DonationCoder.com Forum

Main Area and Open Discussion => General Software Discussion => Topic started by: jgpaiva on March 30, 2006, 06:28 PM

Title: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: jgpaiva on March 30, 2006, 06:28 PM

In the line with the recent AlertBear Mini-Review by moerl (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=3015.0), and the whole Discussion About AlertBear (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2956.0), and also on GreatNews RSS Reader (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=502.0), i decided to open this poll, to assess how much people really do use RSS feeds.

So... Please enlighten us with your opinion! :)

Title: Re: Do you use rss feeds?
Post by: mouser on March 30, 2006, 06:48 PM

this might be of interest:

zaine restarted blogging recently and his latest post is:
http://www.thegsblog.com/?p=75

Well, I’m here to eat a big plate of crow. I’ve been highly critical of subscription-based software for over a year now, but FeedDemon 2.0 has surprised me..

Title: Re: Do you use rss feeds?
Post by: allen on March 30, 2006, 09:12 PM

I love and hate RSS.  I love that I can keep up with all my favorite sites within a single application, but hate it when I get too many I'm interested in and watch hours disappear reading.  I'm more disciplined, now, maintaining a relatively small opml.

Title: Re: Do you use rss feeds?
Post by: taichimaster on March 30, 2006, 09:23 PM

I love and hate RSS.  I love that I can keep up with all my favorite sites within a single application, but hate it when I get too many I'm interested in and watch hours disappear reading.  I'm more disciplined, now, maintaining a relatively small opml.

-allen (March 30, 2006, 09:12 PM)

I also have the information overload syndrome.  I subscribed to a ton of feeds but never find time to read them all.  I used to feel compelled to read all of them just like my emails, but I don't do that anymore.  Also, FeedDemon allows you to 'watch' certain keywords on your subscribed feeds and filter them into a different folder, and that helps a little.

Title: Re: Do you use rss feeds?
Post by: zridling on March 30, 2006, 10:06 PM

allen hits on a serious problem — I'm addicted to information — it's my soap opera every day — and my OPML file is so large that I avoid it. I answer email once a week or less most of the time for the same reason: so much to plow through, and when I'm done, I'm exhausted. Thanks to Newsgator's about face on subscriptions, I recently recanted my rants against FeedDemon.

Title: Re: Do you use rss feeds?
Post by: moerl on March 30, 2006, 11:30 PM

My choice for the poll would have been "Yes, I love them, but I wouldn't die if they weren't here". I chose the second one from the top. I can't say I couldn't live without RSS.. but I do love the fact that it exists. I haven't been reading any newsfeeds in over a week, simply because I haven't installed a newsreader since my last fresh installation of Windows, which happened, well, about a week ago :)

I still have to install GreatNews to see if it's as good as FeedDemon. I've tried it before, of course, but it was at a time when I wasn't even too fond of FeedDemon. I have a different perspective now and am eager to judge GreatNews RSS based on that new view. :)

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: epopuI on April 02, 2006, 10:46 AM

I've used Abilon for my RSS reader for a couple of years.  Added DonationCoder to it.  It's been reliable, not bloated, and is free.  I keep my feeds down to a reasonable number and then only read them once per day - more like the newspaper but I must admit I prefer that than to all the newsletters I used to get.  When I am 'working' I not really interested in being interupted by a scroller/ticker it becomes counter productive very quickly.  So I guess I would say, "I can't live without it" now!

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: kanelg on April 02, 2006, 11:47 AM

No I found what i want in Internet

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: f0dder on April 02, 2006, 04:38 PM

I use Website Watcher for my RSS feeds, because I haven't found anything that does it better (or rather, does it better without an insane memory load or huge executable files).

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: brotherS on April 03, 2006, 02:46 AM

I use Website Watcher for my RSS feeds, because I haven't found anything that does it better (or rather, does it better without an insane memory load or huge executable files).

-f0dder (April 02, 2006, 04:38 PM)

Here's what you need: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=3015.0 :)

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: jgpaiva on April 03, 2006, 05:21 AM

Here's what you need: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=3015.0 :)

-brotherS (April 03, 2006, 02:46 AM)

EhEh.. And AlertBear strikes again!
Well.. You made my mind, I'm going to give it a go ;)

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: f0dder on April 03, 2006, 08:27 AM

Hm, I had stayed away from AlertBear because it's .NET, but it actually starts fast enough. 170meg VM usage and 23meg private bytes is a bit more than I'd like for an app like this, but I guess I'll live - the interface *is* nice and slick. But I'll probably miss the RegExp features of website watcher...

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: brotherS on April 03, 2006, 02:58 PM

but I guess I'll live - the interface *is* nice and slick. But I'll probably miss the RegExp features of website watcher...

-f0dder (April 03, 2006, 08:27 AM)

What for are you using RegEx together with RSS feeds?
 

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: f0dder on April 03, 2006, 03:02 PM

but I guess I'll live - the interface *is* nice and slick. But I'll probably miss the RegExp features of website watcher...

-f0dder (April 03, 2006, 08:27 AM)

What for are you using RegEx together with RSS feeds?

-brotherS (April 03, 2006, 02:58 PM)

Ignoring dynamic parts of a feed - like "Times viewed *", which shouldn't trigger the feed item as 'new', only new items or changed 'content' should trigger...

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: moerl on April 03, 2006, 03:07 PM

but I guess I'll live - the interface *is* nice and slick. But I'll probably miss the RegExp features of website watcher...

-f0dder (April 03, 2006, 08:27 AM)

What for are you using RegEx together with RSS feeds?

-brotherS (April 03, 2006, 02:58 PM)

Ignoring dynamic parts of a feed - like "Times viewed *", which shouldn't trigger the feed item as 'new', only new items or changed 'content' should trigger...

-f0dder (April 03, 2006, 03:02 PM)

But then you're talking about tracked websites... not actual RSS or Atom newsfeeds. With the latter, you don't have to ignore anything. When a new feed entry is up, you get it, whatever the time or any other counter on the page.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: f0dder on April 03, 2006, 03:11 PM

but I guess I'll live - the interface *is* nice and slick. But I'll probably miss the RegExp features of website watcher...

-f0dder (April 03, 2006, 08:27 AM)

What for are you using RegEx together with RSS feeds?

-brotherS (April 03, 2006, 02:58 PM)

Ignoring dynamic parts of a feed - like "Times viewed *", which shouldn't trigger the feed item as 'new', only new items or changed 'content' should trigger...

-f0dder (April 03, 2006, 03:02 PM)

But then you're talking about tracked websites... not actual RSS or Atom newsfeeds. With the latter, you don't have to ignore anything. When a new feed entry is up, you get it, whatever the time or any other counter on the page.

-moerl (April 03, 2006, 03:07 PM)

Perhaps - but it's still a form of RSS... but for "normal" RSS feeds, AleartBear certainly looks wonderful.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: cdplayer on April 04, 2006, 08:54 PM

I love RSS feeds!

They save me a few mins a day. I can hit several sites every easily. I get the major info without having to go fishing around for it on the site. :Thmbsup:

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: housetier on April 04, 2006, 10:42 PM

Oh yes I use RSS feeds. All the time.

As a matter of fact, all all the news (well, their headlines) I read come rom several RSS-feeds. As an opensource zealot I use opensource software. After trying several programs and browser plugins and taskbar applet I settled for Liferea (http://liferea.sourceforge.net/), the Liux feed reader. It worked very nicely so far, I don't think I'll change soon. I like it because it seems to use very few system resources.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Loonier on April 05, 2006, 01:23 AM

I use Newsgator because it has a reasonable interface and, eh, it's a free service I can access from any networked computer.  I, too, have way too many feeds (so get rid of some, dummy), and have found that, once you get behind, it can be almost impossible to catch up.  I must have 1500+ articles which I have yet to assess!  Help...  [Can't keep up with e-mail either.]

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: dpierron on April 05, 2006, 03:47 AM

I use RSS a lot for reading news while I commute.
I have a laptop, but no internet connection in the train, so I use Omea Reader (free version, my review here (http://www.davidsoft.org/posts/omea-reader/)) to aggregate all the feeds I'm interested into, and download them in the morning, then read them "newspaper style" while in the train...

That usually saves about one hour of my time, each day, from surfing 20+ websites for news...

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: brotherS on April 05, 2006, 04:13 AM

I use RSS a lot for reading news while I commute.
I have a laptop, but no internet connection in the train, so I use Omea Reader (free version, my review here (http://www.davidsoft.org/posts/omea-reader/)) to aggregate all the feeds I'm interested into, and download them in the morning, then read them "newspaper style" while in the train...

-dpierron (April 05, 2006, 03:47 AM)

So the complete, full articles, including images (if there are any) are downloaded in the morning, yes? Sounds like a brilliant idea for anyone commuting and not having to drive!

Could you post a screenshot of how that looks? I'm curious :)

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: dpierron on April 05, 2006, 04:33 AM

Sure, here they are (attached).

First, while connected (in the morning), I update all the feeds ; then, I select the 'Root' folder (which contains a tree with all my feeds) and Omea Reader creates a huge newspaper view of all the feeds I'm subscribed to : first screenshot.

Then, I switch Internet Explorer to offline mode (I've got a .reg file to do that, as explained in my review) and restart Omea Reader.

During my commute, I read my feeds, which are organized into categories and into 3 'Workspaces' (see the tabs at the top) : second screenshot.

Whenever, while reading, I want to bookmark an item (to report it to a friend, or further read on the net, ...) I flag it ; and, when connected again, I can browse my flagged items : third screenshot.

Sorry about this poor review, I'm not used to it and I'm trying to make it quick : I'm at work ;o)

PS : I love Screenshot Captor !

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: jgpaiva on April 05, 2006, 04:35 AM

PS : I love Screenshot Captor !

-dpierron (April 05, 2006, 04:33 AM)

agreed!  :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: brotherS on April 05, 2006, 06:15 AM

Sorry about this poor review, I'm not used to it and I'm trying to make it quick : I'm at work ;o)

-dpierron (April 05, 2006, 04:33 AM)

It's better than a review without any pics :D Now I better understand it, I like that you are able to flag stuff there!

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: superboyac on April 07, 2006, 10:52 AM

I'll admit, I don't know too much about rss feeds, but I tried using them for a while.  Here's my experience, please fill me in on the points I am not understanding.

There are a few forums I want to keep track of, so obviously rss feeds are good for that.  The thing I didn't like was that rss feeds don't actually give the whole thread or information, they just give a few lines of the whole thread.  Is this true for all rss feeds?  To get the whole feed, you still have to go to the actual website, whether that is supported inside the actual application or using your regular web browser.  Right?  So, basically, I get a taste of the thread, but I still have to go the website to read the whole thing.  That didn't do much for me.  I'd rather be able to have the complete threads from all the forums come into the application where I can read all of them in their entireity in one place.  Was it my setup that was wrong, or is this really how rss feeds work?

maybe this omea reader is the solution...

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: brotherS on April 07, 2006, 12:46 PM

There are a few forums I want to keep track of, so obviously rss feeds are good for that.  The thing I didn't like was that rss feeds don't actually give the whole thread or information, they just give a few lines of the whole thread.  Is this true for all rss feeds? 

-superboyac (April 07, 2006, 10:52 AM)

Yes!

To get the whole feed, you still have to go to the actual website, whether that is supported inside the actual application or using your regular web browser.  Right?  So, basically, I get a taste of the thread, but I still have to go the website to read the whole thing.  That didn't do much for me.  I'd rather be able to have the complete threads from all the forums come into the application where I can read all of them in their entireity in one place.  Was it my setup that was wrong, or is this really how rss feeds work?

RSS feeds can't work the way you suggest, that would defeat the purpose of RSS. While RSS is often translated to "Really Simple Syndication" you want "Really Not A Simple Syndication"...
;)

Many pages contain images, video content, ads (they need to refinance their sites somehow) or articles are spread over more than one page only (I wonder how those newspaper style readers handle those), so it would mean LOTS of bandwith to transfer EVERYTHING when the typical RSS feed reader is only interested in a few % of the feed items.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: superboyac on April 07, 2006, 12:59 PM

Perhaps the following is a good solution, and I don't know if any of the existing softwares do this:

All of the text parts of the thread will appear in the rss reader, but for any noncompatible objects (like video or pictures), you can click on the link to the thread to read it in the original webpage.  But it would be nice to get all the text at least.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: skwire on April 10, 2006, 01:52 AM

My favourite feed reader is RSS Bandit.  It has a synch feature that I love...makes reading feeds between work and home much much easier.

http://www.rssbandit.org (http://www.rssbandit.org)

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: brotherS on April 10, 2006, 02:02 AM

It has a synch feature that I love...makes reading feeds between work and home much much easier.

-skwire (April 10, 2006, 01:52 AM)

Now that's a smart idea!  :up:

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: dpierron on April 10, 2006, 02:53 AM

Yes, I tried it and it was very good. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to download the web content of the RSS news items in an offline cache, to read offline while commuting ; did that situation evolve ?

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: skwire on April 10, 2006, 03:12 AM

Yes, I tried it and it was very good. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to download the web content of the RSS news items in an offline cache, to read offline while commuting ; did that situation evolve ?

I've no idea as I don't use the offline mode.  Apologies.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: dpierron on April 10, 2006, 03:49 AM

No problem ; I shall try that for myself, and answer my own question here  ;)

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: moerl on April 10, 2006, 12:11 PM

Oh crap.. RSS Bandit looks really good, actually :). Have to give that a shot. I don't know why I have never considered it before, but judging just by the screenshots, I already know I'll like it better than Greatnews, if for no other reason than that it has a vertical layout!

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: moerl on April 10, 2006, 12:14 PM

Just wondering.. any idea on whether it is still being worked on? Of course it may be too soon to ask this.. but if there is one thing I have a hard time doing it's using software that is not supported anymore.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: allen on April 10, 2006, 12:19 PM

Don't know -- I know where you're coming from, though.  Even an application that is seemingly perfect, knowing it's abandoned just makes me . . . abandon it.  I loved, for example, Lektora (http://www.lektora.com) -- but it went for a long time looking abandoned.  I think it's back in development again, but . . . I don't feel like launching Firefox or Internet Explorer for it. So it goes.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: moerl on April 10, 2006, 12:34 PM

Don't know -- I know where you're coming from, though.  Even an application that is seemingly perfect, knowing it's abandoned just makes me . . . abandon it.  I loved, for example, Lektora (http://www.lektora.com) -- but it went for a long time looking abandoned.  I think it's back in development again, but . . . I don't feel like launching Firefox or Internet Explorer for it. So it goes.

-allen (April 10, 2006, 12:19 PM)

Now that you mention it, Lektora does look cool as hell :). Is the project dead? :P
But yeah.. I don't like using anything that isn't worked on anymore. Especially since nothing is perfect and can always use improvements.. so if I use software like that with the knowledge that those bugs will NEVER be fixed.. what's the point? May as well use something that is still actively being worked on.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: skwire on April 10, 2006, 02:41 PM

Just wondering.. any idea on whether it is still being worked on? Of course it may be too soon to ask this.. but if there is one thing I have a hard time doing it's using software that is not supported anymore.

Yes, it is.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Redhat on April 11, 2006, 02:26 AM

Personally use FeedDemon/FeedStation for RSS and Podcasts :) Has everything I need and 2.0 is really responsive - unlike the betas (for me)  :)

I voted for the second from top option - I use them everyday, but I could live without them - it would just take more time  :D

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: allen on April 11, 2006, 05:52 AM

Now that you mention it, Lektora does look cool as hell :). Is the project dead? :P
But yeah.. I don't like using anything that isn't worked on anymore. Especially since nothing is perfect and can always use improvements.. so if I use software like that with the knowledge that those bugs will NEVER be fixed.. what's the point? May as well use something that is still actively being worked on.

-moerl (April 10, 2006, 12:34 PM)

Lektora does a great job -- and can be manipulated as easily with the mouse or keyboard.  I just wish it was standalone rather than browser integrated.  Anyway, it looks like it's un-abandoned.  They website has had a total (and very much for the better) facelift, and there has been a significant update -- such as the ability to post to blogs as well.

The author is a competent friendly guy who I think put his eggs in that basket, found it a bit more difficult to make a living on an unknown RSS reader than he thought, and had to get a job for a while to rethink his strategy. :D

At any rate, check it out -- nothing to lose.  I handles feeds elegantly, the persistent searches are a great feature.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: moerl on April 11, 2006, 09:20 AM

I'm a little discouraged by the tagline "RSS for bloggers". It sounds like it's very much a tool specifically geared toward bloggers who like to grab content from other blogs they may also want to blog about. Do you think it's a good RSS reader if it is judged by that function alone?

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: allen on April 11, 2006, 09:36 AM

I'm a little discouraged by the tagline "RSS for bloggers". It sounds like it's very much a tool specifically geared toward bloggers who like to grab content from other blogs they may also want to blog about. Do you think it's a good RSS reader if it is judged by that function alone?

-moerl (April 11, 2006, 09:20 AM)

That's relatively new stuff, I can only vouch for the reading aspect of it -- which was a solid, albeit different, approach to feed reading than your typical e-mail-esque readers.  That said, I think that the blog writing features are more a partnership -- with Qumana.   Don't know if it can be removed or optionally not installed, but Lektora was originally nothing more than a reader and I found it to be quite good for reading.  It was solid before it became "RSS for bloggers".  I'm assuming the reader is still wholly intact.

Note: Lektora is a relatively simple reader, no excess (except maybe the ability to post to blogs, now :) -- just what was necessary to effectively read your feeds plus the ability to add persistent searches as virtual feeds into your newspaper.  I'd always thought "Lekrota: RSS, to the point" would have made a good slogan -- it's short, sweet, to the point :D

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: moerl on April 11, 2006, 10:03 PM

Cool. That changes the whole picture of course. Thank you! Will have to give it a shot then :)
I'm still trying to become friends with RSS Bandit. Our first date wasn't as smooth as it could have been. Maybe the second one will be better :P

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: jgpaiva on April 12, 2006, 03:45 AM

Maybe the second one will be better :P

-moerl (April 11, 2006, 10:03 PM)

It's unbelievable the amount of times that smilie gets misused.  ;D

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: f0dder on April 12, 2006, 04:35 AM

Maybe the second one will be better :P

-moerl (April 11, 2006, 10:03 PM)

It's unbelievable the amount of times that smilie gets misused.  ;D

-jgpaiva (April 12, 2006, 03:45 AM)

Mouser needs to fix the smiley :(

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: moerl on April 12, 2006, 04:54 PM

Indeed. It's supposed to be a smiley sticking out his tongue, not one that looks like he's sick to his stomach..

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Dennis the Menace on May 04, 2006, 01:02 PM

I use Feed Demon for my feeds and use it daily, don't know how I managed before I got it.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: moerl on May 04, 2006, 08:51 PM

I use Feed Demon for my feeds and use it daily, don't know how I managed before I got it.

-Dennis the Menace (May 04, 2006, 01:02 PM)

It's the best. By far. I tried out so many different readers and in the end simply came back to FeedDemon.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: bliss on May 05, 2006, 02:58 AM

My favorite is Firefox. I have a drop-down menu with 13 Newspaper headline feeds. It's easy to scan a few hundred Headlines then open up a few at a time in different tabs. Very efficient!

My previous favorite was Serence Klip Folio which let me put a whole series of buttons across the bottom of the screen. Each button would pop-up a menu fo the RSS feed's headlines. Oddly enough KlipFolio claims to be built on Mozilla -so i guess there are versions for real operating systems too. I really liked it, but personally I found Firefox the simplest.

Using Firefox is a bit foxy in that adding new feed requires cut & paste, and to make a new 'Live Bookmark' from the 'Manage Bookmarks' window.

I really wish Firefox could deal with Favorites properly, it would make the whole process so much easier.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Carol Haynes on May 05, 2006, 03:57 AM

You don't need to add RSS feeds to the Live Bookmarks bar using cut and paste. Just navigate to the page where the RSS link is to the feed and a symbol appears in the address bar. Click on it and it will list all feeds on that page and let you subscribe to them instantly. (If you are reading this in Firefox the icon is there now at the right hand end of the address bar - in the default theme it is orange).

If you want to use RSS in Firefox a better way is to use the extension 'Sage'. See my mini review here https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1685.msg24084#msg24084.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Renegade on May 05, 2006, 10:18 AM

Right now I'm using RSS only for podcasts for my iPod. (Before anyone freaks - The iPod isn't that bad... it's iTunes that could use some help.)

I'm also using custom XML feeds for GDT (http://renegademinds.com/Default.aspx?tabid=65), my MP3 player software for musicians. XML is just so amazing to work with. *.gdt song configuration files are all just XML.

I've seen a few people post about RSS readers, but can anyone recommend anything that's top notch? I really don't like to fiddle too much with software and prefer that things just work easily. Most often I don't even need that much power from a lot of software. So anything decent that will work and let me configure things nicely would be perfect.

Yes -  I'm being lazy - Just no time to fiddle. I prefer recommendations to start with as opposed to trying out 50 different things...

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: moerl on May 08, 2006, 03:19 AM

Right now I'm using RSS only for podcasts for my iPod. (Before anyone freaks - The iPod isn't that bad... it's iTunes that could use some help.)

I'm also using custom XML feeds for GDT (http://renegademinds.com/Default.aspx?tabid=65), my MP3 player software for musicians. XML is just so amazing to work with. *.gdt song configuration files are all just XML.

I've seen a few people post about RSS readers, but can anyone recommend anything that's top notch? I really don't like to fiddle too much with software and prefer that things just work easily. Most often I don't even need that much power from a lot of software. So anything decent that will work and let me configure things nicely would be perfect.

Yes -  I'm being lazy - Just no time to fiddle. I prefer recommendations to start with as opposed to trying out 50 different things...

-Renegade (May 05, 2006, 10:18 AM)

I swear by FeedDemon. It isn't free, but I'll be damned if it isn't the best feed reader in existence. A good free one is GreatNews Newsreader, though I do not like it nearly as much as I like FeedDemon. If you'd like to stay free, however, GreatNews is a very good option. If you use Thunderbird for email, it can handle newsfeeds as well. I used it for quite a while that way and loved it, but of course it would not survive a comparison to any serious, real feedreader. Or, use Firefox, as bliss said above.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: m_s on May 08, 2006, 03:28 AM

I searched around quite a bit, and tried several readers.  GreatNews was definitely closest second runner, but I finally paid for FeedDemon a few weeks back - it's great!

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Armando on December 04, 2007, 10:32 PM

Bump...

I've tried quite a few RSS feed readers, and I found that one common annoyance is the inability to support folders (categories) hierarchies for better organization of your feeds. Weird. GreatNews, FeedDemon, FeedReader, you name it : they can't do that.

Of the one I tried, only NewzCrawler and RSSOwl support true "categories" hierarchies. There might be others...

I must say that I was impressed with NewzCrawler when I tried it a while ago. Pretty light, lots of features, smart folders, category hierarchies... For a while I wondered  if development had stopped or what… But there was recently an announcement about version 1.9 :  http://www.newzcrawler.com/news.shtml .

Anybody here used NewzCrawler for a while and could comment ?

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: muntealb on December 04, 2007, 11:17 PM

Newzie ( http://newzie.com/ ) supports folders. Click on the button "Switch to TreeView" (the icon is suggestive) to manage the feeds and folders. Newzie is free.

I have tested Newzcrawler and it is very good. Read the Newzcrawler forums to see if there are problems that could annoy you.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Armando on December 05, 2007, 06:19 PM

Thanks for the link  ! :)

Newzie looks interesting. I've installed it and started to play with it. It doesn't seem to play well with keyboard shortcuts... But, on the "plus" side, it seems to have a kind of WebsiteWatcher feature-- ie : it doesn't only monitor RSS feeds but also web pages ! I'll use it more before saying anything else...

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: lanux128 on December 05, 2007, 11:00 PM

+1 for newzie (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=10885.msg86414#msg86414)! i too like the ability to monitor web-pages eventhough sometimes the non-standard windows can get in the way..

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Armando on December 05, 2007, 11:02 PM

I wonder : is the whole thing coded in java ???

Lanux : did you find any useful keyboard shortcuts? EDIT : never mind  :-[ : they're partly customizable via the preferences!

(BTW  : thanks for the screenshot !)

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: lanux128 on December 05, 2007, 11:30 PM

I wonder : is the whole thing coded in java ???

-Armando (December 05, 2007, 11:02 PM)

no, i don't think so because it's a bit too fast to be running under JRE.. ;)

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Armando on December 10, 2007, 11:29 AM

Like others here (app103, muntealb,...) I find Newzie very nice.  :up:

But, like I said, there is one thing that bothers me : the complete lack of "keyboard friendliness"... I mean : I can't close option windows with [esc]... or [ctrl]+[F4] or [ctr]l+[w] won't close tabs, [alt]+[letter] won't activate the different menus, [tab] or [arrows] don't work, etc.

But... there ARE shortcuts for some other functions : like to close ALL tabs, send feedback, open preferences, ... But why only these? Weird. It's otherwise a very nice app. I wonder if the developer(s) will consider improving that aspect...

I sent him/her an email… we’ll see  :)

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: lanux128 on December 10, 2007, 06:05 PM

I sent him/her an email… we’ll see

-Armando (December 10, 2007, 11:29 AM)

please do, Armando.. i thought of adding keyboard shortcuts via AHK but maybe later.. also if you switch from "Today" panel to full-view mode, the program moves upwards by a few pixels. do you have this problem?

Today panel
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Armando on December 10, 2007, 10:14 PM

I didn't notice anything about the main window moving upward. But dragging the "today panel" can be hard though : I have to move it very slowly, otherwise the mouse pointer just slides away...!

The windows are not standard... vitalyb' alt+tab replacement for farr can't detect it properly.

But these are small small problems. Overall, I think Newzie has the potential to be one of the best rss aggregator out there (combines, RSS feeds, web pages, Bulk and virtual channels, folders (!), word filters, etc.), with NewzCrawler and a few others. Not to mention that it's free!

it's just this keyboard thing...  :(
Smart folders would be nice too.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: lanux128 on December 10, 2007, 11:42 PM

yes, i have to agree with you - the non-standard windows is a bit of a downer as it is not keyboard-centric.. i'm trying to fix that with AHK. let's see how things go from here..

[Select]

DetectHiddenWindows On
SetTitleMatchMode 2

;Close Newzie main & options window
$Escape::
IfWinActive Newzie
WinClose
Else
;else just send the keystroke
Send,{ESCAPE}
Return

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: lanux128 on December 11, 2007, 12:06 AM

just saw this on the AHK forums.. it looks like only the Newzie devs can make any changes to keyboard short-cuts.

All the controls begining with "Afx" comes froms progs developped in VC++ with the MFC. They are not standard controls and can't be managed directly with AHK. So AFAIK 2 solutions : eiter copy/pase in the control to get/put data in it (but you said you can't) or use (if suitable) an eventualy COM interface with COM.ahk or WS4AHK (search for these words in the forum if applicable to your situation).
Hope it helps.

-Zoulou

Source: http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23410

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Armando on December 11, 2007, 01:47 AM

Thanks lanux. So I guess we'll have to wait...???
(BTW : at least your little script does the job for ESC-->close window... Thanks!  :up: But I guess that's pretty much it since Newzie's "controls" can't be directly managed with AHK...)

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: muntealb on December 11, 2007, 04:05 AM

I have used Newzie for a year but now I use mainly GreatNews (one of the reasons is the fact that GN can be translated, whereas Newzie cannot be at this time). Newzie is good-looking and has some very useful features (for example the List View, that orders the feeds after the date of the last update), but it does have its share of usability problems. One is the impossibility to use an external browser. The developer responds to the e-mails usually quite rapidly, but does not always implement the requested features, although it will offer explanations for that (I wanted the tabs to be closed on double-click and I wanted also the tabs to have shorter titles, so I could open more of them).

There is room for improvement regarding the management of tabs, for example the tabs could be locked in order to not close them accidentally. Or they could be moved, etc. They could also be opened (optionally) in the background. I think I have made at least 10 suggestion like that, but they were not implemented, for various reasons. But all the bugs reported by me were fixed.

The problem seems to be that there is only one developer and it also works on Ziepod (the best podcast catcher in my opinion) and lately on a discussion platform (like a forum, but with audio posts) that was not greeted with enthusiasm.

I always recommend Newzie to the people that do not want to use GreatNews. But I also recommend Abilon ( http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/News-Newsgroups-Blog-Tools/Abilon.shtml ) , a software that is not developed anymore, but also supports folders. I had lenghty e-mail exchanges with the author of Abilon and some features were suggested by me. Unfortunately he decided to abandon the software because he lacked the time to develop it further. But the program is very stable and can be used without problems even now, even on Vista.

The sad fact is that Google Reader killed many of the RSS aggregators. I dont like GR at all, but many people use it, especially those that are not so habituated with RSS. I think GR became in just a year the most used RSS aggregator software. Some developers could not sell their programs anymore and consequently abandoned them (Abilon had also a paid version, named Active Refresh) or put them on hold for a long time (Newzcrawler).

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Armando on December 11, 2007, 04:53 PM

I might give Newzcrawler another try. I don't know if it has the "webpage watching" feature, but I remember being impressed by its general overall quality and features.

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: lanux128 on December 11, 2007, 06:26 PM

thanks for the input, muntealb.. it was great that you got in touch with the Newzie devs. and also you put out some good points such as external browser & tab management. the tab management features is not a big minus but being a Firefox user who is spoilt for choices with tab management add-ons, some extra options would be nice..

i remember trying out GreatNews some time ago but can't remember why i stopped using it, maybe it's time for another spin. Abilon sounds good but i'm a bit a wary of spending time with an abandoned projects, it's different if i'm already using it when it stopped being developed.. anyway, i hope desktop aggregators live on despite the online apps given away by Google & others..

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: muntealb on December 12, 2007, 12:37 AM

I really think that right now GreatNews is the best free RSS reader. It is stable and has all the needed functions, but more important it has the best compatibility with any type of news feed. There are feeds that Newzie refuses to display, but GN has no problems with them. Newzie also has a problem with the date of the news items, sometimes after adding a new feed the items are not arranged correctly by date and appear as having been written at the same time. Abilon is a good program, but it is not Unicode compatible, so some non-english feeds are not displayed correctly (both GreatNews and Newzie are Unicode compatible).

Title: Re: Do you use RSS feeds?
Post by: Daleus on December 12, 2007, 08:16 AM

I didn't like the questions much either.

I chose the second option, although I *don't* use them just once in a while.  I have a collection of feeds I read everyday, but I could easily live without them because I already have for 20 years ;)

As for what program, I read em all within Firefox using the "Live bookmarks" feature.  The last thing I want is yet another bloody program that I have to use.

Cheers!