Come on, let's move past this - Let's just choose a name!

["Jeff Barr" <jeff@vertexdev.com>]

Everyone,

This is getting tedious. We are wasting valuable brain cells and
irrecoverable time[1] fighting about something that can be fixed so
easily. Let's pick two new names that do not include the string "RSS",
label the two branches as that, document the fork and the reasons for
it, and then do some great work TOGETHER.

10% of the list membership is going to wake up tomorrow morning,
see this boatload of messages, a lack of progress, and simply
find something else to do. We can lose momentum just as easily
as that. These communities are fragile.

Chances to set good standards do not come along very often. Let
me tell a story:

  A long long time ago I was a member of an X (as in Window System for
  you newbies) Consortium Technical Committee. We had a simple task --
  agree to a drag and drop protocol for X. Despite meeting for several
  days each quarter for over 18 months, we accomplished nothing.  And
  now, to this day, as far as I know there is not a real protocol
  standard. We had our chance, and we blew it. 

While we were getting nowhere, some guys up in Redmond made decisions
in days, not years, and they shipped a product. These were the days
when X and Windows were fighting for the desktop. Guess what?  X did
not win. Not for the lack of a drag and drop protocol, but because 
people were fighting a civil war against their countrymen when
there was an invader at the border that they were too busy to see.

Let's not look back in 10 years on the chance we had here to invent
great formats for syndication and realize that, for the lack of the
ability to change some names, we robbed the world of tons of great
syndicated content.

So, my proposal is as follows: 

  Let's declare a moratorium on discussing anything except new names
  until the end of the day next Monday. We'll take a vote, and then we
  will move forward.

BTW, all of you lurkers out there, please jump in and say something.

Jeff;

[1] - Instead of reading all of this email this evening, I could have:
      a - Spent more time IM'ing with my family from my hotel
      b - Posted 3 new newsfeeds to newsfeeds.manilasites.com
      c - Add a new feature to Headline Viewer