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I just don't get RSS
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: under about 12 feet of ash from Mt. Vesuvius
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For years now I've tried to understand why some people like RSS so much and even shell out
$$$ for RSS readers. And every time I try out RSS readers, I'm like, okay, wtf? What is the big deal? I read these things in my browser already?
I just don't get RSS programs. Why would I want to have another application to present on opening, a list of items, that to read completely, requires the RSS program to open a webpage in the reader itself, or in your browser? Why not just read this in the browser in the first place? These RSS readers just seem like limited functionality web browsers.
I read an article the other other day insisting aggregators that collect and present news feeds, like RSS readers, are a big deal. WHY? I must be missing something. 
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i look in your general direction
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Nagoya, Japan • 日本 名古屋市
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I think you are missing something. 
RSS isn't for reading articles, even though some people read articles in their RSS aggregators. RSS is for notifying you when your favourite sites have updated.
For example, there about 30 blogs and websites I read regularly. Slashdot, Daring Fireball, Penny Arcade, Surfin' Safari, etc. — the list goes on. Those sites are all updated at unpredictable intervals. Some are updated frequently throughout the day, and some only once every few days. It would be silly for me to have 30 tabs open, and to constantly be refreshing each site to see if anything has changed.
Instead, an RSS news aggregator, in my case NetNewsWire, will do that tedious job for me. NetNewsWire quietly runs in the background, polling all my favourite sites every half hour. When a new entry or article shows up, it alerts me. I look at the headline and blurb, and click to open it in Safari if it looks interesting.
It's so convenient that I won't even pay regular visits any more to websites that don't offer me RSS feeds. RSS is a huge deal, because it lets me follow more websites with less effort. It also lets website authors "push" their content to me whenever it's ready.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: under about 12 feet of ash from Mt. Vesuvius
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Automatic notification of updates is a good function, I bet, since it can alter the way people receive content. It just strikes me as being more an adjunct to a web browser, a feature to be incorporated into browsers, than as a standalone. Like bookmark checking in Omniweb— the browser can check sites and feeds for you and alert you in the browser about site updates. Does anybody dispense with browsers because of these RSS readers?
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i look in your general direction
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: suburban Chicago
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I doubt if anyone dispenses with browsers, because the RSS programs only go to the sites you tell it to.
I, too, use NetNewsWire, even shelling out $25 (I think it was) for the full-featured version over the lite. I love it. I don't use it all day, but I'll go to it periodically to check on various sites and news/information. It's alerted me to sites I never heard of, but which are now part of my day.
It took a little getting used to, but I really like it now. You might want to try NetNewsWire lite, subscribing to pages you visit regularly, and see how you like it.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Toronto, ON
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Originally Posted by pliny
Automatic notification of updates is a good function, I bet, since it can alter the way people receive content. It just strikes me as being more an adjunct to a web browser, a feature to be incorporated into browsers, than as a standalone. Like bookmark checking in Omniweb— the browser can check sites and feeds for you and alert you in the browser about site updates. Does anybody dispense with browsers because of these RSS readers?
I use it more as an addition to my browser. Like others have previously said, its to alert me if a particular site has updated so i dont waste time waiting on it to load, and have an unneccesary tab open.
You should try it out with a few sites, some that update regularly, and some that are sporadically updated.
It took me awhile to get used to as well, but I have grown to use my RSS feeds more over time. Personalyl I just use the built in Safari RSS reader, I'm a minimalist but the stand alone RSS apps have their own perks, just none that appeal to me.
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MacBook Pro | 2.16 ghz core2duo | 2gb ram | superdrive | airport extreme
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Nagoya, Japan • 日本 名古屋市
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Looks like I have two new articles to check out. It doesn't get much more convenient than that.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: New York, NY, USA
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Originally Posted by CaptainHaddock
RSS isn't for reading articles, even though some people read articles in their RSS aggregators. RSS is for notifying you when your favourite sites have updated.
For example, there about 30 blogs and websites I read regularly. Slashdot, Daring Fireball, Penny Arcade, Surfin' Safari, etc. — the list goes on. Those sites are all updated at unpredictable intervals. Some are updated frequently throughout the day, and some only once every few days. It would be silly for me to have 30 tabs open, and to constantly be refreshing each site to see if anything has changed.
Eggzactly. I use NetNewsWire to monitor 50 or 60 sites, including a lot of news and politics sites. It's much easier for me to check the RSS feeds for new articles than it is to go to each site. Used this way RSS readers are information filtering tools.
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The era of anthropomorphizing hardware is over.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Yokohama, Japan
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I use the Sage extension for Firefox. To see if there are any updates to the sites I visit often, all I have to do is open the Sage sidebar and click the update button. That's much easier than visiting every single site each time I want to check for updates.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: England
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Originally Posted by pliny
Automatic notification of updates is a good function, I bet, since it can alter the way people receive content. It just strikes me as being more an adjunct to a web browser, a feature to be incorporated into browsers, than as a standalone. Like bookmark checking in Omniweb— the browser can check sites and feeds for you and alert you in the browser about site updates. Does anybody dispense with browsers because of these RSS readers?
Well, OmniWeb will treat an RSS feed in the same manner as the update notification for bookmarks, if you so desire.
I've just started a web based RSS aggregator: KickRSS. That may be more to your taste - it turns multiple RSS feeds into one web page, and then you can just bookmark the URL.
Amorya
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What the nerd community most often fail to realize is that all features aren't equal. A well implemented and well integrated feature in a convenient interface is worth way more than the same feature implemented crappy, or accessed through a annoying interface.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Feb 2004
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Using RSS feeds makes it extremely easy to browse a lot of websites. Likewise, it can contribute to information overload: it's so easy to subscribe to a website, it doesn't take long before you're checking 60, 70, 80, 90 websites, eating up all your time.
In fact, I use NetNewsWire almost as much as I use Safari. And that's a lot of use.
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there is suffering; it is caused by attachment to desire; it ends by ending attachment; freedom from suffering is through the eightfold path.
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Baninated
Join Date: May 2005
Location: England
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is there one for this forum?
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Nagoya, Japan • 日本 名古屋市
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is there one for this forum?
Unfortunately not — this forum is a little behind the times. Ideally, each forum (Applications, iPods, etc) would have an RSS feed, and each individual thread would also have one.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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RSS is extremely cool within Safari, I just don't get external readers. Safari + RSS rocks!
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Off the Tobakoff
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I, like others, rely heavily on RSS to keep me updated on a large number of sites. Some sites update a couple times a month, others a couple times a day; RSS sorts all of this out _for_ me.
Safari's browser-level integration should bypass your qualms of adding another program to merely buffer your browsing experience.
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"You rise," he said, "like Aurora." 
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: under about 12 feet of ash from Mt. Vesuvius
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Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -
RSS is extremely cool within Safari, I just don't get external readers. Safari + RSS rocks!
Yes, I like the Safari implementation too, and Omniweb's, which updates for you.
Anybody have any interesting RSS feeds below the radar/that you found through your RSS app and didnt know about before? If so, can you list a few, I'd like to check them out.
Thanks for all the replies. 
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i look in your general direction
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Far From Nova Scotia
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Sorry to jump in, but....after reading this I am not sure if I understand how RSS is used with Safari? I go on sites and I see RSS but then what? Do I need a third party app as noted above?
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Coop
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Off the Tobakoff
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Originally Posted by coopns
Sorry to jump in, but....after reading this I am not sure if I understand how RSS is used with Safari? I go on sites and I see RSS but then what? Do I need a third party app as noted above?
click the RSS
that displays the aggregation view
bookmark the new view (feed:// url)
group certain feeds together if you so choose, by folder
now you can view all articles from all feeds in a folder
you can also be updated by placing these feeds and folders in the bookmarks bar
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"You rise," he said, "like Aurora."
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