# Birb + Fossil: An RSS Revival?

DevFeed: [Birb + Fossil: An RSS Revival?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/birb-fossil-an-rss-revival-33424.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://timkellogg.me/blog/2024/01/03/birb>)

Published: 2024-01-03T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Tim Kellogg](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/tim-kellogg.md>)

Topics: [RSS Feed](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/rss-feed.md>), [Mastodon](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mastodon.md>), [Bot](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/bot.md>), [Atom Feed](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/atom-feed.md>), [Algorithms](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/algorithms.md>), [XML](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/xml.md>)

Tags: [algorithm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/algorithm.md>), [client](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/client.md>), [hacking](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hacking.md>), [mastodon](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mastodon.md>), [rss](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rss.md>)

## AI overview

The article discusses Birb, a Mastodon bot that turns RSS and Atom feeds into followable Mastodon accounts, and Fossil, a Mastodon client for experimenting with timeline algorithms. It argues that these projects may represent a revival of RSS by combining feed-based publishing with social media and more flexible timeline views.

## Source excerpt

A few days ago, @twilliability announced Birb, a Mastodon bot where you can send it a URL of any RSS feed, Atom feed, podcast, Substack, etc. and it'll create a Mastodon account for it that you can follow. This effectively meshes social media and the blogosphere. This is great! But Mastodon has been notorious for sticking with chronologically-ordered timelines, so unless you have time to look at every single post, you'll likely miss something.