Molly White: Curate your own newspaper with RSS. “What if you could take all your favorite newsletters, ditch the data collection, and curate your own newspaper?…increasingly, your reading is spying on you in a way a print newspaper never could, with websites tracking when you click a link or scroll down the page, and even email newsletters tracking when you open an issue or visit a link. Apps like Substack collect data about your reading to show you an algorithmic feed, ostensibly to grow the “Substack network” and drive new subscribers to writers hoping to build a following. In practice, these mechanics in turn drive writers to please the algorithms, writing what gets the most clicks and ranks them higher in the recommendation system. Independent thinking and creativity often get sidelined to click-chasing.Not this one, though. I don’t collect any email data besides the most basic deliverability information, and I don’t track when you open emails from this site or click on links. What if you could take all your favorite newsletters, ditch the data collection, and curate your own newspaper? It could include independent journalists, bloggers, mainstream media, worker-owned media collectives, and just about anyone else who publishes online. Even podcast episodes, videos from your favorite YouTube channels, and online forum posts could slot in, too. Only the stuff you want to see, all in one place, ready to read at your convenience. No email notifications interrupting your peace (unless you want them), no pressure to read articles immediately. Wouldn’t that be nice?”…

See also The Verge is getting way more personal with following feeds. Follow your favorite topics and authors in a custom homepage feed (or follow along in our new daily newsletter).