Products · Product
RSS
Raised as a usability problem by 183 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 131 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Partial feed content forces a browser visit for each articleUnreviewed
20082026- Some feeds' content doesn't present well in the reader, forcing clicks through to the website2026-08-01
- Built-in reader view makes readable sites worse and unreadable sites unusable2026-05-03
- Content removed from the feed forces extra clicks to read articles2024-12-22
Too many subscriptions create an overwhelming unread pileUnreviewed
20082026- Subscribing to too many feeds leads to an overwhelming unread pile2025-04-26
- Feed becomes unusable with many subscriptions due to little organization2025-02-22
- Subscribing to 50 feeds makes the feed unusable due to poor organization2025-02-22
Finding and pasting the right feed URL is complicatedUnreviewed
20082026- Users find bookmarklet-based feed subscription confusing and unnatural, and don't know what to do next2021-03-10
- Subscribing is complicated: finding the right feed URL and pasting it into a reader2021-02-03
- Subscribing silently fails on sites that look like they have feeds2020-08-21
Unread counts cause stress, prompting bulk marking as readUnreviewed
20082026- Unread counter for sites grows huge and forces manual mark-as-read, adding work2021-12-13
- Unread counts create stress, pushing users to clear them by bulk-marking everything read2021-04-15
- Opening the reader shows about 1200 unread items, which is exhausting to sift through2013-06-18
Users must install a reader and find and curate feedsUnreviewed
20082026- Users must find and install third-party software or create an account to view feeds2024-02-07
- Normal users must install a separate reader and find and curate feeds themselves2020-03-06
- Built-in subscribe option removed, so users can't find how to subscribe to feeds2019-03-30
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Hard to explore feeds; must click through each one or import whole OPML2026-08-28
- Users struggle to find the RSS button, which differs on every website2026-08-26
- Some feeds' content doesn't present well in the reader, forcing clicks through to the website2026-08-01
- Finding a blog's feed URL requires guessing URLs or digging through page source2026-07-20
- Clicking an item's header doesn't open the article, needing a second click on the title2026-06-03
- Built-in reader view makes readable sites worse and unreadable sites unusable2026-05-03
- Clicking a feed link shows unreadable raw text, so new users leave2026-03-09
- Non-technical users bounce off RSS because it seems too complex and burdensome2025-12-05
- Clicking a feed link shows a wall of raw XML or triggers a download for newcomers2025-11-05
- Clicking a feed link shows a wall of raw XML or downloads a file2025-11-01
- Right-click and keyboard shortcuts don't work in modern RSS readers2025-10-10
- Thumbnails don't update because readers cache feeds aggressively, forcing author to change feed URL2025-10-08
- Can't find a way to read what a feed contained months earlier2025-10-05
- Subscribing to too many feeds leads to an overwhelming unread pile2025-04-26
- Subscribing to 50 feeds makes the feed unusable due to poor organization2025-02-22
- Feed becomes unusable with many subscriptions due to little organization2025-02-22
- Users can't find RSS feeds on websites because feeds aren't advertised or easy to locate2025-01-30
- Clicking the feed link downloads a .bin file instead of showing a usable feed URL2025-01-18
- Starts new users with spam entries and mixes German and English interface text2025-01-17
- Browser back after opening original article skips history, so user can't return to main page2025-01-16
- Content removed from the feed forces extra clicks to read articles2024-12-22
- Users must do legwork to learn which RSS client to use2024-11-16
- RSS reader interfaces keep failing the same way as in 19992024-11-15
- Sites make RSS feeds so difficult to find that users can't locate them2024-09-10
- Can't find the tester thing on the linked pages2024-08-22
- Adding a site shows a broken image with no error and no way to manage feeds2024-08-21
- Opening an XML feed file is not user-friendly; most people would never know how2024-06-24
- Authors can't see how their RSS feed looks without using a feed reader2024-05-15
- Unstyled feed opens as a wall of XML or triggers a download for newcomers2024-05-03
- Mastodon feed links open remote instances, requiring an annoying extra hoop to engage2024-02-25
- Website RSS buttons had inconsistent UI and UX, leaving users with a poor experience2024-02-24
- Tech-savvy user could never figure out how RSS feeds worked or how to use them2024-02-24
- RSS button gives no explanation and shows a raw XML file to average users2024-02-24
- Users must find and install third-party software or create an account to view feeds2024-02-07
- Software is slow to respond, wasting the user's time2024-01-27
- Clicking an RSS link shows an unreadable wall of text or triggers a download prompt2024-01-14
- Sites only provide headlines or snippets, so readers must open a browser anyway2024-01-08
- Button sits where it is easily mistapped while scrolling right-handed2024-01-03
- Feeds show only a blurb, forcing a browser tab to read the full article2023-12-11
- Feeds show only partial content, forcing a browser visit to each article2023-12-11
- Users can't easily tell whether a site offers an RSS feed and must hunt for it2023-12-11
- Titles containing angle brackets get damaged or obliterated by clients due to inconsistent conventions2023-11-20
- Most RSS apps fail to import the file or throw incorrect format errors2023-07-07
- Feeds are too large and irrelevant, and item categories don't help filtering2023-06-30
- Publishers can't offer RSS subscribing as frictionless as email signup2023-04-13
- Feed readers make users manually dismiss items they already saw2023-03-08
- Can't tell an RSS feed exists from the article or main page2023-01-21
- Feeds show only the first sentence, forcing users into browsers full of popups and cookie banners2022-12-31
- Selecting email in the support section doesn't work, though the site encourages it2022-12-30
- Feeds only show partial stories, forcing extra tools to get full text2022-12-23