Don't follow those: they break you out of the RSS reading experience, and trick you into losing time on their site. Some feeds only give you the excerpt of a post, with a link to see the full post at their site.The only cure is to ruthlessly Marie Kondo that crap – if a feed doesn't consistently enrich your life, cut it. No algorithm can save you from hoarding feeds 'just in case', then being overwhelmed. (And, selfishly: my new interactive, educational projects and my blog) Tips for using RSS wisely Aimkid – the smoothest, most expressive animations I've seen in a long time.3Blue1Brown – a YouTube channel that shows the beauty of math.Webcomic Name – the comic that goes 'oh no'.Questionable Content – a comic about queers and robots.Scott Young's Blog – about learning & productivity.To add a feed to your app, just paste a link to the blog/site, and your app will automatically find the feed! RSS also lets you follow creators on YouTube, Substack, Medium, and more. I'm currently using the minimalist Inoreader, but Feedly is the most popular, and folks I know use The Old Reader. (Note: there's something very similar to RSS called 'Atom', but all modern apps work equally with both.) Cool, how do I get started?įirst, you need a reader app. (Some apps let you add extra filters, but unlike social media algorithms, you control 'em.) Apps also make the posts prettier than raw text:

Your app then shows you your posts in good ol' reverse chronological order. The websites can't force it in the other direction. Then, whatever RSS reader app you use – you can use any app made by anyone – it'll call the websites for the feeds you specifically opted into, no more or less. It's just a bunch of posts – no tracking or 'personalization' – like a printed newspaper: Unlike newsletters where give each publisher your email (and they may abuse that trust), RSS works on a 'don't call me, I'll call you' policy.Īn RSS feed is a text file on a website. Well, it's time to make like a tree and go back to the future, baby! How does RSS work? Then we got suckered by the shiny walled gardens. Now imagine this existed and was extremely popular 15 years ago. Imagine a version of the newsletter where you don't have to worry about them selling your email to scammers, labyrinth-like unsubscribe pages, or stuffing your inbox with ever more crap. Imagine an open version of Twitter or Facebook News Feed, with no psy-op ads, owned by no oligopoly, manipulated by no algorithm, and all under your full control.

(Already know RSS? Here's my feed! Else, here's a 4-minute intro.)

Youtube rss