Here’s something that appears slightly unsettling to me these days.
Recently I unsubscribed from a bunch of email-newsletters from Tech sites (which used to end up in my inbox at a regular interval) - and instead switched over to an RSS reader (Feeder from F-Droid), and added the feeds from as many of those Tech sites in my reader as I could.
My whole point for doing this was to ensure that I follow stuff on my own terms - and also I get all the feed in one place (one app) instead of those newsletter emails taking me to their individual Tech Sites.
And in spite of being old school, I always thought RSS to be cool tech, just like Radio!
Some of the tech sites I subscribed for newsletter are Android Authority, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Digital Trends, Engadget, TechCrunch, TechRadar, PC World, Mashable,… You get the idea.
What I am noticing is that most of the feeds from these sites are blatantly “Promotional” in nature - e.g.
“The best robot vacuums for hardwood will keep those floors looking spiffy”
“The best home security camera ahead of Prime Day”
“Get a Microsoft Office lifetime license for/an all time low price”
“The best T-Mobile deals of October 2023”
“Best early October Prime day tech deals”
…and don’t get me started about ExpressVPN sponsored posts…
Unsurprisingly, I do see that almost all of them carry sponsored/affiliated links.
Seriously ?? I can’t focus on just the tech news, and avoid these promotional BS ?
Would love to hear if anyone else experienced this, and any workaround there might be.
Lemmy has RSS feeds. Follow catalogues you like, subscribe to blogs when you like articles and the feed seems to have high signal to noise. I started with 6 feeds 2 months ago, now I subscribe to just under 90 different feeds of personal blogs, substacks, and media organizations.
Muting also works for RSS (depending on client). If a feed is generally good but posts a sponsored “deal of the day” in a way that can be filtered, you can add that to your filter.
Also, your local independent newspaper may have an RSS feed. Follow what’s going on in your neighborhood, not just online.