Curatr

UPDATE: Curatr is no longer live. I’m working on some updates to make it more usable and less of a headache to setup.

RSS readers (though somewhat out of style) are still an efficient way to inform readers of new media from their favorite creators. While apps like Feedly have tried to take the place of the defunct Google Reader by making RSS feeds prettier and more automatic, they have not changed how users actually use an RSS feed.

Users interact with RSS feeds in patterns that are not directly described by RSS specifications (both RSS and Atom). For example, users may encounter a new feed and wish to consume it in its entirety (ex: xkcd). However, the underlying RSS and the readers that display them are not configured for this use pattern.

Curatr is an attempt to design an RSS reader around the use patterns of users, and not just around the specification. Curatr introduces the idea of ‘queuing’ where users may ask the reader to retrieve posts from an RSS feed on a schedule. For example, a user may ask Curatr to show them 3 posts a day from the xkcd feed until the user has been caught up with the most recent posts from the feed.

By allowing users to set their own schedule for feed consumption, Curatr’s approach enables the user to protect themselves from binge consumption, a difficult task when media on the Internet is readily and instantly available. Curatr’s goal is to empower users to have more control of their media consumption, through queueing, and detailed statistics about their usage patterns.

Curatr is the creation of Combustible Lemons, a small team of students at The University of Chicago taking CMSC 22001 Software Construction. Curatr is live at https://jharriman.me/curatr. Both Curatr and this post are released under an MIT License.