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There are also some efficiency-related shortcomings. I'd wager that most feed readers either implement conditional requests incorrectly, or they don't implement

There are also some efficiency-related shortcomings. I'd wager that most feed readers either implement conditional requests incorrectly, or they don't implement conditional requests at all. Polling rates also tend to be stupid, on the order of 1-30 minutes with no regard for how often any given feed actually has new posts. This creates server-side pressure to make your feed as small as possible, which always means excluding content.

account42 1y ago
The first point sounds like an implementation issue rather than a protocol one. I also don't agree that most readers have this problem. Polling rate also has nothing to do with frequency of updates if you care to receive those updates in a timely manner. I haven't seen a reader default to 30 minutes or less. Probably in both cases you just notice the bad implementations more because they make more requests. And Atom supports pagination so you can limit the main feed url to be just one entry while still allowing for clients to retrieve older ones.
- DamonHD 1y ago
  My only Atom feeds are already short, and the paging mechanism would I think be hard to do in my static site, but yes, thanks for the reminder!
DamonHD 1y ago
Yes indeedy. My one-update-per-month feed gets pulled over 10 times per hour by Podbean for example: https://www.earth.org.uk/note-on-site-technicals-99.html#2025-08-31 https://www.earth.org.uk/note-on-site-technicals-99.html#202...
- ryukoposting 1y ago
  10 times per hour? Yikes. I'm a small enough deal that I can call out specific readers at the top of a new post. A couple weeks ago I put up a post that started with the aside "hey one of you has a Turkish IP and you're pulling the whole feed every 10 minutes, please stop doing that."
  - DamonHD 1y ago
    I think that I probably average < 1 listener by any sensible metric! B^> (The podcast where I capture primarily audio material such as voice or sonfification that might as well also be presented in this alternative channel form...) I'd be interested to listen to your podcast if you were to ping me its URL via one of the contact methods in my bio...

account42 1y ago

The first point sounds like an implementation issue rather than a protocol one. I also don't agree that most readers have this problem. Polling rate also has nothing to do with frequency of updates if you care to receive those updates in a timely manner. I haven't seen a reader default to 30 minutes or less. Probably in both cases you just notice the bad implementations more because they make more requests. And Atom supports pagination so you can limit the main feed url to be just one entry while still allowing for clients to retrieve older ones.

DamonHD 1y ago
My only Atom feeds are already short, and the paging mechanism would I think be hard to do in my static site, but yes, thanks for the reminder!

DamonHD 1y ago

Yes indeedy. My one-update-per-month feed gets pulled over 10 times per hour by Podbean for example: https://www.earth.org.uk/note-on-site-technicals-99.html#2025-08-31 https://www.earth.org.uk/note-on-site-technicals-99.html#202...

ryukoposting 1y ago
10 times per hour? Yikes. I'm a small enough deal that I can call out specific readers at the top of a new post. A couple weeks ago I put up a post that started with the aside "hey one of you has a Turkish IP and you're pulling the whole feed every 10 minutes, please stop doing that."
- DamonHD 1y ago
  I think that I probably average < 1 listener by any sensible metric! B^> (The podcast where I capture primarily audio material such as voice or sonfification that might as well also be presented in this alternative channel form...) I'd be interested to listen to your podcast if you were to ping me its URL via one of the contact methods in my bio...