April 16, 2003
I still don't buy bloated RSS
Don't Stunt Your RSS - The .NET Guy
I disagree with this being the default configuration for an RSS feed. For several reasons.
Most significantly is wasted resources. Too many reader programs default to pulling the ENTIRE feed, over and over again. That and most do it at an interval that FAR exceeds the actual update frequency of the feed. They don't even use gzip. So a full content feed, and I've seen some over 400K in size, is a TREMENDOUS waste of resources. My concern is that implementation of a bloated RSS feed would end up with the site being slapped with a HUGE bandwidth bill. This doesn't encourage people toward taking the risk of making RSS.
Second, what's up with the "fuck you I hate you and the way you want to run your website, give me the content and leave me the fuck alone" attitude? Selfish and juvenile are two terms that come to mind. If you want the content, have some respect. People are making content that you, apparently, want to read. Pay 'em a little respect. They do, indeed, want readers. They probably don't want bloodsucking leeches.
Third, encoding. God what a clusterfuck this is. Cut and paste into most things that create RSS feeds opens up a rats nest of horrible problems. The programs that manage the RSS are certainly at fault. But if the idea is lightweight content there's much less chance of error.
Fourth, duplication of energies. Why bother jamming everything into a feed? It's already on the website.
I will say, however, that bad excepts suck. If you can't create a headline that draws people to the site then using a clipped one is probably worse. The reason these clipped ones exist is crappy software like Radio. It doesn't support doing excepts. MovableType does.
In summary, using bloated RSS feeds as your default feed format is a bad idea. Offering one as an option is worth considering. But beware the costs.
