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Have you heard James talking about “that RSS thing” but don’t know how to start using it? Well, this episode of #SolutionsWatch is for you!
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SHOW NOTES
Really Simple Syndication – #SolutionsWatch
Interview 1913 – The Future of Decentralized Media on Collapse Life
Interview 1910 – James Announces the (s)Election Winner on TFM Report
Episode 342 – Pricking the Filter Bubble
5 open source RSS feed readers (NOTE: OUTDATED 2017 ARTICLE)
Why not just subscribe on your news source’s website and get an e-mail with a link whenever there’s something new? It does the same thing, you click and listen or watch. 99% of people have push notifications for their e-mails on their slave-devices, so why would they go and install a reader that does the same thing?
Because you can classify and organise all feeds better on a rss aggregator … check out feedly.com
Awesome! I had not seen the original SW episode on this topic. Thanks for bringing it back!
Does anyone have suggestions for a good privacy-minded RSS reader for GrapheneOS users?
I found CappyReader and Feeder offered in my app store, but cannot assess them based on the provided descriptions and tiny pictures of screenshot. Basically, I am asking for an opinion of anyone who has used either of these or other free, open source RSS app.
I was replying to you, but then wrote a novel, so I added it as a new comment. It may answer your question, but maybe my path is not the route you want to take.
Thank you. So far, like davidmcbain (comment below), I have saved links in my browser to my favorite writers and news sources, then check them periodically. I too use AntennaPod on the GrapheneOS phone. Wish it had the same features as PodcastRepublic (Android), which includes a RSS reader.
No offence meant James but I still don’t know how use rss. On the other hand I haven’t used Facebook, Twitter, You Tube or Amazon et al. for years. I just have a list of my favourite urls and click on “open hyperlink” when I want updated. I even have my url list on the most reliable referencing technology ever invented: paper and pen. (Reliable as long as my house doesn’t burn down.)
Lang may yer lum reek’
David McBain
James is in the pocket of Big RSS.
He’s top of my url list. I just can’t seem clock the rss stuff.
RSS is a very powerful tool I just started using it today.
I use Graphene OS for my phone OS. I use Fluent Reader for my news RSS. AntennaPod for Podcasts. Fluent Reader Lite is the version for Android. Latest version is “Fluent Reader Lite 1.0.4 (11)”. The apk is on github for free. see yang991178. I am note sure if I can post links here, but you have enough info to find it. I think it is a dollar on the Play Store.
Note that you can transfer most apps from the play store, including paid apps, using software called “raccoon” by Onyxbits. The free version on raccoon works fine. Download the apps you want with raccoon, copy them to phone, install with an app called SAI. It is a split apk installer that is also free. So you can use almost any app you want like this, but some are unhappy without play store installed. These apps are typically junk anyways.
BUT, Fluent Reader for android, unlike for windows and linux, only accepts APIs or services. I am not sure what to call them. You can’t paste links in the app.
You can use:Fever API (TT-RSS, FreshRSS, Miniflux, etc.), Google Reader API (Bazqux Reader, The Old Reader, etc.), Inoreader, and Feedbin (official or self-hosted).
I personally use Bazqux. I really like it. But I do not know if it is private, or a good company. I am using it until I have time and knowledge to setup FreshRSS or Tiny Tiny RSS to host my own.
Bazqux is $30 dollars a year, which is cheap compared to the hardware and time needed to host your own RSS aggregator.
To use Bazqux, you go to their website and put all of your RSS links there, then link your account to your RSS app. By using Bazqux, if you read an article on your phone, then go to your computer, it will show as read. This is the benefit of renting or hosting an aggregator. Tis quite nice and clean.
Some tips / info based on my own RSS use.
There is a browser addon called “Feedbro – RSS Feed Reader”. With this you can search any page you are on for an RSS link, then copy and paste it from the addon. This is an alternative to using “View Page Source” on a webpage and searching the text for RSS. It works for youtube channels too.
I use RSS for Youtube, Bitchute, Rumble, and I think Odysee. I use for different channels to get notifications when they have new videos. There are little hacky things you have to do for some of them to work. Just formatting the link correctly. I think rumble is a bit weird. I can do a separate comment for this if anyone is interested.
Thunderbird is an RSS reader (the place to add links is in a weird spot, it’s easy once you find it). It is great for organizing feeds into groups, and for exporting these groups as OPML files. I use Thunderbird as my main list. I have separate groups for News, Podcasts, Videos, and paid feeds.
With the video feeds from youtube, etc. in Thunderbird, Thunderbird provides a link for each item in the feed. These links can be pasted solo, or batch, into paid software called “Snap Downloader”. Then the videos are downloaded to PC, ad free. So you can follow, and watch, all the people you like on the video services without every visiting the sites.
Two readers i like for Windows and Linux are Raven Reader and Fluent Reader. Both take feeds pasted into them, and both can link up with your accounts if you have a feed aggregator service.
I did a separate post about my phone and Bazqux.
It is nice to not have junk recommended to you by algorithms, but if you only use RSS and don’t add to the list, you risk being in a bubble. I recommend adding things, and removing, every so often from your lists. All the people Corbett talks to are a good place to start when making your list of feeds.
the MP4 link is for another solutionswatch-sovereignty
Thanks for the tip. The link has been corrected. (Although it should be noted the correct file was already in the Video RSS feed.)
I built an RSS aggregator of evidence-based journalism here: https://thedukereport.com (I found this story there!)
Is there a reader that’s especially good for following the old Corbett report advice of “download and save everything”? So when the internet goes down stuff it has saved everything for me and it’s still available.
As an RSS fanatic, I cannot convey the epic level of excitement I feel anytime you talk about RSS. A wonderful, nay, masterful means to syndicate and follow news/updates/younameit. I’m writing this now only by accessing the one and only Corbett Report the only way I ever access this site, which is with an RSS reader. Speaking of, a strong shout out to newsboat. I never leave home without it. Absolutely perfect rss’r for the terminal users in the crowd. Stay strong folks.
James, would it be possible to share your OPML, to be used as a starting point to add or subtract from?