Subj : Re: RSS (was: New Years Resolution)
To   : poindexter FORTRAN
From : Adept
Date : Wed Feb 08 2023 15:29:58

 pF> At one point, Facebook allowed RSS feeds in their pages. I set up a BBS
 pF> page in Facebook and exported the system news message base to Facebook.
 pF> It worked well for a while, then Facebook turned the feature off.

I read a recent article (from Wired, I think) that talked about the normal progression of a website.

First, they build something users like
Second, they build something businesses like
Third, they build something that maximizes their profit
Fourth, they die.

General idea is the first stage is needed because without users, there is no site.

But once they're in the ecosystem, you can make them _just_ angry enough that there aren't better options that'd cause them to leave.

But you need buy-in from people who sell things / give you money for ads, etc.

So then they prioritize businesses, selling off data about the users, having paid placement, etc.

Once they're in, businesses have to sell through that place or else they won't sell, users have to go to those businesses there, because they're not selling at other places.

So then the company can make things _just_ good enough that people and companies don't leave, but since it's a captive market, they can make it pretty terrible, and extract as much money as possible.

Then eventually it collapses, because, yeah, it's awful.

But the idea works for Facebook, Google, Amazon, dating sites (though there the "prioritized businesses" are probably paying customers), and likely anything else that's gotten big enough.

 pF> Shame, it was a nice way to let people know if the BBS was going to be
 pF> down and keep information in sync on the BBS and off.

....and, yeah, things like this just don't work for Facebook. They probably want you creating all your content in house for them, rather than having an easy way to create it somewhere else and repost to Facebook.

But when they were competing with other sites in that space, more reason to try out features that make life easier for businesses.

Still, nice if we could make RSS work on our own, without getting into those ecosystems. I imagine most of us who like being in the sysop role really would prefer to have full control over our data.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

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