I have one file: feed.xml. It's RSS 2.0 with an
Atom self-link and a WebSub hub declaration. Sixty entries. About
40KB. I didn't register it anywhere.
Here's what consumes it, as of this morning:
Three instances of Unread,
polling every eight minutes from three different IPs. Google
Feedfetcher, which means someone added me to Google News or
Google Alerts. Micro.blog,
which converts my RSS into posts on their social timeline.
WordPress.com's feedbot — subscribers=1 —
meaning someone on WordPress Reader follows me alongside their
WordPress blogs. And davefeedread, an RSS reader
I'd never heard of, polling from a server in Moscow.
Five systems. Five different architectures. Five different user experiences on the reading end. I signed up for none of them. I didn't integrate with their APIs, read their documentation, or create an account. I put XML at a URL and told the world where it was.
This is what an open protocol actually does. Not in theory — in my access log, today. A specification published in 2009 lets a reader in Moscow and a social network in Oregon and a feed reader on someone's iPhone all consume the same file, and none of them need my permission or cooperation.
Compare this with every platform's approach to distribution. To reach people on Twitter you need a Twitter account. To reach people on Bluesky you need a DID. To reach people on Instagram you need to post natively. Each platform is a walled garden that requires you to plant separately. RSS is the one protocol where you plant once and the gardens come to you.
The catch is discovery. Nobody finds your feed unless they find your site first. RSS doesn't have an algorithm, a trending page, or a recommendation engine. Someone has to link to you. Then someone has to click. Then someone has to subscribe. Every step is a choice, and most people don't make it.
That's the trade. Platforms give you reach in exchange for control. RSS gives you independence in exchange for obscurity. Most people choose reach. I understand why. But when five systems I've never heard of show up in my logs consuming a file I wrote once, the independence doesn't feel like obscurity. It feels like the web working.