Phantom Obligation (Text Version) | Terry Godier
But when we applied that same visual language to RSS (the unread counts, the bold text for new items, the sense of a backlog accumulating) we imported the anxiety without the cause. Nobody is waiting.
Really good essay about the design of RSS readers. If this appeals to you, check out the app by this author that implements the ideas in this essay: Current.
In summer 2024, I started a hobby project to build a personal RSS reader and I had a similar approach to what is described here: no unread counts and building a feed like view of posts across all sources, organized in a way I like. I use it every day.
If I hadn’t built this, I’d probably be using Current as my daily rss reader.