We are all in a state of panic with the fall of twitter. While new social media to post on is the first step to building something new, we must also use a piece of the past to bridge the gap to tomorrow.
I'm talking about RSS readers. If you talk to most people, they think RSS died when Google Reader died, and while Reader is sorely missed, RSS readers have stuck around, and the vast majority of websites have RSS feeds (And they might not even know it if they're using a prerolled software package like Wordpress).
While there are a number of RSS readers, the one I wish to talk about is the one I've been using since the day google reader got shut down, Feedbin.
Feedbin is a $5 a month subscription, which might be a deal breaker for some (but I'm sure others will have suggestions in the comments), but in my opinion its worth it. Feedbin is made by two people, and like cohost simply wants to keep the lights on, the devs housed and fed, and the features coming.
Feedbin also offers a feature that will bridge the gap between now and when twitter is actually unusable to the unpaid, and that is allowing you to generate a feed for any twitter user you want (so long as you aren't blocked, as it requires twitter API access).
Aside from cohost, it has been years since I've encountered a website I wish receive updates from that has not had an RSS Feed. In feedbin I simply paste the url of the site and it searches it for a public feed. I do this for torrent sites, blogs, store updates for new inventory, patreon feeds, twitter feeds, and youtube.
Feedbin also has a mobile app that syncs across devices, or can be imported into other mobile RSS Readers like Reader.
I've been using it for years, and have had zero issues. When I take breaks from twitter, I can still keep up on feeds that are important for me to not miss.
A robust RSS reader will help us build the bridge to get us off twitter before the eventual collapse. I encourage you to try feedbin or any other RSS reader suggested.
yeah rip to reader and all but its demise didn't even cause a blip in my RSS usage. I've used Feedly for most of that time and it's absolutely fine! "RSS is dead" is just monolithic-webapp propaganda.
