Re: [syndication] NetNewsWire's referer

["Dave Winer" <dave@userland.com>]

Uhhh Bill, I think you're confusing NetNewsWire with UserLand.

It's not our product. Wish it were, though, I hear it's really good.

Dave


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Kearney" <wkearney99@hotmail.com>
To: <syndication@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2002 5:13 AM
Subject: Re: [syndication] NetNewsWire's referer


> > Is it just me, or does netnewswire set its referer to always be
> >    http://ranchero.com/software/netnewswire/
>
> At some point Userland decided that using a URI here was a good idea.  To
> confuse things further, Userland decided to put a different URI in there
based
> on their community server concept.  Unfortunately those servers don't seem
to
> perform redirects based on that URI, at least not consistently.
>
> It's a good question, though, what should a reader program present as it's
> referring URL?  Should it present anything at all?  Should it record
'where' the
> user discovered the feed?  Should it list a web page?  I suppose most
folks
> would be inclined to list their own page.  But others, rightly so, would
prefer
> to have nothing listed at all, or a generic one.
>
> It would be good if the tools allowed user control over it.  Radio has the
> stored preference but no UI to control it.
>
> The use of a referral URL seems to be based on the idea that using the
normal
> access log isn't appropriate or available.  Some online services do not
expose
> the access log to the user.  The Userland Manila-based services are one
such
> example.  The operator of a given site /cannot/ access the HTTP access
log.
> They can, however, access a referral log (mispelled no less).  Thus the
> rationale of using the referral log as a means to satisfy user log
fetishes.  So
> following this circuitous logic one is left with grafting /something/ into
the
> RSS reader interface to have it appear in the logs.
>
> One is left asking isn't this what the user-agent log is supposed to
accomplish?
> That is also not made visible to most hosted sites.  So faking the whole
thing
> in the referral log was/is an easier means to feed the lust for log
monitoring.
> Talk about a hack.
>
> -Bill Kearney
>
>
>
>
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