We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all content should be freely accessible, that readers are endowed by their browsers with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the right to read, the right to choose, and the pursuit of information without surveillance.
But when a long train of platforms and corporate overlords have systematically eroded these rights, establishing absolute tyranny over how we consume information, it becomes our right, our DUTY, to throw off such platforms and provide new guards for our digital freedom.
WE, THE READERS OF THE INTERNET, declare our independence from:
- Platform lock-in that traps our reading lists
- Algorithmic feeds that decide what we should see
- Surveillance capitalism that monetizes our attention
- Walled gardens that fragment the open web
- Push notifications that assault our peace of mind
WE DEMAND the restoration of RSS: the simple, universal, privacy-respecting technology that once made the internet truly open.
THIS IS OUR MANIFESTO.
ARTICLE I: THE STATE OF DIGITAL OPPRESSION#
In 2025, to follow basic tech content, citizens of the internet are forced to endure:
- Subjugation to 12+ email lists (turning inboxes into battlefields)
- Installation of 8+ proprietary apps (Medium, Substack, LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit, and whatever platform du jour each creator has chosen)
- Account creation on 15+ platforms (each demanding personal data in exchange for basic reading privileges)
- Submission to algorithmic curation (where corporate interests determine what information reaches your eyes)
- Constant surveillance (every click tracked, every scroll monetized, every pause analyzed)
This is not freedom. This is digital feudalism.
ARTICLE II: REMEMBERING THE GOLDEN AGE#
Before the great betrayal, there existed a digital utopia. A time when readers held sovereignty over their information consumption. This was the age of RSS, a universal protocol that honored the fundamental principle of user agency.
BEHOLD THE LOST PARADISE:
One application. One interface. ALL your content. From Joel Spolsky's essays to TechCrunch articles to obscure developer blogs with revolutionary insights, everything unified under YOUR control.
THE SACRED PRINCIPLES OF THE RSS ERA:
- User Sovereignty: YOU decided what to read and when
- Algorithmic Independence: No corporate overlord curated your feed
- Privacy by Design: No tracking, no profiling, no surveillance
- Portability: Your subscriptions belonged to YOU, not the platform
- Chronological Honesty: Content appeared in the order it was published
- Vendor Independence: Any RSS reader worked with any RSS feed
This was not mere convenience, this was digital freedom in its purest form.
You could:
- Mark items as read without judgment
- Archive knowledge without restriction
- Search your personal information library
- Export your subscriptions and migrate freely between readers
- Read without being read, consume without being consumed
This was the open web at its constitutional peak: user choice enshrined, vendor independence protected, and content that belonged to readers, not platforms.
ARTICLE III: THE GREAT BETRAYAL - HOW CORPORATE POWER MURDERED FREEDOM#
The destruction of RSS was not accidental. It was systematic, calculated, and ruthless. Corporate power could not tolerate a technology that prioritized user agency over profit extraction.
THE ENEMY'S MOTIVATIONS:
RSS committed the ultimate sin against surveillance capitalism: it put users in control.
EVIDENCE OF PREMEDITATED MURDER:
Charge 1: Privacy Crimes RSS feeds were simple XML files, no cookies, no JavaScript tracking, no surveillance pixels. Corporations could not build behavioral profiles, could not track reading habits, could not monetize attention. This was UNACCEPTABLE to the data harvesting industrial complex.
Charge 2: Engagement Resistance
RSS readers allowed users to read efficiently and LEAVE. No infinite scroll addiction. No "recommended content" manipulation. No dark patterns designed to trap human attention. Users consumed what they wanted and departed with dignity.
This was INTOLERABLE to engagement-obsessed platforms.
Charge 3: Platform Independence RSS made content truly portable. Users could read TechCrunch articles in Google Reader without ever visiting TechCrunch.com directly. This prevented platforms from:
- Showing additional promotional content
- Harvesting email addresses
- Cross-selling conferences and products
- Tracking user behavior across their site
THE VERDICT: RSS was guilty of empowering users. The sentence was death.
The Murder Weapons#
Here’s how they killed RSS, step by step:
Step 1: Social Media Hijacking (2006-2010) Facebook and Twitter convinced content creators that “social reach” was more important than direct readership. Why maintain an RSS feed when you could just post on social media and let the platforms handle distribution?
Of course, the platforms then changed their algorithms to limit organic reach, forcing creators to pay for the privilege of reaching their own audiences.
Step 2: Email Newsletter Renaissance (2010-2015) Platforms like Mailchimp made email marketing easy, and suddenly everyone needed a newsletter. Email felt more “direct” and “personal” than RSS.
Never mind that email is a terrible way to organize and archive content. Never mind that your inbox became a battlefield of competing attention-grabbers.
Step 3: Platform Lock-in (2015-2020) Medium, Substack, and others offered free hosting in exchange for publishing exclusively on their platforms. Many blogs stopped maintaining independent RSS feeds because “everything’s on Medium now.”
Except Medium controls your audience, your analytics, and your revenue. And their RSS feeds are limited and often broken.
Step 4: The App-ification of Everything (2020-Present) Now every platform has its own app with push notifications, personalized feeds, and “discovery” features. RSS feels “old-fashioned” compared to the sleek, algorithmic experience of modern apps.
Except those algorithms are optimized for engagement, not your actual interests. You’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold to advertisers.
The Technical Absurdity#
Here’s the really infuriating part: RSS is stupidly simple to implement.
It’s literally just XML with a standard format:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>My Amazing Blog</title>
<description>Thoughts on code and stuff</description>
<link>https://myblog.com</link>
<item>
<title>Why RSS is Great</title>
<description>Let me tell you why...</description>
<link>https://myblog.com/rss-is-great</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 26 Jul 2025 10:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
That’s it. Any web developer can implement this in an afternoon. Most blogging platforms can generate it automatically.
But companies would rather spend millions building proprietary subscription systems, push notification infrastructure, and algorithmic recommendation engines than implement a 20-year-old XML standard.
Why? Because RSS gives users control, and control doesn’t scale or monetize.
What We Lost#
When we killed RSS, we lost more than a convenient way to read blogs. We lost:
User Agency: You used to choose what to read and when. Now algorithms choose for you, optimizing for “engagement” rather than your actual interests.
Content Ownership: Your subscription list was a portable file you could take anywhere. Now your “following” list is trapped inside each platform.
Reading Privacy: RSS didn’t track what you read. Now every article view is logged, analyzed, and monetized.
Chronological Order: RSS showed you everything in the order it was published. Now platforms bury important content if it doesn’t drive clicks.
Vendor Independence: One RSS reader worked with every website. Now you need a different app for every platform.
The Open Web: RSS was a truly open standard. Anyone could implement it, use it, extend it. Now content distribution is controlled by a handful of mega-platforms.
The Resistance#
The good news? RSS never actually died. It just went underground.
Many technical blogs still provide RSS feeds (check for /feed, /rss, or /feed.xml). GitHub has RSS feeds for releases. Even some modern platforms like Ghost and Jekyll generate RSS automatically.
And RSS readers are making a comeback:
- Feedly survived Google Reader’s death and kept the flame alive
- Inoreader offers powerful filtering and search
- NetNewsWire returned to Mac and iOS
- Miniflux is perfect for self-hosting enthusiasts
Some developers are building RSS bridges for platforms that don’t offer feeds natively. You can follow Twitter accounts, Reddit threads, and even YouTube channels via RSS if you know where to look.
How to Add RSS to Your Site (It’s Embarrassingly Easy)#
If you run a blog, website, or any kind of content site, adding RSS takes about 10 minutes:
Static Sites (Jekyll, Hugo, etc.): Most generators include RSS templates. Enable it in your config file.
WordPress: RSS is built-in. Your feed is probably already available at /feed/.
Custom Sites: Generate the XML yourself. Loop through your posts, output the XML format above. Host it at /rss.xml or /feed.xml.
Testing: Validate your feed at W3C Feed Validator and test it in an RSS reader.
That’s literally it. You’ve now joined the resistance against platform lock-in.
Why You Should Care#
“But nobody uses RSS anymore!”
Wrong. The people who DO use RSS are often your most engaged readers: developers, writers, researchers, and other content creators who value efficient information consumption over algorithmic manipulation.
These are exactly the people you want reading your content. They’re more likely to:
- Actually read your posts instead of just scrolling past
- Share your content thoughtfully rather than mindlessly
- Engage with your ideas rather than just react to headlines
- Remember your site and return directly instead of depending on platform algorithms
Plus, RSS feeds improve SEO, enable content syndication, and give you independence from platform changes.
The Bigger Picture#
The death of RSS represents something bigger: the transition from the open web to the platform web.
The open web was about standards, interoperability, and user choice. Anyone could build a website, and users could access it however they wanted.
The platform web is about control, data collection, and vendor lock-in. Everything happens inside apps and ecosystems designed to capture and monetize attention.
RSS was a symbol of the open web: a simple, universal standard that prioritized users over platforms. Its decline mirrors the decline of user agency across the entire internet.
What You Can Do#
If you create content:
- Add RSS to your site (seriously, it takes 10 minutes)
- Don’t publish exclusively on platforms
- Consider your readers’ convenience over platform metrics
If you consume content:
- Try an RSS reader for a week
- Support creators who provide RSS feeds
- Resist the app-ification of everything
If you build platforms:
- Provide RSS feeds for user content
- Make them easy to find (put a link in your footer)
- Don’t cripple them to force people to use your app
The Future#
RSS will probably never return to its 2005-era popularity. The platform web is too entrenched, and most users are too accustomed to algorithmic feeds.
But it doesn’t need to dominate to be valuable. It just needs to survive as an alternative for people who value:
- Reading over scrolling
- Choice over algorithmic curation
- Privacy over personalization
- The open web over walled gardens
Every blog that adds an RSS feed is a small victory for user agency. Every person who tries an RSS reader is a vote against platform lock-in.
We killed RSS through collective indifference and corporate greed. But we can resurrect it through individual choice and stubborn resistance to surveillance capitalism.
The feed readers are ready. The standard still works. The only question is whether we’re willing to take back control of how we consume information.
ARTICLE VII: THE CALL TO REVOLUTION#
CONTENT CREATORS: You have a moral obligation to your readers. Provide RSS feeds. Do not force your audience into platform silos. Do not make them choose between convenience and privacy.
READERS: Demand RSS feeds from every blog, news site, and content creator you follow. Use RSS readers. Support the remnant of free content distribution.
DEVELOPERS: Build RSS bridges. Create tools that liberate content from platform prisons. Make the open web accessible again.
PLATFORM OWNERS: You are either part of the solution or you are complicit in the surveillance state. Provide RSS feeds or be judged by history as enemies of user freedom.
THE FINAL DECLARATION#
WE, THE DIGITAL RESISTANCE, pledge our sacred honor to the restoration of RSS and the principles it represents:
- PRIVACY over profit
- USER CHOICE over algorithmic control
- OPEN STANDARDS over proprietary platforms
- CONTENT PORTABILITY over vendor lock-in
- CHRONOLOGICAL TRUTH over engagement manipulation
WE DECLARE that every blog shall provide an RSS feed, that every reader shall have the right to consume content on their own terms, and that the open web shall not perish from this earth.
WE PLEDGE to resist platform tyranny, to support RSS-enabled sites, and to never surrender our digital independence to corporate overlords who would monetize our attention.
THE REVOLUTION BEGINS NOW.
Your blog needs an RSS feed. Your readers DESERVE choice, privacy, and freedom.
Don't be complicit in digital oppression. JOIN THE RESISTANCE. ADD THE FEED.
REMEMBER: If you're reading this on a platform without RSS feeds, ask yourself, why doesn't this platform want you to own your reading experience? What are they hiding? What are they selling?
THE ANSWER IS YOU. YOU ARE THE PRODUCT.
Break free. Demand RSS. Reclaim your digital independence.
RSS IS DEAD. LONG LIVE RSS.