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I ditched the algorithm for RSS

(joeyehand.com)
744 points DearNarwhal | 7 comments | 16 Jan 25 12:18 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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Beijinger ◴[16 Jan 25 21:49 UTC] No.42731367[source]▶
My buddy will soon offer an RSS reader. I will post it here.

Yes, you can create an RSS feed from a Youtube Channel. You can can create an RSS feed from Reddit.

You can't to my best knowledge create an RSS feed anymore from Twitter

Newsletter to RSS: https://kill-the-newsletter.com/

More stuff:

Blogs & RSS https://rssfeedasap.com/ https://code.rosaelefanten.org/rssparser.lisp/dir?ci=tip

This one you have to pay. I am considering it. Some RSS feeds don't work on my TinyTinyRSS. I think cloudflare, like always, is killing it:

https://politepol.com/en/prices

PS: If you have an idea for a RSS reader domain, please suggest.

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1. mattlutze ◴[17 Jan 25 09:18 UTC] No.42735591[source]▶
Does the world need another RSS reader/mousetrap? We already have so many.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=rss+readers

What is your friend's idea to revolutionize with their new reader?

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2. mro_name ◴[17 Jan 25 09:23 UTC] No.42735635[source]▶
yes it does. The world is full of 'another's.
3. nejsjsjsbsb ◴[17 Jan 25 10:43 UTC] No.42736145[source]▶
Lol the result I got from your search was "rss readers on ebay" ad followed by links all with N top RSS readers for varying N, often 7 or 10.
4. soapdog ◴[17 Jan 25 11:27 UTC] No.42736418[source]▶
Someone doesn't really need a reason to build something besides that they want to build it. I built many RSS readers and I was not trying to revolutionise anything, I was just having fun. This mindset of "revolution" and "disruption" will block you from actually just doing the things you want sometimes.
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5. rollcat ◴[17 Jan 25 16:43 UTC] No.42740005[source]▶
> Does the world need another RSS reader/mousetrap? We already have so many.

And we also have near-universal OPML import/export, so the cost of switching is minimised.

> What is your friend's idea to revolutionize with their new reader?

You don't need a revolution to make your app compelling, you just need to improve on status quo. RSS has a lot of shortcomings, most importantly discoverability.

Here's a simple idea: crowdsourced discovery. Users could opt-in to anonymously share their feed list (whole or parts); keyword-based categorisation could group them into topics; etc. The reader could use an algorithm (haha, we're coming full circle) to suggest interesting topics, feeds, posts. Honestly I'd be interested in something like <https://kagi.com/smallweb/>.

Extra kudos if the dataset is released publicly.

6. fourside ◴[17 Jan 25 16:44 UTC] No.42740027[source]▶
I guess it depends on the goal. If you just want to build things then you don’t need anyone’s permission, but if you want people to use it or to make a living off it, it’s important to know why people would use what you’re building.
7. mattlutze ◴[20 Jan 25 13:44 UTC] No.42768652[source]▶
One of my soapboxes is that the world is full of really smart people trying to solve solved problems for the sake of having done something that feels like something. I advocate for people taking that creative energy and pointing it at partially/poorly/un- solved problems.

If that's developing to offer (OP in particualrly said their friend would soon be offering a new service) an RSS Reader because there's something to actually innovate and more fully solve a problem, then it's great. Otherwise, it's just fodder for AdWords and Facebook when they eventually try to build acquisition for a business around it.