Following YouTube channels with RSS

Setup

#!/bin/bash
set -oeu pipefail

curl -s "$1" | xmllint --html --xpath 'string(//link[@title="RSS"]/@href)' - 2>/dev/null

Stick this script in your PATH (e.g. ~/.local/bin/ytrss).¹ Make it executable: chmod +x ~/.local/bin/ytrss.

Then go to a YouTube channel page and copy the URL.

ytrss 'https://www.youtube.com/@youtube'
# Copy output to clipboard:
ytrss 'https://www.youtube.com/@youtube' | wl-copy

The output will be a feed URL:

https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCBR8-60-B28hp2BmDPdntcQ

Add this to your RSS reader app to see videos posted by the channel.

Control your experience on YouTube pages

Additionally I use two browser extensions to help control my experience on YouTube:

• Unhook – hide parts of YouTube you don’t want to see, like recommendations
• LeechBlock NG – “LeechBlock NG is a simple productivity tool designed to block those time-wasting sites that can suck the life out of your working day. All you need to do is specify which sites to block and when to block them.”

LeechBlock config page list:

youtube.com
+www.youtube.com/watch
+youtube.com/@*
+youtube.com/account
+youtube.com/channel
+youtube.com/feed/playlists
+youtube.com/feed/subscriptions
+youtube.com/playlist
+youtube.com/redirect
+youtube.com/results
+youtube.com/show

The plus means exclude (so allow, don’t block). My focus is on avoiding the algorithmic recommendations, so I allow viewing specific videos [/watch) (hiding the recommended feed with Unhook), searching for videos (/results), and viewing channels and playlists.

If you try out LeechBlock and find yourself struggling to stick with it, I have found it to be easier to get used to obeying the “Delaying page” rather than full block.

Why?

• Control your own feed, rather than have it be controlled by an algorithm that doesn’t always share your priorities.
• Let there be an end to the feed.
• With Unhook, let there be an end to each video. Rather than the recommendations saying “hey you should watch another video after this one”.
• RSS Readers are great. Having one place to check for new posts across the Internet is nice.
  • Some support filters on feed entries. I have a few to hide topics or series I am not interested in for a particular feed, or highlight my favorites.

I do miss exploration a little bit. But I wasn’t finding good new stuff that often, so I prefer this, for now. Maybe there is a better way to discover new channels than YouTube’s main algorithm?