I Really Like RSS

Posted Jan 18, 2024

If you know me at all you know that I love RSS. It's great, it's old (est. 1999), it's simple, it's established, it's standard, it's awesome! But RSS is useless without anything to use it on. I thought I'd lay out here some of my favorite RSS feeds, talk about them a bit, and explain how you (yes, YOU!) can free yourself from the algorithmic advertisey schmuck that is your current feed.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It works like this:

you stick the link to a wesbite's "rss feed," (a simple text file) into your favorite reader app
when chosen blog / website / profile makes new content, it updates its feed
your app periodically checks for any updates, and downloads them to your phone

THAT'S RIGHT: All your favorite content, directly to you, chronologically, without any ads or outside services. Just your phone / computer, and your favorite blogger's server. Oh, how intimate! <3

My favorite part, though, is growing my little garden of feeds! Over time, I've accrued a healthy list of blogs, forums, artists, that all fit my tastes, and they're all constantly recommending others to check out! Real, human recommendations, they're the best! So anyway, here are MY favorite feeds to see pop up in my reader.

Good Stuff (to get you started)

Kottke.org Web Link | Feed Link

One of the greatest, and oldest, blogs on the internet! Jason Kottke never fails to deliver links to intriguing and entertaining things across the web. One could scroll through his feed for hours. Here's one of my favorite video's he's shared.

Manuel Moreale Web Link | Feed Link

I love Manuel's web design just as much as I love his content. Manuel posts thoughts on the internet, creativity, and people. He also runs the only newsletter I'll ever actually read, People & Blogs, so check that out too!

The Knight Crier Web Link | Feed Link

In the words of Brian Wilson, be cool to your school! I love the Knight Crier, especially their RSS feed. Just another reason to love 'em! They post great journalism by great student writers that deserve more recognition! My favorite post? That's too hard to say, but we'll go with this poignant piece on art and kindness that has really stuck with me.

xkcd Web Link | Feed Linlk

Needs no explaination, everyone knows Munroe!

The Public Domain Review Web Link | Feed Link

One of the sites where you have to dig a little to find the rss link, but it's there. The PDR is great. It reviews the weird, the obscure, and the fantastical, making us all truly aware of how much content and stuff is out there that is totally free. Why should we ever get so hung up on the new movies, stories, and content, when there's so much already here. It's great.

Notes

Some websites don't advertise their RSS support, for whatever reason. To find it, go to the page's source (ctrl + u or right click > view pages source) and search the page (ctrl + f) for "rss." From there you'll usually find a link to something that looks like this. That's the page you copy the link to and stick in your RSS reader.

There are hundreds, and I mean hundreds of readers out there, for your phone, laptop, web browser, everything. I like to use News, but it's just a matter of searching "rss" on your app store and trying one until you like it.

MY PERSONAL LIST OF FEEDS as of Jan 18th, 2024. This is an OPML file, and you can import it to whatever reader you chose! If you're not into tech stuff, I suggest removing the Hacker News feed. I'm a hair away from removing it myself, to be honest, folks get really pretentious in those comments...

Thank you for reading,

Willa :)

Willa Magland