RE: [syndication] Re: XML-RPC and the Need to Cash In

[dave.cantrell@gunter.af.mil]

Title: RE: [syndication] Re: XML-RPC and the Need to Cash In

> I don't understand - in a browser, you can specify the display style of links that have been visited. 
> If   the article has been viewed, the link looks different - you know, blue underscore .vs. purple underscore.  

> Is this what you are talking about? or are you talking about how to do this if you write your own UI?  

> like accessing (history) metadata about links in order to render them yourself? 

 

Mike,

 

That is one part of the problem I'm sure. However, as I understand it the real problem is eliminating "redundant" information. In our aggregator, I noticed the exact same links with the same headlines popping up in different categories. Multiply that by perhaps a factor of ten when you're dealing with weblogs, and you wind up with a lot of redundant information.

 

One example may be Tomalak's Realm. You read a headline from TR and then in the same application read 10 or 15 other weblogs. Each of those weblogs also reads TR, and found that same headline interesting, so they publish links to it as well. So now you have the exact same headline repeated 10 or 15 times, and that's just one item!

 

I personally can see both sides of this, but I tend to lean to the side of not doing this or (even better) making it optional in the user interface, for the reason that each person may add their own commentary to the item thus creating a running dialogue on that particular topic.

 

In a way it's kind of like reading newsgroups or message boards, only without the structure a newsgroup provides or even necessarily knowing where to start and who posted what in which order and in response to what other posts/blogs.

 

-dave