Read this earlier today, and was reminded about the magic of RSS, something I definitely take for granted.
https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/16/keep-it-really-simple-stupid/
The argument is stronger now, in the dystopian internet we have today. But even in the early days RSS was one of the best ways to sift through the garbage and mess of the web. These days, it’s a protocol rarely discussed. I imagine most have forgotten about RSS, or don’t even know it exists. But it’s always been there, humming along, and it’s arguable more useful than ever in curating what you read on the web.
Years ago, when my beloved Google Reader was killed off, I temporarily was fooled into thinking social media feeds, and their built-in curation would replace RSS adequately. I eventually woke up from that reality and started using readers again, first Feedly, then NetNewsWire, and lately Readwise Reader.
Some sites are better than others in handling RSS. But even if a site supplies only the bare minimum in their feed (A headline and a link), I still get what I want: Getting direct updates from the writers and sites I want to hear from. Ownership of my own curation, rather than delegating it to an algorithm to decide for me.
RSS doesn’t solve everything. Walled gardens like LinkedIn aren’t really accessible through it. And that’s a shame. We shouldn’t have to be bound to a single platform to share and consume great ideas. But there’s still plenty of the web that RSS can still reach. It might be time for you to to dust off this delightful old tool of an earlier internet. It still works well.