What is RSS, anyway?

Following up on Jerry’s announcement that he’s turned off the RSS feeds for [tech talk - database problem - incomprehensible to Northern Piper chatter]: what exactly is RSS, any way? I’ve seen the occasional reference to it.

I take it that it’s not “Revised Statutes of Saskachewan,” the only abbreviation I’m familiar with. After that, I’ve got nuthin.

RSS.

In short, it’s a simple file format for syndicating frequently updated content, such as news articles or blog posts. For a message board, an RSS feed for each forum can display the titles of newly posted threads, and links thereto.