The hardest part is when you have to curate yourself. To me RSS feels like a lot of work upfront. Is there a tool to help discover items to add to your feed aligned with your interest?
this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
208 points (99.1% liked)
Technology
60492 readers
6285 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Algorithms done right are useful. Make sure things that are likely important to be bubble to the top. I don't have time to read/watch it all, so prioritize the important things for me.
Done right is the hard part. It is too easy to prioritize memes that make people angry even though if you really investigate you discover that while there is a little truth it is grossly exaggerated and whoever is being mocked isn't that stupid - because things that make people mad tend to get attention.
The algorithm really needs a "there is plenty more but you have seen all the important stuff - go outside and do something" after I've seen what is important. Of course it then needs a "but I'm currently confined to a hospital bed so just show me something so I'm not bored out of my mind". The likes of facebook of course cannot allow such a thing as once you stop scrolling their ad revenue is gone. However that is what the world needs.
I don’t personally have any issue with algorithms - they work quite well for me, though it does require some active management. For example, if I watch one or two 30-second videos on YouTube, it quickly starts recommending more, which quickly floods my feed. However, when I start ignoring those recommendations, despite the temptation to click, the algorithm eventually stops pushing them and shifts back to suggesting accurately tailored, long-form content that genuinely interests me. The same goes for using the “not interested” button. This aligns with my experience on platforms like Twitter and Instagram as well, though the latter I no longer use.
Algorithms obviously don’t care whether the content they show you makes you glad that you saw it. They simply serve what captures your attention. If it's outrage, then that’s exactly what you’ll get. The algorithm knows plenty of other users engage with that kind of content, so it rationally assumes the same will apply to you.
The companies deploying the algorithms aren't taking any of what you said into consideration though. They only want to feed you what has the most interaction as that can garner the most money from ad revenue.
Would be nice if open-source aggregators like Lemmy allowed users to "Subscribe" to community developed algorithms.
I'd love to (attempt) to build an "ethical" algorithm for content sorting, have it be open-source, and be able to have clients use it without having to actually modify the client itself.
There's nothing preventing you from forking a Lemmy client or server to prototype this. Depending on how you implement the activitypub backend, you might be able to make it transparent to a user if you present an algorithm as an array of cross posts via a /c/ of a server.
Anything more might require forking a client, which might be easier to implement but may be harder to convince a large userbase to migrate to.
I really hope this is the way forward.
I use self hosted FreshRSS. I has:
- news straight from the section I care about in chronological order order
- new blog updates
- music review updates
- Bandcamp releases from artists/labels I follow
- open source software releases I follow
- YouTube updates from channels I follow.
- etc
It is by far the best way to get updates about just the things you care about.
I started using FreshRSS around the same time Reddit killed their API, it has rapidly become one of my favorite self-hosted apps.
Also,
open source software releases I follow
You have just taught me that I can add github release pages to my feed, I love FreshRSS even more now.
I've greatly enjoyed FeedFlow ( github or the official site ) as my reader since it's minimalistic and just looks so polished. Almost fully cross platform as well.
Thanks! I like it a lot.
Thunderbird has RSS channels you can use and set-up (if you use the e-mail client, it is convenient).
Please do recommend RSS apps for all platforms. Currently using:
Android: Read You iOS/Mac: Unread
I’ve been using Feedly on iOS for a few years since google dropped their rss client.
Was on Feedly, have now moved to News Explorer for iOS. Self hosted (runs on device), synchronizes between iOS devices using iCloud
I used Feedly for a bit but they were extremely pricey. They didn't have a free tier back then.
For their €7/month price you can rent a VPS and selfhost FreshRSS with a lot more stuff.
At the point, might as well build your own home server 😂
I'm using feeder on android and it's working well for me. On desktop I use Firefox extension but can't remember the name
Algorithms have the advantage of finding stuff for me that i wouldn't have even thought to look for. Is there any thing with RSS that sufficiently mimicks this?
Hey, Joey, don't say that shit out loud. Once they realize that there is a way to access content that isn't sufficiently monetized, they will block it. Keep it secret!
The content creators should be shouting about RSS from the rooftops. The only people that lose out are social networks, and startups. It would be more difficult for a new person to get a foothold, but at least we decide what we want to read on our own.
I remember youtube creators recommending other creators small channels and stuff like that. I want that back.
I remember Google Reader back in the day. I miss that a lot. Is there something comparable that I don't have to host?
Newsblur is the one I migrated to and haven’t looked back.
There are good RSS reader web browser extensions. Firefox has a few. Check out Feedbro.
Thanks, bro.
I built https://startyparty.dev/ for just this reason
Very cool! Thanks for making this and sharing.
Is there a recommended, shiny RSS reader for Linux and Android? Which I want to try?
I use quiterss on my linux desktop. Its already in the repos on debian and works great for me. I have extremely minimalistic requirements tho, so might not be for you if you want a shiny UI. It has tagging, custom keyword filtering, folders, notifications. All i need.
I use Newsblur, it’s a web site and will fetch feeds even if my computer is offline.
I use feeder installed via Fdroid. It sends me notifications that send me straight to the content. I rarely have to actually open the app. No complaints!
+1 for feeder
I use NewsBoat on Linux, but it's a terminal app and not for everybody. On Android I use CapyReader, and IMHO it's quite nice.
I have been pretty happy with Read You
I used feeder before that. Feeder is fine and may even have more options, but Read You has that perfect layout and text formatting...
title could be worded better... i was confused at first that there was some algorithm for rss he was no longer using. it should be something like ' i ditched the website algorithm feed and utilize the rss instead'