Why I think RSS is based

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So if been alive not long enough, you might see those wifi looking things in an orange square. That's RSS.

That's right folks, we're talking about RSS feeds.

Here's a brief summary of RSS: RSS was created in 1999 after failed attempts for web syndication back then. At first it didn't get much traction, but when the new millennium turned, RSS started gaining traction. Famous outlets and websites started RSS feeds, that icon was everywhere you looked.

The format became more prevalent in around 2005 to 2007. Every website and blogs have RSS feeds as a way to deliver content to people. As YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms became prevalent, the art of RSS became obscured.

Now, talking about RSS in this day and age was like talking about what happened to the dinosaurs, but unlike dinosaurs, they still exists, just hidden like Luigi.

You can still access RSS feeds today, for example this website or TechCrunch or GMA News. Heck The New York Times still have RSS feeds.

Now you might say, why do you talk about RSS feeds, where you can access content in Twitter? Well, simply, it's much better.

Yes, it does have a disadvantage of having a separate RSS reader but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. First up, you can read stuff without ads floating around or soul being sold to Google and Meta. For example, I can still access Twitter feeds without the harassment. I also read a news article without the 90% of Javascript. Heck it's basically better to distribute podcasts here than waiting it for release in Spotify.

RSS is just better than looking for Twitter about blog posts and such. You can add your favorite websites to a RSS reader.

If you find scrolling into Twitter, looking for a new blog post and don't want to bother with Javascript, you can access it by going to a RSS feed, unless if the author doesn't maintain it anymore.

Accessing RSS feeds will also help people with a slow connection as they can also access content without the hassle of loading a full Javascript site and waiting for minutes.

You could also access podcasts too in RSS feeds! This format is too versatile for accessing content to the masses, although I'm not sure about how to access it in this day and age of social media and surveillance capitalism.

I honestly recommend using it because it's a good way to access content from your favorite websites. Now, you might ask, "How about looking at my favorite celebrity's Twitter feed? How about YouTube videos?", well it's simple, take a look:

If you want to access Twitter feeds via RSS, you can use https://nitter.net/username/rss.

For example, you want to access content from your favorite WordPress website, you can do it by adding /feed in the end of the website URL.

If you want checking out your favorite subreddit, you can use https://reddit.com/r/subreddit/rss.xml

For people who want to see the latest Scott the Woz episode or a new video on YouTube, you can use https://youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=channel_id. You must use the channel ID of the channel itself. Searx for a channel ID grabber so you can add it.

You might ask how to do it, it's pretty simple actually. You need some basic understanding about HTML text formatting and XML. You can get a generator but I recommend making it yourself.

As for reading feeds, you can use Newsboat for Linux. This RSS reader is based on vim (based text editor) and can access feeds easily without the hassle of installing a window manager.

As for alternative to RSS, well there's Atom. Atom and RSS are somehow related because they both use XML but they are different platforms.

I might add an Atom feed soon so expect to see it later. See you!