Failing to slow down its requests severe
This app continues making requests for feed content on a website, even after the site informs it to wait a while before making any more requests.
Why it's a problemThe excessive traffic makes a website sluggish by hogging the site's resources that can be used for other site visitors. The behavior can also cause websites to exceed their limits, making them more costly to maintain. In fact, one of the main reasons the site tells the app to slow down is usually to avoid an increase in costs.
What it means for usersWebsites are likely to block this app from accessing feed content, causing feeds to stop working.
How to fix itWhen a website tells this app to hold off on requesting content for a specific amount of time, it should do so.
Requesting feed content unnecessarily severe
This app is unnecessarily re-requesting feed content from websites without waiting until there's actually new content published.
Why it's a problemThe unnecessary traffic wastes a website's resources that can be used for its other site visitors.
What it means for usersWebsites are likely to limit this app from accessing feed content, causing feeds to not update properly or stop working entirely.
How to fix it
The application needs to be updated to
wait
until the max-age of
Cache-Control header expires before re-requesting
feed content or properly implement
conditional requests.
Not declaring that it accepts feed content critical
This application is requesting feed content from websites but doesn't indicate that it accepts content specifically designed for feeds.
Why it's a problemWebsites are likely to block the application from accessing their feeds due to the app not being specific or entirely clear about the content it accepts.
What it means for usersFeeds will stop working or become fully inoperable when a website blocks the application due to this behavior.
How to fix itThe application should explicitly declare a format commonly associated with feeds using the Accept header.