5 ms·
Problem is that RSS is not in the interest of the publishers, but mostly serves the interest of readers: * Hard to keep users on your site - in an RSS reader y
by ako 5y ago
Problem is that RSS is not in the interest of the publishers, but mostly serves the interest of readers:
* Hard to keep users on your site - in an RSS reader you just open the next interesting article, most likely from another site. So it reduces page views.
* Harder to serve ads - RSS readers show the text of the articles, not all the other stuff on the page of the publisher
* Easier to steal content - other sites have an easy way to take your content and republish it on another website.
* Harder to track your users - most rss readers just show the content, not all the javascript nonsense required to track the user.
* Harder to monetize - for profit sites like to keep their readers behind a paywall, but how likely is it that you'll pay for a new site, if your RSS feed shows content from 20+ news sites? You can't pay for all of them, so you'll most likely pay for none.
If you want RSS to succeed, it needs to bring value to the publishers.
- clairity 5y ago> “If you want RSS to succeed, it needs to bring value to the publishers.” rss does bring value to publishers: viewers/listeners. that publishers want more than that is a separate issue.
- spaetzleesser 5y agoRSS is definitely a problem for publishers that depend on ad revenue and "engagement". In RSS it's difficult to develop dark patterns to attract more attention.
- cortesoft 5y agoViewers/listeners are not valuable by themselves. They are only valuable if the publisher gets paid for them, and they get paid via advertising (or a subscription fee). RSS does not provide advertising revenue for publishers. It could work with a subscription model, I suppose, but I am not sure there is the demand to sustain it.
- clairity 5y agoyou're looking at the situation too narrowly. publishers & content creators also want esteem and influence, which they can bank to get paid later (perhaps through a related but separate effort, like product 'reviews').
- streamofdigits 5y agothe short-termist, transactional view of society (you are only a good as your last payment, no long-term relation) is not natural, not required and undermines many other adjacent social contracts publishers should support a lively rss ecosystem (actually evolve next-gen tech based on its principles) and draw revenue on the basis of visibility (and as you say, esteem and influence) this provides people have always been paying for content. we have normalized the exception and abberation that is the "pay-with-your-private-data" business model
- clairity 5y agoyes, it’s a lowest common denominator view of society that collapses all the complexity into simple transactions. it’s a lifeless way of perceiving the world.
- hcarvalhoalves 5y agoPodcasts have been distributed via RSS forever, and it did not stop publishers from growing followers, advertise or charge for content. I call BS that RSS doesn’t work for publishers, it was killed by social media because “the feed” turned into the main way to consume content on the web.
- ako 5y agoPodcasts are different, no JavaScript based ads or tracking, no links to keep you engaged on the site. RSS does bring value to podcasts and has been successful for podcast especially since the downsides mentioned for normal websites don’t apply to podcasts. Podcasts basically proof the point: there’s nothing wrong with rss, and publishers will use it, if it is in their interest.
- hcarvalhoalves 5y agoI think the point is, we’ve been sold by Google and FB the idea internet advertising is “ads”, cookies and JavaScript, but it absolutely doesn’t depend on that. Publishers advertising products directly as part of content has never been a problem, it doesn’t depend on invasive technologies.
- slightwinder 5y agoPodcasts are a very special case. They are self-contained content and have not much demand for anything around them. Any ad can be delivered inside the podcast or between streaming them. Videos are similar. Just look at Spotify, YouTube, Twitch, how many ads do they have outside the audio & video-streams? And podcasts are even more special, because their main purpose is to be consumed without any interface, often even without any internet-connection. So the whole setup is already against classical advertisement.