+The short version: use my RSS feed (or blog RSS feed, or microlog +RSS feed) or my gemlog. +
+ ++If neither of those things means anything to you, no worries. You could just +look at my website every once in a while, but that gets old. A better way is to +use my RSS file. Here's how. +
+ ++An RSS file, if you don't know, is a file containing a list of posts in a format +that's so stupid even computers can understand it. Mine is at +https://joeac.net/rss.xml, +and I've also got one for just my blog posts at +https://joeac.net/blog/rss.xml, +and one just for microlog posts at +https://joeac.net/microlog/rss.xml. +Since computers can understand it, you can get software to read it automatically +and tell you when I've made a new blog post. That's much less hassle than having +to check manually yourself! +
+ ++I'm not the only person serving RSS files, of course. You might not have heard +of them, but they're actually all over the Web. In the early days of the Web, +everyone was using them, so they've ended up built in to a whole load of +foundational Web technology, and hence ubiquitous, even if most Web users have +forgotten they exist. Once you've subscribed to my logs, you can subscribe to +basically any blog, podcast, or YouTube channel, and a lot of other Websites for +news, organisations, whatever. Point a well-designed RSS aggregator or RSS +reader at most Websites, and it'll automatically find an associated RSS feed. +
+ ++If you're not persuaded, try reading + +Cory Doctorow explaining why RSS is ridiculously good +. He's terrifyingly persuasive. Also, read his novels! +
+ ++If you just want to give it a go quickly, probably the quickest way is to +use someone else's RSS aggregator that they'll let you use as a service. +Feedly and +Inoreader have free tiers. +
+ ++If you want to have a little more control, you can self-host an RSS +reader, like Tiny Tiny RSS, +Miniflux, or +FreshRSS. But why would you do that? +Self-hosting is complicated! Why not just use a normal, local app? Here are +some options for that you might want to investigate. All these are active +free and open-source software projects at the time of writing. +
+ ++For the terminally geeky, there is also +Newsboat. I used it for ages, it works +fabulously, but it's all in the terminal, so you have to be OK with that. +
+ ++You can also just enter 'RSS feed reader' into your favourite search +engine, software distribution, or app store and see what comes up. Try +adding 'FOSS' into the query to prioritise free, open-source software. +
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