Cru Jones
@AudraTran@fosstodon.org replied  ·  activity timestamp 5 days ago
@molly0xfff Unfortunately too many publications are just pumping out SEO spam and referral link spam like there's no tomorrow, to use RSS. For me, this requires some amount of community curation, which is why we turn to social media and algorithms. Otherwise I end up with literally thousands of posts per day and I can't get through them. So I do use RSS but only for platforms that only pump out interesting stuff. Many other publications don't have any way to follow other than email newsletters.
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
@elena@aseachange.com replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
@molly0xfff thank you for this BRILLIANT post about RSS, Molly!

I’m preparing an email for my friends who are still only on Big Tech social platforms… telling them if they want to follow what I’m up to, they could add my Fediverse profile’s RSS feed to their readers…

Well, many are not very technical and I’m sure they don’t use RSS readers, so I can include a link to your post now. Thank you!!! 😊
kernpanik 🐾 🕊️ ☮
@kernpanik@chaos.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
@molly0xfff Since I first discovered RSS around 2004, I've never abandoned my feed reader. Still use it as part of my daily surfing routine.

Weirdly enough, many sites do have RSS and Atom feeds implemented in their source code, but on the surface there are no signs of it whatsoever. This is different from back in the day, when most news sites had prominent RSS buttons and logos.
Stooryduster
@stooryduster@mastodon.scot replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
@molly0xfff I illustrate Scottish words with cartoons and knew my site had an RSS feed but I’d never looked at it from the other end since I enabled it years ago. So one day I did, it was better than I expected, and I ended up writing a page and adding it to my site on what RSS is and how you can use it. https://stooryduster.co.uk/why-use-rss/
Star12Mt
@Star12Mt@masto.nyc replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
@molly0xfff Thank you so much for this, especially your list. I wish I had these directions six months ago when I discovered what an RSS feed was and then more or less figured out how to do it. And thanks to all the people who made helpful comments. Now, how to get this information out to the general public is the question. I go around asking everyone I know now if they have an RSS feed, and they have no idea what I'm talking about
foxyoreos (they/it) (🔞)
@foxyoreos@gulp.cafe replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
@molly0xfff appologies if this is something that's already come up, but do you know if any readers are looking into integrations with things like webmentions or syndicating shares to the fediverse or similar?

One big thing that makes it harder for me as an artist to go all in on RSS is that community is 90% of what I do. Not just financials either - I rely on critters commenting on my pieces in public. It's both a huge motivator and a big part of why I think my work is valuable.
foxyoreos (they/it) (🔞)
@foxyoreos@gulp.cafe replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
@molly0xfff I've been struggling really hard to figure out, how do I build a community around RSS if critters need to step outside the reader in order to comment on my pieces, if they're not meeting each other under pieces - and especially if it's all invisible to me.

I've nothing against critters sharing my work in places I can't see, but it's hard to build an actual community around that. Even if an RSS reader had a "share on Fediverse" button in it, it would be easier for me to recommend.
foxyoreos (they/it) (🔞)
@foxyoreos@gulp.cafe replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
@molly0xfff I think webmentions are supposed to fill in some of the gaps too - I think they can be sent by clients without a server? But I'm not sure if any RSS clients support them (at least that I've found), or will re-fetch or notify readers about replies.

I would love to go in on an RSS ecosystem that didn't feel so insulated and individual, but I don't want critters just passively consuming my art, I want it to be a group activity.
Paolo Amoroso
@amoroso@oldbytes.space replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
@molly0xfff There are intermediaries even for newsletters: newsletter apps such as Stoop, which was one of the earliest.

The apps let users subscribe to newsletters and read them in an environment designed for a better reading experience. A nice idea. The problem is the apps don't subscribe the email addresses of users but generate app specific addresses that effectively capture the relationship between writers and readers.
Mitch Wagner
@mitch@hachyderm.io replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
@molly0xfff I love the newsletter format. It's not a neverending stream — you read to the bottom of the thing and you're done. I don't like them coming in email, though. Email is for other things. Also, some of my newsletters don't arrive. They get filtered as spam.

RSS is great for news, and I direct my newsletters to an RSS reader when I can. But that often does not work so well.

I wish more newsletter publishers made sure to have RSS feeds for their newsletters.
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

News organizations are increasingly launching newsletters in hopes of building a more direct relationship with readers, as traffic from platforms they once relied on — like social media and Google Search — continues to shrink.

The newsletter strategy aims to bypass these rapidly enshittifying intermediaries and instead establish more direct relationships with subscribers. “I don’t intend to ever rely on someone else’s distribution ever again,” wrote Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel on Bluesky.3 Although email has undergone some enshittification of its own,b its fundamental nature as a protocol rather than a platform has provided one essential prophylactic to enshittification: the escape hatch. If your email provider suddenly inserted ads two sentences into every email, you could easily switch providersc and still receive emails from everyone you previously emailed. As a result, email has become a go-to refuge for news outlets fleeing their abusive relationships with deeply enshittified platforms they grew reliant upon.
The newsletter strategy aims to bypass these rapidly enshittifying intermediaries and instead establish more direct relationships with subscribers. “I don’t intend to ever rely on someone else’s distribution ever again,” wrote Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel on Bluesky.3 Although email has undergone some enshittification of its own,b its fundamental nature as a protocol rather than a platform has provided one essential prophylactic to enshittification: the escape hatch. If your email provider suddenly inserted ads two sentences into every email, you could easily switch providersc and still receive emails from everyone you previously emailed. As a result, email has become a go-to refuge for news outlets fleeing their abusive relationships with deeply enshittified platforms they grew reliant upon.
The newsletter strategy aims to bypass these rapidly enshittifying intermediaries and instead establish more direct relationships with subscribers. “I don’t intend to ever rely on someone else’s distribution ever again,” wrote Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel on Bluesky.3 Although email has undergone some enshittification of its own,b its fundamental nature as a protocol rather than a platform has provided one essential prophylactic to enshittification: the escape hatch. If your email provider suddenly inserted ads two sentences into every email, you could easily switch providersc and still receive emails from everyone you previously emailed. As a result, email has become a go-to refuge for news outlets fleeing their abusive relationships with deeply enshittified platforms they grew reliant upon.
These intermediary platforms between news organizations and readers are undergoing a type of predictable decay Cory Doctorow calls “enshittification”.a As executives twiddle the knobs to extract ever more profits from their user base, things worsen for people on both ends of the consumer–producer relationship. Readers no longer see news articles from the journalists they chose to follow on Twitter as the site downranks any posts that link offsite. When they search on Google, they’re bombarded with error-ridden AI facsimiles before reaching the higher-quality underlying work. Producers who once relied on social media and search engines to drive visits are losing traffic as platforms embrace a vampiric strategy: rip off others’ work while expecting high-quality journalism to magically continue to appear, even as journalists are starved of audience and revenue.
These intermediary platforms between news organizations and readers are undergoing a type of predictable decay Cory Doctorow calls “enshittification”.a As executives twiddle the knobs to extract ever more profits from their user base, things worsen for people on both ends of the consumer–producer relationship. Readers no longer see news articles from the journalists they chose to follow on Twitter as the site downranks any posts that link offsite. When they search on Google, they’re bombarded with error-ridden AI facsimiles before reaching the higher-quality underlying work. Producers who once relied on social media and search engines to drive visits are losing traffic as platforms embrace a vampiric strategy: rip off others’ work while expecting high-quality journalism to magically continue to appear, even as journalists are starved of audience and revenue.
These intermediary platforms between news organizations and readers are undergoing a type of predictable decay Cory Doctorow calls “enshittification”.a As executives twiddle the knobs to extract ever more profits from their user base, things worsen for people on both ends of the consumer–producer relationship. Readers no longer see news articles from the journalists they chose to follow on Twitter as the site downranks any posts that link offsite. When they search on Google, they’re bombarded with error-ridden AI facsimiles before reaching the higher-quality underlying work. Producers who once relied on social media and search engines to drive visits are losing traffic as platforms embrace a vampiric strategy: rip off others’ work while expecting high-quality journalism to magically continue to appear, even as journalists are starved of audience and revenue.
Last week, both The Verge and Wired announced major newsletter strategies. Wired writes of a “traffic apocalypse”, where “platforms on which outlets like Wired used to connect with readers, listeners, and viewers are failing in real time”.1 The Verge describes “Google Zero”: the moment when the dwindling supply of visitors from Google Search completely dries up.2 Traffic to news sites from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter has atrophied as those services limit links to external sites to keep users locked in. Google Search’s excerpts and, more recently, AI overviews have satisfied users’ questions before they click on the article that actually provided the information. Some have abandoned Search altogether for ChatGPT or other chatbot LLMs that summarize journalists’ work with varying degrees of accuracy, often without linking or even mentioning the source.
Last week, both The Verge and Wired announced major newsletter strategies. Wired writes of a “traffic apocalypse”, where “platforms on which outlets like Wired used to connect with readers, listeners, and viewers are failing in real time”.1 The Verge describes “Google Zero”: the moment when the dwindling supply of visitors from Google Search completely dries up.2 Traffic to news sites from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter has atrophied as those services limit links to external sites to keep users locked in. Google Search’s excerpts and, more recently, AI overviews have satisfied users’ questions before they click on the article that actually provided the information. Some have abandoned Search altogether for ChatGPT or other chatbot LLMs that summarize journalists’ work with varying degrees of accuracy, often without linking or even mentioning the source.
Last week, both The Verge and Wired announced major newsletter strategies. Wired writes of a “traffic apocalypse”, where “platforms on which outlets like Wired used to connect with readers, listeners, and viewers are failing in real time”.1 The Verge describes “Google Zero”: the moment when the dwindling supply of visitors from Google Search completely dries up.2 Traffic to news sites from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter has atrophied as those services limit links to external sites to keep users locked in. Google Search’s excerpts and, more recently, AI overviews have satisfied users’ questions before they click on the article that actually provided the information. Some have abandoned Search altogether for ChatGPT or other chatbot LLMs that summarize journalists’ work with varying degrees of accuracy, often without linking or even mentioning the source.
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

But the explosion in newsletters is overwhelming as a reader. Instead of one paper with a dozen writers, you’ve got a dozen newsletters scattered across your inbox.

What if you could curate your own custom newspaper? All your favorite writers, no spam, no surveillance.

What if you could take all your favorite newsletters, ditch the data collection, and curate your own newspaper? It could include independent journalists, bloggers, mainstream media, worker-owned media collectives, and just about anyone else who publishes online. Even podcast episodes, videos from your favorite YouTube channels, and online forum posts could slot in, too. Only the stuff you want to see, all in one place, ready to read at your convenience. No email notifications interrupting your peace (unless you want them), no pressure to read articles immediately. Wouldn’t that be nice? Platforms like Substack recognize this appeal, and invite you to follow numerous writers in a tidy feed on their app. But with Substack, you’re limited to following only the writers who publish on that platform. You’re also at the mercy of their rapidly accelerating enshittification, as they work to lock readers and writers into the product, while making the experience worse for both. There’s a more enshittification-proof option.
What if you could take all your favorite newsletters, ditch the data collection, and curate your own newspaper? It could include independent journalists, bloggers, mainstream media, worker-owned media collectives, and just about anyone else who publishes online. Even podcast episodes, videos from your favorite YouTube channels, and online forum posts could slot in, too. Only the stuff you want to see, all in one place, ready to read at your convenience. No email notifications interrupting your peace (unless you want them), no pressure to read articles immediately. Wouldn’t that be nice? Platforms like Substack recognize this appeal, and invite you to follow numerous writers in a tidy feed on their app. But with Substack, you’re limited to following only the writers who publish on that platform. You’re also at the mercy of their rapidly accelerating enshittification, as they work to lock readers and writers into the product, while making the experience worse for both. There’s a more enshittification-proof option.
What if you could take all your favorite newsletters, ditch the data collection, and curate your own newspaper? It could include independent journalists, bloggers, mainstream media, worker-owned media collectives, and just about anyone else who publishes online. Even podcast episodes, videos from your favorite YouTube channels, and online forum posts could slot in, too. Only the stuff you want to see, all in one place, ready to read at your convenience. No email notifications interrupting your peace (unless you want them), no pressure to read articles immediately. Wouldn’t that be nice? Platforms like Substack recognize this appeal, and invite you to follow numerous writers in a tidy feed on their app. But with Substack, you’re limited to following only the writers who publish on that platform. You’re also at the mercy of their rapidly accelerating enshittification, as they work to lock readers and writers into the product, while making the experience worse for both. There’s a more enshittification-proof option.
Even as a newsletter writer myself, I sometimes miss the newspaper. Sure, maybe half of the articles I paid for were deeply uninteresting to me, and sure, the executive overlords and editorial teams of the one-time titans of journalism seem to be in a competition to see who can most eagerly defend fascism, but hey: at least I could choose when to read the news, go to the newspaper and get my fill, and then put it away. No pings in the middle of my workday pulling my focus away from my writing. No notifications during my planned relaxation time, alerting me to some new horror. No threats to my inbox zero, requiring me to choose between staring neurotically at the unread emails notification or marking an email as read only to lose it forever. Maybe there was something to be said for the newspaper.
Even as a newsletter writer myself, I sometimes miss the newspaper. Sure, maybe half of the articles I paid for were deeply uninteresting to me, and sure, the executive overlords and editorial teams of the one-time titans of journalism seem to be in a competition to see who can most eagerly defend fascism, but hey: at least I could choose when to read the news, go to the newspaper and get my fill, and then put it away. No pings in the middle of my workday pulling my focus away from my writing. No notifications during my planned relaxation time, alerting me to some new horror. No threats to my inbox zero, requiring me to choose between staring neurotically at the unread emails notification or marking an email as read only to lose it forever. Maybe there was something to be said for the newspaper.
Even as a newsletter writer myself, I sometimes miss the newspaper. Sure, maybe half of the articles I paid for were deeply uninteresting to me, and sure, the executive overlords and editorial teams of the one-time titans of journalism seem to be in a competition to see who can most eagerly defend fascism, but hey: at least I could choose when to read the news, go to the newspaper and get my fill, and then put it away. No pings in the middle of my workday pulling my focus away from my writing. No notifications during my planned relaxation time, alerting me to some new horror. No threats to my inbox zero, requiring me to choose between staring neurotically at the unread emails notification or marking an email as read only to lose it forever. Maybe there was something to be said for the newspaper.
But the surge in newsletters has been overwhelming. Whether it’s writers like me who’ve never worked in a traditional newsroom, journalists who’ve left or been laid off from traditional jobs, or established newsrooms entering the newsletter business, there’s a newsletter around every corner. Instead of subscribing to a single newspaper for columns and articles by a dozen journalists, now you have a dozen separate newsletter subscriptions, with articles appearing haphazardly in your email inbox amid bills, business communications, marketing spam, order confirmations, and two-factor authentication codes.
But the surge in newsletters has been overwhelming. Whether it’s writers like me who’ve never worked in a traditional newsroom, journalists who’ve left or been laid off from traditional jobs, or established newsrooms entering the newsletter business, there’s a newsletter around every corner. Instead of subscribing to a single newspaper for columns and articles by a dozen journalists, now you have a dozen separate newsletter subscriptions, with articles appearing haphazardly in your email inbox amid bills, business communications, marketing spam, order confirmations, and two-factor authentication codes.
But the surge in newsletters has been overwhelming. Whether it’s writers like me who’ve never worked in a traditional newsroom, journalists who’ve left or been laid off from traditional jobs, or established newsrooms entering the newsletter business, there’s a newsletter around every corner. Instead of subscribing to a single newspaper for columns and articles by a dozen journalists, now you have a dozen separate newsletter subscriptions, with articles appearing haphazardly in your email inbox amid bills, business communications, marketing spam, order confirmations, and two-factor authentication codes.
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

Although I regularly read about “the death of RSS”, RSS is still alive and well, and I’ve been using it for more than a decade. Here’s how you can too.

#RSS

Many, if not most, websites publish an RSS feed.e Whereas you can only follow a Twitter user on Twitter or a Substack writer in the Substack app, you can follow any website with an RSS feed in a feed reader. When you open it, all your reading is neatly waiting for you in one place, like a morning newspaper. And RSS is more of a one-way street from a privacy perspective,f pushing writing out to you with less of your data flowing back to the publisher. I’ve been heavily using RSS for over a decade, and it’s a travesty more people aren’t familiar with it. Here’s how to join me in the brave new (old) world of RSS:
Many, if not most, websites publish an RSS feed.e Whereas you can only follow a Twitter user on Twitter or a Substack writer in the Substack app, you can follow any website with an RSS feed in a feed reader. When you open it, all your reading is neatly waiting for you in one place, like a morning newspaper. And RSS is more of a one-way street from a privacy perspective,f pushing writing out to you with less of your data flowing back to the publisher. I’ve been heavily using RSS for over a decade, and it’s a travesty more people aren’t familiar with it. Here’s how to join me in the brave new (old) world of RSS:
Many, if not most, websites publish an RSS feed.e Whereas you can only follow a Twitter user on Twitter or a Substack writer in the Substack app, you can follow any website with an RSS feed in a feed reader. When you open it, all your reading is neatly waiting for you in one place, like a morning newspaper. And RSS is more of a one-way street from a privacy perspective,f pushing writing out to you with less of your data flowing back to the publisher. I’ve been heavily using RSS for over a decade, and it’s a travesty more people aren’t familiar with it. Here’s how to join me in the brave new (old) world of RSS:
Meet RSS Perhaps you’ve heard of RSS. It stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and it allows websites like blogs, newsletters, and news sites to make their content available in “feeds” for outside services called “RSS readers” or “feed readers”. Far from being the new hotness attracting glitzy feature stories in tech media or billions in venture funding, RSS has been around for 25 years. Google Reader was once the most popular RSS reader, and many (including me) were heartbroken by its shutdown in 2013. A lot of people moved to centralized microblogging services like Twitter and stopped reading blogs. But despite the loss of Reader, RSS continued on, and many contemporary tools do similar — even better — jobs than the decade-old service. In fact, you’ve almost certainly been using RSS without even knowing it, because the entire podcast industry runs on it.
Meet RSS Perhaps you’ve heard of RSS. It stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and it allows websites like blogs, newsletters, and news sites to make their content available in “feeds” for outside services called “RSS readers” or “feed readers”. Far from being the new hotness attracting glitzy feature stories in tech media or billions in venture funding, RSS has been around for 25 years. Google Reader was once the most popular RSS reader, and many (including me) were heartbroken by its shutdown in 2013. A lot of people moved to centralized microblogging services like Twitter and stopped reading blogs. But despite the loss of Reader, RSS continued on, and many contemporary tools do similar — even better — jobs than the decade-old service. In fact, you’ve almost certainly been using RSS without even knowing it, because the entire podcast industry runs on it.
Meet RSS Perhaps you’ve heard of RSS. It stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and it allows websites like blogs, newsletters, and news sites to make their content available in “feeds” for outside services called “RSS readers” or “feed readers”. Far from being the new hotness attracting glitzy feature stories in tech media or billions in venture funding, RSS has been around for 25 years. Google Reader was once the most popular RSS reader, and many (including me) were heartbroken by its shutdown in 2013. A lot of people moved to centralized microblogging services like Twitter and stopped reading blogs. But despite the loss of Reader, RSS continued on, and many contemporary tools do similar — even better — jobs than the decade-old service. In fact, you’ve almost certainly been using RSS without even knowing it, because the entire podcast industry runs on it.
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
  1. Choose an RSS reader. I use Inoreader, but there are a bunch of options out there (free and paid, mobile/web/desktop). Switching between them is pretty easy, so you don’t have to agonize over this too much.

    #RSS

Choose an RSS reader Many good free and paid RSS readers exist, as web-based, desktop, or mobile apps. I personally use and like Inoreader.g I pay for a subscription, but it has a generous free tier. I’ve also heard good things about NewsBlur and, for Apple users, NetNewsWire. I no longer recommend Feedly. Don’t agonize over this decision too much. RSS is a protocol, and switching feed readers later is straightforward. Do note that various RSS apps may themselves try to collect data about you, so check their privacy policies. As of writing, Inoreader collects some data on your reading activities, but does not sell or share it with marketers.4 Some tech-savvy people opt to self-host RSS feed readers like FreshRSS for maximum privacy and control.
Choose an RSS reader Many good free and paid RSS readers exist, as web-based, desktop, or mobile apps. I personally use and like Inoreader.g I pay for a subscription, but it has a generous free tier. I’ve also heard good things about NewsBlur and, for Apple users, NetNewsWire. I no longer recommend Feedly. Don’t agonize over this decision too much. RSS is a protocol, and switching feed readers later is straightforward. Do note that various RSS apps may themselves try to collect data about you, so check their privacy policies. As of writing, Inoreader collects some data on your reading activities, but does not sell or share it with marketers.4 Some tech-savvy people opt to self-host RSS feed readers like FreshRSS for maximum privacy and control.
Choose an RSS reader Many good free and paid RSS readers exist, as web-based, desktop, or mobile apps. I personally use and like Inoreader.g I pay for a subscription, but it has a generous free tier. I’ve also heard good things about NewsBlur and, for Apple users, NetNewsWire. I no longer recommend Feedly. Don’t agonize over this decision too much. RSS is a protocol, and switching feed readers later is straightforward. Do note that various RSS apps may themselves try to collect data about you, so check their privacy policies. As of writing, Inoreader collects some data on your reading activities, but does not sell or share it with marketers.4 Some tech-savvy people opt to self-host RSS feed readers like FreshRSS for maximum privacy and control.
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
  1. Add your sites. Try searching for feeds on the newsletters/blogs/websites you read the most (like Citation Needed!) You can even put in YouTube channels, or Mastodon or BlueSky feeds.

    If you need ideas, I publish some of my blogroll: https://mollywhite.net/blogroll/

    #RSS

Put anything in there: a URL to your favorite newsletter (like this one!), a traditional news publication you enjoy, a blog, a YouTube channel, or even a Mastodon or BlueSky feed. If you need ideas, I publish several folders of my feeds to my blogroll. The OPML file can be imported into a feed reader to automatically subscribe to all of the feeds I follow, but beware: these are some of my “firehose” feeds and can be overwhelming. I’d recommend starting small with just a few feeds you enjoy. Power users can even subscribe to search results from search engines or other websites, making RSS a powerful tool for research. Have you ever wondered how I keep up with cryptocurrency news? Besides the crypto publications in my RSS reader, I have feeds for Google searches like (cryptocurrency OR NFT) (theft OR hack OR scam) and CourtListener searches on crypto-related keywords for newly filed cases. CourtListener provides a feed for every docket, so I have a folder in my RSS reader for ongoing court cases I’m tracking.
Put anything in there: a URL to your favorite newsletter (like this one!), a traditional news publication you enjoy, a blog, a YouTube channel, or even a Mastodon or BlueSky feed. If you need ideas, I publish several folders of my feeds to my blogroll. The OPML file can be imported into a feed reader to automatically subscribe to all of the feeds I follow, but beware: these are some of my “firehose” feeds and can be overwhelming. I’d recommend starting small with just a few feeds you enjoy. Power users can even subscribe to search results from search engines or other websites, making RSS a powerful tool for research. Have you ever wondered how I keep up with cryptocurrency news? Besides the crypto publications in my RSS reader, I have feeds for Google searches like (cryptocurrency OR NFT) (theft OR hack OR scam) and CourtListener searches on crypto-related keywords for newly filed cases. CourtListener provides a feed for every docket, so I have a folder in my RSS reader for ongoing court cases I’m tracking.
Put anything in there: a URL to your favorite newsletter (like this one!), a traditional news publication you enjoy, a blog, a YouTube channel, or even a Mastodon or BlueSky feed. If you need ideas, I publish several folders of my feeds to my blogroll. The OPML file can be imported into a feed reader to automatically subscribe to all of the feeds I follow, but beware: these are some of my “firehose” feeds and can be overwhelming. I’d recommend starting small with just a few feeds you enjoy. Power users can even subscribe to search results from search engines or other websites, making RSS a powerful tool for research. Have you ever wondered how I keep up with cryptocurrency news? Besides the crypto publications in my RSS reader, I have feeds for Google searches like (cryptocurrency OR NFT) (theft OR hack OR scam) and CourtListener searches on crypto-related keywords for newly filed cases. CourtListener provides a feed for every docket, so I have a folder in my RSS reader for ongoing court cases I’m tracking.
Add your sites Once you select a feed reader, add the feeds you wish to follow. Most feed readers let you paste a website’s URL to find available RSS feeds. Some websites have multiple RSS feeds, like Wired, which allows you to subscribe to a firehose of all articles or trim things down by subscribing separately to specific topic feeds like science or cybersecurity. [Image: Inoreader feed results for wired.com, showing an all posts feed and a feed called “Science latest”]
Add your sites Once you select a feed reader, add the feeds you wish to follow. Most feed readers let you paste a website’s URL to find available RSS feeds. Some websites have multiple RSS feeds, like Wired, which allows you to subscribe to a firehose of all articles or trim things down by subscribing separately to specific topic feeds like science or cybersecurity. [Image: Inoreader feed results for wired.com, showing an all posts feed and a feed called “Science latest”]
Add your sites Once you select a feed reader, add the feeds you wish to follow. Most feed readers let you paste a website’s URL to find available RSS feeds. Some websites have multiple RSS feeds, like Wired, which allows you to subscribe to a firehose of all articles or trim things down by subscribing separately to specific topic feeds like science or cybersecurity. [Image: Inoreader feed results for wired.com, showing an all posts feed and a feed called “Science latest”]
1 more replies (not shown)
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

Some websites don’t publish RSS feeds — often paywalled websites or newsletters. Increasingly, RSS readers are incorporating features that allow you to send newsletters to your feed reader via email, and there are also services like Kill the Newsletter that can do this for you.

#RSS

Some paywalled email newsletters lack RSS feeds due to subscription-gated feeds not being universal (though they exist — shoutout to 404 Media). This leaves writers with the choice of exposing all their paywalled writing for free on an RSS feed or not offering a feed at all. Fortunately, many RSS readers can ingest email newsletters, typically by generating a custom email address for newsletters to be sent directly.h When that newsletter sends an email, it appears in your RSS reader alongside your normal feeds. And if your RSS reader doesn’t offer this service, there are third-party tools like Kill the Newsletter tha can accomplish the same task.
Some paywalled email newsletters lack RSS feeds due to subscription-gated feeds not being universal (though they exist — shoutout to 404 Media). This leaves writers with the choice of exposing all their paywalled writing for free on an RSS feed or not offering a feed at all. Fortunately, many RSS readers can ingest email newsletters, typically by generating a custom email address for newsletters to be sent directly.h When that newsletter sends an email, it appears in your RSS reader alongside your normal feeds. And if your RSS reader doesn’t offer this service, there are third-party tools like Kill the Newsletter tha can accomplish the same task.
Some paywalled email newsletters lack RSS feeds due to subscription-gated feeds not being universal (though they exist — shoutout to 404 Media). This leaves writers with the choice of exposing all their paywalled writing for free on an RSS feed or not offering a feed at all. Fortunately, many RSS readers can ingest email newsletters, typically by generating a custom email address for newsletters to be sent directly.h When that newsletter sends an email, it appears in your RSS reader alongside your normal feeds. And if your RSS reader doesn’t offer this service, there are third-party tools like Kill the Newsletter tha can accomplish the same task.
What about sites without RSS feeds? One hiccup you may encounter is a website you love that doesn’t provide an RSS feed. I encounter these rarely, as many content management systems provide RSS feeds out-of-the-box, sometimes without writers realizing they’re there. Publishers sometimes need to enable RSS functionality, and some will happily do so if you ask nicely. (I’ve successfully asked at least one newsletter writer I subscribe to to turn on their RSS feed on beehiiv, which doesn’t provide feeds by default but can be made to do so with a click.)
What about sites without RSS feeds? One hiccup you may encounter is a website you love that doesn’t provide an RSS feed. I encounter these rarely, as many content management systems provide RSS feeds out-of-the-box, sometimes without writers realizing they’re there. Publishers sometimes need to enable RSS functionality, and some will happily do so if you ask nicely. (I’ve successfully asked at least one newsletter writer I subscribe to to turn on their RSS feed on beehiiv, which doesn’t provide feeds by default but can be made to do so with a click.)
What about sites without RSS feeds? One hiccup you may encounter is a website you love that doesn’t provide an RSS feed. I encounter these rarely, as many content management systems provide RSS feeds out-of-the-box, sometimes without writers realizing they’re there. Publishers sometimes need to enable RSS functionality, and some will happily do so if you ask nicely. (I’ve successfully asked at least one newsletter writer I subscribe to to turn on their RSS feed on beehiiv, which doesn’t provide feeds by default but can be made to do so with a click.)
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