[microformats-discuss] Evaulating RSS per the microformats principles.

[Michal Migurski]

>>>> Basically, what I want is a microformat for blogs. I think there's
>>>> enough similarity among blog markup to warrant trying to develop a
>>>> format.
>>>
>>> Isn't RSS already a microformat for blogs?
>
> RSS is not a microformat for numerous reasons.  From a design  
> perspective,
> RSS violated many microformat principles.  Of course RSS pre-dates  
> that
> specific collection of principles so this is no fault of RSS in  
> particular,
> nor of anyone who worked on it.

<snip>

> Total (unscientific:) score:
>
> principles followed: five +1s
> principles violated: five -1s
> principles neutral: one 0

I agree that RSS violates a number of microformat principles, but it  
does have one major point in its favor over an XHTML-based format: it  
exists. RSS is in wide use right now, and blogging tools auto- 
generate it as a matter of course. That makes me wonder whether  
adding a blog-entry mf isn't spitting into the wind? It could raise  
that score to a perfect 10, but receive the same warm welcome that  
other efforts have, when based on the  desire to add a new perfect  
format to fix the problem of too many imperfect formats.

So: I'm not arguing that RSS perfectly fits the bill, but I do wonder  
whether it fits the bill *well enough* to make a blog mf unnecessary  
for now. You point out that some participants in this thread do not  
themselves have blogs, which makes me think this is an academic  
desire not rooted in actual potential use.

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michal migurski- mike at stamen.com
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