We are RSS only!

Follow update notifications at http://jad.raven-wing.net/rss

What is RSS?

"Real Simple Syndication", "Rich Site Summary", or "RDF [resource description framework] Site Summary" is an XML web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. These feeds can, for example, allow a user to keep track of many different websites in a single news aggregator that will automatically check the RSS feed for new content (the "syndication" part) and provide either real-time delivery or delayed notifications depending on the user's preference.

What is a news aggregator?

In short, a feed reader. RSS feed readers come in a variety of ways!

For the most part, they're ad-free as well. Unless you visit the website to view the newest update or have an app that has a rotating banner box on the screen, you can check for updates without harassment or being tracked by anything other than the websites' natural visitor logs: IP xx.xx.xx.xx visited website.com/feed on YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS with Browser build x.x

Most places you can just put "/feed" or "/rss" on the end of the main URL, and if your browser auto-detects feeds then the little icon in the address bar will light up without extra work. Here is my collection for a couple of websites:

Webcomics & Galleries

Blogs

Social Media

Why not social media?

Politely, they lack flood control on their home pages and the "trending" algorithms often hides content. Many people have resorted to posting frequently and even scheduling posts to display every few minutes. This has rendered social media an ineffective way to keep up with content without going to each page individually to check for updates, and defeats the purpose of attempting to be a single place for receiving news. RSS feeds are stored separately from each other as a list of links, the feed title will be highlighted in some way so you know who has and has not updated recently, and some more elaborate readers will display updates in a social media style first-come-first-serve feed on a user's homepage for those who enjoy that layout. As mentioned above, some RSS websites will allow you to subscribe to certain pages on social media sites like Facebook or Instagram for a fee, because they understand that people are tired of missing updates from them being buried or intentionally hidden by the host website.

Impolitely, I am sick of the toxic, virulent cesspool social media has become. I've been on the internet since 2004 and I know very well that haters and trolls are nothing new, but social media has given them a way to be more present and abusive than ever. Social media has also developed a reputation for interfering in real life matters and trying to manipulate feeds to their preferred causes instead of remaining a neutral platform, and certain companies (including search engines) are frequently under investigation for anticompetitive and inappropriate "tracking"/stalking behaviour.

Time to push back and say "enough is enough". So, with a rebel yell I now flash the sign of the horns to ward off that evil, and rock on. \m/

Illustration: I've left behind social media. Follow the only JAD feed on http://jad.raven-wing.net/rss

[ Original full color version. ]

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