Matt Rickard, yes this Matt Rickard from episode #463 of The Changelog, shared some thoughts (an unordered list) about the forces acting on RSS.

He sets the stage by sharing a swath of think pieces written on the subject.

No technology other than RSS has had more think pieces written proclaiming the death of RSS (2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013) and the rebirth of RSS (2009, 2010, 2011, 2018, 2018, 2019).

Here are two points (of several shared) that stood out to me.

Substack has revitalized the blogging movement by giving away free hosting and email lists, and a business model for supporting writers. As email newsletters grow, RSS is a decent alternative to an increasingly cluttered email inbox.

Creator incentives work against RSS. The protocol does not benefit content creators because it doesn’t give them any insight into their audience (number of subscribers, emails, or other data).

What are your thoughts in his thoughts? What’s next for RSS?