RSS Reader

A free RSS reader for keeping up with the web.

Follow Diaryland diaries, RSS and Atom feeds, Bluesky accounts, and public Mastodon accounts in one reading list.

Open Reader Create a free account

What RSS is

RSS is a standard format a website can use to publish its latest posts. A feed usually contains titles, links, dates, and either an excerpt or the full text.

An RSS reader checks the feeds you follow and puts new writing into one list. You can see what changed without visiting every site separately.

RSS is not limited to Diaryland. The same feed address can be added to Diaryland Reader, a desktop or phone app, or another web-based feed reader.

Nothing arrives on its own. Press Refresh and Reader fetches every subscription you have, in the background, while you carry on reading. Whatever is new turns up unread at the top of the stream.

A familiar Google Reader style

Diaryland Reader was patterned in part after Google Reader, which closed in 2013. One stream holds every source you follow, with an unread count, an All or Unread filter, and three ways to read: List for scanning titles, Preview for the opening of each entry, and Expanded for the whole thing. Your choice is saved to your account, so it follows you to another browser.

It uses many of the same keyboard shortcuts, so moving through a long list does not need the mouse. Press ? in Reader to see the full list at any time.

J / K
Move to the next or previous entry
O
Open or close the selected entry
M
Mark the selected entry read or unread
V
Open the original in a new tab
R
Refresh every subscription
Shift + A
Mark everything read
?
Show the shortcut list

Entries mark themselves read as you go. In List, opening a row marks it. In Preview and Expanded, scrolling past an entry marks it, as does opening the original. Anything can be set back to unread.

RSS feeds for Diaryland diaries

A public Diaryland diary publishes its 25 most recent entries at username.diaryland.com/rss.xml. Entries you marked private are never included.

In Diaryland Reader, someone can type the username instead of hunting for the feed address. The address itself works in any other RSS program too.

A feed program checks for new entries on its own schedule, without anyone opening your diary. That is why your stats show RSS requests, counted separately from page views. It is the same writing a visitor to your diary would see, arriving a different way.

Your feed follows your diary

A feed never reaches further than the diary it comes from. Whatever you have set for the diary decides who can read the feed.

Public diary
Anyone can read the feed, exactly as anyone can read the diary. Nothing extra is exposed: same entries, same words, a different way of arriving.
Locked, open to Diaryland members
The members you allow can follow you inside Diaryland Reader, which checks your permissions again every time it fetches. Outside RSS programs get nothing, because the public feed address does not exist for a locked diary.
Locked, open to nobody
No feed, anywhere. If you want one for yourself, Diary settings can create an unlisted address that only works for whoever holds it, and you can replace that address at any time.

You can still switch RSS off for a public diary, though it changes less than people expect: it removes a convenient way to follow you, not a way to reach anything that was hidden.