5 ms·

I remember using RSS heavily around 2007-2013 but is this still a thing?

galleywest200 1y ago
I use RSS very frequently, it is often how I get my daily news. Most blogs, at least in the tech space, have it. As well any major news publication worth their salt will have an RSS feed still.
pwenzel 1y ago
Heck yeah! I use an RSS reader to consume news every day on both my phone and laptop. It's blissfully free of extras and distraction.
jasonfrost 1y ago
Using rn to access HN
quantadev 1y ago
Definitely! Advertisers hate it, because it's a way of basically bypassing ADs. I used to have my own RSS reader doing what the OP's doing, but I finally just started using Liferea (on Linux) which I love. There's a file format for sharing links called "opml", and here's mine for example (below). Many RSS readers can import/export your list of links to this format. Each day there's about 150 new articles to scroll thru. What we need in the world however is some sort of OPML Sharing social media service where people can share their FAVs. It's a shame news sites are heading in the opposite direction with closed paywalls rather than openness, but I guess they're struggling to pay the bills. My apologies for posting such a big chunk of text and eating up half your screen. I only do this when I'm pretty sure it's relevant. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <opml version="1.0"> <head> <title>Liferea Feed List Export</title> </head> <body> <outline title="Example Feeds" text="Example Feeds" description="Example Feeds" type="folder"> <outline title="News" text="News" description="News" type="folder"> <outline title="Ars Technica" text="Ars Technica" description="Ars Technica" type="rss" xmlUrl="https://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index https://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index" htmlUrl="https://arstechnica.com"/ https://arstechnica.com"/> <outline title="Reddit - World News" text="Reddit - World News" description="Reddit - World News" type="atom" xmlUrl="https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/.rss https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/.rss" htmlUrl="https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/"/ https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/"/> <outline title="NPR World" text="NPR World" description="NPR World" type="rss" xmlUrl="https://feeds.npr.org/1004/rss.xml https://feeds.npr.org/1004/rss.xml" htmlUrl="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1004"/ https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1004"/> <outline title="Simon Willison's Weblog" text="Simon Willison's Weblog" description="Simon Willison's Weblog" type="atom" xmlUrl="https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/ https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/" htmlUrl="http://simonwillison.net/"/ http://simonwillison.net/"/> </outline> </outline> </outline> </body> </opml>
- busymom0 1y ago
  I feel like you should post that on pastebin or something instead of posting such a huge piece of XML in a comment.
  - quantadev 1y ago
    yeah, I shortened it just now. I mainly wanted people to see that file format, not the links in it.
- eviks 1y ago
  The ads can be included in the feed, so no bypass here
  - quantadev 1y ago
    Thus the "basically" qualifier in front of "bypassing". I'm "basically bypassing" ADs simply because I never encounter them while reading my feeds.
- p0w3n3d 1y ago
  thank you! I'd love to see all your valuable feeds really
PaulHoule 1y ago
My YOShINon RSS reader incorporates about 110 feeds, and, unlike the majority of RSS readers, actually treats RSS feed items as items that are stored in a database so it can present those items in various ways. Most news sources ranging from The Guardian and The Bulwark and Jacobin as well as phys.org and MDPI publishing still have RSS feeds. It has screens to view things based on database queries, full text, and embedding similarities but the main UI looks like TikTok or Tinder for text, showing me articles it thinks I will like mixed with random articles to keep it calibrated. It spins like a top. I also have another thing called "Fraxinus" which was a cut-and-paste job from it that works as a bookmark manager and image sorter, the plan eventually is to mash them back together.
- drukenemo 1y ago
  It sounds interesting. Is it available for download?
  - owlninja 1y ago
    I was curious too so I Googled it. The hits were just similar posts in HN comments and this one on Tildes says more (assuming it is the same person): https://tildes.net/~tech/1e5n/rss_users_how_do_you_use_organize_and_maximize_your_enjoyment_of_rss#comment-c0i4 https://tildes.net/~tech/1e5n/rss_users_how_do_you_use_organ...
    - PaulHoule 1y ago
      A current priority has been to get it off ArangoDB onto Postgres in which case either an open source release or commercialization seems possible. And yeah, that's me. Shoulda been working on that code but I was playing video games instead last month https://mastodon.social/@UP8/114740331853557527 https://mastodon.social/@UP8/114740331853557527

I use RSS very frequently, it is often how I get my daily news. Most blogs, at least in the tech space, have it. As well any major news publication worth their salt will have an RSS feed still.

pwenzel 1y ago

Heck yeah! I use an RSS reader to consume news every day on both my phone and laptop. It's blissfully free of extras and distraction.

jasonfrost 1y ago

Using rn to access HN

quantadev 1y ago

Definitely! Advertisers hate it, because it's a way of basically bypassing ADs. I used to have my own RSS reader doing what the OP's doing, but I finally just started using Liferea (on Linux) which I love. There's a file format for sharing links called "opml", and here's mine for example (below). Many RSS readers can import/export your list of links to this format. Each day there's about 150 new articles to scroll thru. What we need in the world however is some sort of OPML Sharing social media service where people can share their FAVs. It's a shame news sites are heading in the opposite direction with closed paywalls rather than openness, but I guess they're struggling to pay the bills. My apologies for posting such a big chunk of text and eating up half your screen. I only do this when I'm pretty sure it's relevant. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <opml version="1.0"> <head> <title>Liferea Feed List Export</title> </head> <body> <outline title="Example Feeds" text="Example Feeds" description="Example Feeds" type="folder"> <outline title="News" text="News" description="News" type="folder"> <outline title="Ars Technica" text="Ars Technica" description="Ars Technica" type="rss" xmlUrl="https://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index https://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index" htmlUrl="https://arstechnica.com"/ https://arstechnica.com"/> <outline title="Reddit - World News" text="Reddit - World News" description="Reddit - World News" type="atom" xmlUrl="https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/.rss https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/.rss" htmlUrl="https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/"/ https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/"/> <outline title="NPR World" text="NPR World" description="NPR World" type="rss" xmlUrl="https://feeds.npr.org/1004/rss.xml https://feeds.npr.org/1004/rss.xml" htmlUrl="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1004"/ https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1004"/> <outline title="Simon Willison's Weblog" text="Simon Willison's Weblog" description="Simon Willison's Weblog" type="atom" xmlUrl="https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/ https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/" htmlUrl="http://simonwillison.net/"/ http://simonwillison.net/"/> </outline> </outline> </outline> </body> </opml>

busymom0 1y ago
I feel like you should post that on pastebin or something instead of posting such a huge piece of XML in a comment.
- quantadev 1y ago
  yeah, I shortened it just now. I mainly wanted people to see that file format, not the links in it.
eviks 1y ago
The ads can be included in the feed, so no bypass here
- quantadev 1y ago
  Thus the "basically" qualifier in front of "bypassing". I'm "basically bypassing" ADs simply because I never encounter them while reading my feeds.
p0w3n3d 1y ago
thank you! I'd love to see all your valuable feeds really

PaulHoule 1y ago

My YOShINon RSS reader incorporates about 110 feeds, and, unlike the majority of RSS readers, actually treats RSS feed items as items that are stored in a database so it can present those items in various ways. Most news sources ranging from The Guardian and The Bulwark and Jacobin as well as phys.org and MDPI publishing still have RSS feeds. It has screens to view things based on database queries, full text, and embedding similarities but the main UI looks like TikTok or Tinder for text, showing me articles it thinks I will like mixed with random articles to keep it calibrated. It spins like a top. I also have another thing called "Fraxinus" which was a cut-and-paste job from it that works as a bookmark manager and image sorter, the plan eventually is to mash them back together.

drukenemo 1y ago
It sounds interesting. Is it available for download?
- owlninja 1y ago
  I was curious too so I Googled it. The hits were just similar posts in HN comments and this one on Tildes says more (assuming it is the same person): https://tildes.net/~tech/1e5n/rss_users_how_do_you_use_organize_and_maximize_your_enjoyment_of_rss#comment-c0i4 https://tildes.net/~tech/1e5n/rss_users_how_do_you_use_organ...
  - PaulHoule 1y ago
    A current priority has been to get it off ArangoDB onto Postgres in which case either an open source release or commercialization seems possible. And yeah, that's me. Shoulda been working on that code but I was playing video games instead last month https://mastodon.social/@UP8/114740331853557527 https://mastodon.social/@UP8/114740331853557527