Are websites embassies of foreign soil inside your own hardware? (2023)
The blog post discusses how science.org restricts native RSS feed readers while allowing corporate services, highlighting a cultural divide in internet perceptions and the impact of Cloudflare's policies on data access.
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The blog post discusses the challenges faced by users of native RSS feed readers, particularly in relation to the science.org website, which has blocked certain readers like QuiteRSS. The author, superkuh, highlights a response from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) indicating that their policies restrict the use of native applications that scrape content, while allowing corporate services like Feedly. This situation reflects a broader cultural divide in how the internet is perceived, with older users viewing it as a space for open access and newer users seeing it as a commercial entity with strict boundaries. The author argues that the current trend of treating data access as a form of interference is problematic, likening it to a foreign embassy setting up on personal hardware. The post also points to Cloudflare's policies as a significant factor in these restrictions, suggesting that they enforce rules that limit access to only major browsers and whitelisted services, complicating the relationship between users and content providers.
- The science.org website restricts native RSS feed readers, allowing only certain corporate services.
- There is a cultural divide in perceptions of internet usage, with older users favoring open access and newer users adhering to commercial norms.
- The author compares data access restrictions to a foreign embassy's presence on personal hardware.
- Cloudflare's policies are implicated in the limitations placed on accessing content from certain websites.
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1 commentsAnd then I tail -f the access.log of my (tiny, useless) blog and am astounded at the bizarre things showing up on there. Occasionally I'll block an IP if they're blowing me up. Usually I only notice when that machine has higher-than-normal CPU usage. In that situation, I guess I'm a hypocrite and do not want absolutely anyone to consume what I've published however they like.
My fairly secure Firefox setup does frequently go into cloudflare jail for, I guess, being a bit too shady looking? That's very frustrating and I guess the mechanized warfare equivalent of me blocking some bot for nuking my celeron server?
Anyway, I've been frustrated on both sides of this and morally land on the free-and-open side. But there's enough complexity to the situation that there can't be one policy that covers all eventualities.
IDK - it's a messy issue. I'm going to keep blocking stuff in my browser until it's no longer practical to do so. And I'll keep blocking abusive bots from my personal site when I get bored and find them there.
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