# What is RSS, anyway?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-rss-anyway/389465>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 25, 2007, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-rss-anyway/389465 "2007-01-25T21:34:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-rss-anyway/389465/1 "2007-01-25T21:34:45Z")

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Following up on Jerry’s [announcement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/announcement.php?f=2) 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.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-rss-anyway/389465/2 "2007-01-25T21:47:24Z")

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[RSS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.