The BIG List

Guides & Resources

A curated selection of community-made guides for subscribing to feeds and creating feeds of your own, as well as other resources.

Our guides

An Atom feed from scratch

by sorbier – How to create an Atom feed for your own site!

Handcode your first RSS feed with this stupid simple template

by ArimaMary – A straightforward RSS template… all you need to do is fill it out!

RSS vs. Atom

by Skep – What is the difference, anyway?

Resources from the community

Introductions:

• RSS: Really Simple Syndication! - by Mew151 - An RSS overview that focuses on what it is and, more crucially, why it’s worth your time.
• RSS - by Yogo Magpie - An approachable introduction to RSS for new users. Also includes tricks for finding RSS feeds on popular sites such as Blogspot and Tumblr.
• RSS Feeds - by des - An all-in-one tutorial for getting started with RSS, from subscribing to feeds to making one for your own site. Touches on some of the “quirks” that come with RSS.
• RSS Feeds and Where to Find Them - by ArimaMary - How to find feeds for a number of online resources—some of which might surprise you! Includes Tumblr, Dreamwidth, Mastodon, AO3, and more.
• How 2 RSS Feed - by BMH - An honest chronicle of one attempt to implement a site feed and view it in Thunderbird.
• Get indexed EVERYWHERE! Part III: RSS/Atom - by Pira - If you’re looking for other ways to put your feed in front of people, Pira compiled a thorough list!

Utilities:

• Unplatform - by ajazz - A comprehensive, thoughtful guide for anybody who wants to separate their online presence from social media but doesn’t know where to start. Aims to set realistic expectations, customizes recommendations based on skill level, and includes a database of resources including RSS feeds and readers.
• PiraFeedGenerator - by Pira - Generates an Atom feed for one or more URLs with minimal setup. Use the config file to set which HTML elements the feed data will be pulled from, then run the command in a terminal to create the feed. Works well when one (or a few) site pages contain multiple entries.
• W3C Feed Validation Service - See how well your feed is coded!

Want to create a guide?

Accepting submissions for in-house material! Content will be hosted on this site, with full credit and ownership to the creator(s).

Have material to link?

External resources created by the community are welcome as well! A link and blurb will be included on this page. Resources must be submitted by or approved for sharing by their creator.