I have special RSS usage tips

RSS (full English name: RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication), translated into Chinese as 简易信息聚合, also known as 聚合内容, is a format specification for news sources used to aggregate content updates from multiple websites and automatically notify website subscribers. After using RSS, website subscribers no longer need to manually check if there is new content on the site, while RSS can integrate updates from multiple websites and present them in a summarized form, helping subscribers quickly obtain important information and selectively read it. ¹

The title of this article is inspired by the DIYgood article “I Have Special RSS Usage Tips”, and I am prompted to introduce "I Have Special RSS Usage Tips" as well, thanking DIYgood for its contributions in the field of RSS.

Cloud Services#

RSS cloud services are mainly used to receive RSS feed content in a timely manner, avoiding missing individual content due to entry limits, and synchronizing reading progress across multiple devices.

Currently, commercial RSS cloud services include Inoreader and Feedly, but the ever-increasing subscription fees can be daunting. Open-source and free options include Tiny Tiny RSS and FreshRSS. After several comparisons, I chose FreshRSS for its visually appealing interface and rich features.

Lazy users can directly deploy it using the documentation with Docker (a benefit for lazy users!).

Readers#

The platforms I commonly use are mainly Windows and iOS/iPadOS. With the habit of using a browser whenever possible, on the Windows platform, I directly use the website built after setting up FreshRSS for reading. It meets my usage needs except for the lack of "mark all as read/mark below as read." On the iOS/iPadOS platform, I use Reeder, which operates on a one-time purchase model. As a long-standing RSS reader on the Apple platform, it satisfies me in all aspects. For free apps, I can choose the free open-source classic RSS reader NetNewsWire.

When choosing a reader, it's important to check whether it supports your self-hosted RSS cloud service. As of August 10, 2023, according to official descriptions:

Reeder 5: Feedbin, Feedly, Feed Wrangler, FeedHQ, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, Inoreader, BazQux Reader, FreshRSS, Instapaper, and Pocket.

NetNewsWire: Syncing via iCloud, Feedbin, Feedly, BazQux, Inoreader, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, and FreshRSS.

After successfully deploying FreshRSS, you also need to go to Settings - Management - Authentication to enable "Allow API access (for mobile applications)," then set the "API password" in Settings - Accounts - API Management, and click the URL below to obtain the required API URL and test results.

Allow API access (for mobile applications)

API password

RSSHub#

Now that there are RSS cloud services and RSS readers, where can we obtain RSS subscription sources? Unfortunately, there are fewer platforms that support RSS now, which is when the DIYgood-initiated project RSSHub comes into play.

RSSHub is an open-source, easy-to-use, and extensible RSS generator that can generate RSS feeds for any kind of strange content. RSSHub is rapidly developing with the help of the open-source community and has adapted to thousands of content from hundreds of websites.

According to the official documentation, deploying it with Docker is very simple (a benefit for lazy users!).

In addition to actively providing RSS subscriptions from various blogs, I subscribed to various RSS sources as shown in the picture through RSSHub.

Subscribed content

Telegram: Currently, it is just an app that conveniently uses bots to send notifications for me. I don't join any groups, only interested in a few channels, and can conveniently subscribe through RSSHub, so I only chat with bots on Telegram (laugh).
Jike: I haven't used it since the redesign; with RSSHub, I can follow a few users I think are worth following without registering.
Bilibili: In two years, apart from searching for needed content, I haven't actively opened it much. After subscribing to user dynamics through RSSHub, I directly open video web pages on my computer, and on my phone, clicking video links calls the client to jump directly to the video page. The homepage? It doesn't exist for me.
Media: Some tech media still mostly provide RSS subscriptions, while others generally do not. I won't subscribe to RSS feeds from media that publish a large number of articles daily, as it would greatly increase my reading burden. After selection, I retained these RSS subscriptions:
- Websites providing RSS subscriptions (unrelated to RSSHub, going off-topic (XD)):
  - #UNTAG: The style is somewhat like the previous "Minority," the website itself provides RSS subscriptions but does not provide full-text reading. RSSHub supported full-text reading some time ago but was asked to cancel it by the website because full-text reading is exclusive to website members (XD).
  - Qike: A website where users submit translations of foreign media after review, belonging to the type you can glance at. As someone with poor English, I've at least found translation errors three times.
  - Appinn: "I didn't know there was such software, but I can't use it; I'll come back when I need it."
  - Minority: Hard to evaluate; I currently only read "Pai Morning Report," "Pai Review," "What to Watch This Week," and "New Things."
  - ifanr: Only read the morning report; the rest is mostly fluff.
  - Game Research Society: Articles of relatively high quality, unlike Gcores, which publish an article for a few sentences (I recently listened to a Gcore podcast and became even more annoyed with Gcore; some hosts don't even play games and keep saying "Good!" frequently interrupting other hosts).
  - Blue Dot News: "The Duck Brother from Outside the Mountain," a website I started following since Windows 8, I've gotten used to it.
- Subscriptions using RSSHub:
  - Shanghai Review: After the Oriental Morning Post ceased publication, the online version continues to update on The Paper. I usually won't read most articles; I just check the titles and save articles when I see books I'm interested in, and come back to read the reviews after finishing the books.
  - Wall Street Journal: The main foreign media I read (still a poor quality Chinese version (poor English, using RSSHub subscription allows direct full-text reading, can I say that?).
  - Caixin Weekly: Recently bought two paper weeklies, and after reading them, I eagerly subscribed to "Caixin Campus Tour" and found someone to share the load. At first, I would read the latest published articles, but since there are too many, I chose to read the weekly edited and filtered version once a week.
  - Daily Global Vision: A quick read before bed.
Learning: Mainly school official website news and various exam updates, subscribed as needed.
Weibo: Subscribed based on interests.
Journals: Some journals I want to read but won't read.
Zhihu: Some high-quality answerers based on interests.
Forums: Don't subscribe to all posts on any forum; just choose popular posts, otherwise, you'll only see "all read."
Douban: Still driven by interests.
Software: Mainly subscriptions for software that do not provide updates, as well as subscription logs for updates using Docker deployment with Watchtower's automatic update service.

Through RSSHub, I haven't followed anyone on platforms like Bilibili and Weibo for two years, and I've also turned off personalized recommendations. Except for Bilibili, which requires using the app for higher quality, I haven't used certain toxic apps for a long time, but this only applies to users who do not publish content on the platform. Is this a form of information cocoon?

Regardless, I would like to thank DIYgood and all the developers who continuously contribute to RSSHub once again.

qBittorrent#

qBittorrent is mainly used to download subtitles for anime groups, so I basically only use it with "Anime Garden".

The usage method is very simple: open Anime Garden, filter slowly based on the subtitle group's name, anime title, language, and resolution, and after getting satisfactory results, click "Subscribe to this category" to obtain the RSS subscription address.

Search results

Open qBittorrent's Options - RSS, enable "RSS Reader" and "RSS Torrent Auto Downloader," and confirm. Then, open View - RSS Reader, go to the newly appeared "RSS" tab, add the RSS subscription address just obtained, and configure the "RSS Downloader" as needed.

qBittorrent is recommended to use qBittorrent Enhanced Edition, which can automatically update Trackers.

However, I have become too lazy to use qBittorrent much now; I directly look for public Emby servers, and only use qBittorrent for resources not available on public Emby.

Telegram Bot#

RSS can be used not only for reading and downloading but also for receiving notifications. For example, V2EX does not have external notification reminders but provides a subscription address for notifications.

Using a reader for such notification subscriptions feels strange, so I chose to use Telegram to receive notifications. There are many open-source free projects to choose from, but most seem to only output titles and not content. I eventually found the project RSS to Telegram Bot, which supports Docker deployment (a benefit for lazy users!).

V2EX

xLog also provides comment subscriptions; after deployment, subscribe to the xLog dashboard to obtain the subscription address.

Others#

If a website does not provide RSS subscriptions and RSSHub does not support it, you can use RssEverything to manually generate one, or use the newly supported " Convert " route by RSSHub.
Say No to Newsletter - DIYgood: If you also dislike newsletters and they do not provide RSS subscriptions, you can use the email provided by Kill the Newsletter! to subscribe to newsletters, and then subscribe to the provided RSS subscription address. However, using it on Zhubai may result in content being repeated twice (why doesn't Zhubai provide RSS subscriptions? The official website has always claimed to support RSS).
ALL-about-RSS: A collection of various RSS projects.
RSSHub Radar: A derivative project of RSSHub, a browser extension that helps you quickly discover and subscribe to current website RSS and RSSHub.

Conclusion#

I like RSS; with RSS, I don't have to switch back and forth across platforms to follow content I'm interested in; I like RSS; with RSS, I can be a small transparent figure across platforms.

But I also wonder, some say using RSS can help escape the information cocoon, while others say using RSS creates an information cocoon. I tend to think that using RSS creates an information cocoon, but I always feel something is off, yet I can't articulate it.

Is it because there are information cocoons everywhere now, making it impossible to escape? Or is it that the "information cocoon" referred to by both sides is not the same concept: RSS is about creating an information cocoon for oneself? Platforms create information cocoons for others?

Are these two types of information cocoons the same? Is the RSS information cocoon under one's control? Or is the platform information cocoon under someone else's control?

Can this further extend to the aspect of public opinion control? Ah, I don't understand, just giving up!

RSS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS) ↩