Re:Firefox removes core product support for RSS/Atom feeds
by kgwxd on Saturday October 13, 2018 @07:58PM
(#18210636)
RSS readers are fine, there's tons of them available. There's no need for it to be built into a browser or email client and there's definitely no need for it to be a hosted service. Firefox did the right thing. Open source, dedicated RSS client software is readily available and likely needs very little maintenance at this point, so we don't have to worry about useless middle-men getting bored.
Every site I've cared to "subscribe" to has an RSS feed somewhere, so that end of things is still alive and well. I don't see any reason for them to stop either, I still end up at their site (assuming they only publish links) and that's all they can hope for.
The sad truth is that RSS is a product designed for an internet that doesn't really exist anymore (blogosphere on top of the open web). The reason everyone is dropping support for RSS is because not enough people are using it.
Besides the consumers not using it anymore you also see producers moving behind paywalls or pushing people to their website so they can click ads (media), and everyone else uses a few closed platforms (twitter, facebook).
EDIT: I personally would choose an RSS feed over Facebook's newsfeed any day of the week. Including having to go through the hassle of keeping my subscriptions up to date and going out of my way to find new sources. Unfortunately the reality is that mass consumers don't agree and FB has over 2 billion users whereas RSS readers are dropping left and right because no one is using them.