[HN Gopher] Show HN: A Google Reader-inspired RSS reader
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Show HN: A Google Reader-inspired RSS reader
Author : khet
Score : 61 points
Date : 2023-04-01 18:57 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (boredreading.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (boredreading.com)
| xxdesmus wrote:
| Self hosting option? Looks great, but I'd rather avoid a SaaS
| service if possible.
| khet wrote:
| OP here: I'm considering it. Can you email me please? (email in
| profile)
|
| Would love to figure out a way I can work out a self hosted
| version for those who want it, given there is enough interest
| in it. This goes to anyone else who's interested in self
| hosting, please email me! Thanks!
| djbusby wrote:
| Could just throw it in docker and let folk try their best.
| Some projects that's their only supported self-hosting
| option.
| xpil wrote:
| I was a heavy Google Reader user.
|
| When it disappeared, I switched to NewsBlur.
|
| NewsBlur is great but it lacks one particular feature: an RSS
| feed for a folder of blogs. (or a category of blogs, potato -
| potahto)
|
| So I switched to self-hosted FreshRSS.
|
| It has all the features I want (plus, unlike NewsBlur, it's free)
| but it is Docker-based and I am already like 10 versions behind
| and I am too lazy/scared to learn how to upgrade it without
| destroying the Universe.
|
| BoredReading has a fantastic UI and I absolutely love the
| approach and organization of feeds. Key shortcuts are cool, too.
|
| If there is ever a self-hosted version that I can feed with my
| own stuff from scratch (ideally via an OPML file), I'd go for it
| immediately.
| arepublicadoceu wrote:
| > but it is Docker-based and I am already like 10 versions
| behind and I am too lazy/scared to learn how to upgrade it
| without destroying the Universe.
|
| You should be scared, the other day I messed a completely
| functioning miniflux docker by upgrading it. It's been so long
| since I set it all up that I lost the incantation necessary for
| the setup or the will to look it up, just went ahead and I'm
| using newsblur again. Sigh.
|
| I'm getting old and loosing the will/patience to selfhost.
| thunderbong wrote:
| I've faced this before. Ever since I've always preferred
| using a docker compose file so that all those myriad
| configurations get saved correctly.
| stanislavb wrote:
| For those interested in "alternative" RSS Readers, I'd welcome
| you giving a go to my opinionated RSS (not only) reader -
| https://lenns.io. It supports tracking articles by headlines in
| those cases when a blog or a website doesn't support RSS. Plus a
| few other goodies, like assigning priorities to your feeds (and
| topics) and limiting the number of posts per source.
|
| Enjoy.
| paulirish wrote:
| I'm interested.. but is it possible to show a demo experience
| so I can get a taste before registering?
| sys_64738 wrote:
| When Google killed Reader I stopped trusting them at that point
| as I realized they'd kill everything to maintain control. I hate
| GOOG nowadays and hope they become less influential on the
| internet.
| matthewfcarlson wrote:
| Granted, the audience here is a little skewed but I feel like
| the death of reader generated significant mistrust that I'm not
| sure google expected.
| fiddlerwoaroof wrote:
| Yeah, my impression at the time was that programmers and
| tech-related media turned against Google basically overnight
| when Reader was killed. I think the importance of Reader
| wasn't "everybody used it" but "the people in a position to
| influence the public perception of Google used it".
| ukuuru wrote:
| I believe it is about the audience, they are very casual
| about killing products. The users of the Reader was people
| with interest and influence in technology. Killing a product
| that is utilized by the people with the higher influence
| created no good.
| russellbeattie wrote:
| I actually saw this submission via Inoreader. It's got everything
| I want and need in a news reader. Been using it for years now and
| there's little I'd change about it. Each person has their own
| preferences, of course, but I recommend it highly.
| roldie wrote:
| Another +1 for Inoreader. So many great features
| stereoradonc wrote:
| And yet another ++1 for Inoreader. I don't find the need to
| consider the "alternatives"
| Euphorbium wrote:
| Google reader had to die, so the inoreader could thrive. It is
| so good.
| billconan wrote:
| I like it, but I hope
|
| it can have a shortcut to dismiss a read article.
|
| it has a dark mode.
| sp332 wrote:
| I saw the title and thought "eh, I've seen RSS readers before".
| But darn if that isn't a _comfortable_ interface to look at.
| imbnwa wrote:
| Haven't seen well-though-out information density like this in a
| minute
| 1bent wrote:
| When Google ditched Reader, they told me how to export my OPML,
| so I did, and vowed to never again depend on a cloud service for
| something I could do with a local client app. I've moved from one
| to another over the years. At the moment I'm using Feeder on
| Android.
|
| Likewise when they dropped Listen for podcasts, currently I'm on
| Antennapod. If I can get an app from f-droid, I prefer it.
|
| I can live with backing up my OPML files whenever I add a blog or
| podcast, and having no web server for desktop use or tracking
| read/unread progress; I just only consume from my primary phone.
| croutonwagon wrote:
| I had a similar sentiment. I did briefly use feedly until they
| started messing with their login screens some time back.
|
| See, I had a local feedly login (with randomized password etc)
| but they Sussed out it was a google workspace enabled
| account/domain and would constantly try to redirect me to
| googles oath.
|
| I moved to miniflux and love it. Easy to manage and super
| lightweight.
|
| The only "feature" I wish it had was a "mark all items older
| than 1 day as read".
|
| You can mark all as read. And you can inverse your sort date
| and expand how many articles are paginated to mark large swaths
| as read. But a simple button to do some cleaning if I hadn't
| read feeds in a week (and likely wouldn't care for week old
| content) would be great.
|
| Still is amazing overall and even that is a nitpick. In fact I
| donated a bit to the maintainer just this month.
| flkiwi wrote:
| miniflux is great.
|
| I'm hesitant to ask for more features to a lightweight,
| stable RSS service, but it would be super-nice to be able to
| enter a youtube username (for example) and have it build a
| feed from it, as Google is, at best, wildly inconsistent
| about providing youtube RSS feeds. Essentially baked-in
| rsshub functionality. But I'm fine running rsshub in
| parallel.
| croutonwagon wrote:
| > I'm hesitant to ask for more features to a lightweight,
| stable RSS service,
|
| Agree entirely. Which is why I never bothered to even ask
| the dev about my "nitpick".
|
| I did try a few git repos that would do similar, but they
| were based on old builds of ruby and well, it didn't go too
| well (and I'm not a Ruby on Rails person).
|
| That said I will just periodically purge all reads, and
| history, and refresh all feeds in background to keep it
| running smooth.
|
| It's actually how I came to this very thread.
|
| Re: YouTube, have you tried putting in a channel URL?
| Miniflux is great at finding rss feeds from indirect urls.
| But I have noticed rss is increasingly being stripped from
| sites, probably in an attempt to drive actual traffic
| stats. I usually try to visit the external link for some
| sites to give them the traffic/hits. Nevertheless some of
| my favorite feeds like TalkingPoints Memo and The Drive
| have completely stripped RSS off their site, which is a
| shame.
| fiddlerwoaroof wrote:
| This is cool, but I'm a bit wary of closed source tools like this
| ever since Google Reader shut down. Is it possible to self-host
| this?
| khet wrote:
| If you could email me, I'm trying to see if self-hosting is
| doable. Thanks! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35404958
| wslh wrote:
| What had Google Reader that was amazing and no RSS existing today
| has is feed history: when you added a blog to Google Reader you
| could traverse the feed as if you added it from the beginning of
| the blog (intersection with the born of Google Reader).
|
| BTW, I wrote something along the topic above in an article from
| 2011 [1].
|
| [1] Extraction of Main Text Content Using the Google Reader
| NoAPI: http://blog.databigbang.com/extraction-of-main-text-
| content/
| qbasic_forever wrote:
| I forgot that and you're totally right. It was awesome to
| scroll (and search!) through a feed's entire history. Ugh it
| makes me so mad Google got rid of all that for nothing.
| voytec wrote:
| > no RSS existing today
|
| Some sites are generating feeds with links to all articles, not
| just newest ones. But mostly smaller, personal blogs.
| 1bent wrote:
| At the time they shut down Listen, some podcasts (e.g. Car
| Talk) were closing their back episodes and charging money for
| them; I figured that's why Google decided to stop the service.
| dirtyid wrote:
| Did Listen not support password protected feeds? I remember a
| solid 2-3 years after Listen was killed (2012-2015) where
| Android had no passable podcast player.
| dirtyid wrote:
| Pretty sure Feedly supports feed history, takes some time to
| pull archive onto their servers on obscure feeds though.
| gareve wrote:
| Hug of Death?
| khet wrote:
| OP Here, I think so. Digging into why it's taking so long to
| load.
| whoibrar wrote:
| I got 501 Gateway, if that helps
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| A shout out for Tiny Tiny RSS[1] for a self-hosted feed reader. I
| used a heavily modified fork from years ago but the current
| version looks pretty good.
|
| (I made a couple of really simple contributions back in the day
| but decided maintaining my own fork was the easy path. The
| maintainer has a reputation for being a bit prickly to deal with.
| He wasn't uncivil or anything, but it was clearly _his_ project
| and that 's just fine.)
|
| [1] https://tt-rss.org/
| AlbertCory wrote:
| I'm living with Feedly. Reluctantly. I don't think it's very
| sticky and I'd happily switch to this thing (which is giving me
| 504 Gateway Time-out right now) if it's any better.
| petercooper wrote:
| Have a quick look at Feedbin. I've been using it for a few
| years now and it's the most Reader-ish of the options I've
| found so far. Feedly is too algorithm-y for me.
| Arainach wrote:
| What would make an RSS reader sticky? If all you want is an
| ordered list there aren't many features to keep you attached.
|
| I've been using Feedly since Reader shut down and it's been
| fine. Every time I want to add a new feed via URL I feel it's
| needlessly difficult and suspect they may have moved my cheese
| once again, but for reading the feeds I'm subscribed to it
| works great.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| > What would make an RSS reader sticky?
|
| Exactly: nothing. You can export your feeds and import them
| somewhere else.
|
| Ditto on adding new feeds. I can never remember how to do it,
| and if I do, it doesn't work anymore.
| CharlesW wrote:
| > _I 'm living with Feedly. Reluctantly._
|
| FYI, there are a bunch of apps that sync with Feedly and that
| you can use as an alternate front end. NetNewsWire (Mac, iOS)
| is one example that's worth checking out, but there are many
| options that cover every OS.
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| I've been using a self-hosted CommaFeed instance for many many
| years now and it filled a Google Reader-shaped hole in my
| reading habits perfectly.
| dirtyid wrote:
| Stuck in feedly once I started adding notes.
|
| Also very few readers has twitter/reddit support.
| morsch wrote:
| I tried Feedly for a couple of days, then I switched to Feeder
| and haven't looked back. Zero dependency on any central
| service, no user accounts, no upsell, no algorithms. I don't
| need any synchronization features, though apparently Feeder now
| has that. You're probably on iOS in which case this is no help
| to you.
|
| On a sidenote, I was shocked to find that basically all sites I
| read still have RSS feeds.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| tnx. No, no IOS. I have Feedly on both macOS and Android, and
| it works fine. But I'm not a Feedly Fanboy.
|
| RSS was a great idea, and I think reports of its death are
| greatly exaggerated.
| orcul wrote:
| My favorite web based rss reader https://bazqux.com/
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(page generated 2023-04-01 23:02 UTC)