If you do not want to build a feed list from scratch, you can plug in one that a person already sorted. MichaelFilter is Michael Joel Hall’s own reading ledger, offered as a daily edition and as a full RSS room you can connect Ledgable to directly.

What it is

MichaelFilter is a response to feeds engineered to keep you upset. It is openly one person’s agenda, declared rather than hidden: a hand-curated reading list, prioritised by someone who reads more than most people have time for, and shared so the barrier to entry is lower for everyone else. The paywall is small and exists so the room is made of real people.

The three sizes

• Free — today’s edition, in your browser, from a magic link sent to your email. No account.
• The daily edition — the full archive and the PDF, built for reading and handwriting on an e-ink tablet, plus the discussion threads. $5.50 a month.
• Full RSS — your own login on rss.mjh.yoga, a Miniflux server already loaded with the whole ledger, 180-odd feeds sorted into The Read, The Watch and The Listen, with room for your own feeds beside them. $3 a month.

Connecting Full RSS to Ledgable

1. Buy Full RSS. A welcome email arrives with your login for rss.mjh.yoga.
2. Sign in there once, open Settings › API Keys, and create a key named for your device.
3. In Ledgable, Settings › Feeds: server address https://rss.mjh.yoga, paste the key, tap to test.
4. Incoming fills with the ledger, sorted into its kinds. Stars and read state sync with every device you connect the same way.

It is an ordinary Miniflux account, so nothing here is proprietary: add your own feeds on the web page or from the app, export the whole thing as OPML whenever you like, and leave with your list.

Why a person and not an algorithm

An algorithm optimises for the time you spend. A person curating in public optimises for whether you would thank them later. You can see the whole list before the filter, disagree with it, and prune it. That transparency is the product.