For anyone looking to adjust their media diet, now’s a great time to consider escaping The Algorithms with RSS.
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For anyone looking to adjust their media diet, now’s a great time to consider escaping The Algorithms with RSS. Here are some of the blogs, newsletters, and independent news sites I follow: https://www.mollywhite.net/blogroll/
For feed readers, I use Inoreader, but there are many other good options.
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This is also a great way to follow newsletters without your email inbox getting jammed up. I mostly subscribe to newsletters, turn the emails off, and then read them in my feed reader.
Most newsletters provide an RSS feed, or there are some RSS readers that will let you send emails to a special email address so they show up in your feed.
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@molly0xfff Yes! I use Inoreader, as well, and for the same reasons. I especially prefer RSS to email newsletters as I am more likely to read what in my feed as opposed to what’s in my Inbox.
Let’s also not forget that podcasts are also delivered via RSS reader, so you’re not restricted to just print sources when you subscribe to RSS feeds.
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@molly0xfff I wish I understood this. My gmail keeps filling up. I don't even know what an RSS feed is. Do you have to download an app?
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@WINGS_radio there are RSS apps, or you can also use a web-based one. here's a good guide: https://derekkedziora.com/blog/rss-guide
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@molly0xfff Thank you for this excellent list. When I followed the "Erin Kissane’s internet website lol" link, I saw a big notice: "My new microstudio is over at wreckage/salvage. This site collects my work spring 2022–fall 2024."
https://www.wrecka.ge/ exists and has a feed, yay.
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@molly0xfff Any tips for RSS readers that can do that?
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@molly0xfff : As you seem to follow everything through RSS (like I do), I wonder how you draw the line between a "blog" and a "newsletter"?
Also, as the medium always impacts the message, I’m curious to know if you see any difference in terms of content/tone between blogs and newsletters.
Signed: A 20 years of blogging veteran
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@ploum it’s a very fuzzy line, and i have some newsletters on my blogroll. mostly just comes down to vibes and cadence
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@almad inoreader does it, but it’s a paid feature. there are also free services like https://kill-the-newsletter.com/
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@molly0xfff I only wish discovering plain, non-propeietary RSS feed URLs wasn't so painful for most podcasts and sites...
Vivaldi fortunately shows an RSS feed icon on pages with discoverable feeds! Firefox removed that feature long ago
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@molly0xfff @travissouthard also got a 404 but excited to see the feed!
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Molly Whitereplied to Rhoseigh last edited by [email protected]
@Rhoseigh @travissouthard oops, fixed
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Molly Whitereplied to axleyjc last edited by [email protected]
@axleyjc Inoreader has a browser extension that sniffs them out. A lot of readers also have a place where you can pop in the site URL and it’ll find the feed
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@molly0xfff Do you know if the rss reader apps collect and monetize your information (feeds followed, stories read, etc.)? It looks like most of them don’t “algorithmize” the feed unless you want them to (and it seems to be more under your control).
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@chriswei i imagine it varies depending on the app. any reader that tries to recommend feeds to you is collecting *some* data, but you’d have to check the privacy policy to see what they do with it.
mine does try to recommend feeds, but doesn’t sell the data.
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@chriswei there are also a lot of self-hosted options for RSS readers, so that’s a solid option for someone worried about tracking
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Good point about being selective and avoiding the firehose. Especially if your reading time is limited.
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@molly0xfff your blog link is a 404, should be this: https://www.dashes.com/posts/
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@molly0xfff do you have strong thoughts on RSS vs Atom? Most folks won’t and shouldn’t care, but curious if there are hidden considerations for publishing a feed these days.
