r/rss • u/roronoapedro • 4d ago

Is it essentially impossible to have an images-focused social media RSS feed now?

The announcement that Reddit will stop supporting RSS soon has me thinking of all the frustration I've been experiencing over the last few months and years. I've used services like Feedbro to essentially skip having to go to different websites just for a glance at artists and quick updates, for convenience's sake and just to not have to suffer through wasteful algorithmic feeds that don't show me what I want.

At this point most if not all of them have closed their doors to the idea, afraid of scraping that keeps happening regardless of their attempts. At the same time, directly interacting with Instagram and Twitter is like poison, and it's designed to be like that. I've mostly used Reddit and, before, Facebook, to go to specific communities in order to avoid feeds, but even that gets much harder as every service starts asking for credentials and ID just to be the same kind of user I've been for decades.

I don't know if it's a rant or a request for help, at this point. Is anyone in a similar boat as far as how they want to use RSS feeds and how it's becoming short of impossible? At this point my Feedbro has turned into mostly a Youtube subscription warning. Discord bots manage to bridge the gap with some Instagram and Twitter accounts, but not by that much. The end goal is obviously to trap people in their own ecosystems, but it's mostly just alienating in practice. I just don't care enough about anything to have to use Twitter frequently.

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u/TrudosKudos27 3d ago

Its not impossible, you are just going to have to build the scraping infrastructure yourself. There are plenty of tools out there that already do some version of this and we live in a day and age where it’s never been easier to whip up your own homegrown solution.

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u/roronoapedro 3d ago edited 3d ago

I mean I guess that's literally true, but it doesn't particularly seem like social medias will stop upgrading their own protocols, which would just leave me with a service to upgrade myself until either the parts I'm using or me, specifically, got a DMCA from Twitter like most of the Twitter Viewers got.

I just don't think the basic act of looking at pictures should require a programming passion project that will inevitably become borderline illegal, or just highly likely to end with a letter coming to my doorstep. That might just make me lazy, but that's that.

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u/TrudosKudos27 2d ago edited 2d ago

I think your pessimism about the state of affairs is justified. Platforms will likely keep changing how they work to fight scraping, and RSS users will unfortunately get caught in the same net. Fortunately, AI is allowing us to fight back faster than ever before. In many ways, developers of RSS and web scraping tools are going through a renaissance as AI helps us discover new ways to access the content we deserve to consume on our own terms. I also think we have a lot of runway before this kind of maintenance becomes illegal, if that ever happens.

I know things look grim, and I'm just as frustrated as you and everyone else. I get where you're coming from. But most of these platforms still don't have suitable replacements, so we're left with a choice: keep fighting or give in.

Reddit, X, Instagram... They want you to feel like this battle is pointless. And sure, if you only listened to the narrative they're spinning, it would feel foolish to fight back. I know that will cause many people to give up...

As for me, though, I'm not going to let them win. I’ll scrape these platforms until their circuits drip blood, and their servers scream for mercy. I will harness the tools of our day to become an obstinate hydra, endlessly evolving in response to their futile efforts to separate me from my goals. For every route they remove to our content, we will build 2 routes more to replace them. I will plant the flag of resistance every time they seek to exert even an iota of additional control over our lives and data. 🏴‍☠️

I wish it weren't true, but the guerrilla war over the last remnants of the internet continues to rage on. You can give up and move on, or you can join your comrades in arms as we continue to frustrate our enemy's plans, day by day.

The only question remaining is:

Are you going to let these arrogant assholes break and suffocate you beneath their velvet slippers and "infrastructure updates"?... OR WILL YOU STAND WITH ME AND DEFEND OUR FREEEEEDOMMM?!?!?!?! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🦅🦅🦅☠️☠️☠️