I see a lot of options for self-hosting RSS subscriptions and I don’t actually understand what they are for. The very nature of RSS is that it tracks and connects to online content. It seems like having a home server track and download the content just so that you can download it on another device from your server instead of the original servers a bit redundant. Also, it seems like the clients are more limited, since it has ro connect to your personal host, as opposed to the many RSS readers available.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I genuinely don’t get it. What am I missing?
I can access my RSS feeds on multiple devices without losing track of what I’ve already read.
Pardon my ignorance but isn’t that exactly what Inoreader and Feedly do?
Google reader used to to it too. Then it died.
I won’t get hurt like thst again.
Yes because they have a server
Yes, I tried both before going self hosted; and both try very hard to make your life difficult if you don’t subscribe. Actually I got hooked on RSS with Google Reader, which was a perfect, simple, free reader. It got shut down, because I guess it doesn’t make sense to provide that service for free.
Pretty much, but I keep getting burned by “free” and sometimes non-free online services. It’s a large part of why I self host the things I do.
And alot of folks are still bitter about Google Reader being shut down.