20230702-feeds.txt
I have recently gotten more into feeds than ever before. That video-
hosting site with a Y has just gotten worse and worse and worse. So
I've been using Invidious. Recently they've been trying to shut down
Invidious for "violating T&C of using the API" when Invidious just
doesn't use that. It's funny in one way, but pretty aggravating in
another.
But something that is oft overlooked is the 2004 smash-hit technology
of feeds (RSS, Atom+XML). I remember when so many sites had that
annoying orange beacon logo on the address bar. Now I know how OP it
really is, but back then I wasn't worried about algorithms and
tracking and other BS. It was just another way to get basically the
default experience. Now a lot of browsers just nixed this feature of
showing feed links. I can see some in Lynx, but outside of installing
an add-on, you won't find it in (m)any GUI browsers. But Y and
Invidious also have feeds for each channel, your own subscriptions,
and probably more.
Another use case is for the WWW site behind Gopherddit. The feed is
pretty great if you don't give a damn about the comments. And you can
always open it in a browser, too. I'm pretty sure it doesn't count as
an API call, so no need to charge money for it. I mean it's just
there. I think most web devs weren't even born when feeds were popular
/sigh so they don't even think about them. It's just kind of there.
It's great for tech nerds who actually know about those things and how
to game the adware sites with it.
I use newsboat for feeds on my computers and I do have a simple feed
reader for my phone, but I rarely use it. Partially it's because it's
black-on-white which gives me trouble normally but now gives me more
trouble due to eye issues that need to be corrected. I could probably
find another one, but it's such a minor thing that I really don't care
enough to search.
The biggest change with feeds is they're read-only. It's probably good
for me because I am far less likely to get into flame wars or have to
read the comments of illiterate knuckle-draggers that can't be arsed
to use punctuation because they're typing on a phone and that requires
more than just quickly tapping part of the screen.
