RSS Part 1

RSS has been an essential part of my computer usage for almost two decades. It enables me to keep up with many forums, blogs, homepages, etc. by providing a timely stream of notifications. I use it to discover articles, helping me stay up-to-date with advances in my field. I use it to track software releases, allowing me to update software that I maintain and avoid security issues. I use it to monitor forums for topics of interest, allowing me to learn from as well as help others. I use it to follow podcasts, driving a significant part of my continued education. I use it to keep up with friends and colleagues, helping me be a little less “anti-social.”

A critically important aspect of RSS is efficiency. I am able to process hundreds of news items per day without feeling overloaded, and with minimal distraction. I choose which feeds to subscribe to, and I can easily drop a feed if I feel that the signal-to-noise ratio is too low. There are no advertisements.

There have been seemingly countless reports on the demise of RSS since the big social media and advertisement companies have shunned it in favor of their money-making sites. Many people have continued to use RSS regardless, and there have indeed been many reports that it is in fact not dead. Thankfully, RSS is not controlled by any company and will live on as long as people find value in it. It is a truly distributed part of the internet, a bastion of freedom that refuses to be stamped out by corporate interest.

Due to a feed validation issue, I have recently considered switching RSS clients, and I decided to write about it in this blog. This first blog entry portrays the importance of RSS in my daily workflow. Future entries will discuss the issue and my evaluation of various clients. My immediate issue has been resolved, so I may stick with my current client, but I am interested in trying out some alternatives anyway.