What are my options for RSS Readers that are text only?

November 12, 2009 5:13 PM

What are my options for RSS Readers that are text only?

I use Bloglines to read my RSS feed, but I'm trying to find a reader that can strip away all the images and display only the text. The reason is that a lot of the blogs I like to keep up on tend to post a lot of NSFW pictures and I do most of my reading at work. The mobile version of Bloglines worked for awhile, but lately has started displaying pictures too.

Anyone have any recommendations on how I can keep up with my literary porn while working for an ever watchful boss?

posted by anonymous to computers & internet (8 answers total)

I haven't tried it yet but I'd go with, take a beat, emacs!
posted by sammyo at 5:28 PM on November 12, 2009

If you're on a mac you could use a standalone RSS reader like NetNewsWire where you can set your own CSS attributes and set all images, alternately, to hide or not hide. There may be a good similar solution for the PC but I'm not as familiar with them.
posted by jessamyn at 5:42 PM on November 12, 2009

Another option on the Mac or Linux is newsbeuter. Simple to use, runs on the console.
posted by enn at 5:45 PM on November 12, 2009

How about just something online like Google Reader, but with images disabled in the browser (might be able to do it with Greasemonkey)?
posted by backwards guitar at 5:47 PM on November 12, 2009

Thunderbird with remote images set to "not load" would do it I think.
posted by COD at 6:08 PM on November 12, 2009

I use AdBlock in Firefox to block images in my feeds so everything loads faster. It takes a bit of time to "teach" it what to block, but the results are worth it.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 7:06 PM on November 12, 2009

I do exactly this at work with Thunderbird. I never get accidental pictures appearing. At a (very brief) glance, it looks like Outlook or some other email program, and no one's ever been suspicious.
posted by desjardins at 8:05 PM on November 12, 2009

Under Linux, newsbeuter is a console rss app, but presumably you need a windows app, in which case using newsticker.el under emacs maybe your best choice if you want to keep the reading low profile.

Or just use a standard app with images blocked as others have suggested.
posted by pharm at 12:52 AM on November 13, 2009