Given that people are increasingly fed up with the internet's enshittification, I argue that this "dead" technology still has potential and is worth a second look.
Thank you for explaining to me in very simple terms what RSS does. I’ve known what it is, but never understood the purpose. Your article just helped me understand the “why” and how useful and important it can be to those of us who are sick of the ultra curated AI internet!
Agreed! It's one of the most frustrating things about the tech world; people who stand to profit off the latest, "greatest" thing convince us all that we need to jump ship, and so we do. Meanwhile, legacy products and tools that are still excellent choices are left to collect dust (or worse, get thrown away).
Great case in point: I discovered a little while ago on a visit to my parents' house that the old Discman I used in high school STILL FREAKING WORKS, ANTI-SKIP AND ALL. It's too bad most of my CDs are either buried in a landfill or sitting in a box at a thrift store...
I know Substack still uses RSS to distribute most podcasts, as I think is the standard for podcasts going to streaming services and all that. I think it's brilliant, though I don't know much about it. I have vague memories of it from back in the day but you're fully right that I don't actually get it as a whole 😅
RSS is indeed the standard for podcasts! I love it that I can add all the podcasts I enjoy to my RSS reader--it's way more convenient to keep them all organized there.
Another awesome thing about RSS in relation to Substack is that you can use it to subscribe to publications without using your email address, which is really handy if you don't want to clutter up your inbox with articles (or if you want to follow a particular author, but don't necessarily want to share your email address with them). There are some publications I follow not because I necessarily agree with the substance of what the authors are saying, but because I want to stay informed about how the "other side" views certain issues. I never subscribe via email to those publications.
I remember RSS feeds! Funnily, I'd been trying to work out how to use them with Substack. I think there is a way, or at least some sort of hack. But it's not made easy!
Finding out the RSS of a Wordpress blog is fairly simple - I've done that with my writing website so that the blog automatically feeds into the author profile on Goodreads (GR is creaking and ancient but then that's a good thing sometimes!).
Easiest way to grab a Substack publication's feed is to plonk "/feed" at the end of the publication URL! So your feed, for instance, would be https://roadstothepast.substack.com/feed I'm not sure if Substack RSS feeds play nicely with Goodreads (now THERE'S a platform I haven't thought about in years), but they work just fine in my RSS reader. I personally prefer receiving new Substack articles in my email, but if Substack ever starts incorporating ads into articles, the publications I follow will go straight into my RSS reader.
I read my subscribed newsletters in the app. I find it makes me more focused, weirdly (I swapped notes and inbox so the inbox displays first - found it very distracting when notes was coming up first!). Eurghhhhhhh adverts in Substack - that'd be a very sad day indeed!
Thanks for writing this! Count me in. I never really knew how RSS worked, and, while I'm more tech-informed than I was back then, I hadn't considered that this was a thing we could still do. Your description was apt -- I've left most social media due to the mellow-harshing din of combative assholes and trolls and bots and constant unwanted AI pollution. Really craving a bit of Luddite peace, even if it's only relatively speaking.
You're welcome! The biggest criticism of RSS was always that most people found it too confusing to use. Even the name is off-putting. To me, "Really Simple Syndication" always sounded like random words thrown together for the fun of it (don't even get me started on "RDF Site Summary"). I feel like if RSS had been given a sexier, less obscure name from the get go, and if more effort had been made to promote the value of readers, it might have fared a bit better over the years.
One way or another, I'm glad it's still around! Hope it helps you to filter out some of the din.
One of the key reasons for the relative demise of RSS was that at one time Google Reader was the dominant reader of choice. In 2013 when Google discontinued Reader people scrambled to find other choices and there were a bunch of really solid software readers available but the scattering away from a simple web reader was destabilizing enough that many people’s habits were shifted away.
Funny thing is that one of the founders of Instagram was a manager at Google Reader.
One other thing about some people using excerpts instead of full post content in RSS feeds is that with full feeds it’s really easy for people to scrape feeds and post them on SEO farming websites.
Thank you for explaining to me in very simple terms what RSS does. I’ve known what it is, but never understood the purpose. Your article just helped me understand the “why” and how useful and important it can be to those of us who are sick of the ultra curated AI internet!
This is really good
Thank you for sharing! It’s funny how quickly we forget about these simple tools we (me) once used regularly.
Agreed! It's one of the most frustrating things about the tech world; people who stand to profit off the latest, "greatest" thing convince us all that we need to jump ship, and so we do. Meanwhile, legacy products and tools that are still excellent choices are left to collect dust (or worse, get thrown away).
Great case in point: I discovered a little while ago on a visit to my parents' house that the old Discman I used in high school STILL FREAKING WORKS, ANTI-SKIP AND ALL. It's too bad most of my CDs are either buried in a landfill or sitting in a box at a thrift store...
I know Substack still uses RSS to distribute most podcasts, as I think is the standard for podcasts going to streaming services and all that. I think it's brilliant, though I don't know much about it. I have vague memories of it from back in the day but you're fully right that I don't actually get it as a whole 😅
RSS is indeed the standard for podcasts! I love it that I can add all the podcasts I enjoy to my RSS reader--it's way more convenient to keep them all organized there.
Another awesome thing about RSS in relation to Substack is that you can use it to subscribe to publications without using your email address, which is really handy if you don't want to clutter up your inbox with articles (or if you want to follow a particular author, but don't necessarily want to share your email address with them). There are some publications I follow not because I necessarily agree with the substance of what the authors are saying, but because I want to stay informed about how the "other side" views certain issues. I never subscribe via email to those publications.
Oh that's super useful!
I remember RSS feeds! Funnily, I'd been trying to work out how to use them with Substack. I think there is a way, or at least some sort of hack. But it's not made easy!
Finding out the RSS of a Wordpress blog is fairly simple - I've done that with my writing website so that the blog automatically feeds into the author profile on Goodreads (GR is creaking and ancient but then that's a good thing sometimes!).
Easiest way to grab a Substack publication's feed is to plonk "/feed" at the end of the publication URL! So your feed, for instance, would be https://roadstothepast.substack.com/feed I'm not sure if Substack RSS feeds play nicely with Goodreads (now THERE'S a platform I haven't thought about in years), but they work just fine in my RSS reader. I personally prefer receiving new Substack articles in my email, but if Substack ever starts incorporating ads into articles, the publications I follow will go straight into my RSS reader.
Ahhh, that's handy, thank you!
I read my subscribed newsletters in the app. I find it makes me more focused, weirdly (I swapped notes and inbox so the inbox displays first - found it very distracting when notes was coming up first!). Eurghhhhhhh adverts in Substack - that'd be a very sad day indeed!
*Funnily enough, arghhhhhh
Thanks for writing this! Count me in. I never really knew how RSS worked, and, while I'm more tech-informed than I was back then, I hadn't considered that this was a thing we could still do. Your description was apt -- I've left most social media due to the mellow-harshing din of combative assholes and trolls and bots and constant unwanted AI pollution. Really craving a bit of Luddite peace, even if it's only relatively speaking.
You're welcome! The biggest criticism of RSS was always that most people found it too confusing to use. Even the name is off-putting. To me, "Really Simple Syndication" always sounded like random words thrown together for the fun of it (don't even get me started on "RDF Site Summary"). I feel like if RSS had been given a sexier, less obscure name from the get go, and if more effort had been made to promote the value of readers, it might have fared a bit better over the years.
One way or another, I'm glad it's still around! Hope it helps you to filter out some of the din.
One of the key reasons for the relative demise of RSS was that at one time Google Reader was the dominant reader of choice. In 2013 when Google discontinued Reader people scrambled to find other choices and there were a bunch of really solid software readers available but the scattering away from a simple web reader was destabilizing enough that many people’s habits were shifted away.
Funny thing is that one of the founders of Instagram was a manager at Google Reader.
One other thing about some people using excerpts instead of full post content in RSS feeds is that with full feeds it’s really easy for people to scrape feeds and post them on SEO farming websites.