Re: [syndication] RSS vs. HTML Bandwidth and "Scalability"...

[Mike Krus <mkrus@newsisfree.com>]

Hi all,

well, we now know exactly what "server being hit too hard"
feels like ;-)

Regarding the update frequency problem:
- NewsIsFree has a timeout value for each feed, it's a constant,
  it doesn't auto adapt to how often changes are effectively
  spotted, etc. I think my.userland.com does that to a certain
  extend. If the sources hasn't change in the last two updates,
  can I safely double the timeout limit?
- we currently don't check the header fields for time out
  information.
- although we don't support it yet, the only real answer, as Dave
  suggests, is Peer to Peer notification of change.

Another bandwidth problem, for syndicators like NewsIsFree at
least, is the lack of responsibility from feed users. Some will
hit far more often than required. Also many feed-sucking software
don't tell the user that there was an error in the feed
(phpNuke doesn't, Radio Userland doesn't...). We changed our
export mecanism twice (for various reasons), and we still get
many many hits to the initial exports which haven't been available
for several months...



Mike

--
NewsIsFree                            http://www.newsisfree.com/
http://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=donations%40newsisfree.com
Jabber: mkrus@jabber.com                           ICQ: 30900412