By the way, if you follow YouTube channels, not only do they still provide RSS feeds, as you can get a nice OPML file of all the channels you subscribe to: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_manager (scroll to the bottom)
I used to use YouTube's email notifications, but they would skip some videos randomly, and I'd be left wondering what videos I missed.
Creators sometimes do this if they publish more videos than usual, or of the video is different from their normal content.
Also when you subscribe you now also have to click the bell next to the subscribe button to get all notifications.
YouTube itself also has a built in subscription feed that lists all videos published by channels you subscribe to. It also lists the channels with an icon next to each if they have unwatched video.
How do you see it working? Create and play a playlist of currently unviewed videos?
Any "sane defaults, regular updates, impossible to shoot yourself in the foot" package to recommend?
TBH, it's a bit like this now for me with HN and Twitter even without RSS. "This looks interesting... (click)(open in new tab)". One week later: 300 tabs open.
For me, that's the advantage of RSS over Twitter: your unread counts are separate for each feed, so that blog that rarely updates but is always worthwhile to read doesn't get lost in the pile of cheap content.
With RSS, I like subscribing to journals and organizations that publish substantial content (lots of text rather than ads) at steady but not explosive rates. RSS is pure consumption, so if you're using it to "follow a feed" I think you're doing it wrong. Though YMMV, of course.
I generally read everything in group one. In group two, I start the day by just marking the entire group read. If something neat comes into group two during the day I might read it when I have a spare moment. Otherwise, it gets flushed.
A live running version of mine can be seen at: http://slownews-naivete.herokuapp.com/
With RSS I'm crawling under a huge load of articles that I always have to clear up. I used to be extremely addicted to that, I used it to get through work stuff now and when I have weeks of articles pilling up in my feed I feel bad.
I use it, and definitely love that, but it def. re-enforce addiction, not the contrary.
Easiest way to find the RSS feed on most sites is to search for "RSS" in the page source; there's usually just one instance, and it's a direct link.
These days, many sites don't advertise their feeds, but it's still in the source (and is often broken in one way or another). If it is botched, a friendly email to their web admin with a link to the W3C Feed Validator [1] can go a long way; most times it's an easy fix for them.
I suggest to use hnrss.org: https://edavis.github.io/hnrss/
It gives you filters like how many points or comment a post must have before appears to you.
Everything seems to be gearing more towards deliberately occupying as much of my time as possible, algorithmically selecting content that achieves this. I want out of this situation, but overcoming addiction and interrupting the automatic trigger cycle is hard. Maybe now's the time.