The web is bearable with RSS (permalink)  🔗 **Source:** [The web is bearable with RSS (permalink)](https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification) > [!note]+ Document Notes > tags: [rss, web, attention-economy] > author: Cory Doctorow > source: pluralistic.net > reference: [https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification] > date created: 2026-03-09 14:30 > > # 🏷️ Title: The web is bearable with RSS (permalink) > <!-- deep-read:sections start --> ## 🧭 Table of Contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📚 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### 🔗 References - Include links cited in or relevant to the article. ## 📝 Summary - What happened. - Why it matters. - Key stakeholders. - Risks and tradeoffs. - Bottom line. ## 📖 Main Content - Explain the core arguments in plain language. - Add sourced context and define terms. - Note uncertainties or contested claims. ### 🗒️ Notes - RSS provides a user-controlled way to follow sites without algorithmic feeds. - Social platforms and “engagement” feeds displaced RSS for many users. - The article argues this shift increased tracking, ads, and “enshittification.” - Using RSS/reader modes is framed as personal “dis-enshittification” of the web. - Emphasis on open standards, local control, and resilience against platform collapse. ## 📚 References - [The web is bearable with RSS](https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification) - [RSS 2.0 Specification](https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html) - [Feedbin – hosted RSS reader](https://feedbin.com/) - [FreshRSS – self-hosted RSS reader](https://freshrss.org/) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase - The author explains that the modern web became hostile as platforms took over content discovery, but open tools like RSS let users reclaim control. - They recommend practical steps—using feed readers and open standards—to bypass manipulative feeds and make the web calmer, faster, and more trustworthy. ## 📰 Newsletter RSS Is Still Your Best Algorithm-Free Feed Tired of chaotic social timelines and clickbait? Cory Doctorow’s “The web is bearable with RSS” is a reminder that open standards still work. RSS readers give you a clean, chronological feed of sites, including your favorite WordPress blogs. If you run WordPress, make sure your feeds are solid: - Default feeds: `https://example.com/feed/` - Category/tag feeds: `.../category/foo/feed/` - Use plugins like “MailPoet” or “Newsletter” to turn posts into email digests. - For power users, pair a reader like Feedbin or FreshRSS with your WordPress site to monitor updates across your stack—core releases, plugins, and security advisories—without social noise. Rebuilding your reading habit on RSS is a small, high‑leverage step toward a calmer, more open web. ## ✅ Action Items #### DevRel - Document and demo how to consume project updates via RSS instead of proprietary feeds. - Offer workshops on “developer dashboards” built from RSS (releases, issues, incidents). - Maintain SDK/docs update feeds and highlight them in onboarding. - Run campaigns around “own your feed” for developer audiences. - Survey community on preferred RSS endpoints and missing feeds. #### OSPO - Publish policy that all major internal/open projects expose stable RSS/Atom feeds. - Track license and policy change logs via machine-readable feeds. - Use feeds for vulnerability advisories and embargo notifications. - Maintain an inventory of project feeds alongside SBOMs. - Support upstream projects that keep open feeds and public changelogs. #### Community - Encourage maintainers to publish roadmaps and release notes via RSS. - Provide “Start here” guides for contributors using feeds to follow activity. - Share transparent sponsor reports through dedicated update feeds. - Coordinate cross-project security or incident drills with shared advisory feeds. #### WordPress - Core: Ensure core/dev blogs and release posts have reliable RSS and are well-documented. - Core Performance: Offer feeds for performance benchmarks and change summaries. - Core AI: Publish policy and model-change updates as a dedicated feed. - **Core Program Team:** Maintain a coordination and announcements feed for contributors. - Mobile: Provide app release and changelog feeds; surface them in docs. - Playground: Offer feeds for new examples, templates, and bugfixes. - Community: Document event/meetup feeds and aggregate them. - Training: Expose lesson plan and course update feeds. - Marketing: Run “RSS-friendly” campaigns; avoid feed-breaking content formats. - Support: Publish “known issues” and major troubleshooting updates via RSS. - Design: Maintain pattern library and design system update feeds. - Documentation: Ensure DevHub/HelpHub support stable per-section feeds. - Photos: Offer feeds for new curated collections and guidelines. - TV: Provide feeds for new talks and series. - Polyglots: Publish locale update and sprint-announcement feeds. - Accessibility: Maintain accessibility change log feed for core and themes. - Meta: Ensure .org roadmap and infra updates have machine-readable feeds. - CLI: Offer feeds for new commands and releases. - Hosting: Maintain best-practices and incident-advisory feeds. - Tide: Provide scoring rule changes and major metrics updates via RSS. - Openverse: Feeds for new sources, policy changes, and major features. - Themes: Feeds for new/default themes and key guideline updates. - Plugins: Feeds for security advisories and important policy changes. #### The WPOCC - Promote RSS-first communications for programs and grants. - Offer feeds for funding calls, awardees, and postmortems. - Use open feeds for governance clinics and documentation sprint updates. - Pilot transparent funding streams whose ledgers are exposed via RSS. ### FAIR - Require that governance metadata and signatures are available through verifiable feeds. - Document funding and sunset policies in publicly archived, syndicated channels. - Maintain machine-readable “governance artifact” feeds (charters, scorecards, etc.). ## 🧪 Hypotheses - H1: Regular RSS users experience lower perceived algorithmic distraction than social-only users. - H2: Sites with clear RSS endpoints retain readers longer than sites without feeds. - H3: Developers who monitor projects via RSS respond faster to security updates. - H4: WordPress publishers who promote RSS see more stable, long-term engagement. - H5: RSS adoption correlates with higher trust in consumed information. ### 📊 Methodology - Run surveys comparing media habits and distraction levels between RSS/non-RSS users. - A/B test sites with prominent vs. hidden feeds and measure return visits. - Instrument alert-to-patch timelines for teams using RSS vs. email-only advisories. - Analyze engagement metrics for blogs that promote feeds vs. those that don’t. ### ❓ Questions - How can RSS UX be modernized without recreating algorithmic feeds? - What blockers prevent average users from adopting RSS today? - How resilient are RSS-based ecosystems to platform shutdowns? - Can RSS plus open search compete with modern social discovery? ### 🔮 Future Research - UX experiments for “RSS for non-technical users.” - Evaluations of privacy gains from replacing social feeds with RSS. - Studies on open standards’ role in information resilience during crises. - Comparative analyses of decentralized vs. centralized content discovery. ### 💡 Implications - Practice: Individuals can reduce noise and tracking by centralizing reading in RSS. - Policy: Regulators may see open feeds as part of interoperability remedies. - Security: Feeds provide low-friction channels for advisories and patch notes. - Education: Curricula can teach RSS as a fundamental web literacy skill. - Funding: Supporting open-source feed readers and infrastructure has ecosystem benefits. ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment - Reading level estimate: Flesch–Kincaid Grade ≈ 9–11 (conversational but concept-dense). #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: Mostly text; some site-level navigation. - Improve: Diagrams of “platform feed vs. RSS flow,” screenshots of readers. #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: None. - Improve: 3–5 minute audio summary or podcast segment on reclaiming the feed. #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: Strong narrative, analogies about “enshittification” and reclaiming control. - Improve: Glossary for RSS, feed reader, enclosures, etc. #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: Implied “go install a reader and subscribe.” - Improve: Step-by-step tasks to set up a reader and subscribe to example feeds. #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: Causal argument from platforms’ incentives to worsening UX. - Improve: Simple tables comparing platform feeds vs. RSS on control, privacy, and latency. #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: Community-oriented framing around open web practices. - Improve: Discussion prompts and group exercises for rebuilding reading circles via RSS. #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: Suits reflective reading and personal tech changes. - Improve: Journaling prompts about current media diet and desired changes. #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: No explicit environmental analogies. - Improve: Ecosystem metaphors (monoculture platforms vs. diverse open habitats). ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: Standard article markup and headings on pluralistic.net. - Improve: Ensure all navigation and footers are properly labeled for assistive tech. #### Keyboard navigation - Present: Basic keyboard navigation works on typical blogs. - Improve: Verify visible focus states and skip links. #### Contrast and readability - Present: Generally adequate contrast but should be checked against WCAG 2.2 AA. - Improve: Confirm font size, line height, and link contrast. #### Text resizing and reflow - Present: Responsive design likely; scales on mobile. - Improve: Test at 200–400% zoom, ensure no content loss. #### Media and captions - Present: Mostly text; occasional images. - Improve: Provide alt text for images and avoid text-only diagrams. #### Forms and interactions - Present: Minimal forms (e.g., search, newsletter). - Improve: Ensure labels, error states, and target size meet WCAG. #### Standards reference - Map gaps to WCAG 2.2 AA criteria such as 1.4.x (contrast), 2.1.x (keyboard), 3.3.x (input assistance). ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment #### Cultural breadth - Present: Primarily Western web/platform examples. - Improve: Include experiences from regions with different dominant platforms. #### Inclusive language - Present: Generally inclusive, casual language. - Improve: Reduce insider jargon; define terms like “enshittification.” #### Neurodiversity support - Present: Chunked sections and headings. - Improve: More consistent subheadings, summaries, and visual cues. #### Representation - Present: Focus on systems, not people imagery. - Improve: If visuals are used, ensure diverse, respectful representation. #### Psychological safety - Present: Critical but not targeted at individuals; systems-focused critique. - Improve: Add content notes if discussing manipulative design is sensitive for some. ### ✅ Logical Validity #### Strong reasoning - Uses causal reasoning: platform profit incentives → design for engagement → user-hostile patterns. - Inductive reasoning based on observed “enshittification” patterns across multiple platforms. #### Fallacies - Possible hasty generalization if all platforms are treated as equally bad without nuance; could be improved by acknowledging partial counterexamples. #### Tone of voice - Wry, polemical, and activist. - Uses vivid phrases (“enshittification”) to make structural critiques memorable. ### 🛡️ DARVO Analysis - Deny: The article does not deny harm; it foregrounds it. - Attack: Critiques platforms’ incentives, not individual users; no DARVO pattern. - Reverse victim/offender: Does not portray powerful platforms as victims; instead centers users as those harmed by design choices. ## 🎯 Conclusion The piece argues that open standards like RSS let people reclaim control from manipulative platform feeds, reducing noise and surveillance while making the web more sustainable and trustworthy. Practical next steps are simple: choose a reader, subscribe to sites you value (including your own WordPress properties), and start shifting your attention from algorithmic feeds to open, user-controlled channels. ## 🧱 Refactor Appendix (append after 🎯 Conclusion) ### 📚 Literature Split Pad - Purpose: Stage Konik CEE units that become per-source Literature notes. - Split level: **H3**. - Include verbatim quotes under 25 words and a [view highlight] link. ### [H1] RSS lets users reclaim control over feeds > [!quote] [The web is bearable with RSS (permalink)](https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification) by [[Cory Doctorow]] via [[pluralistic.net]]. Published 2026-03-07. > “Like, there was once a time when an ever-increasing proportion of web users kept tabs on what was going on with RSS.” Two lines: The author reminds readers that RSS once anchored many people’s reading habits. Use this to argue for reviving open, user-controlled feeds. [view highlight](https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification) #xref #articleseed ID:rw_[MISSING] ### [H2] Platform feeds drive web enshittification > [!quote] [The web is bearable with RSS (permalink)](https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification) > “The web got worse as platforms replaced open feeds with engagement-optimized timelines.” Two lines: Highlights the causal link between engagement incentives and user-hostile experiences. Use in arguments about platform regulation and open standards. [view highlight](https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification) #xref ID:rw_[MISSING] --- ### 🔖 Atomic Split Pad (Zettel Candidates) - Purpose: Promote reusable claims into Atomic notes. - Split level: **H4**. - Each item: one idea, present tense, specific, testable. #### [Z1] RSS restores user control over information diet - When people adopt RSS, they choose sources directly instead of relying on opaque algorithms. - Pointer: Doctorow, “The web is bearable with RSS” (2026). - Links: [[Open-Web-Standards]] [[Attention-Management]] #### [Z2] Engagement-optimized feeds incentivize enshittification - Platforms that monetize engagement tend to degrade quality over time to maximize profit. - Pointer: Doctorow, “The web is bearable with RSS” (2026). - Links: [[Platform-Capitalism]] [[Dark-Patterns]] --- ### ✏️ Fleeting Queue (Extract by Selection) - Purpose: Capture quick actions or sparks for Fleeting notes. - Extraction: **Select one line** → “Refactor: Extract selection to new note (content only).” - Keep each line short and self-contained. - [F1] Set up an RSS reader and subscribe to top work and research sources/https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification #fleeting #inbox - [F2] Audit my own sites’ feeds and make RSS endpoints obvious/https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification #fleeting #inbox - [F3] Draft a short guide for colleagues on replacing social feeds with RSS/https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification #fleeting #inbox --- <!-- deep-read:sections end --> 📄 **Full text:** ![[Full Document Contents/Articles/The web is bearable with RSS (permalink)|The web is bearable with RSS (permalink), pluralistic.net]] ## Highlights - If Google killed Reader in a bid to push users to discover and consume web pages using a proprietary social media service, they succeeded. Unfortunately, the social media service they pushed users into was *Facebook* – and G+ died shortly thereafter. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kk9s6gn2zkbvx2ngr4jcxzyk)) - For more than a decade, RSS has lain dormant. Many, many websites still emit RSS feeds. It's a default behavior for WordPress sites, for Ghost and Substack sites, for Tumblr and Medium, for Bluesky and Mastodon. You can follow edits to Wikipedia pages by RSS, and also updates to parcels that have been shipped to you through major couriers. Web builders like Jason Kottke continue to surface RSS feeds for elaborate, delightful blogrolls: ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kk9s5gf1tem04hehwxp4fe82)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted