Author Topic: RSS readers... you should use them  (Read 7112 times)

Kriegsspiel

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RSS readers... you should use them
« on: January 21, 2013, 07:54:48 AM »
For anyone out there who checks into many different sites and don't use an RSS reader.... START.  It's fucking great.  Instead of surfing to 5 or 6, or 30 different blogs or sites to see if they've been updated, just click on the RSS reader button and make it go to your google reader or whatever.  Then you just have to check one site where all the information is pushed to! 

I know RSS is super old in internet terms, but I have literally never used it until recently.  I don't think I've ever bothered with the other icons (Digg, reddit, etc), so if any of those are super useful and time saving like RSS, let me know!

arebelspy

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2013, 09:00:26 AM »
Yes, unfortunately RSS has been getting phased out a bit.  I love it though, I read lots of blogs, and not having to check for new posts is amazing.

Only minor downside is you never see site redesign stuff (like MMM's new banner).  Eh, no big deal.

Find it hard to believe that people don't know about RSS feeds by now.  :)

Definitely go to google.com/reader and type in your favorite blog URLs if you haven't yet!

(Reeder is my favorite RSS reader for iOS devices.)
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lauren_knows

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2013, 09:02:06 AM »
Yup, I love Google Reader.  I only wish there was a RSS-type functionality for all of the forums I like to visit. A 1-stop shop for all the new messages in all the forums I like.  That'd be awesome.

arebelspy

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2013, 09:40:46 AM »
Yup, I love Google Reader.  I only wish there was a RSS-type functionality for all of the forums I like to visit. A 1-stop shop for all the new messages in all the forums I like.  That'd be awesome.

Many forums have a "new posts since last visit" link:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/unread/?start=0

And an all unread posts link:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/unread/?all;start=0

I personally use the latter (have it bookmarked), scan through for the ones I'm interested in, click the orange "new" icon next to the thread title (which takes you to the last post in the thread that you haven't read) and open that in a new tab.  Then once I have all the ones open I'm interested in, I click "mark all read" ..

I never even see the forum categories and such.  Much more efficient, IMO, and the way I handle multiple forums quickly.

The early-retirement.org forum app makes that irrelevant, wish this forum had something similar.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
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lauren_knows

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2013, 09:47:23 AM »
Yup, I love Google Reader.  I only wish there was a RSS-type functionality for all of the forums I like to visit. A 1-stop shop for all the new messages in all the forums I like.  That'd be awesome.

Many forums have a "new posts since last visit" link:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/unread/?start=0

And an all unread posts link:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/unread/?all;start=0

I personally use the latter (have it bookmarked), scan through for the ones I'm interested in, click the orange "new" icon next to the thread title (which takes you to the last post in the thread that you haven't read) and open that in a new tab.  Then once I have all the ones open I'm interested in, I click "mark all read" ..

I never even see the forum categories and such.  Much more efficient, IMO, and the way I handle multiple forums quickly.

The early-retirement.org forum app makes that irrelevant, wish this forum had something similar.

I mean, the way you describe browsing forums is exactly how I do it.  But, I just wish there was 1-page where you can check off the forum sites you frequent (MMM, early-retirement.org, Bogleheads, marksdailyapple, etc) and have ALL of the "Show new posts since last visit" on a single page.

Since I posted in this thread, I've been googling for such a product, and can't seem to find one. I smell a business opportunity...

Kriegsspiel

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2013, 09:56:46 AM »
Yes, unfortunately RSS has been getting phased out a bit.  I love it though, I read lots of blogs, and not having to check for new posts is amazing.

Damn, I didn't know I was THAT late to the party!  What do you mean they're getting "phased out?"  Do you mean that people don't let their sites get syndicated, or that there is a new software out there that does the same thing?

Quote
Only minor downside is you never see site redesign stuff (like MMM's new banner).  Eh, no big deal.

Well, a few of the blogs I read have an "after the jump" format, so I go to the site to read the rest of the post.

Quote
Find it hard to believe that people don't know about RSS feeds by now.  :)

Yea, like I said I don't really do some of the stuff most people are obsessed with.  Twitter comes to mind.  I just didn't know what RSS did.  I thought for the longest time that it was just like a voting system of some kind that I didn't really feel like messing with.


arebelspy

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2013, 10:25:47 AM »
Yeah, I don't do twitter either.  Don't see the use.   I like things that make me more productive, not less.  RSS falls in the former category.

I've been using it for about a decade or so, but it has fallen out of favor in general, and no suitable replacement exists, unfortunately.  It still exists, but is not actively being developed and more and more things that would be suitable for RSS are being replaced with stuff like twitter.  (I.e. a site or company could update users via RSS feed, now you have to subscribe to their tweets, which is annoying because you have to check them, which defeats the whole point for me.)

And yeah, I hate the "after the jump" stuff.. I find that I read less and less blogs that use that. Can't actually think of any now that do that I actively read.  However I use Pocket (formerly Read It Later) for most of my blog reading, so as long as that can fetch the whole article, it ends up okay.

Interesting thought bo_knows.  I don't know that I'd want them all mixed on one page, though I suppose if it was like Google Reader and there were separate sections you could click for each site, and see all of that site's unread forum posts.  I think the difference is that for the forums to know which posts you haven't read, you'd have to be logged in.  Meaning that GoogleForumReader type thing would have to know your logins for each of those forums.  May not be a big deal if you use stuff like Mint, LastPass, etc. and trust sites with passwords to other sites, but that is one caveat.
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NumberCruncher

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #7 on: January 22, 2013, 07:55:51 AM »
Yeah, I don't do twitter either.  Don't see the use.   I like things that make me more productive, not less.  RSS falls in the former category.

I've been using it for about a decade or so, but it has fallen out of favor in general, and no suitable replacement exists, unfortunately.  It still exists, but is not actively being developed and more and more things that would be suitable for RSS are being replaced with stuff like twitter.  (I.e. a site or company could update users via RSS feed, now you have to subscribe to their tweets, which is annoying because you have to check them, which defeats the whole point for me.)


I successfully subscribed via google reader to a twitter stream or two, but checking now it doesn't seem to work anymore :(

Paul der Krake

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #8 on: January 22, 2013, 08:12:16 AM »
Twitter has been cracking down on all third-party clients for a couple months now. Every now and then you see pissed devs because they keep changing their API terms to make it harder for developers to write their own solutions. They want you to use their website and nothing else.

Mad props to MMM for keeping the entire in the RSS feed. Lots of blogs start showing only a preview when they get big in order to get people to come to the site.

Kriegsspiel

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #9 on: January 22, 2013, 06:21:07 PM »
Twitter has been cracking down on all third-party clients for a couple months now. Every now and then you see pissed devs because they keep changing their API terms to make it harder for developers to write their own solutions. They want you to use their website and nothing else.

Mad props to MMM for keeping the entire in the RSS feed. Lots of blogs start showing only a preview when they get big in order to get people to come to the site.

I don't really see what the big deal is with after the jump setups... Is it really too much of a bother to click the link and read the rest of the article?  I just like RSS because I don't waste time "checking" a site to see if it's updated.

Paul der Krake

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #10 on: January 22, 2013, 06:44:20 PM »
Twitter has been cracking down on all third-party clients for a couple months now. Every now and then you see pissed devs because they keep changing their API terms to make it harder for developers to write their own solutions. They want you to use their website and nothing else.

Mad props to MMM for keeping the entire in the RSS feed. Lots of blogs start showing only a preview when they get big in order to get people to come to the site.

I don't really see what the big deal is with after the jump setups... Is it really too much of a bother to click the link and read the rest of the article?  I just like RSS because I don't waste time "checking" a site to see if it's updated.
It's not that bad, but when you follow a lot of sites, it's great to be able to navigate solely with the keyboard from within the reader. First world problems, I know. Tabs and clicks are a precious commodity!

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #11 on: January 22, 2013, 10:50:51 PM »
Yeah, I don't do twitter either.  Don't see the use.   I like things that make me more productive, not less.  RSS falls in the former category.
When the tsunami sirens go off, I can figure out what's happening on Twitter faster than our state Civil Defense can get a crawler up on the local TV station.

During the last two tsunami the "Hawaii News Now!!" anchors were basically reduced to scraping tweets for "updates".

arebelspy

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #12 on: January 22, 2013, 11:07:16 PM »
Okay, that is a good use.

Hmm, now where are the Las Vegas Tsunami twitter feeds...

;)
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Able was I ERE

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Re: RSS readers... you should use them
« Reply #13 on: January 23, 2013, 05:36:03 AM »
I don't really see what the big deal is with after the jump setups... Is it really too much of a bother to click the link and read the rest of the article?  I just like RSS because I don't waste time "checking" a site to see if it's updated.
It's not that bad, but when you follow a lot of sites, it's great to be able to navigate solely with the keyboard from within the reader. First world problems, I know. Tabs and clicks are a precious commodity!

Partial-text feeds are also pain if you read on the train or other places with limited or no data connectivity.  Even when at a computer with unlimited bandwidth, I find it easier to read everything in one interface.  It saves my reading time for more useful things, like reading this forum (via RSS, of course)!

http://fulltextrssfeed.com/ will convert most partial-text feeds into full-text feeds, but some more complicated feeds may require custom hacking: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/blogging/157390-yahoo-pipe-tutorial-convert-rss-summary-rss-full-feed.html

 

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