Show HN: Enkel – A clean and simple RSS Reader

by jam3sn • 6 years ago

47 25 6 years ago

dang• 6 years ago

Edit (2026-03-28): we can't respond to emails about this any more because there are far too many of them. But the tips below are still valid. I can add another important one too:

Write your text by hand. Don't use an LLM to generate any of it (not even a tiny bit, including to edit or spruce it up). Reason: the community is super fussy about this right now, and LLM language leaves imprints on your text which are generating quite some backlash when it appears on HN itself. This is a big dividing line at present!

(This is not, of course, to say that you shouldn't use LLMs - we use them heavily ourselves and are all in favor of doing so. Just don't use them to generate or edit text that you post to HN.)

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If you're sharing your own work and there's a way to try it out, put "Show HN" in the title. Make sure you've read the Show HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html.

Include text giving the backstory of how you came to work on this, and explaining what's different about it. That tends to seed discussion in a good direction. (Your text should show up at the top of the Show HN submission, but if for some reason it doesn't, add it as a first comment to the thread. Either way is fine.)

Include a clear statement of what your project is or does. If you don't, the discussion will consist of "I can't tell what this is".

Include links to any previous HN threads that are relevant. Readers like those.

Drop any language that sounds like marketing or sales. On HN, that is an instant turnoff. Use factual, direct language. Personal stories and technical details are great.

For Show HN, the product/project needs to actually exist and there needs to be a way for people to try it out. It can't just be a landing page or market test or fundraiser or a blog post or a curated list or other reading material. Please respect this rule. If we allowed "Show HN" on all those things, nearly every post would be a Show HN.

Please make it easy for users to try your thing out, preferably without having to sign up, get a confirmation email, and other such barriers. You'll get more feedback that way, plus HN users get ornery if you make them jump through hoops.

If it's hardware or something that's not so easy to try out over the internet, find a different way to show how it actually works—a video, for example, or a detailed post with photos.

Don't have your username be that of your company or project. It creates a feeling of using HN for promotion and of not really participating as a person. You don't have to use your real name, just something to indicate that you're here as a human, not a brand. If you'd like to change your username, email hn@ycombinator.com.

If you're comfortable doing so, put your email address in your profile so we can contact you if we notice anything, and also so we can send you a repost invite. We do that sometimes.

Make sure your friends and users do not add booster comments in the thread. HN users are adept at picking up on those, they consider it spamming, and they will flame you for it. If a friend or a fan has something interesting to say, that's fine, but comments should not be promotional.

You can post a new release as a Show HN only if the new version is significantly different. It shouldn't just be an incremental upgrade. If you do repost, add a comment linking to the previous Show HN and explaining what is different from last time. This should probably only happen once or twice a year—more starts to be excessive.

TechRemarker• 6 years ago

What does this offer over the competition for instance like Feedly which free tier offers more than this paid tier and whose paid tier offers much more than this paid tier?

Clean, modern, dark mode, etc all our standards. So curious why this was created vs the competition?

jam3sn5• 6 years ago

So I created Enkel originally to fulfil my own desire for a clean and simple way to consume news. Having tried a few platforms, I found them to be cluttered and distracting. Further more, some placed ads among feeds and offered no methods of reading the article without visiting the source site and being bombarded with ads, popups, video etc. The free tiers were rather limited, bugged you to upgrade and have fallen into the current trend monitizing user data.

The intial offering of Enkel is somewhat less than other competitors, which is why it comes at a significantly lower price. However it's in continous development with new features being implemented regularly.

Enkel isn't the right tool for everyone, and that's okay. It's intedned for those who want a clean and simple way to consume written media regularly without distraction.

notokay• 6 years ago

I can't even create an account with an email in Feedly. And Inoreader has recently updated design and became unusable: too much bells and whistles.

So, there's no more simple and clean rss-readers that I know of.

avinassh• 6 years ago

I can't even create an account with an email in Feedly.

umm, you can? It isn't obvious from the UI, but you can definitely create one - https://feedly.com/v3/auth/login?newUser=true

user00012-ab• 6 years ago

I also use the free version of https://feedly.com/ . Can't see what this has over that for $2 a month.

chocolatkey• 6 years ago

Feedly is about the only app that I have left to get rid of (Android) that pings Facebook when you open it

butz• 6 years ago

Please provide a demo, that should make decision to use (or not use) your software faster.

SanchoPanda• 6 years ago

I second this. You can limit the ability to add new sources to keep from clobbering feeds. While any non static demo is clearly tricky, it is very helpful.

jam3sn5• 6 years ago

Good call! I'll defiantly think about implementing this!

kasperni• 6 years ago

'Enkel' translates to 'simple' in Danish (and some other Nordic languages as well).

looperhacks• 6 years ago

It also translates to grandson in German.

dmytrish• 6 years ago

It also translates to "only/sole/single" from Dutch.

hestefisk• 6 years ago

In Danish it can mean ‘only/sole/single’ as well. Very strange. Danish has about 1/3 the amount of words that English has.

jam3sn5• 6 years ago

It sure does! I find naming stuff hard and can't remember exactly how I decided on Enkel, but it meaning 'Simple' in Norwegian was a big part.

dvh• 6 years ago

Real men write their own rss readers.

treve• 6 years ago

I would love to know if it's gonna run on my OS!

Edit: just realized this is a web app, so the answer is probably yes

jam3sn5• 6 years ago

You're not the first person to ask this today, so I defiantly need to clarify this! But yes, a web app, I've added the mobile meta too so you can add it to the app drawer of your mobile device if you so wish :)

lerie19822• 6 years ago

there is no way to delete your account

jam3sn5• 6 years ago

I do need to add this button, I just had other areas of the app that took my attention. In the meantime, drop me an email james@enkel.fyi or use the support form on the site and I'll get your account removed :)

lerie19822• 6 years ago

Just bringing it to attention

listenallyall• 6 years ago

Bazqux.com did this, better, about 7 years ago. Zero desire to ever try out an alternative rss client.

mikewarot• 6 years ago

I was hoping to find something I could use on my PC, only to find it is a service, not an RSS reader.

jlis• 6 years ago

I really dig the minimal ui and the illustrations you choose :) Also thumbs up for using Laravel (I guess) and Vue.

Show HN: Enkel – A clean and simple RSS Reader

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