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News and commentary from the cross-platform RSS and OPML community.

Cartoonist Draws Conclusion: 'RSS is (Not) Dead'

The story of RSS has been told in fanzine form by cartoonist Audra McNamee and contributor Allia Service in RSS is (Not) Dead (Yet). The 12-page comic released in 2023 describes how the original RSS boom died 10 years earlier when Google Reader shut down, after which the rise of social media did further harm by pulling users into silos and rejecting the ethos of the open web.

Page 8 of RSS is (Not) Dead Yet, a fanzine by Audra McNamee and Allia Service. In panel one Ned says, 'So what happened after RSS died?' Panel two is titled Social Media and states 'Pros: Has faster updates than RSS. More user friendly. Social interaction (follow your friends). Algorithmically driven (find new cool stuff). Analytics for businesses. Easy to add ads for money. Cons: Social media is beholden to profits. Targeted ads/user tracking. Users and creators can be kicked off or censored arbitrarily. Ad money goes to platforms not creators. Algorithmically driven. Users have less control of what they see. Can be bought by Elon Musk whenever. In panel three Ned is carrying a wreath into a cemetery where there are tombstones for RSS, LiveJournal, MySpace, Napster, Vine, Google+ and Clubhouse. There's also a mausoleum for Blogs.

McNamee and Service go on to tell how RSS has experienced another boom with the enormous popularity of podcasting. But they argue that it is again under threat from the same kind of corporate greed:

Podcast streamers are buying up podcast media companies and targeted advertising companies, and trying to monopolize distribution (e.g. get everyone to use their app.

I felt very seen by the part about infighting and "warring visions" within the RSS community. It hasn't always been easy to be a member of the RSS Advisory Board, but there's some satisfaction in seeing how much RSS still matters today. McNamee and Service did a charming job of making that point.

Categories: RSS, Podcasting, RSS Is Dead, Audra McNamee, Allia Service

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