Feedback on TAB no longer supporting full-text feeds in NewsFire

[Shpigford]

Originally Posted by Huuuze

Hey Josh. Long time reader, first time poster.

While I can appreciate your circumstance (I own and operate a website as well), I don't see this as a reasonable solution. For instance, when I visit TAB using Firefox, I have a very common ad blocking extension running (Ad Block Plus). As such, I don't see any of the ads on your homepage.

Does that mean you should ban Firefox as well? Of course not. And the same rule should apply to NewsFire users.

By blocking the full-text RSS feed, what are you really gaining? Is the cost savings significant or are you simply "sending a message"?

Considering there are many Apple RSS feeds, I'm more likely to use those rather than switch RSS readers (especially when I paid for NewsFire and feeds are free). Don't drive away loyal readers simply because they can't (and often times, don't want to) see advertisements.

(PS: Check out TechCrunch.com's RSS feed in NewsFire...they're using ads without a hitch, so it can be done.)

Hey Huuuze, thanks for being a TAB reader.

Here's the issue I have here. Of course it doesn't mean I should ban Firefox and of course I'm not. You've missed the fundamental principle I touched on in the post.

See, you choose to block ads on TAB and not support us. That's your business. That's your own morals to deal with.

NewsFire forces every use to block all ads from two major feed advertising networks (Google and FeedBurner). So whether you would like to support subscription-free content sites (like TAB) or not, you don't have a choice.

You should have a choice to support us. That's why I'm doing this.

And see my response a couple of comments up on why we aren't able to do what TC does.

[Shpigford]

Originally Posted by Huuuze

Don't drive away loyal readers simply because they can't (and often times, don't want to) see advertisements.

See, the "don't want to" part is where I can't sympathize with you. I certainly appreciate that you like reading TAB. But at the same time, I just can't say I really care when you are consciously choosing to not support the fact that we have a business to run.

Honestly, in my mind it is the exact same thing as pirating software. If you pirate software, you're taking away from the many many hours the developers put in to make that software that use. And when you block ads, you're taking away form the many many hours the writers and site owners put in to creating that in the first place...in addition to the fact that there can be significant overhead in running a popular site (ie. dedicated server costs).

[Yuiichi]

I won NewsFire from the first TAB giveaway and have been an extremely happy consumer. It's done everything that I need it to do, in style I might add; in fact, it's possibly my most used app of all time. Unfortunately, Dave Watanabe is no stranger to having people in outrage over his work, no matter how good it is. I'd like to hope that there's a solution in here which lets me view TAB's full feed and lets me use NewsFire.

I do have one other partial content feed (Low End Mac) that I live with, but only because I don't actually read everything. I do, however, read everything at TAB. A partial content feed isn't something I'll relish.

Here's to an easy switch/update from David.

[Huuuze]

Originally Posted by thame

To answer Huuuze's question, I think the problem is that you chose to install AdBlock, and while it leads to the same end, it's different from NewsFire which turns off ads by default and doesn't let user's change it.

Agreed, but I'm certainly not alone. Ad Block Plus is Firefox's second most popular extension. This issue sounds a bit more personal than professional.

[Shpigford]

Originally Posted by Huuuze

Agreed, but I'm certainly not alone. Ad Block Plus is Firefox's second most popular extension. This issue sounds a bit more personal than professional.

Of course it's personal. It's my business. It's part of how I make a living. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm quite passionate about this topic.

And I'm well aware you're not the only person who blocks ads. Just because thousands of people block ads on the site doesn't mean I think it's okay or that I respect it.

[Huuuze]

Just to be certain, has Dave Watanabe contacted you and stated that he will not update NewsFire? Despite my previous comments, I'm on your side on this one. I just want to make sure all avenues are considered.

[macdeuce]

I have no problem with posting partial RSS feed text. The only thing that I request is that it all doesn't start out like some, with the same text, Ex. "Moriarty here with..." and it only shows one sentence!!! If it gives you enough information to make it worth going to see the actual post, then it's okay with me. But if you only give one small line of text, forget it!

I use News Net Wire lite, I know it's not the best in the world, but it works for me.(since it's free mostly)

And since I will still visit the site, this really doesn't bother me. (Unless I'm downloading something that takes a lot of my bandwidth so I can only view sites at slower than dialup speed).

Do what you want, I, for one, will survive.

[Slevin]

So TAB isn't going to support NewsFire since NewsFire isn't going to allow ads in the reader. I find that disturbing, people pay money for newsfire and most people don't want to see ads so the dev doesn't allow ads in the reader which is fine because the dev isn't there to support TAB he is there however to support his customers.

I understand TAB is a business and requires ads to support it however isn't it a little hipocritical to condem a product and a person because he is acting in the best interest of HIS users and isn't that what a dev is supposed to do?

I have no love for Dave, I don't care for him one way or another I just like his reader which I have been using for years and think it is a fine product. But to chastize someone because they are giving their paying customers what they want is a little silly. If enough of his users requested to have ads in their RSS feeds I'd think that he would listen but I'm not holding my breath for users to request to see more ads.

On a side note I hardly ever read full feeds in an RSS reader I prefer to go to the main site, so this point is moot for me but TAB has to look at it from the other side of the fence if you were a dev would you prefer to support the customers who pay you or the bloggers you get the feeds from?

[JozoKE]

I'm happy NewsFire user, and I don't need to read your blog anyway. It's borring, no updates, try to look for a new business instead of blocking NF. I can easy block ads in FF too, so what now? You'll block FF

[Shpigford]

Originally Posted by JozoKE

I'm happy NewsFire user, and I don't need to read your blog anyway. It's borring, no updates, try to look for a new business instead of blocking NF. I can easy block ads in FF too, so what now? You'll block FF

Good deal. Glad I'm able to help you stop reading a blog that is boring and never updates. That's what we're here for.