HN Explorer

Ask HN: Do You Use RSS?

50 points by falafelite ↗ HN
I know there's discussion around RSS readers every here or there on HN. I'm curious about how many of you (especially those of you who write code) interact with publishing to or subscribing from RSS feeds as part of your work or side projects, and if you have any common pain points or favorite tools/libraries (and if it's something you can share here, please do!).

97 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 179 ms ] thread
themodelplumber
Publishing it, yes. Mostly on my blogs these days, though I used to use RSS to help sales people manage content across a number of websites owned by a wine distributor.

Interacting with it, sure--at a paid service level it's been easy to monitor service updates this way, but not so much at a personal reading level currently. Though you got me thinking...

Last time I was using a reader, I remember struggling to find a Linux desktop RSS reader with discovery features. I have my own OPML that I like & cart around, but it requires a lot of maintenance over time, and using feeds for their current value seems to subvert the fact that a lot of really great blogs are past their heyday (the good stuff is found by going back in time, not so much now & later).

I also thought it'd be cool if there could be a P2P effect with sharing OPML or RSS feeds, like a general catalog. Or let's say a Gutenberg.org mixed with Github for RSS. Find, explore, & remix others' shared feeds. Not sure if such a thing exists.

Almost some random thoughts here, not sure if any of this helps...

parweb
Yes and yes 1000yes I seen this post thank to rss
gmoore
Daily - it's how I got this article.....
AlphaGeekZulu
RSS is actually the only mechanism that I use to subscribe to any news source, including YouTube channels.

If a news source does not support RSS itself and there is no workaround to get it otherwise as RSS, I will not subscribe to it.

For reading, I use Feedbro in Firefox and Flym on Android.

kevincox
Exactly the same for me. I get most of my news via RSS. And when I "run out" then I go browse sites like HN or Reddit as a form of extra discovery. (I also get top HN posts and some searches/topics from HN and Reddit as RSS feeds). I'm constantly adding new subscriptions and unsubscribing from old ones that aren't valuable to me.
Apreche
Yes. When Google Reader died I just moved to other apps. I’ve tried a few over the years. Feedly, Inoreader, etc. Also, podcasting still uses RSS. Every podcast app uses it directly, or more often these days, indirectly. iTunes and Spotify podcasts databases are still originally populated from RSS feeds.

As a developer, I mostly use Django, so I use the included syndication framework. The major pain point in that library is that adding additional tags that it doesn’t already support, especially if they are complex, is a pain in the ass. of course, you only have to do it once and then you can re-use your subclass in other projects. It’s still not great. Ideally it would support a very wide range of popular tags out of the box, i.e.: the podcast ones.

sto_hristo
I use RSS and get all my HN digest (among others) from it, including your post.

I like it because it gives a very clean, simple interface to multiple sources and keeps track of what i've seen.

baal80spam
I use RSS daily. Years ago I used Google Reader, then Feedly for a short time and finally settled on Inoreader (free tier) and very happy with it.

I really hope RSS will be kept alive in the future. Feeds are my daily curated source of news, updates to youtube channels etc.

RSS is the only way I subscribe to any news source and I don't think I'm missing on anything.

Eddy_Viscosity2
I pretty much exclusively use RSS, I saw this post from my RSS reader.

I use NewsBlur. It has a free setting, but I like it so much I pay for the subscription.

https://www.newsblur.com/

aurora72
I use RSS daily. Yes I write code. Rule of thumb: Don't reinvent the wheel. If you see what I mean.
TrianguloY
I use it daily. The think I like most is that I'm in control of the contents. All the elements are sorted by date, and I can choose which feeds to follow (or unfollow). There are no 'featured', no 'things you may like' and there is no algorithm.
gerikson
Yes. I pay for Feedly.

I use RSS (well, Atom) in my blogs.

trelane
I do also. RSS is a Free and open standard, something this world is dearly in need of more of.

I use Liferea on non mobile.

kevincox
Free and open is important but my biggest reasons for using RSS are:

1. I get to choose what I see. No one can hide content from me.

2. It doesn't encourage Platforms. I can just as easily watch content from PeerTube or Odysee as YouTube. I can subscribe to any random blog just as easy as Tumblr or Medium. No need to for every author to be on every site that someone might look at.

trelane
2. is a direct consequence of being a Free and open standard. In order to be portable, it is best if it's a Free and open standard, so that anyone who wants to can interoperate.
kevincox
It's related but not all standards allow for this sort of decentralization. IRC is an open standard and it still adds friction to be a member of multiple networks.
trentthethief
I use a terminal app called newsboat to subscribe to blogs and youtube channels.
sashk
Yes, daily for many years. Feedbin plus NetNewsWire.
docdeek
Yes, it’s where I get news, follow blogs, and read Hacker News among many other things. I’m a big fan of Reeder on my Mac and iOS, too.

https://reederapp.com

JasonFruit
I've been using RSS more lately, with Liferea. It's nice, because I can a) remember the sources of information of which I'm interested in keeping track; b) read it in a readable format without a lot of the tracking and Javascript running; and c) not rely on social media to carry news to me with all the imposed biases and tracking that implies.
andyjohnson0
Yes, with Feedly. Before that Google Reader, and before that NewsBlur.
rmrfchik
Daily via Inoreader.com (great site and app!).
jonsagara
Yes, with Feedly. It's how I keep track of my favorite blogs and YouTube channels.
glmeece
Absolutely! I found this post via my RSS feed for Hacker News.

I really like the https://feeder.co/ extension, and even pay for the Pro license. There are a few minor bugs, but overall it works extremely well for me. I don't often use the account Reader feature, but the extension has a nice way to organize various feeds into categories/folders. You can stay on the free tier forever if you'd like, but to sync across multiple machines you'll need to pay.

FWIW, the Chrome extension is named 'RSS Feed Reader' if you want to search for it. For Firefox, Edge, and iOS, it's just named 'Feeder'; Android - "Feeder.co"

triptych
I use Inoreader and it's a delight.
flobosg
Yes, every day. I started with Google Reader and now use NewsBlur as well as some scripts that aggregate RSS feeds and send me daily email updates.
SmileyKeith
Daily. I find it a great way to follow many low frequency blogs without having to fill my twitter feed or email with them.