but instead summaries or excerpts. The HN RSS feed is simply a link to the original article and comments.