RSS/Atom solves the problem of having an unfiltered mess of random people’s thoughts in your inbox if you want to stay informed. There is nothing that provides a similar alternative.

I wonder why certain social networks implement their own syndication logic for user posts. They can never beat the flexibility of customizable XML feeds.

Plus, there are services like my RSS parser and the RSS Bridge to provide feeds for anything that looks like a website. There is no sane reason to use more than your RSS reader to read, filter and understand what is happening in the world. Plus, they won’t disappear soon, so you don’t have to frantically press F5 every day.

I admit that Google’s Reader made me an RSS user. Even years after its demise, I won’t leave anymore.