RSS Feeds & Why You Need Them [pixietails.club]

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====== RSS Feeds & Why You Need Them ======
Originally posted here: https://tozka.dreamwidth.org/136229.html

In a world where everyone's trying to push an algorithm onto you and make you stay hooked onto their platform scrolling endlessly through ads, one of the best ways to fight back is to **start using RSS feeds again**. 

It was the standard way to keep up with your favorites websites and creators 10+ years ago, and it should be the standard way again! \o/

Since [[https://tozka.dreamwidth.org/135974.html|getting off social media]] (for the most part), I've been craving that hit of "oo, new update" I'd gotten used to, but I don't want to replace big SM for, like indie SM (ie Mastodon or whatever). So instead I'm replacing it with RSS feeds. 

Also, I like having everything in one place. I only need to go to one places for my updates, and it's PRIVATE. Nobody's tracking what I'm subscribed to or interacting with. 

Plus, I can read as many updates as I want or leave it for a few days, and they'll be waiting for me to come back. The algorithm isn't going to push updates off the screen and hide them if I don't check for a few days. I can even turn off the "unread updates" notice badge thing on my reader so it doesn't freak me if I want to.

Anyway, this post has some tips for setting up your own reader, plus how to find feeds in specific places.

If you've never used RSS before, [[https://wiki.melonland.net/rss_guide|here's a good intro guide from Melonland]]. I used some of the advice within to subscribe to certain sites, too.

===== Feed readers =====
I use [[https://nodetics.com/feedbro/|Feedbro]] ([[https://tozka.dreamwidth.org/102818.html|review here]]) which is a browser-based extension that works in Firefox (and [[https://www.waterfox.net/|Firefox forks]]), Chrome and Edge. I don't need to read my feeds on my phone, so having it on the desktop only is fine for me.

Other options are: [[https://netnewswire.com/|NetNewsWire]] (iOS), [[https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=27&q=rss&lang=|Dreamwidth's feed thing]] (if you have a DW account)

===== How to find RSS feeds =====
All blogs/websites have an RSS feed somewhere, even if it's not visible-- try adding /rss or /atom to the end of the blog URL. But there's actually a surprising amount of other things you can get an RSS feed for!

Here's what I've transferred to my feedreader:

==== 1. Tumblr ====
Absolutely fantastic because the endless scroll is gone, there's no ads, and I see EVERY UPDATE chronologically. Feeds can be found by adding /rss to the end of the URL: <code>[user].tumblr.com/rss</code>

==== 2. Reddit ====
Another banger because I can see EVERY new post now; and I don't even have to join a subreddit to see them which is great. Add /.rss to the end of the URL: <code>https://www.reddit.com/r/[subreddit]/.rss</code>

==== 3. Youtube channels ====
Yet another great idea because I see every new video from every channel now, instead of YT pushing up only 3 or 4 of them on my homescreen. I cheated and used Feedbro to automatically find the RSS feed but it looks something like this: <code>https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=[ID]</code>

==== 4. Podcasts ====
I actually use [[https://overcast.fm/|Overcast]] to subscribe to podcasts BUT you can definitely do it in a feedreader. Most podcast websites have an RSS feed somewhere; even Spotify podcasts have them, because they've [[https://support.spotify.com/us/creators/article/your-rss-feed/|enabled an RSS feed]] so, like, Apple Podcasts can scrape it or whatever. Paste the Spotify URL into [[https://getrssfeed.com/|GetRSSFeed.com]] to find it. 

==== 5. Substack ====
I hate Substack but they've been pushing for more people to make newsletters over there lately, so a lot of people have opened new accounts. Ugh. But still, there's some good writers over there, and I want to read their stuff. Add /feed at the end of the URL: <code>https://[user].substack.com/feed</code>

==== 6. Newsletters ====
I get overwhelmed if there's too many emails in my inbox (especially from strangers selling me stuff), so I'm converting whatever I can to an RSS feed using [[https://kill-the-newsletter.com/|Kill the Newsletter]], which basically gives you an email to use to sign up to newsletters and then it converts it to a feed for you! It's open source, so you can host it yourself if you'd like.

Caveat: I haven't tried to subscribe to a private feed, but most feedreaders have an option to add in a username/password to access those. However, I don't know how it'd work for sites that are more like memberships, like Youtube's community thing.

==== Other Sites ====
**Not possible to RSS** because the company that made them sucks: Facebook, Instagram, Threads (so any Meta app), TikTok

**Possible to RSS** but I haven't done it: Bluesky, Flickr, Mastodon, Medium, [[https://archiveofourown.org/faq/subscriptions-and-feeds?language_id=en#subscribetag|AO3]], Dreamwidth

===== See Also =====
More RSS stuff:
  * The discussion in [[https://smallweb.dreamwidth.org/8634.html|the smallweb Dreamwidth community]] post
  * [[https://bnha-fans.dreamwidth.org/37455.html|Dreamwidth feeds for AO3 tags + how to create new ones]]
  * My recent [[links:linkspam]] posts have RSS feed recommendations in them

More guides on making a home in the small web:
  * [[guides:personal_site|]] and [[guides:personal_site_content|]]
  * [[links:indie_web|]]
  * [[guides:finding_old_web|]]