A first update on powRSS
Tuesday 27 May 2025
This post was updated on Friday 30 May 2025 to include screenshots.
There are still a few days left until my birthday (May 31, baby!) but the warm welcome powRSS has received is a great present already. Thank you to everyone who has checked out the project!
A special thank you goes to those who have submitted their blogs and sites too, I’m humbled at the amount of talented writers putting their words out there and trusting independent readers to find them. I can’t wait to come across your writing soon!
Throughout this weekend it became evident that discovering new sites and blogs is both the most difficult yet rewarding aspect of the independent web. Most of us are subject to algorithms in the platforms we frequent, and this means missing out on a lot of good stuff that matters.
I have now found even more software tools that work towards alleviating this, but the funny thing is that my discovery of them came from first-hand recommendations via e-mail. People are still using e-mail! Do I sound surprised? That’s because I am. This morning alone I had 53 unread e-mails—51 of those from actual humans—where someone took the time to type out a response to something I had written or to share their website. I love it when people are proud of their work, and I didn’t realize that this weekend project would give me the chance to provide an outlet for people to share that with others.
I think most of us feel the same way towards yet another technology, yet another algorithm, yet another platform and filter to figure out. I mention this because one of the e-mails I received asked me how the sorting algorithm worked on powRSS and when was the best time to post.
There is no special algorithm because the feed is in chronological order.
“Is it instant?” Nope.
It updates at least once (up to four times a day) but only when someone visits the site. Processing only takes place when actual humans need info, not when a machine decides it’s time to consume processing resources :-)
If you got questions, suggestions, or simply want to say hi, my inbox is always open.