From: Dave Winer (dave@userland.com)
Date: Mon Aug 21 2000 - 15:59:15 PDT
Now I'm going to do something constructive, I think.
Since Guha doesn't own RSS, and neither do I, or anyone for that matter,
let's not bother saying what RSS is and isn't, or what it wants or doesn't.
Since none of us own it, none of us can speak on its behalf.
RSS is what it is. An imperfect representation of news sites and weblogs, no
one's favorite format, a solution to a low common denominator.
Now you want it to go one way, and I want it to go another. My changes are
very small, yours imho are very large.
There are certainly people, who I respect, although it may not seem so, who
feel very strongly that syndicated Web content should gravitate to a format
with namespaces and RDF.
I feel very strongly that the simplicity must be preserved, and that's not
an ill-considered opinion, it's based on hundreds of hours of experience
supporting and working with scripters and website developers, busy people
who don't have the patience to appreciate all the fineness of RDF and
namespaces.
I also feel, by opening our service list, we contributed in a very
substantial way to O'Reilly's success as an aggregator. Also, I worked on a
very difficult project with O'Reilly (Jon Udell did the work) that was
scrapped. I remember working 18 hour days for weeks to get it going, without
any compensation.
While I'm not the owner of RSS, I think my pov should be considered, even
held in high regard, because of all the work I've done, and for the
inventions I contributed to the success of RSS, all for free. You didn't pay
any attention to what I say. That hurt my feelings in a big way Edd. I
trusted you and the rest of the O'Reilly people. I feel that trust was
betrayed. It just isn't true that you've always been willing to work with
me. The RSS 1.0 proposal is evidence of that, clear as your face. It's your
idea of where RSS should go, and reflects none of my ideas.
I took a hiatus so I could let the hurt disspipate and decide what I really
want to do. Do I care enough about RSS to really fight with you over it? If
so, it hasn't even begun yet Edd.
The issue on the table is RSS. Maybe you want to take a break too, I
promised myself another week of hiatus to get back on solid ground. Your
move really shook my foundation. I hope that's clear.
Dave
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