RSS Gets an Enema
For a myriad of reasons, the specification for RSS has been either too loose or too constipated, depending on your point of view. The frustrations around what is valid or not valid in RSS have caused many tempests in the syndication teacup over the years. It even led a group of people to create the Atom specification.
The de-facto owner of RSS 2.0 has long been Dave Winer. Officially it belongs to Harvard Law and is steered by the RSS Advisory Board, but typically Winer is the guy people either listen to or point fingers at. This had made for entertaining flame wars at times, but the specification itself hasn’t seen much benefit.
Long overdue, I believe, has been public discussion on how to improve RSS and clean out the harmful wastes and toxins.
Despite a recent flurry of mixed messages about who controls what (see Dave Johnson’s link compilation), there is now a public discussion underway on clarifying the RSS specification. From one contributer:
“The goal is to… address the unclear aspects of RSS that aren’t clearly specified, like whether item description is the only RSS element that can carry HTML.”
You can observe the board’s discussions on this Yahoo forum, or participate in public discussion on the public forum.
(Ironically, the RSS feeds for these forums only include partial text descriptions, which is really irritating, and considered by most to be an RSS Worst Practice. An inflamed polyp, if you will.)
So, get out the warm saline of thoughtful discussion, and jump right in. It is going to be messy, but I think we’ll all benefit in the end.
Update Feb 22, 2006:
The enema may be too uncomfortable after all:
Dave Winer said: “And with that, I am banging the gavel and ending this experiment … Tomorrow I will talk individualy with all the corporate members of the “board” and ask them to resign … I may at some time send [Rogers] a bill for all of my time that he is wasting.
February 22nd, 2006 at 13:39
Your “flame wars” link is busted?
February 22nd, 2006 at 15:03
Thanks, Sam. Fixed!
February 23rd, 2006 at 00:14
Well, we’ve gotten ourselves undressed in the cold doctors office. Slipped into that embarrassing gown, you know, the one that’s open in the back. Only to have the big-haired nurse come in and tell us that the doctor has been called away and we’ll have reschedule this for later.
A telling remark from the Dave Winer in the rss-public group:
“I know because they were my words, I wrote them, I know the thoughts that they were expressing because they were my thoughts.”
and
“About enclosures, if I had been aware that there were other ways to interpret the spec, I would ahve[sic] been more clear, but I wasn’t and I
didn’t clarify, and just the way it is.”
Whoa, look down. We’re standing in it.