What RSS and Atom feeds are
Understand the feed addresses used by RSS Reader, podcasts, and other public publishing tools.
RSS and Atom are formats a site uses to publish a machine-readable list of its recent work. A feed reader checks the address and shows new items without the reader having to revisit every site.
The feed address is not usually meant to be read as a web page. Copy it into a reader or podcast application. Many readers can also accept an ordinary website address and discover the feed automatically.
Magpie uses feeds in both directions. RSS Reader follows public RSS and Atom sources. A published podcast provides an RSS feed that podcast applications subscribe to. The feed URL is part of the subscription identity: changing it after people subscribe can leave their applications checking the old address.
A feed contains public publishing data. It is not a method for granting access to private notes, team chat, gated Supporters posts, or unpublished work.
If a Magpie feed returns an error while its corresponding public page is on, Contact support.