Re: [syndication] Re: [RSS-DEV] How should a feed tell people it's gone?

[Rick Bradley <roundeye@roundeye.net>]

* Adam Kalsey (adam@kalsey.com) [020125 14:10]:
> At 11:55 AM 1/25/2002, you wrote:
> > >I've been noticing more than a few feeds have gone offline lately.  A nearly
> > >equal number seem to come online so this isn't troubling.  What I'm
> > >wondering, however, is what thoughts have been given toward aiding the feed
> > >consumer when a feed dies?
> >
> >What's wrong with HTTP 404?
> 
> 
> Nothing, if the feed reader application notifies the person using it. But most readers don't ever tell the user about the error.

So if I get hit by a bus and after a couple of months my ISP cuts off my
service resulting in the death of my feed what protocol should kick in
that works better than 404?  Generalizing, corporate death and
unforeseen lack of maintenance time presumably result in a wide variety
of feed deaths which aren't likely to provide additional notification.

Introducing a mechanism for handling these sorts of situations then
produces two classes of feeds -- those that properly implement the
protocol and those that don't.  Since the feed consumers don't know
which is the case until a feed dies those feeds in the second class
behave like the current feeds when they die.  

Presumably we can then implement a mechanism for this second class of
feeds and ...

Rick
-- 
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