PSA, you can add subreddits as an RSS to view without supporting Reddit

There’s still some subreddits I’d like to view as their communities haven’t swapped over yet. Like you guys, I obviously don’t want to support Reddit in any way shape or form. Surprisingly, they have not gutted RSS feeds yet. Simply add .rss at the end of the domain. Example

www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA

becomes:

www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA.rss

Which now works from your RSS reader, sees not ads, and can view without logging in. This also works in nsfw subreddits and apparently now “unverified” subreddits now. Depending on your RSS reader, it should also be able to grab images from posts as well. This bypass seems like an oversight for now, as this doesn’t work from the API. Remember: Reddit can still go fuck themselves.

Another small PSA: This works for Lemmy communities as well!

Crul, (edited )

This works for (almost?) any reddit URL:

Note that in the last 3 URLs, the .rss is added before the ?, in all other cases it’s at the end.

coldv,

Oh I’m not aware of the comments one! Thank you!

abff08f4813c,
abff08f4813c avatar

Is there a way to take a url like old.reddit.com/r/sub/comments/abcdef/the_post_title/ and get the post text body and the comments (at lest the first couple of levels) via rss?

Crul,

The RSS Feed with the comments of a post is on [POST URL]/comments.rss. Example:

www.reddit.com/r/…/comments.rss

The first entry is the post with the content and the next ones are the comments (all). Of course there is no nesting structure in the RSS, you need to go to reddit for that.

EDIT: There most probably be a limit in the number of elements of a feed, so if you try that with a post that already has a lot of comments, you will probably see only the last N ones. But if you add the RSS Feed of the comments of new post to your RSS Reader, it will most probably store all the elements over time, so you will have all of them there (and not only the last N ones)… unless the comments are posted too fast and/or the updating frequency of your RSS Reader is too slow.

Crul,

Oh, I also forgot:

Very useful for moderators (of not-very-large subs).

C4RP3_N0CT3M,

Good info

ContentConsumer9999,

Wait, couldn't people have used this to continue developing 3rd party apps?

Crul,

This only works for reading the content, but you cannot post or comment via RSS.

EDIT: Also, RSS feeds only contain the last N elements, so the apps would need to store all the data from Reddit… which is not practical.

mojo,

The real MVP here

betweenthesixes,

This is a great tip! Thanks for posting it.

skepticalifornia,

Sadly, Reddit appears to have pretty much broken RSS feeds. I use NetNewsWire on iPad and Feeder on Android and both of them are hardly ever updating now. Reddit appears to have implemented rate limiting.

reddit.com/…/rss_feeds_are_broken_for_most_subred…

Yet another reason to tell Reddit to go F itself…

cristorf,

Hey does this work with all subreddits? I was trying it on plenary and some appear to show up but not others. Also does anybody have any good rss reader recommendations?

Jaluvshuskies,
@Jaluvshuskies@lemmy.world avatar

Does this only work on mobile? I’ve never used an RSS reader before. I did a quick search (in Lemmy) and saw someone suggested Read You. Is that a good one? What do you guys use to view reddit stuff on desktop without supporting it?

Just trying to think ahead of time for when I inevitably need to find information (either on mobile on the go, or desktop at home) and I can’t find the answer on Lemmy

mojo,

it can run on anything from a smart fridge lol, it has been around for a very, very long time. On desktop and mobile. Read You is a good android foss app for RSS reading too. I used it a bit, I prefer Feeder personally though. Both are really good and just preference.

Jaluvshuskies,
@Jaluvshuskies@lemmy.world avatar

What are the reasons you prefer Feeder?

And do you have a desktop recommendation?

mojo,

Small things, just prefer the UX. If I swipe back on Read you, I lose my place and it’s just a bit annoying having to scroll down, so Feeder feels better to me.

Though a big difference that does put Feeder ahead is the read mode. Basically it fetches the web page and grabs the raw html from it so you can just read the text without having to open the webpage. It’s a much nicer reading experience. Also individual feeds I can set to open to reader mode custom tabs, full browser, etc.

sim642,

It will probably stop working soon so they can force everyone to look at ads in their shitty app.

aloeha,

I downloaded an app called Feedly, but it had me log into my reddit account. I just wanna make sure that I’m not giving reddit any traffic. Did I do something wrong?

Nicenightforawalk,

I just had that similar thing in Feedly so went with an all called free rss reader and it works in there

gigachad,

What do you mean by “giving reddit traffic”?

aloeha,

Maybe that’s not the correct way to say it, technically speaking, but the more traffic Reddit gets, the more money they get from advertisers. Reddit can go fuck itself so I don’t want it gaining money based off of my actions.

gigachad,

I see, but if you are logged in or not you still call content from Reddit’s server via RSS. It is probably more anonymous though.

theghostie,
theghostie avatar

Is there an Android app that will display both the post and comments in-app? It seems like all the ones I've tried can display the images/posts, but will send you to reddit if you want to read the comments.

Ones I've tried:

  • Feeder
  • Feedly
  • Plenary
  • Flym
  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • RedditMigration
  • ethstaker
  • DreamBathrooms
  • cubers
  • magazineikmin
  • InstantRegret
  • GTA5RPClips
  • thenastyranch
  • Youngstown
  • rosin
  • slotface
  • osvaldo12
  • ngwrru68w68
  • kavyap
  • everett
  • JUstTest
  • Durango
  • Leos
  • cisconetworking
  • mdbf
  • khanakhh
  • normalnudes
  • tester
  • modclub
  • anitta
  • tacticalgear
  • megavids
  • provamag3
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •