
Show HN: Feediary – RSS reader with zero tracking and zero ads - justmarkup
https://feediary.com/
======
pmoriarty
If it's not an open-source client that I can run on my own machine, I wouldn't
trust it.

There's nothing preventing a service from tracking you or giving away your
data, no matter what reassuring words they use.

~~~
justadudeama
Which client do you use?

~~~
pmoriarty
I use newsboat[1][2], an actively maintained fork of the excellent newsbeuter.

[1] - [https://newsboat.org/](https://newsboat.org/)

[2] -
[https://github.com/newsboat/newsboat](https://github.com/newsboat/newsboat)

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expertentipp
The lack of free/native RSS readers on Android/iPhone and MacOS (Thunderbird
only?) is a truly sad state of affairs. I don’t want social, I don’t want
online sychronization with whateverNews, I don’t want smart, I don’t want
premium - just let me subscribe to the bloody RSS’ URL.

~~~
jonafato
I quite liked Vienna ([http://github.com/ViennaRSS/vienna-
rss](http://github.com/ViennaRSS/vienna-rss)) while I had a Mac. It has
options to run both as a standalone application and synced with various online
services.

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TheRealPomax
Why would an RSS reader with zero tracking or ads be a selling point? Those
are not things an RSS reader should have to begin with, it's like advertising
that you made an offline garden planner without tracking or ads: that is the
expected baseline.

This seems a pretty strong case of the "having X is bad, so not having X must
be good" logical reasoning fallacy.

~~~
specializeded
_that is the expected baseline_

I don’t know what world you’re living in, but that is _absolutely not_ the
expected baseline for consumer facing software in 2018 (unfortunately).

~~~
jlarocco
> I don’t know what world you’re living in, but that is absolutely not the
> expected baseline for consumer facing software in 2018 (unfortunately).

I don't know what world you're living in, but none of the "consumer facing"
software I use has built-in tracking, including my RSS reader.

It's actually sad that apparently even the tech literate people on HN have
given up and just accept that creepy corporate tracking is a way of life.

What's even more sad is that I know many people here work for companies that
do this and they go along with it.

~~~
vvillena
If you use an RSS aggregator like Feedly, Newsblur, The Old Reader, or
Inoreader, it's safe to assume and expect they will track you. It's shitty and
there is (was?) no real alternative.

~~~
iand
The alternative is a paid reader with no ads.

~~~
brennebeck
That also works.

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nicolaslem
Congratulation on shipping it!

I definitely share the same values, so much that I developed a very similar
Open Source RSS feed reader with the exact same requirements in mind (no
tracking, no ads, no BS...).

[https://feedsubs.com](https://feedsubs.com)
([https://github.com/NicolasLM/feedsubs](https://github.com/NicolasLM/feedsubs))

~~~
mxuribe
Oh, I was excited when I read this...but there's no screenshot or demo. In any
case, kudos for building something open source!

~~~
brennebeck
I’d just like to second that. I get gp built for gp, but if you want others to
take interest...

------
listenallyall
In the 5 years I've used BazQux reader, I've never once had an ad injected,
never received a single promotional email, and if they are tracking me, they
are doing an amazing job of hiding it.

Fantastic software that I am proud to support.

bazqux.com

~~~
vshabanov
Thank you for the kind words!

Clickable link [https://bazqux.com](https://bazqux.com)

Actually BazQux Reader removes some simple tracking like 1x1 pixel
images/iframes and filters out images containing ".ads.", "feedads", "google-
analytics" and few more common ads/tracking sites. I've implemented it many
years ago when tracking fighting wasn't mainstream mostly to improve reader
speed.

I'm also planning to implement image proxy to make everything HTTPS (no mixed
HTTP/HTTPS content) and to resize overlarge images (speed again) and thinking
to add proxying of audio & video too. So site owners would not know that
you've loaded anything from them at all.

The only thing that BazQux Reader tracks is feature usage: Add/remove
subscription/star/unstar/tag/search/share/etc. And only fact of usage is
tracked, no details (e.g., no records of what article was starred/shared, only
fact that star/share was used). It helps me to get statistics of overall
reader usage but of course I don't plan to sell it (and I don't think that
anybody needs it).

BazQux Reader gets its money directly from clients. It's plain stupid to sell
data of client paying $20-$30 a year for .000001 cent and loose all the trust
(and money and self-respect).

------
frumiousirc
Let me suggest to come up with a different hook. Lack of tracking and lack of
ads are two of the fundamental defining (anti)characteristics of RSS. The
whole point of RSS is to directly connect individual content providers to
individual content consumers. This current hook is like trying to sell pillows
on the basis that they don't spontaneously explode.

~~~
piecu
Well, feedly does inject ads so it is a thing.

~~~
TheRealPomax
It is a thing, and it makes feedly a bad application. "Not having ads" does
not make your RSS reader good, it just makes it "not doing something bad and
frankly, plain stupid". Not having trackers or ads is a given, in the same way
your coffee maker doesn't come with tracking or ads, and you should go "uh,
what? no thanks I'll use something else, this is ridiculous" when you find a
coffee maker that does. Selling your coffee maker as "doesn't have tracking or
ads!" just tells us your product has nothing else worth talking about.

~~~
pinkano
Hello, thank you for your feedback. Yes, we do show ads in the Free version,
there is always Feedly Pro with no ads. Ads in the Free version help us fund
new projects and the infrastructure.

~~~
TheRealPomax
That's what paid pro accounts are for. Your product is good enough to merit
people giving you money, which lets you develop the features that pro user
benefit from, and free users get a taste of, to convince them to switch to a
pro account.

Ads as your kickstarter in the absence of a pro account user base? Sure, if
you have no other capital to work with, go for it. Still ads even after you
have a pro account system in place generating cashflow? Now you're just being
bad human beings.

------
raslakite
I tried it out for a bit and compared to my current reader of choice this is
what I miss:

\- keyboard navigation

\- expanded view (full content in the list view)

Some other remarks:

\- The pricing is a bit high for me, for a couple € more I could run my own
virtual server (which could also be used for many other things) with an
opensource feed reader.

\- Do Not Track is a nice addition but it would be better to proxy the images
through your service instead of removing them altogether.

\- The feed crawler should handle last modified and etag headers to save
bandwidth both for yourself and the content providers (it could also use a
proper user agent with a subscriber count in it).

~~~
justmarkup
Hey,

thanks for your feedback!

Keyboard shortcuts will be added in the next release (next week), and expanded
view in the Reader is also planned and will be added in some of the next
releases.

Also thanks for the other remarks, we will not decrease the price as this is
the minimum to ensure the service is sustainable. Will definitely think about
the image proxy and the etag headers.

------
unicornporn
[https://freshrss.org/](https://freshrss.org/) FTW!

------
rmm
As an aside. I absolutely hate sites that only send a partial RSS feed,
showing only the first paragraph or what have you.

I know the logic, entice me enough to click through, serve ads etc. but 90% of
the time I won't, unless I am really interested, but MOST of all, I fly for
nearly 30% of my week. First thing I do before boarding is updating my feed,
not being able to access full content has had me unsubscribe to a whole bunch
of sites in frustration.

/rant

------
syoc
I recommend [https://tt-rss.org/](https://tt-rss.org/) It is quite easy to
self host

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oxplot
Oh all these "feed readers". Long ago, I discovered you can just send feeds to
email. Once your feed is emailed to you, you can save it, forward it, read on
the web, tablet, phone. Search it like a boss, and more. I use IFTTT by the
way.

------
dewey
Another alternative that's free (they also have a paid hosted version), open
source, fast and written in Go: [https://miniflux.app](https://miniflux.app)

------
p4bl0
Well, NewsBlur gives you all that and is open source too. It's also less
expensive if you use the hosted version ($36/yr for NewsBlur vs 48€ for
feediary).

~~~
reitanqild
I have a strong feeling I tried newsblur before and didn't like it so there
might still be room for a couple of RSS readers.

(No this is not a jab at newsblur, it might be an excellent product just like
other things I don't personally like. My point is only there is room for more
products.)

Personally I use Feedbro which I find excellent:

\- works nicely (well, I had to restore my opml a couple of times) but when it
works I really like it

\- no login. No account.

\- runs locally as a Firefox extension

It is not open source though as far as I can see.

------
superkuh
Imagine saying this about a native application like it's some special feature.
Web 'apps' are terrible in so many ways.

~~~
TekMol
Why would you think native applications do not track you? They do. And they
have way more insight into your world then a web app.

~~~
stephenr
What exactly is a native app going to 'track'? It has zero access to your
browser.

~~~
yosamino
When you open the app, when you close it, which button you press, which device
you are on, which ip address this device is using ... there's a whole lot of
things that fall under the general term "tracking".

There can be arguments made about if this is good/bad/neccessary/terrible/etc.
but it's easily possible and done all the time.

Google Analytics makes it easy for example:
[https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection...](https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v4/)

~~~
stephenr
While I can see some wouldn't accept that level of information gathering, most
of that doesn't tell the app author much.

It's not like a web-app that uses GA, which in turn means google's internal
profile of you shows another app you use/etc.

The creepy level tracking that GA is possible of in a browser isn't quite
there in a native app - there's no intrinsic data storage system like cookies
that's shared between all native apps and sent automatically with http
requests.

~~~
tomsmeding
I suppose it can read/write the browser's cookie database whenever the browser
isn't running -- or maybe even when it's running, I don't know. That would
enable using Google Analytics just as if it was a webpage.

Do not forget that native code running locally is at least as powerful as X,
for almost any X that you can use on your computer. (The only thing that's
more powerful than that, is native code running locally as root.)

~~~
davchana
Really? I thought browsers encrypt their user data & such with some type of
user credentials?

~~~
icebraining
Chrome on Windows encrypts the passwords using the Windows encryption
functionality, which is tied to the user's account. Any software running on
the same account can decrypt them.

~~~
davchana
Oh ok, so but in chrome, I have to type my windows password to reveal my saved
password. Can a native.exe app do that without requiring me to type my windows
password?

~~~
icebraining
Yes; Chrome doesn't actually use that password you type for anything, it just
checks if it's correct - the function literally returns a single boolean. As
soon as you're logged into your Windows account, they are available. In fact,
if it wasn't so, Chrome would have to ask you for the Windows password for
every form it wanted to fill with a password.

------
prepend
This is neat. Can I pay a one time fee to run the service myself? Just a
simple container or package of some sort.

This seems like a neat product, but it’s better for me as a user to pay some
amount once than 4/month forever. I want to encourage you to keep building the
software, but have to keep my list of monthlies really small.

~~~
sbr464
Regarding ideas on how to charge, I like how
[https://sketchapp.com](https://sketchapp.com) handles this. Instead of
charging $799 like the old Adobe Photoshop days, they charge a lower one-time
price that receives updates for a year. You can choose to stay at that price
or upgrade. You also don't need to back pay for years you skip if you choose
to upgrade again.

~~~
dawnerd
One problem I have with that is if a designer sends me a file in a newer
version I have to upgrade even if they didn’t use a new feature. Photoshop at
least let’s you save in compat mode. So I’m basically forced to keep buying
the newest version even though I use it maybe a few times a year. Not worth
the price IMO.

~~~
sbr464
I agree with those points. It may not be best for Sketch (design software) I
was more referring to the licensing model, to offset the high lifetime price,
that may put off someone buying.

~~~
dawnerd
Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with yearly subscriptions. I happily pay for
newsblur for example.

------
xaduha
Ok, I'll give it a go. Haven't really used any since Digg Reader closed.

------
ishanjain28
> Gets super interested.

> Opens website and sees subscription based model

> no thanks.

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devindotcom
Always happy to see a new reader. My only quibble is with the name - is it
like diary or apiary?

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piecu
Did anyone use it? Is it any good?

Why there is no demo to try but it forces me to create an account?

~~~
mhb
How does it compare to yoleo, for example?

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human_error
Is RSS still alive? I'm asking this out of curiosity. I've stopped using RSS
long time ago. It has nothing to do with Google Reader. I've stopped using RSS
before Google Reader died.

~~~
dsr_
There are certain technologies that are no longer considered sexy, but are
extremely powerful for people who select the right tools and invest a little
time in learning how to get the most out of them.

Text editors like vim and emacs; email clients like mutt; NNTP clients and
text-only Usenet groups; RSS feed readers...

------
niklasbuschmann
I really like this.

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hopesthoughts
Feediary is definitely coming along nicely!

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fierarul
Where's the download button?

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pjmlp
Thunderbird is already good enough.

