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Tim ChambersMy periodic rave at how much I love #RSS (I am tying together lots of data for my work) and how it is truly the glue that holds together much of the open web. We are so lucky it gained critical mass before the worst of Web 2.0 took over and that it has lasted. We need to keep it alive at all costs.
80columns@tchambers So what are currently the recommended ways to get the RSS experience? Configuring up a local client like Thunderbird? That fees like it would be tied to a specific computer. Spin up an RSS aggregator "in the cloud"? Which one? And then I have to secure it. Set up on somebody else's "platform"? Not my preferred way to operate. It's all trade-offs I haven't had a chance to pick through yet. What's the best "indie" path to RSS enlightenment?
mcdope@80columns @tchambers I'm running a self-hosted TTRSS since the Google thingy went away.
Serving me well for years, can be accessed by web or app.
@mcdope @80columns Feedly is one tool I use for work, and keeps getting better.
blueorangeblue@tchambers @mcdope @80columns I use feedly on my phone, but I do not understand why most(?) RSS clients are connected to web aggregators, rather than polling the RSS feeds directly. I expect that there is a compelling reason, but I don't know what it is.
@blueorangeblue I suspect it's some combination of being available to any device anywhere, and the fact that most people don't have a reliable local infrastructure for running services. I think that's also how we have wound up with lots of devices that only work through captive "cloud" front ends and don't provide any sort of useful local-only mode or API. But I'm just guessing.
@80columns for commercial products the service based product can be given more additional value
veetee@mcdope I do more or less the same thing, but I use Miniflux (no shade on TTRSS, just personal preference).
you can use something like Tailscale (or if you're feeling spicy, Headscale - a self-hostable alternative) to access your instance from anywhere.
Simon Eilting@tchambers one nice thing about RSS is that pretty much all clients support import and export with a standardised format. So you can try various different services and local clients; the switching cost is minimal.
I have ended up on a web one that comes with a mobile app after finding that the drawbacks of self-hosting and local clients are too big.
relsqui@80columns @tchambers this is not remotely the indie path but I'll mention the weird way I do it just in case it's someone else's weird way too: because I already have a social slack where I talk to my friends, I made a private channel in there and subscribed it to my rss feeds. zero organizing features, just one message per post as they come in. it's not for everybody, but it works for me because I read every post in a handful of feeds (rather than grazing from a long list).
@80columns BTW, I LOVE the integration of RSS into both @Vivaldi browser, and into the @surffeeds app....
Antique Digital@tchambers @80columns @Vivaldi if Vivaldi integrated their desktop browser RSS functionality into their mobile browser, or even a separate app, that would be it for my Feedly usage probably. Unfortunately my use case requires a feed that syncs across mobile and desktop.
@antiquedigital @80columns @Vivaldi I'll add that as a feature request for sure to their community forum at their dev site.
Les Orchard@tchambers RSS is like Tinkerbell, it's always alive as long as we believe
Mr. Scam Likely@tchambers If there isn't an RSS feed, it isn't a podcast!
@unlofl 1000% agreed...
Humbird0 Fandom@tchambers
The best thing about RSS is that it's almost impossible to break because it's so simple. You just poll a text file once a day and see what's different.
And as a concept, it's just a list of what's on a website.
griff (trip) ferrell @ sharkey.world@tchambers
RSS is one of several reasons I have a friendica account instead of a diaspora account. Just add any #RSS feed I want
RSS is one of several reasons I have a friendica account instead of a diaspora account. Just add any #RSS feed I want
Dmian 🇪🇺@tchambers I fell in love with it since the beginning. For a time, when Google killed Reader and started promoting that AMP shit it looked like it was agonizing. Same with podcasts, they started to fade, and suddenly, both had a resurgence. I couldn’t be happier! Now you younger guys need to embrace forums again, get rid of that short video shit thing and make a healthier internet for yourselves. 🤣
Seán na bhFritÃortha@tchambers
I just can't understand why our *publicly funded* broadcaster has made it so hard to directly find their RSS over the last decade, forcing people to use their phone app or the web equivalent. Tracking users like a shitty corporation.
I just can't understand why our *publicly funded* broadcaster has made it so hard to directly find their RSS over the last decade, forcing people to use their phone app or the web equivalent. Tracking users like a shitty corporation.
@seanos Do agree: lawmakers everywhere should make support of open web and open social web platforms a mandatory part of getting taxpayer funding.
Dan Q@seanos @tchambers Ugh, yes. Here in the #UK the (taxpayer-funded) #BBC's #RSS feeds got so bad that I wrote my own damn site to "fix" and republish them ( https://bbc-feeds.danq.dev/ ).
What started as an effort to just strip the sports news I didn't care about is now basically an essential feature, unless you like your feeds polluted by duplicate content, unrelated content, and ads for the "app". Sigh.
@dan @tchambers
Here they're very into ads for the app & cross-promotion of other programs I'm not interested in too. Just give my podcast. You can put the other stuff at the end if you must.
Here they're very into ads for the app & cross-promotion of other programs I'm not interested in too. Just give my podcast. You can put the other stuff at the end if you must.
Chris Hardie@tchambers Love it. I wrote about how far I’ll go to make an RSS feed of a thing that doesn’t already have it. 😅 https://tech.chrishardie.com/2025/rss-feed-of-your-website/
How far I'll go to make an RSS feed of your website - Chris Hardie's Tech and Software Blog
So you’ve decided to publish timely content on the Internet but your website does not have an RSS feed. Or even worse, you have played some role in designing or building a tool or service that other people use to publish timely content on the Internet, and you unforgivably allowed it to ship without support … Continue reading How far I’ll go to make an RSS feed of your website
Mark@tchambers sometimes I come accross sites (mostly blogs) with broken RSS. I email the owners with the question to fix it (currently a 100% success rate). Also with the purpose to let them know people still use RSS.
Irenes (many)@tchambers what really gives us hope is that we're not the only ones who see that :)