R. L. Dane  Feb 12, 2024

Dear @mozilla
Please, please, please put the RSS indicator back in Firefox.

People need to know about this technology which empowers users over greedy, controlling corporations.

Update: As many have pointed out, you *can* use @thunderbird as an RSS feed reader, and there are many #firefox add-ons to restore the RSS indicator (one of which I'm already using). But my point is that Firefox needs to lean into RSS as an answer to all the crap that is the modern web, and help educate users about it

Show threadTopher 🌱

And also @mozilla please add RSS to your security advisories page!

@RL_Dane

Feb 12, 2024 at 10:14pmWeb
Show threadScott Williams 🐧Feb 13, 2024
@topher @mozilla @RL_Dane Not only showing it, but being able to subscribe to it in Thunderbird would be amazing!
Show threadR. L. Dane  Feb 14, 2024

@vwbusguy @topher @mozilla

Yeah i can be something like a url handler

Show threadm0xEEFeb 26, 2024
@RL_Dane @vwbusguy @topher @mozilla
Thunderbird has to become a good RSS reader first, currently it's a pretty awful one — there is no way to make it display article images next to summary, which turns navigation into scrolling endless characterless lines. Reader mode that is present in FF is somehow not in TB — where it would be most useful.
And I won't even mention endless bugs: frequent crashes when you have lots of feed sources and DB corruption of RSS account when you attempt to sort them.
Show threadScott Williams 🐧Feb 26, 2024
@m0xee @RL_Dane @topher @mozilla I'm using it for RSS and it works for what I'm using it for, personally. I subscribe to a number of software release and security errata feeds with it.
Show threadm0xEEFeb 28, 2024
@vwbusguy
Well, it certainly can act as an RSS reader, I'm not denying that and I'm using it myself — for RSS too. But how does it fare compared to what you expect from a modern RSS reader?
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the same blog, what is easier to navigate in your opinion?
And I'm not some GUI freak, but if I wanted just lines of text, I'd pick some lightweight TUI program, not this juggernaut that can eat 1,5 gigs of RAM easily.
@RL_Dane @topher @mozilla
Show threadm0xEEFeb 28, 2024
@vwbusguy
And this is "Cards View" — thing that was added relatively recently, it was even worse before it.
To read the articles themselves right now I have to resort to uBO and dozens of CSS hacks to make them readable — yep, it sure isn't Thunderbird's fault that websites do not give you article's content right in RSS feed and you have to open the website, but — Firefox already has "Reader mode" adding it to TB shouldn't be rocket surgery 🤷
@RL_Dane @topher @mozilla
Show threadR. L. Dane  Feb 28, 2024

@m0xee @vwbusguy @topher @mozilla

At this point, I'd be happy if they just restored the CSS indicator and provided a helpful onboarding screen so users can rediscover it. But bundling a (more) kick-arse RSS reader into Thunderbird is a solid nice-to-have.

Show threadm0xEEFeb 28, 2024

@RL_Dane
Oh, yes, that I completely agree with — just a button so that URL with RSS scheme could be opened in a reader of your choice and added to the list of subscriptions in a more straightforward way would already be helpful.
I have no idea why this was removed — looks like a minimal maintenance feature to me.
It always surprises me when I open e.g. Safari in Mac OS X 10.4 — and RSS is everywhere, it used to be pretty big. Should definitely be brought back!

@vwbusguy @topher @mozilla