RSS from the Past

I use NetNewsWire for my RSS feeds, but lately, I've noticed that I cannot see the list of feeds. I subscribe pretty quickly to blogs that interest me, but I'd say seventy percent of them don't make it past three months, so I like having the option to delete them once I see they've been abandoned.

I've been unable to get my feeds to show up (unless a new post occurs), so I decided to install another RSS reader and import my feeds over so I can clean them up. I chose Feedly, since I used that several years ago, and I was surprised to see I never deleted my account on there. So, like opening up an old box in the attic, I got a list of what interested me around eight years ago. It's not a huge list, but I thought it'd be fun to see how many of these sites are still going since there is only one on the list that I still subscribe to.

Apartment Therapy (Active) - I wonder if Feedly added this to my list, because this is not my type of blog nor is it something I'd subscribe to. It's still an active site and well... moving along.

J.L Hilton (Active) - This sci-fi/fantasy author would occasionally write about Firefly, which led me to subscribe to her blog. She's still quite active and the site looks the same as it did the last time I visited it.

My Journey into Clowning (Abandoned 2019) - A friend of mine's pet project blog tracing her steps into the world of clowning. She still pursues the interest, but the blog hasn't been updated in five years.

A Journey Through the Movies (Abandoned 2016) - A short lived movie recap blog.

Discovery News - Archaeology (Abandoned 2016?) - This feed was saved as some sort of Google Proxy and the link is no longer valid. It was from Discovery.com and they once had an Archaeology page that would report on the latest findings. It was interesting and something I'd subscribe to again, but Discovery has gone downhill quite a bit since 2016.

Gerry Stribling's Buddhism for Tough Guys (Abandoned 2018) - Yeah, I know what you are thinking, but surprisingly the book Mr. Stribling wrote was great. It was one of the best introductions to Buddhism books I ever read, and I appreciated the angle he presented. I was a big fan of his writing (for the most part) but around 2018, he just seemed to disappear.

Pop Mythology (For All Extensive Purposes Abandoned) - This site still gets the occasional comic book movie review, but this site is dead and it's the saddest entry on this list. Pop Mythology was one of the first sites I saw that took pop culture and broke it down into positive and motivating articles. It was a great pick me up and I was a big fan of the content. Sadly, the creator of the site's views on society took a turn and now he focuses on a post-apocalyptic podcast since he has lost faith in the future of the world. It is sad, because you could see how much hope he once had, but that was all beat out of him.

The Stunt Zombie (Abandoned 2020) - Thie site has been deleted and it’s a shame. I don't really remember it, but the content that was archived on Feedly was a lot of fun. It was a retro themed site that discussed the past, but also chronicled the author’s adventures with food and exploring. Lots of fun to be had on site like this.

The Witchy Stuff (Active) - I ran across a YouTube video featuring the author and was fascinated by the way she broke down Wicca. I saved her site to see if solid written content would supplement the YouTube series, but it never did. This was one of those late-night subscriptions that probably would have been deleted within a couple of weeks. Just not my type of content.

Dinosaur Dracula (Active) - The one site I still follow from this list, I've followed Matt's writings since the late 90s when he ran X-Entertainment.com. Matt writes about the forgotten pieces of pop culture from the 80's and 90s and is always entertaining. I also recommend his podcast, The Purple Stuff.

Rediscover the 80s (Active) - I don't subscribe to this page, but I do visit it on occasion. It's a site all about 80's pop culture, which now exists as a promotional place for their YouTube channel.

Cowabunga Corner (Abandoned 2020) - Another website that has been deleted is Cowabunga Corner. This website was run by Michelle Ivey, who I believe has the world largest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collection. It was a site to show off the collection and break down the history of the pieces in her collection for the fans.

Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (Abandoned 2020) - There was one post in 2020 and one in 2018, but the last time the site was truly updated was 2016. I always loved the title of this blog and was a place where the author shared his Goodwill finds. It was a fun concept and a fun site.

Nerd Out With Me (Active) - This site was known for doing a weekly photo dump of nerdy photos that I loved. Sadly, those old posts seem to have been deleted and the site mainly serves as a platform for a YouTube Channel.

Ninja Pizza (Abandoned 2020) - This is another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles site that doesn't exist anymore. It looks like it died off in 2018 with just a couple of posts in 2020.

The Surfing Pizza (Abandoned 2021) - I followed this site for a very long time. It was just a middle-aged guy, who would explore his past along with his present. It began with a retro slant but evolved. Sadly, once he had a kid, the posts became fewer and fewer until the site no longer exists.

Top Hat Sasquatch (Abandoned 2019) - Another site that was mostly abandoned in 2016, but had a post in 2019, TopHatSasquatch was a retro themed website that explored the authors fondness for things from the 80s.

The majority of my blog reading in 2016 was retro in nature. I was active retro blogging for many years, with the peak being around 2010-2017. It seems like those still retro blogging are just recycling the same content over and over, or creating content just to stay active and I really feel like there isn't much left to say about the topic. It's weird, I'm almost nostalgic for the heyday of retro blogging. So, I'm nostalgic about writing about a time I was nostalgic for. Yea... that makes my brain hurt.

Well, this was a fun detour on my way to cleaning up my RSS Feeds, but I just realized that Feedly doesn't seem to have an option (or at least not one easily found) to import my feeds, so all-in-all this was a total waste of my time. :) So, I did what I should have done and just reinstalled NetNewsWire and what do you know, all my feeds were showing up ready to be cleaned up.