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> Sometimes people put content in the feed. Sometimes it's a link. This is the reason I gave up on trying to use RSS. If I'm going to have to follow a link an

> Sometimes people put content in the feed. Sometimes it's a link. This is the reason I gave up on trying to use RSS. If I'm going to have to follow a link anyway, I'll just save myself the time and go directly to the websites I want to read.

kazinator 3y ago
RSS solves the problem that web portals with updating content are web pages that you have to grok in their rendered form. RSS allows such a web page to offer a summary of the updating items in a more structured form that users can consume via a feed reader. The idea is that checking an Inbox-like reader dashboard with 7 feeds is less time consuming than separately going to 7 websites and scrolling around. RSS readers keep track of which items are new. They can filter items, mark them "read" and delete them. They offer searches through the items. Using the original site instead of its feed doesn't guarantee you don't have to follow any links. Look at this HackerNews: you have to click on links in the front page to get to the submissions, which are in different sites. Gee, how useless; if I have to click, I might as well just go directly to those websites and skip this HackerNews thing.
- joshmanders 3y ago
  > Look at this HackerNews: you have to click on links in the front page to get to the submissions, which are in different sites. Gee, how useless; if I have to click, I might as well just go directly to those websites and skip this HackerNews thing. This analogy breaks down when you take into context what the purpose is for both sites. HN: I want to discover new content that likeminded people find interesting. RSS: I want to read what this person has to say specifically.
  - kazinator 3y ago
    It's not just an analogy, because you can have an RSS feed of HackerNews. You're no worse off clicking on links in a HackerNews feed, than clicking on links in HackerNews.
- rchaud 3y ago
  > if I have to click, I might as well just go directly to those websites and skip this HackerNews thing. You accidentally arrived at the root of the anti-RSS rationale for many HN readers. They don't want to actually go on the web. They want to participate in the comments section, where it's safe and sanitized; no paywalls, no 'sign up for my email list' popups, no analytics scripts, no strange site layouts. They feel RSS should deliver exactly what they want: full-text article and images, nothing more.
  - kazinator 3y ago
    With just article text and images, you have no UI to reply to it. Maybe RSS could be extended to FRSS (Forum RSS). Forums export posts in FRSS format, which includes elements that tell the reader how to submit replies, as well as up/down votes. The RSS reader would render its own UI for doing these things.
  - Xymist 3y ago
    I _don't_ particularly want to participate in the comments section on most sites. Full text and image content of the article and nothing further is absolutely what I want out of an RSS feed - I should not have to leave my reader or deal with the internet at large to read the things that interest me.
jraph 3y ago
Isn't it throwing the baby with the bathwater? In such a case RSS already tells you if there is new stuff and what already. If you follow a dozen of websites, not having to visit all them each time is already useful. Or are all your followed website producing new content such that there's always something new when you check it out?
flir 3y ago
I've been meaning to get around to an RSS pipeline tool that runs each link through a chatbot summarizer and stuffs the summary in the description field. Might get around to it this Christmas, but I'm throwing it out there in case I can lazyweb it into existence.
mdp2021 3y ago
RSS is there to inform you of new content being released - it is a "push" notification.

kazinator 3y ago

RSS solves the problem that web portals with updating content are web pages that you have to grok in their rendered form. RSS allows such a web page to offer a summary of the updating items in a more structured form that users can consume via a feed reader. The idea is that checking an Inbox-like reader dashboard with 7 feeds is less time consuming than separately going to 7 websites and scrolling around. RSS readers keep track of which items are new. They can filter items, mark them "read" and delete them. They offer searches through the items. Using the original site instead of its feed doesn't guarantee you don't have to follow any links. Look at this HackerNews: you have to click on links in the front page to get to the submissions, which are in different sites. Gee, how useless; if I have to click, I might as well just go directly to those websites and skip this HackerNews thing.

joshmanders 3y ago
> Look at this HackerNews: you have to click on links in the front page to get to the submissions, which are in different sites. Gee, how useless; if I have to click, I might as well just go directly to those websites and skip this HackerNews thing. This analogy breaks down when you take into context what the purpose is for both sites. HN: I want to discover new content that likeminded people find interesting. RSS: I want to read what this person has to say specifically.
- kazinator 3y ago
  It's not just an analogy, because you can have an RSS feed of HackerNews. You're no worse off clicking on links in a HackerNews feed, than clicking on links in HackerNews.
rchaud 3y ago
> if I have to click, I might as well just go directly to those websites and skip this HackerNews thing. You accidentally arrived at the root of the anti-RSS rationale for many HN readers. They don't want to actually go on the web. They want to participate in the comments section, where it's safe and sanitized; no paywalls, no 'sign up for my email list' popups, no analytics scripts, no strange site layouts. They feel RSS should deliver exactly what they want: full-text article and images, nothing more.
- kazinator 3y ago
  With just article text and images, you have no UI to reply to it. Maybe RSS could be extended to FRSS (Forum RSS). Forums export posts in FRSS format, which includes elements that tell the reader how to submit replies, as well as up/down votes. The RSS reader would render its own UI for doing these things.
- Xymist 3y ago
  I _don't_ particularly want to participate in the comments section on most sites. Full text and image content of the article and nothing further is absolutely what I want out of an RSS feed - I should not have to leave my reader or deal with the internet at large to read the things that interest me.

jraph 3y ago

Isn't it throwing the baby with the bathwater? In such a case RSS already tells you if there is new stuff and what already. If you follow a dozen of websites, not having to visit all them each time is already useful. Or are all your followed website producing new content such that there's always something new when you check it out?

flir 3y ago

I've been meaning to get around to an RSS pipeline tool that runs each link through a chatbot summarizer and stuffs the summary in the description field. Might get around to it this Christmas, but I'm throwing it out there in case I can lazyweb it into existence.

mdp2021 3y ago

RSS is there to inform you of new content being released - it is a "push" notification.