HACKER Q&A
📣 snird

RSS with Authentication and Monetization Support?


This issue was raised here many times: RSS is convinient and versatile. It's mostly gone due to lack of authentication and monetization paths (ads/premium content for sign ups)

This lack of features led us back to email newsletters with businesses like Substack shining in it.

Yet, email is restrictive, unorganized, and its html support is cryptic at best. It also in the control of the sender (push) unlike RSS that is under the control of the receiver (pull).

Do we have an RSS alternative that adds authentication and other features to allow for the decentralization of email, with modern features enabled by smart RSS readers?


  👤 CharlesW Accepted Answer ✓
People have been doing HTTP authentication for RSS "premium feeds" for about as long as RSS has been around.

https://daringfireball.net/2005/02/feed_authentication

What are the "other features" you need for your use case?


👤 onion2k
The beauty of RSS is the fact it doesn't have those things.

But you can embed ads in RSS feeds if you want to annoy people.