Re: A Farewell to RSS

real_mardin@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Jan 15, 8:41 pm, FairFootball <FAIRFOOTBALL....@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
FairFootball wrote:
I'm not sure this is a good idea any more. As I told you I'm at the
very beginning with all this.
I went to news.individual.net and motzarella, looks like there's some
work needed to set things up, and I'm still not clear what I can do
about the spam. For the time being I don't have so much time for this.

You don't need to do anything, because there's no spam on these two. The problem for you, from what I read, is that you want to access rss from many different computers. That's the real problem, not the spam. I avoid it by always using my laptop - at home and work - and even though I use many workstations in different physical locations, they are for running simulations and such, not reading e-mail and newsgroups.



On one hand, we have the Ostriches, only too keen to tout any number
of dedicated newsreaders you might care to mention. "Spam can be
defeated with filters!", they'll tell you. These people mean well, but
either through ignorance or a nerdy style love of all things non web,
fail to recognise that 60% of USENET users access USENET via Google
Groups. To this 60%, newsreaders and filters are alien concepts. In
addition to this, the nerdy Ostriches (I don't mean to be disparaging
by using that term, but it needs to be said) fail to understand that
the new breed of internet user doesn't have the time to download
dedicated software and spend prescious time fiddling with filters and
keeping them up to date. By touting newsreader filters as the
solution, all these people are going to achieve is to keep the group
going between the few who use it. The problem is, over time, these
numbers will gradually dwindle and with new users not attracted to the
group because of the spam problem, rss will die.

You're misrepresenting the facts. If you use the right servers, there's no need to configure any filters. Plus, I use the same software for e-mail and news, with the same interface. Can you say the same about the hoggish web interfaces? Most definitely not! I have 6 e-mail accounts; all of them have web interfaces, and each is different. Guess what, I'm /not/ using them; my e-mail client (Thunderbird in this case) is consistent and useful for all of them at once. And posts to rss with no problem, and sees no spam. You only download it once, then it updates itself. There go most of your arguments, except one - that most people really /do/ use Google groups, where they shouldn't, and this here is an effort to educate them and show them the better way.



Equally baffling, though, has been the response of the fiddlers. These
people have enough foresight to recognise the fate of the group as set
out above, but steadfastly refuse to do anything positive to solve the
problem because, errrrm, "web things suck". Which is a bit like
refusing to leave your village house which, although is situated in an
admittedly nice location, is falling to pieces around you. You could
move into your families' vacant home in the City, gleaming, new and
very secure, but you're too proud to, because, errrm, "the city
sucks".........

"Very secure", LOL. Have you ever been attacked by a malicious or hijacked e-mail server? I'm not denying the usefulness of web applications, but e-mail and newsgroups isn't one of them.



USENET is clearly no longer working for rss, but this is the era of
The Emperor's Old Clothes, so everybody clings onto the mistaken
belief that it's the best method out there for delivering the group.

The belief is not mistaken. It is the best method.


We've even had bonkers suggestions making out that USENET is quicker
than a web forum (eerrrrr, no - by their very nature, web forums
upload instantly - try seeing how instant USENET is when the google
server is having an off day).

Exactly, you're throwing stones into your own garden, by giving google as example for a newsserver. Normal nntp servers work just as fast as forums.



I have set out one solution for modernising rss, the rss community
forum which can be found here:

http://rsscommunity.myfastforum.org/

The forum is spam free. Let us not forget that spam is the root cause
of the problems we're suffering. Why would you even want to spend time
setting up filters to battle spam when we have a perfectly good spam
free method of delivering rss waiting to be used?

That's a good solution, and I applaud you for it, but it is not a replacement for rss, just a nice addition. I might join, if I haven't already (I don't remember), but don't expect me to be as active there as here.


Thach has also come up with a good idea, a Facebook group for rss.

Yes. Same to be said for it as for your forum - nice addition.


Turning the group into an e-mail list would be another solution.

No. As if anybody needs any more e-mail than we already get. The participation in these things /must/ be strictly on-request; stuffing them down your mailbox is not acceptable.


If
anyone else has any positive solutions to save the group that don't
include newsgroup filters (outdated, alienate new users),

Using real newsservers with real e-mail/news clients does not require any filters, that's a strawman.

--
No, no, you can't e-mail me with the nono.
.

Relevant Pages

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