Well, with the impending demise of Twitter, it looks like I'll be following Dave Rogers, and the rest of the world, on RSS again, along with everyone else. I've got a list... it's about 250 entries long, that will make the start of my RSS feeds.
Twitter had an immediacy that RSS lacks, having solved the problem of feedback by outsourcing the policing of spam, etc. to a staff that has been let go.
I like seeing what the people I follow are saying, but the idea of retweeting at a click was seductive, but a bit too easy because you never say WHY you retweet someone, you're just blindly sharing an idea without adding any new context.
I can't help but feel that if Aaron Swartz were still with us, he'd have figured out something more powerful, open source, and wonderful to replace Twitter at this time.
In losing Twitter, I lose links to the comments of friends now gone like Michael O'Connor Clarke, and they likely aren't archived anywhere else, except the Internet Archive of his blog.
I've suffered my own health issues, and this loss (or threat) of Twitter just serves to remind me of the things I'm thankful for, friends and family I've shared this journey with.
I've yet to pick out an RSS reader....I'll post here when I do.
[Update] RSSowl seems to be a usable, locally installed and run Desktop OS RSS Reader. It's only quirk is that it needs the 32 bit Java runtime, regardless of your 64 bit OS, etc.
