I love the convenience of using an RSS reader to keep up with my favorite blogs, but I still usually click through and visit the actual website.
Why not just read everything directly in the RSS reader? There are a few reasons.
First, I enjoy seeing how people design their websites. The colors, fonts, layouts, and little CSS details all give each site its own personality. It’s fun to see the creative choices people make when building their home on the IndieWeb.
I also enjoy seeing how each blog is organized. Some sites keep things simple with a clean layout, while others have detailed systems of categories and tags. Some keep longer essays separated from shorter updates, while others keep everything together in one stream. I like seeing the different ways people organize and share their ideas.
Another thing you miss when reading only through an RSS feed is everything else that makes a website feel like a place. Many blogs have about pages, archives, photo galleries, or other sections that never show up in the feed. When I find a website I enjoy, I want to explore it and see what else is there. That feeling of discovery is part of what makes the web interesting.
Thankfully, most RSS readers make it easy to open the original article. That gives you the best of both worlds: the convenience of having all your favorite blogs in one place, while still being able to visit the actual websites and experience them the way their creators intended.