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Joshua Allen wrote:
>> original creation. (Atom defines both "created" date and "issued"
>> date. This allows the distinction to be made.)
> Great, a techie feature. My grandmother certainly didn't ask for
that one.
Well, other people's grandmothers *did*. Every day I get mail
from someone asking: "Why are you telling me that this entry which is
dated "August-2003" is "New"? How stupid is your code that it can't
read a date!"
The lack of metadata in RSS confuses users more than it
confuses us. We have all sorts of techniques to detect if something
has changed, however, the user probably doesn't have a copy of the six
month old entry that just got updated and wouldn't want to bother
comparing the two anyway.
With specs as vague and poorly defined as RSS, it is
exceptionally difficult for us to provide quality service to our
customers. That, ultimately is the goal. Whether or not what we're
doing is "elegant" or pleasing to the techies is only secondary.
However, given RSS, we can't deliver on the things that our users are
demanding.
bob wyman
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