unstory

If this is the solution, I want my problem back.

The tyranny of the XML tag

Feed readers and aggregators often permit the import and export of a web feed list. Typically in a single dreadful XML format.

OPML - Outline Processor Markup Language

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<opml version="2.0">
<head>
<title>Minimal web feed opml cluster</title>
</head>
<body>
<outline text="pure garbage" title="Garbage collector" type="rss" xmlUrl="https://example.com/rss.xml" htmlUrl="https://example.com"/>
<outline text="Atom is not RSS" type="rss" xmlUrl="https://example.com/atom.xml"/>
<outline text="xmlUrl and rss fit here" type="rss" xmlUrl="https://example.com/feed.json"/>
<outline text="text is required" type="rss" xmlUrl="https://example.com/leaf.txt"/>
</body>
</opml>

For a human like me, a list is just a list. Sharing a list of web feed URLs is simple.

Plain text version for humans and machines:

https://example.com/leaf.txt
https://example.com/feed.json
https://example.com/atom.xml
https://example.com/rss.xml

The barricade around the castle to keep the peasants out

Complexity is a power structure. A 10-page API documentation page just to figure out how to send a sentence from one computer to another is not progress.