RSS Not Email Please

2026-02-02

I am glad you started a web log. Did you know you can add a RSS feed so I can follow your site without having to create a rule in my email reader or remember to check in each week?

RSS Is the Subscription Model We Need

When you see this little icon RSS feed icon you have found a site with an RSS feed. It provides a link to a document in Really Simple Syndication [1] format. If you host your site in a blog application it will probably create this file for you each time you add something to your site. It looks something like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <title>Bipedal Programmer</title>
    <link>https://bipedalprogrammer.com</link>
    <atom:link href="https://bipedalprogrammer.com/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
    <description>JBake Bootstrap Template</description>
    <language>en-gb</language>
    <pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 22:06:47 -0500</pubDate>
    <lastBuildDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2025 22:06:47 -0500</lastBuildDate>

    <item>
      <title>Homegrown</title>
      <link>https://bipedalprogrammer.com/blog/2025/20251216.html</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">blog/2025/20251216.html</guid>
      	<description>
	        Websites can be a garden of sorts too. Lately I have been treating the various applications
	        that we run around the house as a garden and have become serious about cultivating them
	        with the same thoughtfulness as my other gardens.
	  	</description>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

It is a file that is designed to be accessible to a machine. Some of us (that browse the web on desktop computers) use a program called a feed-reader to follow websites that we like. This standard evolved before the social sites decided that you should experience the web inside their walled gardens.

Feed Reader

I can scan the headlines, click on the ones that interest me, see the full description, and if it looks like something I want to read, click on it and it opens in my browser. (If you track page visits, you get credit for a human looking at your site.) I get to see your site the way you designed it, no translation to fit the aggregator’s format.

Web Page

If you want to try the old way to keep up with your favorite sites, feed readers are available for almost every device and operating system. There are also web based readers, which are sort of in between your own application and a social site. Some email clients also support RSS feeds, so if you only follow a few sites that may be a good fit.

1. You probably already use RSS. It is the underlying technology for podcast feeds. It allows an enclosure of any Internet file format so it is perfect for a serialised feed such as a podcast.