If you want to quickly find RSS feeds without having to view source:
Want My RSS for Firefox
openfeeds for Qutebrowser
Apparently Google has an RSS extension but I haven’t looked into it.
Some RSS tools that are useful:
MoRSS (worked for like, one niche website I look it, but still might be useful)
I had the same idea two years ago, this seems like a more involved and detailed take
I miss Firefox’s Live Bookmarks feature.
Great post, thanks!
this is by far my favorite way of browsing the internet nowadays. if they find a way to monetize or kill RRS, i’m getting off the internet
I think it would be hard to re-invent RSS for money, it’s part of why it’s so simple.
RSS as a service makes sense for backend, not front end where most of the money would be made.
And killing RSS is… Kinda here? It’s difficult to get a RSS feed on most websites, unless you can scrape it or find someone who’s done it for you.
Man I should use RSS more…
Almost all podcasts use RSS so seems pretty alive to me
Is there a project to quickly scrape and rssify and website?
I get that the idea of rss is sort of a universal protocol for publishing articles, which is really cool, but damnit if you make me parse XML in 2025. As a developer, I would be ok if they modernized RSS feeds.
There’s very robust libraries for most every language that can parse rss for you easily.
But a lot of languages have native support for parsing JSON without the need for a library. When it’s handled by the language, it’s more likely to be done to spec, doesn’t increase bundle size (if that matters to you), and will be considered as updates to the language are made.
I can speak to go, ruby, and PHP: Their libraries for support is per-spec.
Json is pretty great, and sure, if someone wants to make RSS2, using JSON, that’d be fine. But, RSS came long before JSON was even an idea, and XML was the only way we figured out.
RSS’s format is, in fact, so old, there’s been a huge amount of time refining those language’s libs to support RSS just dandy. You never even need to look at the XML.
I used Feedly since Google Reader was shut down. Then 1.5 years ago, as Feedly was getting more paywalls and AI-crap, I switched to Newsblur, and have been a happy user ever since. I love its Intelligence Trainer that lets me hide posts with certain tags/authors/keywords.
Small tip for anyone using Thunderbird as a mail client, it supports RSS feeds! And you can import/export them too.
The hardest part is when you have to curate yourself. To me RSS feels like a lot of work upfront. Is there a tool to help discover items to add to your feed aligned with your interest?
- Look around in your online communities and see what publications get shared.
- Once you find some sites you like, search the web/communities for alternatives with the same topic/vibe.
- If you find journalists you like, see where else they publish their works, or what publications they used to work at. For bloggers / content creators, see who they collaborate with.
Feedly does a great job of that.
You start with vlogs you like.
Then see who they have in their blog roll.
More seriousl, I have literally used RSS regular since like 2006 or so. And I will NEVER forgive Google for killing Reader.
Anyway, what I mean to say is, its just a growing process. Someone links an article and you say, “Well, this sote seems interesting” and you stick it in your RSS reader.
Next thing you know you are pulling 1000-2000 articles a day, even with limiting filters.
One last bit of advice. Most systems let you export your subs.
DO THIS FROM TIME TO TIME BECAUSE YOU WILL HATE YOUR PAST SELF WHEN SOMETHING GOES WRONG AND YOU LOSE ALL YOUR SUBS.
Never forget never forgive.
I went the Local RSS Reader -> Google Reader -> Feedly -> Self-hosted FreshRSS myself. Kinda went full circle on this.
Sometimes I wonder if we’re all just the same person
This is where I’ve struggled. I’ve gone and tried once or twice and just kinda got confused and lost and came back to reddit, at that time.
I’ve greatly enjoyed FeedFlow ( github or the official site ) as my reader since it’s minimalistic and just looks so polished. Almost fully cross platform as well.
Thanks! I like it a lot.
Algorithms have the advantage of finding stuff for me that i wouldn’t have even thought to look for. Is there any thing with RSS that sufficiently mimicks this?
I mean you have to subscribe to a feed to be able to see it and I don’t see how RSS could sync a feed you don’t even know about. I suppose if someone started a platform that everyone used to sync their feeds then people could uncover content from the RSS feeds of other users but that seems to take the really simple out of really simple sync (RSS)
No. They’re two different tools. the article misses the point
Thunderbird has RSS channels you can use and set-up (if you use the e-mail client, it is convenient).
I built https://startyparty.dev/ for just this reason
Looks sick, bookmarked!
Very cool! Thanks for making this and sharing.
Algorithms done right are useful. Make sure things that are likely important to be bubble to the top. I don’t have time to read/watch it all, so prioritize the important things for me.
Done right is the hard part. It is too easy to prioritize memes that make people angry even though if you really investigate you discover that while there is a little truth it is grossly exaggerated and whoever is being mocked isn’t that stupid - because things that make people mad tend to get attention.
The algorithm really needs a “there is plenty more but you have seen all the important stuff - go outside and do something” after I’ve seen what is important. Of course it then needs a “but I’m currently confined to a hospital bed so just show me something so I’m not bored out of my mind”. The likes of facebook of course cannot allow such a thing as once you stop scrolling their ad revenue is gone. However that is what the world needs.
The problem isn’t the algorithm just because it’s an algorithm, even chronological sort is technically an algoritim.
The problem is closed source algorithms with no user choice that implement dark patterns and other addictive and psychologically abusive tactics to make users engage with their app as much as possible
I don’t personally have any issue with algorithms - they work quite well for me, though it does require some active management. For example, if I watch one or two 30-second videos on YouTube, it quickly starts recommending more, which quickly floods my feed. However, when I start ignoring those recommendations, despite the temptation to click, the algorithm eventually stops pushing them and shifts back to suggesting accurately tailored, long-form content that genuinely interests me. The same goes for using the “not interested” button. This aligns with my experience on platforms like Twitter and Instagram as well, though the latter I no longer use.
Algorithms obviously don’t care whether the content they show you makes you glad that you saw it. They simply serve what captures your attention. If it’s outrage, then that’s exactly what you’ll get. The algorithm knows plenty of other users engage with that kind of content, so it rationally assumes the same will apply to you.
If it’s outrage, then that’s exactly what you’ll get
I don’t know how fix this, but this is one of the things a good algorithm needs to prevent. Outrage does get my attention - but it isn’t where I want my attention.
The companies deploying the algorithms aren’t taking any of what you said into consideration though. They only want to feed you what has the most interaction as that can garner the most money from ad revenue.
Would be nice if open-source aggregators like Lemmy allowed users to “Subscribe” to community developed algorithms.
I’d love to (attempt) to build an “ethical” algorithm for content sorting, have it be open-source, and be able to have clients use it without having to actually modify the client itself.
There’s nothing preventing you from forking a Lemmy client or server to prototype this. Depending on how you implement the activitypub backend, you might be able to make it transparent to a user if you present an algorithm as an array of cross posts via a /c/ of a server.
Anything more might require forking a client, which might be easier to implement but may be harder to convince a large userbase to migrate to.
Please do recommend RSS apps for all platforms. Currently using:
Android: Read You iOS/Mac: Unread
Android: Read You
Is it available from an app store? I only found the apk on GitHub but I’d rather not update manually.
I use https://miniflux.app/. It’s pretty small, costs $15/year. I do this because I want to keep my feed status across different devices.
I’m not perfectly happy with it. Perhaps it’s a bit too minimal. When I subscribe to an aggregate like Hacker News, it pretty much floods my feed and I get swamped.
If anyone has a slightly better alternative in mind, I’d be happy to hear.
Newsblur in desktop web browser, 36 USD / year
It has a FLOSS version and a more limited free version hosted by them, but the 2.5 GBP / month was worth the QoL increase for me.
https://search.f-droid.org/?q=rss&lang=en
Personally, Feeder.
I’ve been using Feedly on iOS for a few years since google dropped their rss client.
Was on Feedly, have now moved to News Explorer for iOS. Self hosted (runs on device), synchronizes between iOS devices using iCloud
I used Feedly for a bit but they were extremely pricey. They didn’t have a free tier back then.
For their €7/month price you can rent a VPS and selfhost FreshRSS with a lot more stuff.
At the point, might as well build your own home server 😂
I’m using feeder on android and it’s working well for me. On desktop I use Firefox extension but can’t remember the name
I remember Google Reader back in the day. I miss that a lot. Is there something comparable that I don’t have to host?
Newsblur is the one I migrated to and haven’t looked back.
There are good RSS reader web browser extensions. Firefox has a few. Check out Feedbro.
Thanks, bro.
