I won't teach you how to start your first reading with RSS here, because there are too many tutorials online for you to learn from.
I also lean towards you learning to use it yourself, because that's the only way to know if you really need RSS or if you're just wasting too much time.
But I will share some RSS tips here and welcome everyone to participate in the discussion.
Aggregation#
The biggest feature of RSS is aggregation, which allows you to obtain useful information without having to go back and forth between various content platforms. However, media platforms are not happy with this. If you go to see RSS, how can they push their ads and marketing to you as soon as possible?
That's why even if some media platforms don't provide RSS services, they will do everything they can to prevent you from getting RSS in your own way.
Getting Updates#
Many open-source software or independent games do not come with built-in update programs like application software. If the software is released on GitHub, it will be very simple because GitHub is very happy to provide RSS, just use it directly.
What about games and other types of works? This can be a bit complicated. Many authors choose to release on Patreon, Fantia, Fanbox, or even forums. Of course, you can register an account and subscribe to them directly, but if you have a wide range of interests, you will greatly need the information aggregation function of RSS. Some blog systems or forums have hidden RSS services that you need to discover on your own.
Usually, these content platforms don't have ads, and even if they do, the revenue generated won't go to the authors you follow. Therefore, RSSHub follows its own methods to follow the authors it supports on these platforms. (I even subscribe to the Bilibili dynamics of "AliceInCradle" through RSSHub.)
RSSHub Radar#
The new version of RSSHub Radar has added a "preview" function, which can real-time parse the eye-catching format of RSS into a human-readable preview. This way, you can quickly know if this is the content you need before subscribing.
Miniflux#
Thanks to our dear DIYgod, I learned about a user-friendly open-source RSS client from him. Compared to the bloated Tiny Tiny RSS or various paid RSS subscription platforms, Miniflux provides the most lightweight RSS experience. After deployment, it can be accessed through a web frontend and can also be accessed through third-party client APIs. But for me, the web end is already very elegant. Whether it's a mobile phone, computer, or any device, as long as there is a browser, you can access it. Many times we don't need too many apps.
A VPS and a Domain Name#
Although these two are not necessary, you can certainly deploy and replace them with a local NAS or a home network host.
But considering that RSS sources come from all over the Internet, as long as you have a server with a good network connection, it can help you quickly obtain content from RSS sources. If you have your own domain name and deploy the aforementioned Miniflux (or even RSSHub) on a VPS, you can easily read RSS anywhere through your own domain name.
Deploy it with Docker#
Instead of relying on too many services, we can directly deploy these services that belong to us at once using the Docker scaffold. Reference:
Miniflux: v2/contrib/docker-compose/basic.yml at main · miniflux/v2 (github.com)
RSSHub: RSSHub/docker-compose.yml at master · DIYgod/RSSHub (github.com)
A small trick with Docker is that if you don't want to use the RSSHub service elsewhere, the internal network built by Docker can easily integrate Miniflux and RSSHub together.