An Open Letter of Mindless Blathering

[Morbus Iff <morbus@disobey.com>]

Dear Mr. Blatherskite,

I can't help but feel frustrations over the RSS community as it is, not 
over the naming or the cross-cultural fighting, but the duplication of 
effort (much like Mr. Binky told me when he saw AmphetaDesk and compared it 
to Radio Userland, wondering why AmphetaDesk needed to exist). Not in 
client efforts, however, but rather in knowledge effort.

(As I read over this, in postscript haste, I realize that I've uttered much 
the same frustrations that have plagued other new technologies. A poser.)

I've been thinking of the lists that contain thousands of RSS feeds. Much 
like Yahoo satisfied the need of a directory when no one knew where to 
look, RSS (currently) needs the same sort of directory. And everyone is 
jumping in with their own (even I make this transgression) [2].

There are tons of lists all over the place [1]. Each ocs list has different 
internal thinkings of how to do things. Duplicates and errors abound, along 
with lack of loving.

Duplicates abound because lists don't check against "www.cnn.com" vs. 
"cnn.com". Or they don't compare dynamically generated listings by chopping 
off the URL after the ?, creating such wonderful duplicates where the only 
difference is the number of items outputted (o=30 or o=24).

Same with Moreover. Moreover is wonderful and spits out their own .ocs 
directory. Instead of people integrating that list, they embed the list 
into their own directory (again, silly Morbus, you do this too), creating 
such wonderful duplicates of differing URL parameters, but similar content.

And even more so, the love is gone from lists. Massive robotic scripts 
merge all this crap together, without checking for dynamic user based feeds 
(like custom searches through sherch.com or moreover.com, or created feeds 
from 10.am). Lump it all together, binky - someone has the same interest 
somewhere. The difference between giving a fish and teaching to fish. [3]

It's frustrating. I compiled a large list of 2300 feeds, after checking for 
duplicates across titles, descriptions, authors, urls, and more, I wheedled 
it down to 1900 or so [2].

Jeff Barr from Headline Viewer has an alias list [4], where he keeps track 
of sites that have different URLs but spit out the same content. I used his 
newer, unpublished version for the AmphetaDesk list, and I found about 15 
other aliases that he didn't have.

That these other lists didn't have.
The other lists probably had aliases, but didn't know it.
Jeff and I don't know it either. Not good.

And all these lists sit in raw data. They don't move or interact with the 
common user (we do all this for them, don't we? at least, that's been the 
glorious herald of the RSS naming politics - "unconfuse the user!"). All 
this information is being given to the geeky geeks, and not to the 
"people". Silly.

I keep thinking there needs to be an interface to a master list, one that 
can be "the one and only", bordering on Nazi-ism, allowing export in any 
format, allowing "show me new feeds from X days ago" or "show me updated 
feeds from Y hours". One that would allow people to advogato their opinions 
about the feed. One that would allow "people who sub'd to this feed also 
liked...". We have shifting of data with Radio Userland, "link via" virii 
("link via Brainrot, via Dave, via Eugene..." ad infinitum), but no 
shifting of the user.

A major problem with RSS is not petty bickering, but the sheer amount of 
feeds available. People are clamoring for searches, meta searches, author 
searches, "things like this" and more. Whilst it may not be possible to 
aggregate all data into a massive google like search engine, it's certainly 
possible to create a meta/user/love directory of "if you like this, you may 
like this".

Mike Krus from NewsIsFree.com. His site is roaring (wonderfully). At times, 
I think, well, screw it, he has everything pretty much all set up, it'd be 
easy as pie for him to make an interface to his channel list, where we 
could query the list like "new feeds since X" or "feeds updated since Y" 
and get an ocs export.

That'd solve a lot of problems, actually, with AmphetaDesk. I just don't 
have the time to devote to keeping a list perfect and updated. Hell, the 
only reason I got into RSS/syndication and AmphetaDesk was because I didn't 
have enough time to read all the news I wanted to, and it was stealing time 
from my other work. (Of course, Mr. Blatherskite, as you know, the solution 
to the problem has now become the thief).

But, I get worried about losing control. Ah, the ubiquitous control. It'd 
be easy for Mike to keep a list updated. But I have all these wonderful 
ideas to make a list even better and more Amazon-y in terms of features. I 
fear that he wouldn't have the time to implement them all. I fear that I 
could implement them, but not service the growing populace and power 
needed. Hell, I fear that he won't take a leap of faith, or <gasp!> 
wouldn't agree with me. It's not just you, Mike (of course), it's everyone! 
Fervency causes fermenting that isn't easily swallowed.

In a corner of my head, I say "screw control, you moron, if you pass it off 
to Mike, then you can just be an annoying user and harass him instead of 
the other way around." Oh, quite good. But to pour a lot of fervent beliefs 
into another's hands to mold is quite the same leap of faith some ideas 
require. (The same voice says: "he has a Paypal icon on his site! he must 
be desperate for cash! your ideas will fruit, and then rot with death! 
muahahhah!" I dislike this voice, Mr. Blatherskite).

This diary entry is far too long. <skkizzzt!!>
Being off my chest, is it any better? Perhaps.

The pessimist says an interface will be built without my "valued" input and 
it'll be all wrong. When it fails, they'll point to this message and chuckle.

The optimist says that Mike will say "hey, binky, you could have just 
called me and saved yourself some face. Sheesh. You wanna move in?"

The cynic says I just got fired for wasting half an hour.

Sigh.

[1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radio-userland/message/9079
[2] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/syndication/message/1844
[3] http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/news.htm
[4] http://www.vertexdev.com/chv_aliases.xml


Morbus Iff
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http://www.disobey.com/
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