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(Why) RSS is crap



I'll try to keep this blog post short: RSS is crap.

  1. RSS is not only one file format. RSS refers to multiple file formats which resemble each other.
  2. Thus, various RSS versions are incompatible.
  3. There are around 10 incompatible versions as of writing this. maybe I don't even know them all. By the time you read my post, there might be more.
  4. RSS 2.0 is good, it serves its purpose.
  5. RSS 2.0 is not crap.
  6. Same goes for any of the versions you pick.
  7. Problem is the entire RSS.
  8. Thus implementation is suddenly hard, for a supposedly simple format.

Recommended reading: The myth of RSS compatibility by Mark Pilgrim. Thanks to his post, I can implement better RSS support.

Solution: use Atom wisely:

  1. It's as easy as RSS 2.0, if you ignore all the other capabilities you don't need.
  2. It's better documented.
  3. It's easier to implement.
  4. It's not crap.


Thanks :).

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