So the end-user is causing the overload problem by hitting the publisher’s RSS feed every hour?
There is no overload problem.
And again, this math is off, because an end user is not even awake 24 hours a day: "If 2 million people subscribe to your feed and try to update it once an hour, that is 48 million requests a day just for RSS."
"...an end user is not even awake 24 hours a day..."
Sorry, I wasn't thinking about the end user literally pushing a button. I was reading into the discussion here what I imagined to be a gap in the overall design philosophy of RSS where the end-user, using their own app or preferred methods, poll all of their favorite websites selecting among common defaults (Select the frequency you like to poll this RSS feed: weekly? daily? hourly? hehe minutely? secondly?).
In this scenario the user doesn't need to be awake 24 hours a day. They just need to use software which stupidly hits someone's server like they're doing a denial of service attack. As your comment alludes no one needs to be that up-to-date.
In contrast, there was another solution: "...service that polls RSS on behalf of its users."
Again, reading the discussion I imagined the wild west of the internet has inexpert users choosing unsane defaults and overloading small self-hosting content providers. Compared to third-party aggregators who are trying to make money by solving a "Tragedy of the Commons" problem.
In this scenario the user doesn't need to be awake 24 hours a day. They just need to use software which naively hits someone's server like they're doing a denial of service attack.
But the user's computer would need to be awake 24 hours a day, which is usually not the case.
Is that wasteful? Does that make me a poor Internet citizen?
I personally don't think it's a problem. As I said, "a very popular site with that many millions of visitors already has to handle extreme traffic, regardless of RSS."
I'd never considered using RSS feeds from an app and pulling it directly. I have too many devices for that to be a great workflow.
A lot of apps have sync to handle that workflow.
my gut feeling on this is that the people still using RSS and people self-hosting would overlap in a big way.
My gut feeling is that most RSS users, including myself, simply use client apps.
Comments
Yes.
The web in general is also a pull-type system.
There is no overload problem.
And again, this math is off, because an end user is not even awake 24 hours a day: "If 2 million people subscribe to your feed and try to update it once an hour, that is 48 million requests a day just for RSS."
Sorry, I wasn't thinking about the end user literally pushing a button. I was reading into the discussion here what I imagined to be a gap in the overall design philosophy of RSS where the end-user, using their own app or preferred methods, poll all of their favorite websites selecting among common defaults (Select the frequency you like to poll this RSS feed: weekly? daily? hourly? hehe minutely? secondly?).
In this scenario the user doesn't need to be awake 24 hours a day. They just need to use software which stupidly hits someone's server like they're doing a denial of service attack. As your comment alludes no one needs to be that up-to-date.
In contrast, there was another solution: "...service that polls RSS on behalf of its users."
Again, reading the discussion I imagined the wild west of the internet has inexpert users choosing unsane defaults and overloading small self-hosting content providers. Compared to third-party aggregators who are trying to make money by solving a "Tragedy of the Commons" problem.
But the user's computer would need to be awake 24 hours a day, which is usually not the case.
And once per hour is not a DoS attack.
My home server is awake 24 hours a day.
Is that wasteful? Does that make me a poor Internet citizen?
I'd never considered using RSS feeds from an app and pulling it directly. I have too many devices for that to be a great workflow.
Normally I'd say I was an outlier, but my gut feeling on this is that the people still using RSS and people self-hosting would overlap in a big way.
I personally don't think it's a problem. As I said, "a very popular site with that many millions of visitors already has to handle extreme traffic, regardless of RSS."
A lot of apps have sync to handle that workflow.
My gut feeling is that most RSS users, including myself, simply use client apps.