Feeds

By the end of this page, you'll understand how Scour sources content, how to subscribe to specific feeds if you want more control, and how to discover new sources from posts you like.

You Don't Need to Subscribe

You don't need to subscribe to any feeds to use Scour. By default, Scour searches for content matching your interests across 16499 community-contributed sources (48 added this week).

Every source was added by a user, so when you subscribe to a feed, you're also contributing it to the community pool. Scour doesn't currently support private feeds, but it's on the roadmap.

Why Subscribe?

Subscribing is optional, but it gives you more control:

• Focus your sources: Your default view switches to only show content from subscribed feeds, while your interests still filter what you see within those sources.
• Prioritize specific authors: Subscribing ensures their posts are considered for your feed. Scour balances sources so no single feed dominates.
• Get feed recommendations: Scour can recommend similar sources you might have missed.
• Collect freely: Add feeds without worrying about inbox overload. Your interests filter what surfaces, and source diversity keeps any single feed from taking over.

Feeds and Interests

Interests determine what content you see. Feeds determine where that content comes from.

Without subscriptions, your interests filter all 16499 sources. Once you subscribe to at least one feed, Scour defaults to searching only your subscriptions, though you can toggle back to all sources anytime.

How Scour Handles Multiple Sources

When the same article appears in multiple feeds, Scour shows it once and combines the sources. You won't see duplicate entries cluttering your results.

Scour also balances content across sources. A high-volume feed posting dozens of articles a day won't drown out a small blog that posts monthly. Each time a feed appears in your results, subsequent items from that feed receive a small penalty to ensure a diverse mix.

The "Feeds to Scour" Toggle

The filter menu () controls which sources Scour searches:

• Subscribed: Only content from feeds you follow
• All: Search all 16499 sources on Scour

Without any subscriptions, this toggle is disabled and Scour searches everything. Once you subscribe, "Subscribed" becomes the default. Use "Save as Default" to change this.

Discovering Feeds from Posts

When you find an interesting post, you can see which feeds carry it and subscribe with one click. Click the menu, then "Show Feeds."

Here's an example. Notice the discussion links ("Discuss: ...") that appear when an article has conversations on sites like Hacker News, Reddit, or Lobsters:

This is a great way to build your subscription list organically. Read something you like? Add that source.

Finding and Adding Feeds

You can browse feeds directly:

• Popular feeds (most subscribers on Scour)
• Newest feeds (recently added to Scour)

To add feeds manually, go to your Feeds page and paste URLs (RSS, Atom, JSON Feed, or website URLs). You can enter multiple URLs at once. For migrating from another reader, import an OPML file. See For RSS Users for details.

Some sites don't provide RSS feeds. Scour can often extract content anyway by detecting the page structure. If feed discovery fails, Scour will let you know.

Feed Recommendations & Management

Once you have interests and subscriptions, Scour recommends feeds you might like. It looks at recent content that didn't make it into your feed because you weren't subscribed, then suggests the feeds that have the most relevant content for you.

Here's an example of a popular feed:

• Accept to subscribe
• Reject to improve future recommendations

Your Feeds page shows all subscriptions with recent posts. From there you can search, unsubscribe, or export as OPML.

Bookmarklet

Want a quick way to subscribe while browsing? Drag this link to your bookmarks bar:

When you're on any page with a feed (blog, news site, podcast), click the bookmarklet to open Scour's feed subscription page with the URL pre-filled.