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Showing posts from November, 2021

New Burst Protection Algorithm

To protect users against surprise charges, FeedMail covers the cost of sudden bursts of updates. The initial algorithm, only charging once a day, was too simple. Many feeds regularly see multiple updates a day and the burst-protection algorithm was artificially subsidizing these feeds. FeedMail is now using an updated algorithm to protect from bursts. The exact implementation is subject to change but is based on the following principles: Updates more than 24h apart are almost always charged. An average update rate is tracked per-feed. If a feed suddenly starts updating faster than the traditional rate the additional updates will not be charged. The average is updated over time, so if a feed continues updating at the elevated rate credit consumption will slowly increase to match the new update rate. FeedMail aims to be very low cost. To achieve this we need to keep our expenses predictable and fair. Otherwise we would need to overcharge some users to cover uncertainty and higher cost us...

Announcing FeedMail

I'm pleased to be sharing a project that I have been working on for a while and have been thinking about doing for even longer. FeedMail is a simple service that aims to get updates from your favourite websites to your email with no fuss and no nonsense. If you are already sold and want to follow some feeds simply go to feedmail.org to get started. How FeedMail Works FeedMail works using a set of technologies informally called RSS. FeedMail actually supports a variety of feed formats including Atom, RSS2 and RSS1. These feeds are created by websites and updated whenever new content is posted. FeedMail subscribes to these feeds on your behalf and forwards new entries to the email address of your choice. Many websites support these feeds. Just post the URL to an article or website that you want to subscribe to and FeedMail will show you the available feeds. For example the following websites support RSS: YouTube Channels Medium GitHub Releases Tumblr Many news sites Many more... RSS...