The Old Reader Blog
blog.theoldreader.com · Company blog · on HN since 2013
The Old Reader team runs an RSS reader that grew after Google Reader shut down, and its blog covers its finances and operations.
What HN saysHN commenters cite it for the service's near-closure and later backing, and one praises its no-tracking approach; another doubts the developers' complaints about user growth.
18HN people shared it
6linked it in comments
14stories submitted
744story points
5 years agolast shared
2013people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Desperate times call for desperate measures4 people · 144 points · first shared 2013 · 38 comments on HN
- 2“When all your engines stop, the flight is over”2 people · 66 points · first shared 2013 · 47 comments on HN
- 3The Old Reader stays public and has a new team managing it2 people · 7 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 4The Old Reader introduces premium subscription2 people · 5 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 5RSS: What Not Dying Looks Like1 people · 328 points · first shared 2014 · 149 comments on HN
- 6Built to Last – RSS, HTTP (2015)1 people · 118 points · first shared 2021 · 103 comments on HN
- 7Let’s Keep the Internet Dumb1 people · 64 points · first shared 2014 · 58 comments on HN
- 8The Old Reader migrating limited accounts to private site.1 people · 5 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 9Thanks, Google1 people · 2 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 10Ad giants enforcing web standards? Hmmph.1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 11RSS and the Open Web1 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 12"We are quite confident that The Old Reader will be available in the future"1 people · 1 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 13Unexpected day what are we gonna do about google1 people · first shared 2013
- 14Sponsor the old reader1 people · first shared 2016
What HN people wrote when they linked it
lewiscollard · 2020-05-17
> and when they moved to pay only (or they closed? i can't remember)
The incident you are thinking about, would be when they said they were going to close the service entirely, because of the volume of signups they had in the aftermath of Google Reader closing. https://blog.theoldreader.com/post/56798895350/desperate-times-call-fo…
In the end they did not do that, but realising any service I sign up for might close just as readily as Google Reader put me off RSS for years. (I am a paid The Old Reader user now.)
trextrex · 2016-04-26
I really like the privacy features of TheOldReader.com -- especially their commitment so far to have no tracking (with cookies etc.) or user data harvesting to serve ads. They do have some select sponsored ads for the free-tier, but done without any such tracking [1].
[1] http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/113273709664/sponsor-the-old-reader
pronoiac · 2013-08-19
They were talking about letting unpaid customers go, but they found backing, to let them keep up the good work: http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/57274499607/the-new-old-reader
w1ntermute · 2013-08-05
This whole Old Reader debacle is just absurd to me. According to this blog post[0], life for the developers has become "hell in every possible aspect we could imagine" as a result of all the users they've gotten since Google Reader shut down. But this makes no sense - why wouldn't you just start charging for access so that you can hire more people to run the site, and so that you don't get overwhelmed with more users than you can handle?
0: http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/56798895350/desperate-times-call-for…
hpaavola · 2013-07-30
http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/56798895350/desperate-times-call-for… the actual source
vacipr · 2013-03-14
They address some of the problems in their new blog post.
http://blog.theoldreader.com/post/45337829605/unexpected-day-what-are-…