[microformats-discuss] Re: xEntry: a proposal for a microformat for weblog entries

[Bud Gibson]

David:

Here's a practical solution.  Work this out to serve your needs.  Do  
some research to see what other solutions are there.  For instance,  
sixapart has a very protean version of this in their default blogging  
template. Steve Mallet, creator of de.lirio.us has encountered this  
same issue.  Then, write up a brief spec like you see on  
microformats.org with a nutshell justification.  Finally, publicize  
that for comment.

Expect to change a lot.

My personal view is that this could be of value but will likely be  
hard to get right.  Re-use standard approaches as much as you can.

Bud

On Aug 11, 2005, at 7:50, David Janes -- BlogMatrix wrote:


> Tantek,
>
> 1. I am trying to use upon myself, plus I have a thousand+ active  
> blogs upon which I can fairly test theories and iterations upon  
> with disrupting normal day to day operations
>
> 2. There are a number of intended uses, the first coming to mind is  
> something like reblg (http://reblg.com/developer), which is why  
> included the proponents of that format in the mailout (to find out  
> if I'm covering too much ground that they've done, are these  
> compatible, does this make rebloging easier). More generally, I'm  
> working on a greasemonkey project that will tie the identification  
> of microformats (including this one) into a series of URI actions,  
> such as reblogging, sending the link to something like del.ico.us,  
> etc..
>
> I'm not planning to waste anyone's time on this, nor am I asking  
> for anyone's upfront commitments, blood oaths, or whatever: I'm  
> entirely content to play with this ideas and do all or any or none  
> of the work involved; I am asking for feedback, comments, pointers  
> to previous or ongoing work in this area and giving a heads up to  
> people that may be interested in case this stuff actually works out  
> or is treading on anyone's toes.
>
> Regards, etc...
> David
>
> Tantek Çelik wrote:
>
>> David, Lots of folks have tried to come up with a microformat for  
>> weblog entries. In short, working on this kind of standard is a  
>> waste of time. UNLESS 1. You first try using it yourself, and  
>> seeing how it works on your own blog. 2. Answer the question of  
>> why? What real-world problem is being solved with this? Making  
>> analysis easier is irrelevant to most people, as is making things  
>> easier for tools. If there's no benefit for users, there's no  
>> reason to pursue. I'm sorry to make this sound so harsh, but it is  
>> important here to establish the priorities of solving *real*  
>> problems rather than theoretical problems, of first doing  
>> *research*, and *documenting* it, instead of starting with a  
>> format proposal. http://microformats.org/wiki/process Thanks,  
>> Tantek On 8/11/05 3:58 AM, "David Janes -- BlogMatrix"  
>> <davidjanes at blogmatrix.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, I'm contacting you folk because you're all writing about  
>>> microformats and I'd like your opinion on this idea. A missing  
>>> piece from the whole microformats world is a microformat for  
>>> weblog entries, which I'll call "xEntry" for now. There are a  
>>> number of benefits to such a format: - they're easy to produce  
>>> (it's just template work) - they will make analysis of weblog  
>>> content easier - they will make "reblogging" tools easier to do -  
>>> probably more... The format itself would be quite simple. I've  
>>> just used Atom (http://www.atomenabled.org/developers/ 
>>> syndication/) as a reasonable definition for what should be in  
>>> this microcontent spec, and worked from there. Here's the basic  
>>> elements: xentry id author published title content Notes:  
>>> "xentry" could become "aentry" to more suggest Atom, but I like  
>>> the way this reminisent of xFolk (http://microformats.org/wiki/ 
>>> xfolk). There's an example of the markup after my signature  
>>> below. Your thoughts? If people think this is a good idea, I can  
>>> start fleshing this out more. There a little conflict or overlap  
>>> with the reblg people, but I think that can be worked out.  
>>> Regards, etc... David Janes Founder, BlogMatrix http:// 
>>> www.blogmatrix.com ------------------------------------- -  
>>> Original weblog article:  <div class="post"> <h3  
>>> class="storytitle" id="post-2960"> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/ 
>>> archives/2005/08/03/httptracer/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent  
>>> Link: HTTPTracer">HTTPTracer</a> </h3> <div class="storycontent">  
>>> <p>bla bla bla</p> </div> <div class="metabits"> <div  
>>> class="keywords"> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/misc/about/ 
>>> biog.htm">Danny</a>@13:45 | <a href="http://dannyayers.com/..."  
>>> title="View ..." rel="category tag">Programming</a> </div> </div>  
>>> <div class="feedback"> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/ 
>>> 2005/08/03/httptracer/#comments">Comments (0)</a> </div> </div> -  
>>> With xEntry markup (I've made all the xEntry markup uppercase for  
>>> _visibility purposes only_; note the optional use of <abbr> to  
>>> provide deeper data): <div class="XENTRY post"> <h3  
>>> class="storytitle" id="post-2960"> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/ 
>>> archives/2005/08/03/httptracer/" class="TITLE ID" rel="bookmark"  
>>> title="Permanent Link: HTTPTracer">HTTPTracer</a> </h3> <div  
>>> class="CONTENT storycontent"> <p>bla bla bla</p> </div> <div  
>>> class="metabits"> <div class="keywords"> <a href="http:// 
>>> dannyayers.com/misc/about/biog.htm"><abbr class="AUTHOR"  
>>> title="Danny Ayers">Danny</abbr></a>@<abbr class="PUBLISHED"  
>>> title="2005-08-03T11:45:02Z">13:45</abbr> | <a href="http:// 
>>> dannyayers.com/..." title="View ..." rel="category  
>>> tag">Programming</a> </div> </div> <div class="feedback"> <a  
>>> href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/2005/08/03/httptracer/ 
>>> #comments">Comments (0)</a> </div> </div>
>>>
>
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