8 ms·

I just mean rss is not nearly what it was at it’s peak. Sites are still publishing RSS feeds to be sure though.

juped 6y ago
I'm not sure that there's any "peak" to compare it to. I mean, my whole wishlist for the RSS ecosystem is basically: 1) people stop inexplicably calling it "dead" Being "dead" has its fringe benefits, at least, like no one proposing changes for the sake of change - it gets to be happily frozen and useful with no one trying to e.g. update it from the XML-everything mania of its time (embarassing in hindsight) to the JSON-everything mania of our time (I'm worried there won't even be a hindsight for it to be embarassing in). Well, except when people propose to replace it with something else because it's "dead" (sorry, I have no interest in following anyone on activitypub - if I want updates from your blog, I will poll the RSS feed you have kindly provided).
- site-packages1 6y ago
  I've never really used rss as a power user, but a long time ago subscribed to some feeds and tracked them in an rss app. I did that because it seemed like at one point I saw the rss logo everywhere and it seemed like everyone was promoting it. I didn't use the actual aggregator to look at the combined feeds, but I did have it all set up. Now I can't remember the last time I saw a site promoting or even clearly mentioning above the fold that they publish an rss feed. I didn't know HN published one until now. That's why I haven't argued with anyone claiming it's dead. It seems like it disappeared.
  - Kye 6y ago
    I've seen more than a few sites use the RSS logo to point to a newsletter signup. I'm not sure whether it was deception or ignorance.
- looperhacks 6y ago
  JSON you say? https://jsonfeed.org/ https://jsonfeed.org/
  - juped 6y ago
    I wish I were a farmer.
- pferde 6y ago
  RSS's (and Atom's) problem is not using XML, it's the woeful ly vague, and overly forgiving specification. As someone who has written a parser library and a RSS reader program, I can tell you that it is an endless battle of users always reporting yet another feed that is "breaking your RSS reader". When investigating why the feed does not work well, you always end up finding yet another way how a site can implement RSS/Atom badly while still following the letter of the specification. I love the idea of RSS/Atom and the possibilities they allow, but hate the actual specs.
  - juped 6y ago
    Yes, they are not very good specs, but frozen bad (cf. Unix) has benefits.
  - chrismorgan 6y ago
    I don’t feel it’s fair to say that about Atom. RSS, sure; it’s a total disaster. And that’s kinda why Atom was made, and it seems to me to do a good job. So given that, any chance you could elucidate on fault you find with Atom?
    - pferde 6y ago
      Yes, you are right, most of my grievances were against RSS - either old RDF, or RSS 2.0, or perhaps against Atom 0.3, which was not all that common before much better Atom 1.0 took over. Still, I vaguely recall that there was at least one vagueness in the Atom 1.0 spec that I found abused in a real world feed, but can't for the life of me remember it - it's been a while.
      - chrismorgan 6y ago
        Now if only podcast players would catch up to 2007 and support Atom.
- LukeHoersten 6y ago
  As anecdotal as this is, take it with a grain of salt: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=rss https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=rss
- LukeHoersten 6y ago
  2 weeks after you posted these comments, your enthusiasm for RSS got me back into it. I set up a self hosted RSS reader and I've been happily re-engaging with long form content. Getting long form content in my fediverse feed is definitely not the same (though it's nice!). Thanks for the comments!
michaelbrooks 6y ago
I personally use Feedly as my RSS reader and I followed my blog to see how many followers I get. Currently, I have 367 Feedly subscribers and it still continues to grow. Also, looking at my analytics, I can see people coming in from Feedly, so it shows that they are definitely active subs[0]. [0] https://feedly.com/i/subscription/feed%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fmichaelbrooks.co.uk%2Frss.xml https://feedly.com/i/subscription/feed%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fmicha...
Kye 6y ago
It's easy to convince a growing number of people of RSS's value: "If you listen to podcasts, you probably already use RSS." Then you just expand on the options and uses to someone who's already favorable toward RSS because it was so painless to use they didn't even realize they used it to follow some of their favorite people.

I'm not sure that there's any "peak" to compare it to. I mean, my whole wishlist for the RSS ecosystem is basically: 1) people stop inexplicably calling it "dead" Being "dead" has its fringe benefits, at least, like no one proposing changes for the sake of change - it gets to be happily frozen and useful with no one trying to e.g. update it from the XML-everything mania of its time (embarassing in hindsight) to the JSON-everything mania of our time (I'm worried there won't even be a hindsight for it to be embarassing in). Well, except when people propose to replace it with something else because it's "dead" (sorry, I have no interest in following anyone on activitypub - if I want updates from your blog, I will poll the RSS feed you have kindly provided).

site-packages1 6y ago
I've never really used rss as a power user, but a long time ago subscribed to some feeds and tracked them in an rss app. I did that because it seemed like at one point I saw the rss logo everywhere and it seemed like everyone was promoting it. I didn't use the actual aggregator to look at the combined feeds, but I did have it all set up. Now I can't remember the last time I saw a site promoting or even clearly mentioning above the fold that they publish an rss feed. I didn't know HN published one until now. That's why I haven't argued with anyone claiming it's dead. It seems like it disappeared.
- Kye 6y ago
  I've seen more than a few sites use the RSS logo to point to a newsletter signup. I'm not sure whether it was deception or ignorance.
looperhacks 6y ago
JSON you say? https://jsonfeed.org/ https://jsonfeed.org/
- juped 6y ago
  I wish I were a farmer.
pferde 6y ago
RSS's (and Atom's) problem is not using XML, it's the woeful ly vague, and overly forgiving specification. As someone who has written a parser library and a RSS reader program, I can tell you that it is an endless battle of users always reporting yet another feed that is "breaking your RSS reader". When investigating why the feed does not work well, you always end up finding yet another way how a site can implement RSS/Atom badly while still following the letter of the specification. I love the idea of RSS/Atom and the possibilities they allow, but hate the actual specs.
- juped 6y ago
  Yes, they are not very good specs, but frozen bad (cf. Unix) has benefits.
- chrismorgan 6y ago
  I don’t feel it’s fair to say that about Atom. RSS, sure; it’s a total disaster. And that’s kinda why Atom was made, and it seems to me to do a good job. So given that, any chance you could elucidate on fault you find with Atom?
  - pferde 6y ago
    Yes, you are right, most of my grievances were against RSS - either old RDF, or RSS 2.0, or perhaps against Atom 0.3, which was not all that common before much better Atom 1.0 took over. Still, I vaguely recall that there was at least one vagueness in the Atom 1.0 spec that I found abused in a real world feed, but can't for the life of me remember it - it's been a while.
    - chrismorgan 6y ago
      Now if only podcast players would catch up to 2007 and support Atom.
LukeHoersten 6y ago
As anecdotal as this is, take it with a grain of salt: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=rss https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=rss
LukeHoersten 6y ago
2 weeks after you posted these comments, your enthusiasm for RSS got me back into it. I set up a self hosted RSS reader and I've been happily re-engaging with long form content. Getting long form content in my fediverse feed is definitely not the same (though it's nice!). Thanks for the comments!

michaelbrooks 6y ago

I personally use Feedly as my RSS reader and I followed my blog to see how many followers I get. Currently, I have 367 Feedly subscribers and it still continues to grow. Also, looking at my analytics, I can see people coming in from Feedly, so it shows that they are definitely active subs[0]. [0] https://feedly.com/i/subscription/feed%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fmichaelbrooks.co.uk%2Frss.xml https://feedly.com/i/subscription/feed%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fmicha...

Kye 6y ago

It's easy to convince a growing number of people of RSS's value: "If you listen to podcasts, you probably already use RSS." Then you just expand on the options and uses to someone who's already favorable toward RSS because it was so painless to use they didn't even realize they used it to follow some of their favorite people.