@john_fisherman RSS is my primary way to be able to read a large amount of websites (400 or so). It's the most under appreciated piece of plumbing of the internet. I almost exclusively follow people, not magazines, news or media outlets. Just people writing about their interests, which is a filter/curation in itself. I order them in my reader by 'social distance' rather than topic. See https://www.zylstra.org/blog/2019/06/feed-reading-by-social-distance/ As reader I use a self-hosted FreshRSS on a VPS. I wrote a tiny client that.... 1/2
I'm a big fan of NewsBlur. It's open source, but they run a hosted version as well.
I use both the web UI and their Android app which gives me basically everything I want -- being able to track read/unread stories across devices. My only criticism is that the UI is a bit clunky, but I've gotten used to it.
@john_fisherman@fumacapt The API that time* forgot; the open digest of content that birthed the most content-focused accidental social networks in Google Reader; the format that enabled content portability before it was cool; the remnants of the web where users and their tools were in charge.
@john_fisherman@fumacapt It was the reading list for a series of classes I’ve tauIt was the reading list for a series of classes I’ve taught at Cooper Union and Yale. The syllabus for the proposed next version of the class at NYU is up on the website that I have for it: http://destroytheinternet.com
@john_fisherman@fumacapt This is not specifically about RSS, but having standards we can all build around is cool and matters, in general.
With RSS, I am not tied to a specific client. If an RSS reader I currently use doesn't suit me anymore, or it shuts down, I can easily export the RSS feeds I follow and use another RSS reader.
I can even make my own RSS reader, if I wanted to, or use RSS feeds in some other, more creative ways.
@john_fisherman humm think the might be bot that trashes my website every time I post a link on social media, happens pretty much every time i post a link in some places. Its rebooted :)
Or the website needs an update, it is a bit broken, an issue with our #DIY culture of self-hosting, when you lose focus code stops working...
@hamishcampbell the #indieweb does feel a bit like #gardening; it's a permanent work in progress, and you need to dedicate time and love to your plot. Definitely do not bring too many specimens (code) on board, or you won't be able to maintain it all.
@john_fisherman the issue is that only a tiny number of people actually want to live this path, how does the #openweb have use and meaning to the vast majority. This is a social, rather than tech issue that is urgent to address for the needed social change and challenge in this era of #climatechaos
@cybeardjm nice write up! Great summary of the fantastic RSS out-of-the-box integration in Mastodon:
"As each Mastodon profile can become its own RSS feed, usually by adding .rss at the end of the full profile’s URL, you can subscribe to those you want directly in your preferred reader, without using the regular timeline in the application’s interface.
The syntax is: https://[instance]/@[username].rss"
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