If I want to quickly pitch “you should follow X, Y, and Z using RSS because [problems with social media]” to people who have never heard of RSS, what readers should I recommend?
I want at least web (not self-hosted), Android, and iOS options. Native apps for Mac and Windows would be nice as well. Linux users probably already know what RSS is.
There absolutely must be a free option good for at least 25 feeds because unfamiliar tech is a hard enough sell without having to pay. I’ll grudgingly accept ads if that’s the tradeoff for something beginner-friendly.
Feeder is as good as it gets.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.nononsenseapps.feeder/
It’s free and open source for android.
I like Inoreader
Feedly is the most user-friendly (albeit also perhaps privacy-unfriendly) option imo. I used them for years before I started self-hosting through FreshRSS. If you are targeting someone unfamiliar, I’d go that route
Idk man. If one of my friends gave me that spiel I’d nod along and never actually download or subscribe or whatever. I have to be already interested in finding an RSS feed to have any interest in anyone’s recommendation.
Nobody is interested in finding an RSS feed. People are interested in getting updates when writers they like post new writing, when bands they like post new tour dates, etc…
One of the use cases I have in mind is styling an RSS feed as a web page and including a short explanation of how to use it. That comes with a need to suggest specific software.
I don’t think that RSS is a reasonable alternative for social media at all. Different use case for me.
I mean, I’d use it if I had a selection of known sources that publish content regularly that I like enough of to see all the content and have a website. Only a few sources actually meet that bar for me. Then, RSS lets me put a common interface on all of them, combines a list of new content.
I use something like Reddit or the Fediverse to take advantage of people finding useful content elsewhere, which is kind of a different use case.
I mean, you’re on social media here, rather than just following an RSS feed, so presumably RSS doesn’t replace social media for you either.
