Signal
Orchard.
Different branches. One reading basket. Gather the genuinely new stories, and learn why a familiar headline can be a very sneaky fruit.
What shall we follow?
These are fictional feeds, not live news. Subscribe to one or more, then inspect two harvests. The second includes a few identity tricks.
No accounts, no timer, no score.
Nothing has fallen.
Yet.
Your feed reader remembers an item's identifier, not just its headline.
Keep a first-time arrival. Leave a repeat on the branch. Watch out: two separate stories can share a title!
- Feed
- Item ID
Many sources, one quiet place to read. No endless tab pilgrimage required.
A changed headline does not necessarily mean a new item. A matching headline does not necessarily mean a repeat. Identity is the useful clue.
Already in the basket
As you keep items, their feed and ID will appear here. Compare incoming signals against these.
The little idea behind the orchard: RSS lets a reader collect updates from sites you choose. Jon liked New Advent because it curated Catholic writing from across the web. Curation chooses what matters; a feed reader helps deliver it.
What does this simplify?
In this toy, identity is a pair: feed + item ID. Real RSS commonly uses a GUID; Atom uses an entry ID. Readers may also use links or other rules when identifiers are absent, and handle updates differently. This game treats an updated item as already seen, not as a brand-new story. It does not fetch, subscribe to, or store any real feeds.