RSS is how you follow left917 without an account, an app, or an algorithm deciding what you see. You hand the feed's address to a reader, and every new dispatch shows up in the order it happened. No feed manipulation. No tracking. No login.
It is the opposite of the social media we are trying to replace, which is exactly why we publish one.
The quiet comeback
Didn't RSS die? Actually, it is coming back. As people sour on algorithmic feeds, endless ads, and apps built to keep them scrolling, more reporters, indie sites, and whole communities are leaving the big platforms and publishing feeds again. A feed you control is the calmest way to keep up: no account, no ranking, nobody selling your attention. You pick what you follow, and you can take your list and walk away any time. That is the whole idea behind left917.
Water restrictions, boil notices, and severe-weather advisories, pushed to your phone the moment they post. No left917 login, no paid app, no tracking. Just a free reader watching one address. It's the free, private way to get local emergency notifications.
https://left917.net/feed.xml?kind=alert
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Any reader with notifications works (Feedly, Inoreader, Reeder…); NetNewsWire is the simplest free path on iOS. You're following a public address, so there's nothing to sign up for and nothing to cancel.
On the site we keep Alerts and Roads separate, so a routine lane closure never buries a boil notice. But your reader can watch both from one address. Subscribe to the combined feed below and NC DOT road closures land right alongside the emergency alerts.
https://left917.net/feed.xml?kind=alert,safety
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Every show at the rooms we track on
Worth the Drive (Asheville, the
Triad, Charlotte), in your reader. Narrow it with ?city=asheville,
?venue=orange+peel, or ?artist= a band you follow, so your phone
pings you when they book a date within driving range.
https://left917.net/worth-the-drive.rss
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Copy this and paste it into any feed reader.
https://left917.net/feed.xml
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A feed reader (or "aggregator") is the app that checks the feed for you and stacks up new posts: like an inbox you actually control, with no algorithm in the middle. Grab one below (free unless noted), then paste the address above into its Add feed box. There's no lock-in: your subscriptions are yours to export and take anywhere.
| Reader | Where it runs | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| NetNewsWire | Mac · iPhone · iPad | Our pick Free & open-source, no account, no tracking. The most in the spirit of this place. |
| Feedly | Web · iOS · Android | The easiest start. Free tier, runs on everything. Make an account and go. |
| Inoreader | Web · iOS · Android | For tinkerers: free tier with search, folders, and filtering rules. |
| Feedbin | Web (any device) | Paid (~$5/mo). Fast, clean, no ads. Pay a little, keep it simple. |
| Thunderbird | Windows · Mac · Linux | Free. Already use it for email? It reads feeds too, so there's no new app to learn. |
Plenty more work just as well: NewsBlur, Reeder, or Feeder on Android, to name a few. Any reader that takes a feed URL will do; there's no wrong choice.
Want only part of the broadcast? Add a filter to the address and subscribe to that instead. Mix and match: they stack.
| You want | Subscribe to |
|---|---|
| Alerts only | /feed.xml?kind=alert |
| Events only | /feed.xml?kind=event |
| News only | /feed.xml?kind=news |
| Road reports | /feed.xml?kind=safety |
| Watauga County | /feed.xml?county=Watauga |
| App State | /feed.xml?topic=app%20state |
| Live music & arts | /feed.xml?topic=music%20%26%20arts |
| Family & kids | /feed.xml?topic=family%20%26%20kids |
| Watauga events | /feed.xml?county=Watauga&kind=event |
| Road-trip shows (Worth the Drive) | /worth-the-drive.rss |
| Road-trip shows, just your bands | /worth-the-drive.rss?mine=1 |
The main-feed filters are the same ones on the front page: kind
(event, news, alert, safety), county (Watauga, Ashe, Avery),
topic (any Vibe chip, comma-separated to stack them), and q
for a search term. Easiest way: filter the front page how you like, then click
Follow this view by RSS and it builds the address for you. The Worth the Drive
feed is its own thing, tune it with ?city=, ?venue=, or
?artist=.