The Internet By RSS

Why Use RSS

I consume a lot of stuff on the Internet. A pretty incomplete list would include:

• Hacker News
• Mastodon & other social networks
• Assorted blogs and newsletters
• YouTube

A number of these come with unwanted baggage, for example spam posts in blogs and newsletters, ads all over the shop and so on. Also, most of these require me to be online (although I can of course use a read-it-later service like Instapaper). In addition these mostly come in different apps; there’s no one place to review content or categories or make any attempt at prioritisation. All these are problems if one is trying to curtail or control one’s consumption.

RSS avoids a number of these issues:

• Control Over Content: With RSS, users have full control over the content they wish to receive updates from. This is unlike emails where sometimes unsolicited messages can be received. You choose which sites or blogs to follow, so it’s highly customizable and relevant.
• No Spam: One of the major issues with emails is the spam that users receive. With RSS, there’s no risk of spam. You only get updates from the sites you’ve subscribed to.
• Ease of Use: RSS feeds are easy to manage and use. Most web browsers, as well as many dedicated apps and services, support RSS feed reading. Also, the learning curve is quite gentle with RSS.
• Timely Updates: RSS feeds…