misha 🪨@pluralistic
No more likes only feeds :) Recently started a self-hosted microblog you can follow on RSS.
Recommend NewsNetWire as feed reader.
https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification
Mikalai@mishaderidder @pluralistic
RSS doesn't have any middle agent between you and that site/org/biz/friend you wanted to hear from. No middle with monopolist directing your eyeballs: "... Dave, you must look there."
RSS doesn't have any middle agent between you and that site/org/biz/friend you wanted to hear from. No middle with monopolist directing your eyeballs: "... Dave, you must look there."
Charlie Stross@mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic Which is *exactly* why Google had to kill Google Reader back in the day: it was undercutting their ad monetization strategy.
Kevin McCurley@cstross @mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic I worked at Google back then and it was more complicated than that. Reader had serious security problems with JavaScript in RSS and it used too many Mustang machines for the number of users it had. It was also one of the many conflicting social platforms at the time they were trying to unify around Google+.
Aaron O@tragiccommons giving folks control over their own feed is risky
Robert Banz@tragiccommons @cstross @mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic +1
As much as I lamented the loss of Reader, I also understood why the decision was made. It was almost an honorable thing for it to step aside and make room for others in the market like Feedly.
@target @tragiccommons @mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic None of those other feed readers facilitate synchronization to other RSS clients, the main/unique value of Google Reader. (As an actual
*reader* it was pants.) Upshot: my use of RSS died (I rely on multiple platforms.) I'm convinced this move destroyed the wider viability of RSS.
*reader* it was pants.) Upshot: my use of RSS died (I rely on multiple platforms.) I'm convinced this move destroyed the wider viability of RSS.
keithzg@cstross @target @tragiccommons @mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic For me it prompted setting up what eventually became a Nextcloud instance (was ownCloud at the time) as that seemed like my best bet for sync across clients on multiple platforms, and it's grown into a general setup for that for me (podcasts, contacts, calendar, files,,,) but especially at the time it was fiddly enough there was no hope for non-techie folks, and it's no wonder that these days nearly everyone uses purely proprietary corporate-mediated services.
Angus McIntyre@cstross @target @tragiccommons @mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic I've been using Feedly for cross-device sync for many years (with, I think, one outage in all that time -- I'd actually forgotten that Feedly was sitting in the middle of my RSS consumption until it stopped working one day). It plays nice with my readers of choice on different platforms.
I am, however, thinking of trying to cut Feedly out of the mix and see if I can replace it with self-hosted FreshRSS.
@angusm @target @tragiccommons @mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic I used to use Feedly until it ate my payment information and I couldn't figure out how to update it. Oops. Dead account.
@cstross @target @tragiccommons @mishaderidder @pluralistic
RSS reading without middle anything is a clean form of client-controlled process.
Google Reader, it seems, was created as a ... SaaS with two sides. Good side allows use on different devices. Bad side manifested in it disappearing, when provider/server decided for client.
One reader on all different devices is easier cognitively than syncing between different apps on different OS'es.
Is this correct reading of your experience?
RSS reading without middle anything is a clean form of client-controlled process.
Google Reader, it seems, was created as a ... SaaS with two sides. Good side allows use on different devices. Bad side manifested in it disappearing, when provider/server decided for client.
One reader on all different devices is easier cognitively than syncing between different apps on different OS'es.
Is this correct reading of your experience?
Lea de Groot TZ+10@cstross @target @tragiccommons @mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic yes, the availability of netnewswire on OSX is one of the serious upsides of a Mac (which sucks more and more otherwise - i am really thinking of bailing on it next time i upgrade - back to Linux for me)
v@cstross @mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic google reader was before my time so I might be missing some nuance but I think it signals something worrying about consumer behaviour/instinct if losing your rss reader means you end up in the eldrich morass of facebook instead of another rss reader
@NocturnalNessa @mikalai @mishaderidder @pluralistic It wasn't that Google Reader was an RSS reader but that it was an *RSS feed synchronization service*. And having lost it, there was no easy way of tracking what you'd read or discovering new feeds.