Again, I'm not contesting how useful XMPP/PubSub is for feeds, as
opposed to the pull that is currently used. I'm just questioning
putting the task of reading feeds in the same program as the one you
use to do IM. Apart from the fact that both consist of titles/bodies,
and can be carried accross XMPP, these are 2 completely different
tasks, and require completely different user interfaces for different
types of management (optionally tied together in one encompassing UI,
like a webpage or an MDI).
Yes you are right, the mis-understanding here is that you want several
programs dedicated and I want one program for all (in fact, that's not what
I want: I would want rather integration, I don't want to see again XMPP, as
a simple user! :p). That's a complicated discussion because I think there is
no "solution" because this is not a problem, just a question of viewpoint I
guess. So let's stop this discussion for now. Maybe some other day. ;-)
By the way, the most important disadvantage of push is probably
privacy: with push, you have to provide your contact address in order
to get notifications, which can be passed on, and depends on the
server to unsubscribe you from it. I wouldn't want to give my jid to
all the RSS feed sites I'm subscribed to. And personally, I think
privacy is a lot more worth than bandwidth.
That's in fact a point I wanted to talk about with Peter Saint André. The
difference with what you talk about and XMPP is that you subscribe to a
Jabber server, not to the website itself. Yet the node owner can retrieve
the subscription list or also he can simply be the one providing the Jabber
server, that's true.
But there is one point he cannot control: your own server provider that you
are supposed to trust (and if you don't, change it). I think there should be
some kind of "roster" for the pubsub subscriptions. Apparently there is no
such thing in the XEP (but I may be wrong). So you could imagine a system
(indeed there should be such a system) where your server keeps track of your
own subscription (as well as it keeps track of your contact list). Hence if
you receive notification from a node you have not subscribed (or you have
unsubscribed since), I think your server should simply reject it and
aknowledge the sending server (which should then unsubscribe you. And even
if it is a spam server which will keep your jid, he won't be able to send
you notifications) without disturbing you.
What do you think of this?
Jehan
