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Am I the only one who just wants a list of updated articles and possibly an unread count? I don't want social in my RSS. I don't want to "discover" feeds. I don

Am I the only one who just wants a list of updated articles and possibly an unread count? I don't want social in my RSS. I don't want to "discover" feeds. I don't want to be told what to read. I don't want to follow people. For me, the whole point of RSS is that I find a site I like, I add it to my list, and I'm told when there's a new article. I've tried several alternatives in the last 24 hours, and most of them ignore my actual feeds and give me a whole lot of machine learned articles I couldn't care less about. It's not always the topic that's interesting, it's the writing style, or some kind of imaginary connection I've made with the site or author. If I want to 'discover' articles, I'll browse HN or Reddit. If it's something I think I'll want to keep updated about, that's when I add it to my RSS.

dstroot 14y ago
Absolutely 100% spot on. Amen!
robotmay 14y ago
This is what I want too, and that's why I'm gonna take a stab at building my own. I don't really want to share an article about spoon carving, but hot damn do I want to read it.
- jsmeaton 14y ago
  If there was a scratch your own itch project, I believe this is it for me. I was disappointed to learn iGoogle was closing down, as that was my primary interface to Google Reader. There are alternatives to IG (NetVibes; which is sort of horrible), but you can't present feeds as a widget. So yes, I believe I'll give RSS Reading a crack, and create a NetVibes widget, and see if I can get exactly back to where I was before these spring cleaning announcements.
arbitrarywords 14y ago
If you solve this problem can you please reply to your comment with the solution. Thanks.
czervik 14y ago
You are not alone. I'm also insta turned off by any reader replacement that wants access to my google account. Seriously, I'm supposed to give you access to my friggin contacts just to try your service?! I just want to read my feeds and sync across devices.
- sangupta 14y ago
  You may want to try http://multiplx.com http://multiplx.com and create a password with any of your email ids - social authentication is purely optional.
tomasr 14y ago
If you find that, let us know. Many of us feel very much the same way (which is why I loved the old greader. new reader ain't as good, but still got the job done... sort of)
tr4656 14y ago
Agreed. I'm thinking of paying for Fever just so I can get an reader but haven't heard of many people using it before.
abrowne 14y ago
I want that, and I want it in oldest-first order. So many of the alternatives I've tried only offer newest first!
Gormo 14y ago
I've never used Google Reader for just these very reasons, and have been using Thunderbird for several years, even though Thunderbird is hardly ideal. The disadvantages of existing web-based readers really outweigh the one feature that's really superior in web-based clients, that being ubiquitous synchronization. What I'd love to see in a reader: * Email-like interface * Custom folder hierarchy, allowing filtering of specific feeds into specific folders. * A "unified inbox" that shows new items from all feeds, outside the normal folder hierarchy. * Highly customizable text themes, allowing font, size, and color defaults to be easily configured without having to write custom CSS. * Automatic retrieval of the full article for RSS items that don't include full text, parsed through a readable/readability-like filter, conforming to the user's defined text theme. * Automatic retrieval of the comments feed for each article, to be displayed in a separate pane or tab. * Integrated streaming of audio and video for podcast feeds, with playback positions remembered from session to session. * No feed recommendations, no integrated "feed gallery", no integration with any external sites - especially Facebook; at most, "share link" buttons for individual sites that can be customized and disabled individually by the user (so, e.g., I could optionally add a button to my UI for posting the artice to HN or reddit). I'd be willing to pay for a client that had this featureset.
fakeer 14y ago
- Use a client that supports RSS. - Sync your data with Dropbox and use it on other machines. Or FeedHQ.org (Open Source) looks like a fine alternative but I am not sure what it supports yet in terms of your needs. Like they do have list, unread counts, tags(categories). Well, they have support read it later(which you said you don't want, maybe - but it's not that social :P) Hell, even I do not want a social service or another GR or maybe not another free service that will go kaput anyday. I guess FeedHQ guys have a real chance here with NewsBlur too cluttered and too slow.
- jsmeaton 14y ago
  FeedHQ seems very close to what I want, unfortunately it's throwing a 500 error when importing my subscriptions. I'll give it a more closer look later, thanks for that. Edit: and it's open source. This definitely seems like a good base to start from if it doesn't fit my needs.
  - fakeer 14y ago
    Exactly. I just don't see why dev(s) are not jumping at this opportunity. Though I saw one dev wishing luck to NewsBlur on twitter :-)
    - jsmeaton 14y ago
      I'm not interested in making money from such a venture, I'm interested in a service I can use. If I have to write it myself though, I will. I'll be shopping for alternatives this weekend, and starting a github project if I find nothing that suits. There's got to be some people around here doing their own that would roughly align with what I'm after. And I'm happy to pay for such a thing. Should be a very interesting couple of months for sure.
      - fakeer 14y ago
        Well, sounds nice. Do keep us posted in case you start sth. Will see if I can contribute(or use). My reference to jumping was that I like the ideas of Pinboard and the elk and there's no reason why one for feeds wouldn't work. Work (esp well crafted and made for others to use - many ppl) requires time and effort and I find it natural for this work/job to be a paying one to be able to sustain interest and enthusiasm.
aaronbrethorst 14y ago
No, that's exactly what I want. Luckily, I'm building exactly that, but it's gonna cost you money[1]. Reason being is that RSS is 'dead'. I will never be able to attract funding for what I'm building, and to be able to maintain, extend, update and generally give it the love it'll need, it will need to support me, at least part time. If you're interested in learning more about what I'm up to, I have a Launchrock page up at http://signup.viafeeds.com http://signup.viafeeds.com. The iOS screenshot was taken from my phone. The software is real, and very intentionally minimal. I was expecting to have at least another few months of dev time before Google Reader shut down. The announcement yesterday caught me by surprise, and I tossed up the signup page as a response. Wish I'd had more time... [1] A nominal amount to be sure, along the lines of that proverbial Starbucks beverage per month, but it definitely won't be free.
- jsmeaton 14y ago
  Is it mainly app or web based? I'm not interested in apps generally.
  - aaronbrethorst 14y ago
    I'm focusing on the app experience at the moment, but I'm building both.
martinp 14y ago
This is exactly what I want. I know what I want to read, I don't need some algorithm telling me what I might like. All my feeds are carefully chosen based on site reputation, article quality, journalism quality and my of course my interests. When I want a little bit of everything, I just browse HN (often from Reader).
- carey 14y ago
  I don’t know why the Reader on WordPress.com isn’t mentioned more often. It looks just right for a small, carefully chosen set of subscriptions.
dirkk0 14y ago
exactly.
ScottWhigham 14y ago
FeedDemon does exactly what you mention. I've used it for a long time and tried many alternatives. FD just does what you ask it to and nothing more. It's a shame that, when Google Reader shut down, Nick decided to kill it.
ldh 14y ago
The differentiating feature of Reader for me was that I could have extremely good discussions around various items with a circle of friends and friends-of-friends. I'm not as interested in algorithmically-suggested items, but if somebody whose taste I appreciate has something to say about an item I'd like to be able to discuss that. And that small circle of people has a larger signal-to-noise ratio for me than HN or Reddit comments. So I think the appeal of a minimal social component in an RSS reader is not adding to the already-unmanageable deluge of information, but to add richness and depth to the existing pool.
rssident 14y ago
Try http://rssident.com http://rssident.com I built it for many of the reasons you stated. I also wanted to be able to do specific kinds of search (All craigslist telecommute Java jobs in the US -- http://rssident.com/mash/?t=job&e=telecommute http://rssident.com/mash/?t=job&e=telecommute). It still needs a lot of work but I plan to keep it relatively simple and useful.

dstroot 14y ago

Absolutely 100% spot on. Amen!

robotmay 14y ago

This is what I want too, and that's why I'm gonna take a stab at building my own. I don't really want to share an article about spoon carving, but hot damn do I want to read it.

jsmeaton 14y ago
If there was a scratch your own itch project, I believe this is it for me. I was disappointed to learn iGoogle was closing down, as that was my primary interface to Google Reader. There are alternatives to IG (NetVibes; which is sort of horrible), but you can't present feeds as a widget. So yes, I believe I'll give RSS Reading a crack, and create a NetVibes widget, and see if I can get exactly back to where I was before these spring cleaning announcements.

arbitrarywords 14y ago

If you solve this problem can you please reply to your comment with the solution. Thanks.

czervik 14y ago

You are not alone. I'm also insta turned off by any reader replacement that wants access to my google account. Seriously, I'm supposed to give you access to my friggin contacts just to try your service?! I just want to read my feeds and sync across devices.

sangupta 14y ago
You may want to try http://multiplx.com http://multiplx.com and create a password with any of your email ids - social authentication is purely optional.

tomasr 14y ago

If you find that, let us know. Many of us feel very much the same way (which is why I loved the old greader. new reader ain't as good, but still got the job done... sort of)

tr4656 14y ago

Agreed. I'm thinking of paying for Fever just so I can get an reader but haven't heard of many people using it before.

abrowne 14y ago

I want that, and I want it in oldest-first order. So many of the alternatives I've tried only offer newest first!

Gormo 14y ago

I've never used Google Reader for just these very reasons, and have been using Thunderbird for several years, even though Thunderbird is hardly ideal. The disadvantages of existing web-based readers really outweigh the one feature that's really superior in web-based clients, that being ubiquitous synchronization. What I'd love to see in a reader: * Email-like interface * Custom folder hierarchy, allowing filtering of specific feeds into specific folders. * A "unified inbox" that shows new items from all feeds, outside the normal folder hierarchy. * Highly customizable text themes, allowing font, size, and color defaults to be easily configured without having to write custom CSS. * Automatic retrieval of the full article for RSS items that don't include full text, parsed through a readable/readability-like filter, conforming to the user's defined text theme. * Automatic retrieval of the comments feed for each article, to be displayed in a separate pane or tab. * Integrated streaming of audio and video for podcast feeds, with playback positions remembered from session to session. * No feed recommendations, no integrated "feed gallery", no integration with any external sites - especially Facebook; at most, "share link" buttons for individual sites that can be customized and disabled individually by the user (so, e.g., I could optionally add a button to my UI for posting the artice to HN or reddit). I'd be willing to pay for a client that had this featureset.

fakeer 14y ago

- Use a client that supports RSS. - Sync your data with Dropbox and use it on other machines. Or FeedHQ.org (Open Source) looks like a fine alternative but I am not sure what it supports yet in terms of your needs. Like they do have list, unread counts, tags(categories). Well, they have support read it later(which you said you don't want, maybe - but it's not that social :P) Hell, even I do not want a social service or another GR or maybe not another free service that will go kaput anyday. I guess FeedHQ guys have a real chance here with NewsBlur too cluttered and too slow.

jsmeaton 14y ago
FeedHQ seems very close to what I want, unfortunately it's throwing a 500 error when importing my subscriptions. I'll give it a more closer look later, thanks for that. Edit: and it's open source. This definitely seems like a good base to start from if it doesn't fit my needs.
- fakeer 14y ago
  Exactly. I just don't see why dev(s) are not jumping at this opportunity. Though I saw one dev wishing luck to NewsBlur on twitter :-)
  - jsmeaton 14y ago
    I'm not interested in making money from such a venture, I'm interested in a service I can use. If I have to write it myself though, I will. I'll be shopping for alternatives this weekend, and starting a github project if I find nothing that suits. There's got to be some people around here doing their own that would roughly align with what I'm after. And I'm happy to pay for such a thing. Should be a very interesting couple of months for sure.
    - fakeer 14y ago
      Well, sounds nice. Do keep us posted in case you start sth. Will see if I can contribute(or use). My reference to jumping was that I like the ideas of Pinboard and the elk and there's no reason why one for feeds wouldn't work. Work (esp well crafted and made for others to use - many ppl) requires time and effort and I find it natural for this work/job to be a paying one to be able to sustain interest and enthusiasm.

aaronbrethorst 14y ago

No, that's exactly what I want. Luckily, I'm building exactly that, but it's gonna cost you money[1]. Reason being is that RSS is 'dead'. I will never be able to attract funding for what I'm building, and to be able to maintain, extend, update and generally give it the love it'll need, it will need to support me, at least part time. If you're interested in learning more about what I'm up to, I have a Launchrock page up at http://signup.viafeeds.com http://signup.viafeeds.com. The iOS screenshot was taken from my phone. The software is real, and very intentionally minimal. I was expecting to have at least another few months of dev time before Google Reader shut down. The announcement yesterday caught me by surprise, and I tossed up the signup page as a response. Wish I'd had more time... [1] A nominal amount to be sure, along the lines of that proverbial Starbucks beverage per month, but it definitely won't be free.

jsmeaton 14y ago
Is it mainly app or web based? I'm not interested in apps generally.
- aaronbrethorst 14y ago
  I'm focusing on the app experience at the moment, but I'm building both.

martinp 14y ago

This is exactly what I want. I know what I want to read, I don't need some algorithm telling me what I might like. All my feeds are carefully chosen based on site reputation, article quality, journalism quality and my of course my interests. When I want a little bit of everything, I just browse HN (often from Reader).

carey 14y ago
I don’t know why the Reader on WordPress.com isn’t mentioned more often. It looks just right for a small, carefully chosen set of subscriptions.

dirkk0 14y ago

exactly.

ScottWhigham 14y ago

FeedDemon does exactly what you mention. I've used it for a long time and tried many alternatives. FD just does what you ask it to and nothing more. It's a shame that, when Google Reader shut down, Nick decided to kill it.

ldh 14y ago

The differentiating feature of Reader for me was that I could have extremely good discussions around various items with a circle of friends and friends-of-friends. I'm not as interested in algorithmically-suggested items, but if somebody whose taste I appreciate has something to say about an item I'd like to be able to discuss that. And that small circle of people has a larger signal-to-noise ratio for me than HN or Reddit comments. So I think the appeal of a minimal social component in an RSS reader is not adding to the already-unmanageable deluge of information, but to add richness and depth to the existing pool.

rssident 14y ago

Try http://rssident.com http://rssident.com I built it for many of the reasons you stated. I also wanted to be able to do specific kinds of search (All craigslist telecommute Java jobs in the US -- http://rssident.com/mash/?t=job&e=telecommute http://rssident.com/mash/?t=job&e=telecommute). It still needs a lot of work but I plan to keep it relatively simple and useful.