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 whether there is new content on the site. At the same time, 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 also inspired to introduce "I Have Special RSS Usage Tips," thanking DIYgood for its contributions to 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 use the documentation to deploy via Docker (Docker is a lazy person's benefit!).

Readers#

The platforms I commonly use are mainly Windows and iOS/iPadOS. Following 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 all 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 well-established RSS reader on the Apple platform, I am very satisfied with it in all aspects. For free apps, I can choose the free and open-source classic RSS reader NetNewsWire.

When choosing a reader, be sure to check whether it supports your self-built RSS cloud service. As of August 10, 2023, according to the official description:

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 feeds? Unfortunately, there are fewer platforms supporting RSS now, which is when we should bring out the DIYgood-initiated project RSSHub.

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 via Docker is very simple (Docker is a lazy person's benefit!).

In addition to actively providing RSS subscriptions from various blogs, I subscribed to various RSS sources as shown in the image 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 some channels, and I can easily subscribe through RSSHub, so I only chat with bots on Telegram (laughs).
Jike: I haven't used it since the redesign, but 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 with RSSHub, I directly open video web pages on my computer, and on my phone, I click video links to directly jump to the video page in the client. 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 kept 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 that can be read at a glance. As a person with poor English, I have at least found translation errors three times.
  - Appinn: "I didn't know there was such software, but I don't need 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.
  - Youyan Society: Articles of relatively high quality, unlike Gcores, which posts an article for a few sentences (I recently listened to Gcore podcasts and became more annoyed with Gcore; some hosts don't even play games and just keep saying "Good!" frequently interrupting other hosts).
  - Landian News: "The Duck Brother from Outside the Mountain," a website I have been following since Windows 8, I am used to it.
- Using RSSHub subscriptions:
  - Shanghai Review: After the Oriental Morning Post ceased publication, the online version continues to update on The Paper. I usually don't read most articles; I just check the titles, and when I see a book I'm interested in, I bookmark the article and come back to read the review after finishing the book.
  - Wall Street Journal: The main foreign media I read (still a poor-quality Chinese version (with poor English, using RSSHub subscriptions allows me to read the full text directly, is that okay?).
  - Caixin Weekly: Recently bought two physical weeklies, and after reading them, I eagerly subscribed to "Caixin Campus Tour" and found someone to share the burden. At first, I would read the latest published articles, but since there are too many to read, 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, various exam updates, subscribed as needed.
Weibo: Subscribed based on interests.
Journals: Some journals I want to read but won't read.
Zhihu: High-quality contributors in areas of interest.
Forums: Do not subscribe to all posts on any forum; just choose popular posts, otherwise, you will only see "All Read."
Douban: Still driven by interest.
Software: Mainly subscriptions for software that do not provide updates themselves, 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 have also turned off personalized recommendations. Except for Bilibili, where higher quality can only be obtained through the app, 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 really 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 method is very simple: open Anime Garden, slowly filter by subtitle group name, anime name, language, and resolution, and once you get satisfactory results, click "Subscribe to this category" to get the RSS subscription address.

Search results

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

qBittorrent recommends using qBittorrent Enhanced Edition, which can automatically update Trackers.

However, I have become too lazy to use qBittorrent much now; I directly use the public service Emby, and only use qBittorrent for resources that Emby does not have.

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 this type of notification subscription feels a bit 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 support outputting titles and not content. I eventually found the project RSS to Telegram Bot, which supports Docker deployment (Docker is a lazy person's benefit!).

V2EX

xLog also provides comment subscriptions. After deployment, subscribe to the xLog dashboard to get the subscription address.

Others#

If a website does not provide RSS subscriptions and RSSHub does not support it, you can manually generate it using RssEverything, or use the newly supported " Convert" route by RSSHub.
Say No to Newsletter - DIYgood: If you also dislike newsletters that 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 person on various 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: is RSS creating an information cocoon for oneself? Is the platform creating an information cocoon 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 others' 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) ↩