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March 10, 2004
RSS or Atom - I don't care
Dave Winer sparked a new round of bitching in the RSS-Atom "which aggregation format should rule the world" dispute by suggesting a merger between both formats. As a user and sometimes deployer of aggregation tools and software - I just don't care whether RSS or Atom or RSS/Atom wins the battle. But the ongoing mud-slinging is doing both formats (and the adoption of said formats) more harm than good. That's for certain.
Posted by Matthew at March 10, 2004 12:00 PM
Comments
I find the mud-slinging uninteresting and largely moot.
Frankly I'm surprised that people find RSS -that- interesting. It's just a tool afterall and one that can't be taken away from you.
It's sort of like getting into a fight over which beer is the best. Ultimately who cares which is better/tastes great/is less filling ? Use what you want.
I fear the blogosphere feeds this arguement.
Posted by: Steve at March 10, 2004 12:53 PM
"Use what you want" only works though if the tools I use and the sites I read are compatible. That's what I mean - we (the users) are interested in the functionality per se - not in the underlying protocol or format.
As a software-deployer though - the discussions (wars) make it difficult to convince people that aggregation of data using an XML format (whatever that may be) is a "GoodThing". And using XML based data aggregation holds lots of advantages especially inside corporations.
Posted by: Matthew Langham at March 10, 2004 01:54 PM