[scrollaway]

I agree that rss as a protocol doesn’t have clear incentives but I don’t think the right people have given a serious attempt at building said incentives (via examples).

One such example could be building a rss based content publisher that gives money, spotify-style, to the authors via view on their own rss clients. The publisher would have to have a good value add for a premium, too, so it’s not just an easy business but I could absolutely see it work.

Essentially it’s the same as the Spotify model. A lot of good content is available in one spot, for free, with ads and premium features, and authors are getting money for it.

Of course, if you do this, nothing stops you from … not using rss, and instead using some proprietary crap. But using rss means most blogs will already have compatibility with you ready to go so it’s a huge get for lowering the barrier of entry to your service.

This is just a 5 minutes idea I’m sure there’s lots of issues with it but I’d put money on a model like this working, given good marketing and evangelism.

[rambambram]

> But using rss means most blogs will already have compatibility with you ready to go so it’s a huge get for lowering the barrier of entry to your service.

This is a very important characteristic, making it possible for any new software to immediately deal with real content. Without paying a cent for that content.

Besides, the OP might conflate a thing or two, just like you point out. RSS is an open protocol, not a closed source app with guarded walls (there's not even a garden behind these walls anymore). RSS is so simple and open, one might even type their XML feed by hand.

[onli]

I like that idea, it could be a worthwhile project - I doubt it's for me, but I also can see this work for the right team. Many good ideas in this thread now!