Every "small web" project eventually reinvents RSS without calling it RSS
I've been watching this cycle for about three years now. Someone burns out on algorithmic feeds, announces they're going back to basics, builds something around curated subscriptions or a topic newsletter, gets 400-600 engaged readers, then either sells to a media company or quietly fades when the founding energy runs out.
The surprising thing is how consistently the "solution" turns out to be: chronological feed of things you explicitly chose to follow. Which is RSS. Functional RSS has existed since 1999 and most of the good feed readers are still alive.
My working theory is that it's not a technical problem — RSS works fine. It's a discovery problem. Algorithmic feeds are genuinely better at surfacing things you didn't know you wanted. The indie web alternative trades that serendipity for control, which is a real trade-off, not just a win.
Is there a structural reason the indie web can't scale past the "interesting small thing" phase? Or is staying small actually the point — and the people who want it to be bigger are just missing why it works?
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