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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">Good evening, everyone!</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">A little over a month ago, Google announced that Google Reader, its popular RSS feed aggregator, will be shut down on July 1st as part of its in-house "spring cleaning.” Users were furious; petitions with thousands of signatures were circulated. Google+ was flooded with complaints. </p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">And in the end, it didn’t do them any good. That’s what happens when you rely on proprietary software.</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">We on the WPLUG Board thought it would be helpful to provide an open alternative to Google Reader as a courtesy to our members. <a href="http://www.tt-rss.org"><span style=" text-decoration: underline; color:#006e28;">Tiny Tiny RSS</span></a>, a GPL-licensed RSS aggregator developed by Andrew Dolgov, was our choice. Andrew has shown an incredible commitment to improving his work, and there is a small but dedicated community of volunteers that writes extensions and themes.</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">You can import all of your <a href="http://www.dataliberation.org/google/reader"><span style=" text-decoration: underline; color:#006e28;">Google Reader data</span></a> into Tiny Tiny RSS. You can also export data as an OPML file if you want to take it somewhere else. There’s a plugin that enables Google Reader’s hotkeys, and the TT-RSS community is developing Google Reader themes for even the most discerning Reader refugee.</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">I spent yesterday evening and past of this morning setting up Tiny Tiny RSS on our server. I did some preliminary checks to make sure that nothing is broken, but it needs more extensive testing. That’s where you come in.</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">For a limited time, WPLUG’s Tiny Tiny RSS installation at <a href="http://www.wplug.org/tt-rss"><span style=" text-decoration: underline; color:#006e28;">http://www.wplug.org/tt-rss</span></a> is open to the general public. If you’d like an account, just send me an email with your requested username. I’ll walk you through the basics if you need help getting started.</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">After TT-RSS has been sufficiently tested - say, by our Raspberry Pi workshop on the 18th - access will be restricted to members only. Don’t worry about losing your data if you’re a non-member; like I said before, you can export it and take it with you. </p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">But I hope that you’ll consider joining WPLUG. $20 a year is a bargain for a hosted RSS reader. In addition to that, you’re getting an email alias and access to several other member services that we’ll be launching over the course of the year.</p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;">--</p>
<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;"><span style=" font-weight:600;">Justin S. Smith</span></p>
<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;"><span style=" color:#808080;">Vice chair/secretary, WPLUG Board of Directors</span></p>
<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;"><a href="http://www.wplug.org"><span style=" text-decoration: underline; color:#006e28;">http://www.wplug.org</span></a> </p>
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<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;"><span style=" color:#808080;">"Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done."</span></p>
<p style=" margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px; -qt-block-indent:0; text-indent:0px; -qt-user-state:0;"><span style=" color:#808080;">-Linus Torvalds</span></p></body></html>