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Isn't this just RSS?

The thing that's different with this proposal is that it's specified to be a one-shot notification. If RSS is a channel/topic than "let me know" is a rendezvous. You could build it on top of RSS (or ActivityPub, XMPP, webhooks, ...).

Then it's not a missing protocol. The protocol is RSS. They want some specific app that is doing a thing with RSS.

Protocols are normally built on top of other protocols. RSS could be the transport for "let me know." (Though my recommendation would be ActivityPub, XMPP, or email.)

Whether that is a protocol or an application running over a protocol is semantics, either interpretation is valid.

Any bog standard RSS app should work here.

RSS, literally and with no modifications, solves the use-case outlined in the article. The URL is just a specific one-shot feed, and TFA's request is just a request for such a convention of one-shot feeds.

No need for a separate protocol here. You can just read an rss feed until you get a hit on your filter and then stop reading it. Same data over the wire, just a different client.

No.

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