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I ditched the algorithm for RSS

(joeyehand.com)
744 points DearNarwhal | 2 comments | 16 Jan 25 12:18 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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artisanspam ◴[16 Jan 25 20:02 UTC] No.42730158[source]▶
I love RSS. I use RSS daily. I use link-aggregation websites like HN to find interesting authors and subscribe to any RSS feeds that they have. Highlights from my reader sync automatically into my Obsidian vault. It's great.

But I know I, and everyone else posting in this thread, are in the minority. It's clear that most people prefer algorithmic drip in a walled garden. There's a reason everyone flocks to those platforms when RSS superseded them. I don't think I need to re-hash why those platforms are bad for the health of the internet and society as a whole.

So what can be done at a structural level to fight this? What can be done to incentivize people to leave these algorithmic drip feeds to reverse this trend?

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1. cloverich ◴[16 Jan 25 20:08 UTC] No.42730237[source]▶
Build tools to make it easy for people to assemble their own chronological feeds that have quality UI / UX. IMHO the algorithmic feed's principle benefit is how easy it is for a user to curate something close to both what they want, and what they didn't know they want. We too often view things in terms of technical implementations and such, and lose focus on the core problems the user is actually having. Algorithmic feeds are great, because:

    - User installs app, opens it
    - User begins scrolling
    - Within a few minutes they have an endless feed of mostly interesting content
That is REALLY hard to do without an algorithmic feed, and there are a lot of problems when they subscribe. Not insurmountable, just easily underestimated. The motto I keep repeating to myself when I fall into a doomerism about the inevitability of the algorithm, I just say "Its time to build" and hope I can find something on the other side, if I keep digging. The principle weapon against the algorithm is, I think, not needing an infinite pool of profit. I.e. Facebook could build great apps that weren't algorithmic, but it is highly likely they would make much less money. So not only won't they, they literally _aren't realistically allowed to do it_. Its a crazy thing to think through.
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2. theendisney ◴[16 Jan 25 22:31 UTC] No.42731748[source]▶
In my experience beyond some basic filtering you should gaze over headlines then dig 2-3 interesting items out of a few thousand manually.

After you-ve hoarded a decent amount of feeds You should find 2-3 new ones on average per day and unsub 1-2.

Two good articles per day/session is enough if they are good enough. If it isnt you dont have enough feeds.