123 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
123 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
---
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title: A Better Way for Consuming Content
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description: Get your news without visiting websites with algorithms that shows content that you don't want to see.
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tags: [Tech]
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image: /blog/a-better-way-for-consuming-content/banner.webp
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imageCaption: Newspapers. Photo by Ashni on Unsplash
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date: 2024-4-11
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author: Juan Manzanero
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rss: true
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---
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 _Photo by
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[Ashni](https://unsplash.com/@ashni_ahlawat?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash)
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on
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[Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/text-ePWaAwUn80k?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash)_
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Get your news without visiting websites with algorithms that shows content that you don't want to see.
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## Algorithms that Dictates What You See
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Social media are not designed for showing you the latest and most important
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news, but for showing you content dictated by an algorithm.
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And this content is normally viral, and viral doesn't mean interesting.
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Usually this algorithm prioritizes content that get you angry.
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Content that promotes negativity gets more clicks rather than those whose
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promotes positivity.
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That's the reason why Twitter and Facebook are full of stupid and irrelevant
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posts (usually).
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Of course, it's really cool when the algorithm shows you content that you like,
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discovering new people and pages, but that's not usual.
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Without mentioning the annoying ads and more stuff that wants you to click it.
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Meta (previously Facebook) knows about this, and encourages it in their products
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like Instagram and Facebook, and the same for Twitter.
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## The Solution: News Aggregators (RSS)
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RSS is an acronym for "Really Simple Syndication".
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It's an ancient technology, not promoted so much by companies.
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That's because when you read a post in an RSS Reader, you don't need to visit
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the website, and the website can't show advertisements using Google Ads (for
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example). You don't generate traffic; your visits don't count, at least not if
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you don't open the post link in your RSS Reader.
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The good thing is that almost every RSS Reader shows you content sorted by date,
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not by a creepy algorithm that wants you to be mad.
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For my website I use a Node.js script that takes the `.mdx` files inside `content/blog` and
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`content/portfolio`, then generates the RSS Items, those with the `rss: true` in
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the metadata.
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## How to Use an RSS Reader
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First, you should download one.
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There are many options:
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- [NetNewsWire](https://netnewswire.com/): a native RSS Reader for macOS and
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iOS, free and Open Source, my favorite option as an Apple ~~Sinner~~ user
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- [Akregator](https://apps.kde.org/akregator): from the KDE project for Linux
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- [Feeder](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nononsenseapps.feeder.play):
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for Android
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- [Raven Reader](https://ravenreader.app/): desktop cross-platform
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### Adding Feeds
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Now you need to search for the RSS URL on your favorite website, like
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[this one](https://juancman.dev/rss.xml)!
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```
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https://juancman.dev/rss.xml
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```
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If you open it, you'll get a weird page with code similar to HTML.
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Once copied, go to your RSS feed and search for "Add feed" or something similar,
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and paste the link, and you're done! Now you'll get the latest posts from my
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website.
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### Adding Social Media Feeds
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You can even add feeds from sites like Reddit or YouTube.
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#### Reddit
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Just change `[SUBREDDIT]` for the name of your subreddit to add:
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```
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https://reddit.com/r/[SUBREDDIT]/new/.rss
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```
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#### YouTube
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Go to the channel to add, then go to the **About** tab, then click on **Share >
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Copy channel ID**.
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Now just change `[CHANNEL ID]` for the copied one:
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```
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https://youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=[CHANNEL ID]
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```
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### My Favorite Feeds
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- [juancman.dev (obviously!)](https://www.juancman.dev/rss.xml)
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- [Astronomic Picture of the Day (apod)](https://apod.com/feed.rss)
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- [Earth Science Picture of the Day (epod)](https://feeds2.feedburner.com/EarthSciencePictureoftheDay)
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- [Erick Murphy (cool guy)](https://ericmurphy.xyz/index.xml)
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- [Luke Smith](https://lukesmith.xyz/index.xml)
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## More About RSS
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- [Privacy Tools - RSS Feed Readers](https://www.privacytools.io/privacy-rss-feed-readers)
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- [Privacy Guides - News Aggregators](https://www.privacyguides.org/en/news-aggregators/)
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