@neil
I like spelling it out: Really Simple Syndication. In my mind, it has a kind of whimsy, like the Very Large Telescope.
@neil Non-nerds are more likely to think about apps and services than the underlying technology. "Subscribe to my feed with feedly or inoreader" is probably a more comprehensible call to action to someone unfamiliar with RSS, whatever the underlying protocol is named. It might also help with the initial decision paralysis (what RSS client/masto instance/Linux distro should I choose?) But then tying your ask to particular products or services somewhat negates the point..
@neil Well "Pocket" is available.
(Yes, I know it's not the same - don't spoil a bad gag)
@aral, this. I think the bigger problem is not the name, but that you do not have a simple button in the browser anymore.
Also it sounds like "everyone" was using Google News, but not as many follow feeds now, IMHO because feed readers are now ever so slightly less convenient than "this got shoved in my face together with my 'free' email account and 'everyone' uses it".
So a bit more effort required to find feeds, a bit more to find readers, it adds up.
@gvlx @hook @neil Shouldn’t even need an extension or a separate app. This is how it used to be before browser vendors (read: surveillance capitalists) removed the functionality because it was contrary to their business models.
When farming people *isn’t* your business model, it makes perfect sense. e.g., see Vivaldi: https://vivaldi.com/features/feed-reader/
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@neil Focus Feed? Browsers have literally implemented “Reader” modes to fetch a whole page and then hide images and ads so people can read articles easier. They could have just been fetching/displaying the RSS feed. Which is not the same as an aggregator, but you could then have a pop up “add to your focus feed?” like it was 2001 again wi the in-browser RSS.
@neil I think the cognitive space of "feeds" has changed so much that RSS faces a lot of well funded competition. Nobody is promoting RSS so accessing the feed is a chore. The URI schemes are not standardized.
So much effort these days goes into monetization. I can see why; hosting is expensive. If RSS was ever a medium that mitigated hosting costs, there are many alternatives such as Facebook, Instagram, Tik-tok and X. They've already signed a contract with Mephistopheles. Ads are the price.
@neil It's not the name a problem but how you set it up - people won't bother to install and then manually add websites one by one into the feed aggregator app - too troublesome for current ADHD folk :D
