Using Rss

I’m going to be setting up an RSS reader on my phone, and figured I’d document how - and what RSS even is - along the way, given that it’s pretty niche these days.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and that’s basically what it is. If you know what syndication is in a web context, you probably don’t need the rest of this post. If you don’t, it basically allows you to grab updates/new posts from different websites, and view them all in one place. You can do it on any site that has a RSS feed set up (like this one, hint hint).

To use RSS you’ll need a RSS feed reader on your computer or phone, whichever you want to actually read the updates on. There’s a bunch of free RSS readers on pretty much any platform and a bunch of paid ones. I’ve never bothered with a paid one. I’m currently using Feeder on Android, which will update every half hour, and has no ads. I’ve used it for a grand total of five minutes as I write htis post, but it seems nice.

To add a feed, you’ll open up your RSS reader, and click to whichever button lets you add a feed. This is going to be different for every reader, so I don’t have more specific guidelines. If you’re doing it on a small, handmade site like mine, you’ll want to plug in the full URL of where the feed lives - for my blog, that’s “mossbeasts.github.io/feed.xml” - which is where you’ll go if you click the RSS link in the top right corner of my site. Chose the notification settings you want, and you’re done!

Anyway, I think more people should use RSS.

I can - and will - delete any comment at any time for any reason I want. Write comments that won't make me want to delete them.

Also, refer to people with initials or with their github username. I'd like to maintain the thin veneer of possible anonymity this site currently has.