Re: [syndication] RSS 0.91 - skips & optional stuff

[Gary Teter <bigdog@bulldogbeach.com>]

on 6/12/00 11:43 AM, Dave Winer at dave@userland.com wrote:

> Dan, I want your RSS file to contain pointers to stories you feel are
> relevant, whether or not they are on Flutterby. On My.UserLand you do get a
> link back to your log when I get directed somewhere by you. And any
> affiliate that hooks into our story flow also knows where the link came
> from. Maybe I still don't understand the concern. Dave

In general, I think it's up to each aggregator to provide credit back to
where they got the headline from. But I think the concern here is about
doubly-indirected story flow.

Let's say "originator.com" writes a story and posts it on their website,
then it gets snagged via scraping, say by moreover. When I ask moreover for
stories in RSS format, I get an (indirect) pointer to the original story,
but there is no indication of its original source.

I can then deliver that story (headline) to my users, but all I can tell
them is "via moreover", which isn't as useful as providing a direct link to
originator.com.

When I aggregate content from moreover, I use the moreovernews XML format
rather than RSS because it includes extra tags for the name of the
originator, a link to their site, and a couple other useful things like
whether it requires registration or not.

I wouldn't mind seeing this added to RSS, but I get worried about clogging
the spec with things like providing an "audit trail" for where headlines
came from (originator.com to moreover.com to my site.com to wherever.com...)

PS: Congrats to moreover on their cash infusion! Now if only you guys can
get the AP to pony up... :-)

-- 
Gary Teter, Big Dog
Bulldog Beach Interactive http://www.bulldogbeach.com
"Fun will now commence." -- Seven of Nine