Re: [syndication] Re: Thoughts, questions, and issues.

[Rael Dornfest <rael@oreilly.com>]

Hi,

On 16 Aug 2000, Ken MacLeod wrote:

> Aaron Swartz writes:
> > Paulo Gaspar wrote:
> > 
> > > - Why those "rss091:" namespaces being used? Those elements make a
> > > lot of sense and "rss091:" suggests it is old rubbish.
> > 
> > Again, backwards-compatibility.
> 
> There was no "rss091" prefix before, so there's no backwards
> compatibility issue in the *example prefix name*.

This is more for sideways compatibility with those using RSS 0.91 and
making use of some of these elements.  Ian Davis's "RSS Survey"[1]
dated 2000-07-25 found many of these to be un-/mis-used, but used
nevertheless, thus trying to create a place for them right off the bat.

> Since RSS 0.91 added particular elements to RSS 0.9 presumable for a
> reason.  If those elements aren't appropriate for a different module,
> then it's possible that they should be their own module.  In any case,
> I agree with Paulo that simply calling them "the RSS 0.91 added
> elements" is just keeping historic baggage -- give them a good, new
> home.

Good idea!  Some of these (ManagingEditor, LastBuildDate, Webmaster,
Language, Copyright, et al) can easily be expressed using the Dublin Core
Metadata Element Set[2].  The syndication bits (SkipHours, SkipDays) have
consistently been confusing to folks and, therefore, unused -- the
proposed Syndication[3] module replaced these with the OCS-style[4] 
update{Period,Frequency,Base}.

Perhaps, since the 0.91 elements came from scriptinNews format, there
should exist a scriptingNews module?  Just a thought.

Rael

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  Rael Dornfest                  rael@oreilly.com
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[1] http://www.egroups.com/message/syndication/330
[2] http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/
[3] http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/#s3.3
[4] http://InternetAlchemy.org/ocs/directory.phtml