Civic Commons
Southall & Ealing

Open subscriptions

What is RSS?

RSS is a simple, open way to follow websites without handing your attention to a social-media algorithm — or even giving the website your email address.

Think of it as your own news inbox.

A website publishes a small machine-readable feed whenever something new appears. You add that feed’s URL to an RSS reader. The reader checks it for you and puts new items in one chronological place.

There is no central RSS company. A feed can be read by lots of different apps, and you can move your subscriptions elsewhere later.

Using your Civic Commons feed

Three steps.

  1. Follow things in the Commons.A story, source, place or topic — whatever you care about.
  2. Copy your personal RSS URL.It represents those follows directly; there is no hidden account behind it.
  3. Add the URL to an RSS reader.The reader will then collect matching Civic Commons items and approved updates chronologically.

RSS readers

What can I use?

You do not need a special Civic Commons app. Any normal reader that accepts an RSS URL should work.

FeederFriendly web, browser-extension and mobile reader; a nice straightforward introduction to RSS. FeedlyWeb, Android and iPhone; straightforward for people new to RSS. InoreaderWeb and mobile; powerful filtering and organisation. InkwellMicro.blog’s RSS reader, available with Premium subscriptions; useful if you already publish or follow sites there. Micro.blogPublishing and social-web platform that includes Inkwell with Premium subscriptions. NewsBlurOpen-source reader with web and mobile apps. NetNewsWireFree, open-source option for Apple devices. FreshRSSOpen-source and self-hosted if you want to run your own reader.

Is a personal Civic Commons RSS URL private?

It contains the civic things you chose to follow, so treat it more like a shareable subscription list than a password. Anyone you give the URL to can inspect those follow choices. It does not contain your name, email address, browser identifier or Civic Commons account — because there is no account.

Go to your follows →