2023 has been the year of big tech in some sort of self imposed death spiral. Management at Twitter and Reddit seem steadfast in fucking over their most diehard users.
For me, 2023 was the year that I got back into RSS feeds.
RSS is a breath of fresh air from the algorithmically produced stream of content that I see on traditional social media. Being able to control what I read, in what order, and when, is really nice.
I was a heavy user of both Reddit and Twitter. My Twitter use has dropped to almost zero, although I still read it every now and again. Reddit I’m not sure if I’ll give up soon, but it might happen the way things are going. RSS is slowly becoming the best way to read content on the internet - again.
In the spirit be the change you want to see in the World, I’ve changed my feed to have the full text. It wasn’t a conscious choice when I wrote the code for generating the RSS and it has been on my todo list for a while. It’s nice to change it and make the RSS experience better.
An ask for recommendations
On Mastodon, Ethan Marcotte posted asking for some recommendations.
I responded with Brr.fyi. A blog from a worker at McMurdo Station. It’s a look into the mundane but fascinating things that go on when you put humans into one of the places on Earth that humans aren’t built for. What other kind of writing would give me an insight into all the different types of doors that they have?
Most of my feeds are Tech related or personal blogs, but here’s some others that I’m enjoying:
- ooh.directory - a regularly updated directory, which has helped me populate my feeds
- It’s Nice That - creative industries coverage
- Bangkok Glutton - a foodie blog from someone living in Bangkok, but regular international posts
- Bikepacking.com - articles about traveling long distances by bike
- Kottke - the OG link blog and still as good as ever
Feed me!
I hope people give RSS feeds a chance. Maybe you’re giving it a second chance like I am?
If you’ve got any recommendations for me - hi@tommyp.org or @tommyp.