Re: [syndication] RSS aggregators for non-technical folk

["Bill Kearney" <ml_yahoo@ideaspace.net>]

> Makes you wonder about RSS at all.  Ignoring historical reasons, why not
> just expose every item summary as an NNTP posting that is XML+RDF and
> use a CSS to display the summary?

Quite right.  Here's a few issues to consider:

Setting up an NNTP server is not trivial
Maintaining a reliable NNTP server is not trivial
Fending off usenet related insanity it not trivial
A user can't setup an NNTP server on a static site
A user can't invent their own NNTP hierarchies on a static site
Usenet people rant ceaselessly about anyone DARING to put formatting in posts

RSS is better for those reasons and more.

Dumping an RSS file to a static web page is easy
Making one's own path or hierarchy (vanity URL) is easy
Mirroring one's RSS feed from a website is easy
Being 'expressive' in RSS can be tempered by going hog-wild on your website

There remain the issues of RSS readers suck, but in ways not dissimilar from
NTTP readers.  And that formatting in RSS items is a misunderstood and
oft-abused issue.

I dump all my data into an Exchange server as both per-feed and per-item
objects.  I then benefit from being able to access it via IMAP, NNTP and HTTP.
I can also use any number of different clients to "get at" the data.  Slicing
and dicing with a sophisticated NNTP reader makes for handy ways to catch up on
lots of old feed posts.  Using the Index Service makes finding stuff pretty
fast.

In all, it's the ability to use a flexible repository that's key, not the
format.

-Bill Kearney