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How about implementing an RSS interface on top of the likes of Twitter and Facebook by screen scraping? Would have to take authentication of course. Then we c

How about implementing an RSS interface on top of the likes of Twitter and Facebook by screen scraping? Would have to take authentication of course. Then we could consume it via RSS readers just like the good ol' days. Does that already exist? I would pay for that.

Animats 9y ago
Facebook used to support RSS feeds. So did Twitter. Now they're both gone, to force people to use their ad-laden interfaces. There are services to generate RSS feeds from both, but there's probably some catch to that. [1] https://zapier.com/blog/facebook-twitter-rss-feed/ https://zapier.com/blog/facebook-twitter-rss-feed/
- zdkl 9y ago
  The social media are pushing the social thing, which is fair enough from a business standpoint. What isn't fine is that users are (intentionnaly, could be argued) led to believe that the media part is equivalent to traditional "RSS-like" media like AFP/Reuters/Bloomberg who carried the responsibility of being trustable. There's a place and implementation for everything and social media is not an appropriate platform for diffusion of factchecked information. How we make use of the different information dispersion platforms is on us!
Semaphor 9y ago
There is a tool that converts Twitter to RSS. I used to use it to get updates from a fantasy author who had neither a website nor a mailing list. It was self hosted but can't remember the name.
- Silvus 9y ago
  This ? https://github.com/RSS-Bridge/rss-bridge https://github.com/RSS-Bridge/rss-bridge
  - ksrm 9y ago
    That looks excellent. Thanks for posting it!
  - Semaphor 9y ago
    Not the one I used (it started with Tw), but useful nonetheless :)
alanfranzoni 9y ago
Most probably it would be illegal, against each website's TOS. If such tool catches up, it will be removed - and you still need to account for upstream changes that periodically kill the functionality.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  Against the TOS does not make something illegal.
  - eeZah7Ux 9y ago
    Not yet - but people seem to confuse legislators and corporations more and more frequently...
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      Clink or Hoosegow?
  - dredmorbius 9y ago
    Unfortunately, that's precisely what the CFAA does, in the United States. EFF's interpretation: The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”), 18 U.S.C. § 1030, is an amendment made in 1986 to the Counterfeit Access Device and Abuse Act that was passed in 1984 and essentially states that, whoever intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains information from any protected computer if the conduct involved an interstate or foreign communication shall be punished under the Act. In 1996 the CFAA was, again, broadened by an amendment that replaced the term “federal interest computer” with the term “protected computer.”18 U.S.C. § 1030. While the CFAA is primarily a criminal law intended to reduce the instances of malicious interferences with computer systems and to address federal computer offenses, an amendment in 1994 allows civil actions to brought under the statute, as well. https://ilt.eff.org/index.php/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act_%28CFAA%29 https://ilt.eff.org/index.php/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act_%...
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Thinking of such a tool as a service is a symptom of the same disease that got us where we are in the first place. If such tool would, instead, be open-source and self-hosted (or a component of trivially self-hosted) application, websites could do exactly shit about it. Traffic will be coming from everywhere, and the tool will get updated by people to overcome upstream interface changes. Ultimately, it's SaaS webapps that's the problem. The model has legitimate benefits (lack of installation, cross-platform), but it also is the reason the Web centralizes so much.

Animats 9y ago

Facebook used to support RSS feeds. So did Twitter. Now they're both gone, to force people to use their ad-laden interfaces. There are services to generate RSS feeds from both, but there's probably some catch to that. [1] https://zapier.com/blog/facebook-twitter-rss-feed/ https://zapier.com/blog/facebook-twitter-rss-feed/

zdkl 9y ago
The social media are pushing the social thing, which is fair enough from a business standpoint. What isn't fine is that users are (intentionnaly, could be argued) led to believe that the media part is equivalent to traditional "RSS-like" media like AFP/Reuters/Bloomberg who carried the responsibility of being trustable. There's a place and implementation for everything and social media is not an appropriate platform for diffusion of factchecked information. How we make use of the different information dispersion platforms is on us!

Semaphor 9y ago

There is a tool that converts Twitter to RSS. I used to use it to get updates from a fantasy author who had neither a website nor a mailing list. It was self hosted but can't remember the name.

Silvus 9y ago
This ? https://github.com/RSS-Bridge/rss-bridge https://github.com/RSS-Bridge/rss-bridge
- ksrm 9y ago
  That looks excellent. Thanks for posting it!
- Semaphor 9y ago
  Not the one I used (it started with Tw), but useful nonetheless :)

alanfranzoni 9y ago

Most probably it would be illegal, against each website's TOS. If such tool catches up, it will be removed - and you still need to account for upstream changes that periodically kill the functionality.

jacquesm 9y ago
Against the TOS does not make something illegal.
- eeZah7Ux 9y ago
  Not yet - but people seem to confuse legislators and corporations more and more frequently...
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    Clink or Hoosegow?
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  Unfortunately, that's precisely what the CFAA does, in the United States. EFF's interpretation: The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”), 18 U.S.C. § 1030, is an amendment made in 1986 to the Counterfeit Access Device and Abuse Act that was passed in 1984 and essentially states that, whoever intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains information from any protected computer if the conduct involved an interstate or foreign communication shall be punished under the Act. In 1996 the CFAA was, again, broadened by an amendment that replaced the term “federal interest computer” with the term “protected computer.”18 U.S.C. § 1030. While the CFAA is primarily a criminal law intended to reduce the instances of malicious interferences with computer systems and to address federal computer offenses, an amendment in 1994 allows civil actions to brought under the statute, as well. https://ilt.eff.org/index.php/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act_%28CFAA%29 https://ilt.eff.org/index.php/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act_%...
TeMPOraL 9y ago
Thinking of such a tool as a service is a symptom of the same disease that got us where we are in the first place. If such tool would, instead, be open-source and self-hosted (or a component of trivially self-hosted) application, websites could do exactly shit about it. Traffic will be coming from everywhere, and the tool will get updated by people to overcome upstream interface changes. Ultimately, it's SaaS webapps that's the problem. The model has legitimate benefits (lack of installation, cross-platform), but it also is the reason the Web centralizes so much.