## An RSS Manifesto

> More than a convenience, _RSS is good for the web_.

This blog is available via [RSS](/blog/rss2.xml), [Atom](/blog/atom.xml), or [JSON](/blog/json.json) syndication.

For the uninitiated, RSS/Atom/JSON feeds make the content of a website available in a standard format. This allows you to consume the blog's content in whatever feed reader you prefer, rather than visiting the site directly.

RSS & Atom are standard feed formats based on XML. RSS is by far the most popular. [JSON feed](https://www.jsonfeed.org/) is a somewhat less popular syndication format based on JSON.

While RSS is no longer a "mainstream" format for consuming works on the internet, it still has a thriving community of dedicated fans.

You might be surprised to learn that RSS feeds are still everywhere. Nearly every news/blog-style website will have an RSS feed out-of-the box. Everything from [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/rss) to [NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-rss-feeds) to [_every single podcast_](https://99percentinvisible.org/listen/) can be subscribed to via RSS.

More than a convenience, _RSS is good for the web_. It provides a standard format for programmatically fetching content from a disparate collection of websites, is (nearly) always available.

From a user's perspective, it allows us (as consumers) to choose what content we subscribe to and receive timely updates without relying on an algorithm. Plus, since RSS is a pure HTML format, it is often better from a user-privacy standpoint than visiting websites directly.

Finally, RSS promotes platform diversity by enabling small authors & creators to publish their works online in a standard, approachable format without needing a larger platform to reach their subscribers.

If you couldn't tell, I ❤️ open syndication, and I think it's really important to continue making these feeds available to users.

To that end, I'm trying to collect a list of independent RSS feeds that I enjoy:
