Web Syndication The Open Standard Feed and How To Grab Them
In a time before social media and user geenrated content sites were deominate in the way they are now, the internet was largely made up of smaller sites and blogs that were self hosted or hosted through a paid service. This means if you wanted to see if the site had an updated or new article, you'd had to phsyically go to that url. It was not centralized, and it can be a bit of pain to keep up with everything.
Little did this small baby Rambler know at the time that there was a standard to pull site updates into an aggregate feed that you could see in your lesure without an annoying notification going off. Enter Web Syndication protocols with the most well know being RSS, with Atom being a notable second.
(The differences btw are all technical. Some sites use one or the other or both. All comes down to admin/author.)
With rss you could follow about anything! News, Blogs, Web Comics, and eventually Podcast to name a few. All without having to go directly to the site unless you wanted to.
It is a service that I want… NAY! need to use more as a way for filtering the garbage that is the modern web. Because even if algorithm is better at finding what I want to watch/listen/read, it still sometimes hides the things you are directly following if you don’t give it enough attention.
However not all is lost, if forgotten. RSS and Atom are still used but websites more than use would think. Even on user generated sites!
Using RSS/Atom in the Modern Day
While this seems like an old technology many sites still use it. In additions to podcasts, and webcomics, many social networks use rss as well. Naturally, The Fediverse is most open about using these openstandards than others, however sites like Youtube have rss support, and I'll use it for creators that don't post very often just to ensure i don't miss a post.
In this section I have list of rss templates that you can sure to follow others. I'll likely expand on the list and maybe even make it into a separate post as I find new services that support rss.
Fediverse services:
[MASTADON.INSTANCE]/@[USERNAME].rss
https://write.as/rambles-well-written/feed
https://pixelfed.social/users/nafnlj.atom
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?playlist_id=
Tumblr:
http://exampleblogname.tumblr.com/rss
Twitter: If for some god forsaken reason you still want to keep up with twitter the best way to do that is actually with nitter + rss. It allows you follow your favourite users without the AlGoRiThM getting in the way. No likes, no “this person follows x”... only tweets and retweets. Wish I knew about this sooner
Example: https://nitter.net/ContentNemes/rss
But What Apps Can We Use in the Modern Age?
While you probably have heard of web apps that allow you to do follow rss and atom feeds, there are plenty of free applications a browser add-ons that you can use instead if you’re not interested in paying a subscription.
Apps / add-ons:
Yes the email app. It also has Rss fictionality. This is what I’ve used to grab a fair amount of the RSS feeds I currently follow. An easy start if you’re already using it as an email client
Liferea:
The Linux app that I first used in every linux install. It’s good basic app to used for wed feed following.
Chrome and Firefox extension. Can even follow social medias that don’t directly have rss support. The question is do you REALLY want to follow people on twitter this way? Still super cool and advanced Feed Reader. Deserves a look.
Used to use this one a lot but it doesn’t seem to be getting updates anymore. Might still be worth checking out as it can follow YouTube links easily.
An app I will likely be replacing QuiteRSS with as it is still being updated. Also GNU licensed so that’s nice.
Time to Start Curating My Feeds
I think it’s time I start taking this protocol more seriously. Naturally, I want to use this more often to not be as under the influence of the algorithm, but I usually start and then fall off after sometime. With the new year starting soon, I’ll start curating my feeds and with any luck I’ll stop missing out on some of my favourite creators, and maybe I’ll follow some more reliable news.
But for now, Happy Feed Aggregating!
A Nemes Content Blog 2022.