[uf-discuss] The need for a Trackback microformat?

[Andreas Haugstrup]

On Fri, 02 Dec 2005 02:39:54 +0100, Ryan King <ryan at technorati.com> wrote:

>> Now that hAtom is as far as it is I need to ditch key parts of my  
>> example and convert to hAtom which is more thorough (albeit missing  
>> parts I use internally like rel="enclosure" and rel="cite").
>
> Though http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-enclosure doesn't have a profile  
> URI, there's no need to replicate that into hAtom, you can just use  
> rel-enclosure.

I've been using rel="enclosure" longer than the rel-enclosure document has  
been around, and that's why it's in my example. I use it to generate  
(Yahoo Media) enclosures in my RSS feed. And along with rel="cite" I use  
it to generate a list of enclosures and citations on my archive pages  
(e.g. http://www.solitude.dk/archives/2005_11.php ).

With that said rel-enclosure doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It says  
"relEnclosure is one of several microformats. By adding rel="enclosure" to  
a hyperlink, a page indicates that the destination of that hyperlink is  
intended to be downloaded and cached."

*Any* link indicates that the destination may be downloaded and cached -  
that's the whole point of making a link. If it's not meant to be  
downloaded there wouldn't be a link, and if it wasn't meant to be cached  
the HTTP header would tell me so (and my browser would handle it without  
me caring).

Enclosures have a different meaning. They are best compared to attachments  
in e-mail. The enclosure is a part of the current document and  
document+enclosure(s) should be seen as a whole. This has great value when  
talking about blog posts (and hAtom) because attachments are usually  
connected to a part of the page (a single blog entry).

I don't care where I point my profiles to, but rel-enclosure isn't what I  
mean when I use rel="enclosure".

- Andreas
-- 
<URL: http://www.solitude.dk/ >
Commentary on media, communication, culture and technology.