from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is your RSS set-up?

by sherlock_h on 11/15/22, 6:57 PM with 14 comments

My news diet consists of the following:

* email newsletters (substack)

* selected articles (a lot from Hackernews)

* I also subscribe to some promotional newsletters (events, certain products). Not sure how I would fit these

However, I have been struggling with keeping my inbox clean and readable with the newsletters and am considering to switch to an RSS reader. I have several criteria:

1. I need to be able to add one-off articles to the reader (such as finding an interesting article on Hackernews for later consumption).

2. I would love to be able to add rules. For example, if I don't read an article for several days, I would like it to disappear from my inbox (archived) or be marked as read so it doesn't clog my reading.

3. Needs to be accessible on computer (web/app) and mobile (ideally via app).

Would love to hear how other people manage this. I'm also happy to pay for a good solution here.

  • by p5v on 11/24/22, 2:11 PM

    If you are new to RSS feeds and still looking around, use a search engine like feedle (https://feedle.world). It is incredibly easy to get you started. Search for a topic you are interested in (e.g., your favorite programming language) and grab the single RSS feed that feedle will provide. You will instantly start receiving quality posts on that topic from different people.

    Once you notice a good post or two, you can check the original sources and subscribe to those people directly.

    You may notice that the RSS feed gets too "noisy" over time. No problem - go back to feedle and add additional keywords (or exclude some) to narrow the search.

    Disclaimer: I am one of the people who originated feedle and brought it to life. Our tiny collective will be more than happy to hear your feedback!

  • by jacobobryant on 11/15/22, 8:18 PM

    Perhaps check out Matter[1] or Readwise[2]? I haven't actually used either myself (Matter requires an iOS device, though once installed you can also use a web app; Readwise was in private beta when I was first looking at it, but I think is opening up access now/soon). But they look nice. I used Feedbin[3] previously but found the mobile web interface a bit frustrating (I kept accidentally swiping things while trying to scroll).

    [and the self-promo bit] I've also made one called Yakread[4], however it is quite unusual and won't be for everyone. Re: your requirements: it does 1 (via integration with pocket/instapaper) and 3 (it's a responsive website at least, no native app) but not 2 /exactly/. It has a home feed which is driven by a ranking algorithm, which is intended to solve the "too many newsletters/bookmarks clogging up your reading" problem, but might be a heavier solution than what you're looking for.

    [1] https://hq.getmatter.com/

    [2] https://readwise.io/read

    [3] https://feedbin.com/

    [4] https://yakread.com/ (see also https://tfos.co/p/introducing-yakread/)

  • by warrenm on 11/15/22, 8:27 PM

    My RSS set-up has been datente.com for many years

    It's simple, does what I want it to, and updates a couple times per hour

    I don't necessarily read everything (some feeds I'll only actually read once a month or three) - but the browser ends up keeping track of what I've read because of the link color changing :)

  • by bsnnkv on 11/16/22, 11:09 PM

    Mine is a little bit different as I am an RSS producer as well as a consumer.

    I curate my own RSS feeds (in my profile for the curious) which are topic-specific and for which the items contain highlights from articles/comments rather than links to articles with a generic intro blurb (I find those quite useless).

    I sub to a few other RSS feeds like this curated by others, and I basically just use Reeder on iOS. No overload, no FOMO, since each feed item shows me a highlight (as curated by the producer) and I can very quickly decide if it is useful for me or not, instead of having to click/tap through and spend potentially a significant amount of time investing the link itself to see if it's worth reading.

  • by kevincox on 11/17/22, 2:54 AM

    I do this with email. Email newsletters and all of the feeds I follow (via an RSS-to-email service) are filtered into folders in my email.

    1. In the past I've just created emails in folders. However not all email clients make this easy. I've been experimenting with Instapaper which has a feed of your saved items. So I can simply trigger the bookmarklet and then it shows up in my items shortly after.

    2. Most email services support rules for incoming. Rules for date-expiry are less common but some providers have them.

    3. I suspect you already have your email synced to all your devices.

  • by suprjami on 11/15/22, 9:35 PM

    When Google Reader died I used TT-RSS but the author was just a user-hostile jerk I switched to Feedly and have been happy since.

    Reading your wish list, I don't know of any feed app which lets you add arbitrary articles like a "read later" functionality. Unless you send them to your own linkblog and subscribe to that in your RSS reader of choice?

    It sounds more like you want a bookmark manager.

    I keep "read later" in a browser folder per month. If I don't read them that month I just archive the folder. But I figure if I didn't get a chance to read that's okay, I can't keep up on the whole internet.

  • by davidpfarrell on 11/16/22, 2:00 AM

    I use HeartFeed: * https://heartfeedrss.wordpress.com/ * https://apps.apple.com/us/app/heartfeed-rss-reader/id1078754...

    Which I consider a spiritual successor LinkedIn's old Pulse RSS reader.

    I really enjoy the high article density on the screen and being able to scroll each fead individually.

    It has bookmarks but I have a hard time taking advantage of them.

  • by jeadie on 11/16/22, 5:58 AM

    If you have/use notion.so (& shameless plug), I've been using github.com/Jeadie/notion-rss and it works well enough. Perhaps alot of the appeal is using something you built, but being able to configure everything in notion and have it run on GH actions is really nice.

  • by skydhash on 11/15/22, 7:39 PM

    Reeder on MacOS and iOS does most of this (except 2). It’s a native app and you don’t need third party services, although integrations are possible. I also use the KillTheNewsletter service for email subscriptions.

  • by twishmay on 11/15/22, 11:19 PM

    We are building a product to solve this one.

    Please try and share your feature requests on feedback@psytech.ai

    Mutter - Your AI Discovery Assistant https://www.mutter.cards

    TS

  • by twishmay on 11/15/22, 11:20 PM

    We are building a product to solve this one.

    Please try and share your feature requests on feedback@psytech.ai

    Mutter - Your Discovery Assistant https://www.mutter.cards

    TS

  • by runjake on 11/15/22, 10:00 PM

    NetNewsWire for macOS and iOS. For years now. Can also add specific Twitter feeds or lists to it.

    https://netnewswire.com/

  • by photoGrant on 11/15/22, 6:59 PM

    DEVONThink has become my angel!