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Comment by yakattak | Hacker News Reader

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yakattak

These are some ways I’ve been using the web in a way that keeps me free.

- Run my own site (not much there yet)

- Use RSS Feeds instead of Reddit

- If a YouTube creator you like has a newsletter, SIGN UP!

- If a short form content creator makes long form content, watch that instead

- Post on forums, instead of their subreddit/Discord (lots of Linux distros have all three)

- Invest in my cozy web communities[1]

Speaking of the last one there, newsletters, RSS feeds and forums are the best way to be in control of the hose of content.

Will these ever be as “big” as the monolithic platforms? No. That’s okay.

1: https://maggieappleton.com/ai-dark-forest

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rss and private forums are the soul of the internet. find your people

Thinking about it. There are some things which can be done to better sooth the private forums.

Like to me especially signing up to each and every forum and then waiting to be accepted by a person feels good but has tons of friction and has some stress attached because you never know how strict the community is as well, it might take a day or two, perhaps this is the reason why we got the dumpster fire of mega internet forums called reddit or twitter of sorts

To me, federation feels better in this context since I can still have a single identity of sorts across multiple forums and you got better idea / ways to filter as well if need be

Another thing I feel about private forums where users have to wait for permission signing up is that I feel like something even as simple as having a cute cat or cute apple LOL or anything relaxing could make it less stressful for people to join. I assume its impact would be few but it would leave a deeper impact on those who do want to join.

not essentially private per se, but usenet groups and bbs had a natural vetting because it required some competency to even access it

Listen while I tell of Christmas 1983, when every 14-year old with a VIC-20 got a cheap modem.

Seriously, haven't we been working tirelessly to expand the circle of access? Nostalgia reflects when the circle was smaller, and we felt that we knew everyone in it.

I've come around on this one. you used to be the town idiot who was a flat earther, but thanks to the internet you're part of the community

Yup, I think human curration is the way forward. Email newsletters, RSS, etc. It's "old school" but it's the sanest way.

I'm doing my part on the human curration side. My shameful plug: https://randomdailyurls.com

A human curated newsletter and site if you just prefer that. Lots of people use email --> RSS. I don't block it or stop it.

I'm quite enthusiastic about my FreshRSS instance. I got to this article/these comments from there, and I've even worked out how to add YouTube subscription feeds, and comics. Just a straightforward, chronological list of the things I've chosen to follow--no ads, no BS. It's quite refreshing, I think it's had a material impact to improve my mental health. Of course, the things that the people I follow create, and the timing of their publications is inherently influenced by algorithms, removing my direct exposure to algorithmically-defined infinite feeds has been significant.

Could you please tell us a bit more? It sounds great

There is freetube which had rss really easy to work with for youtube subscriptions.

One of my biggest issues was that on some occasions, Youtube algorithm would give me home run so I would still frequent Youtube algorithm

Another issue was that smh, youtube's rss feeds couldn't really find the difference between shorts and normal videos.

So if you have a channel which makes lots of short form content, you would see that so much more often.

Like I remember taking a few hours out of my life to fix it but ended up giving up.

Although now thinking about it, I feel like what can be done is seeing all the youtube videos and seeing all the shorts videos from an api or similar I guess and then seeing the difference and having it for an rss or such to pass another rss.

But one can see the pain in the ass for that and I am not sure how that would even work.

I must comment, Hackernews has been the perfect spot between algorithmically generated and completely self feed as it gives me new things.

is there anything like Hackernews but for youtube/video content?

Yeah I've been using RSS to keep track of new mods for Cyberpunk 2077, Skyrim and Starfield. It's been fantastic to keep them all organized.

On the newsletter front, I really don't keep up with them and have thought about reducing the number I have showing up every week. I mostly just mass delete a lot of the mail in my personal inbox a couple times a week.

I wouldn't mind getting back to reading more from RSS over aggregators, even though I often appreciate the comments on HN. Aside: it's a shame that so many sites removed comment sections, and any attempt to create a comment extension for any site turns into a cesspool.

Treat it as something you can pick from, like a pile of books, not something you have to finish, like a pile of books.

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