The Missing Protocol: Let Me Know

Summary

The Missing Protocol: Let Me Know I want a new protocol, tentatively called “Let Me Know” (LMK). The purpose is to provide someone an anonymous way to get notified when a singular, specific event occurs. Here’s a basic use case: Some random blog author has published Parts 1 and 2 of a series. You enjoyed it, and you want to know when Part 3 is published. You don’t want to give away any personal information, you don’t want to subscribe to an RSS feed of other content, you don’t want to follow them on social media, etc. You just want an anonymous way to find out when Part 3 is published without having to manually check their website and evaluate it for the content. My idea is that there’s a button at the bottom of Part 2, called “Let Me Know.” The user clicks this, and it registers an endpoint with some agent. The “endpoint” is a URL specific to that singular event. An “agent” is a persistent background service of some kind that will check to see if this event has occurred. For example, a browser extension will add it to a “check list.” Alternately, some subscription service could add it to a list. Whatever agent registers the endpoint will ping the end point at a specific interval. Let’s say once per day by default. The endpoint will often simply return: { "happened": false } Or: 204 No Content Either of those responses mean, “The subscribed event has not happened yet. Check back later.” Alternately, the endpoint can advise the agent when to check again. { "happened": "false", "delay": 604800 // Don't check again for one week } Your agent will keep dutifully checking on its default schedule, or obeying the delay response if it’s provided. But hopefully, on some bright shining day in the future, something like this will be returned: { "happened": true, "when": "2025-08-06T05:38:20.234Z", // This can be included in the notification "message": "Part 3 of the Awesome Blog Post Series has finally been published!", // The notification can provide one or more things to do f...