[Sigia-l] web site design vs RSS

[Paola Kathuria]

Ziya Oz wrote:
> I like my RSS pictures to not wrap with text on either side. [...]
> There may be other such styling preferences I'd like to
> integrate. Do I add them to the actual html of the feed AS I MUST NOW DO? Or
> do I separate out such style instructions in a CSS file that can be
> requested by the user so that if they want to see my material as I intended
> it, it works and if they want to spite me, it still works, with their
> default CSS.

You know, even though I knew that XML files could be associated
with a stylesheet, I never thought of CSS files for RSS feeds.
It's very clear now. Thank you.

I think that what might be happening is that people are still
thinking of RSS as a plain text teaser; I know that's how it
was intended originally. Whereas I think of RSS as just another
vehicle for content, like the browser.

I am sure that Tim Berners-Lee didn't anticipate e-commerce
when he invented the WWW protocols. Is it a bad thing that
the web grew into something much more than hyperlinked text
with no graphics and very little formatting?

And, in the same way that styling (was developed and) moved
out of HTML for pages, so it must inevitably happen for RSS.

When I read about Twine in your other post, I thought "crap,
will I like it and have to dedicate yet *another* browser
tab for something?" I already have permanent browser tabs
for my site's visit detail, Google Reader, Facebook and
Basecamp. I might add others depending on what's happening
at the time, e.g., FeedBurner or WordPress stats. Facebook
is a pain because it *makes* you go to the site to check
for updates - and *that's* why people allegedly spend so
much time on it.

So, the more content that I can get to come to *me* in my
RSS reader, the happier I am.

I think it's only a matter of time (within a year?) that RSS
readers will let a feed's styling over-ride their own. But,
of course (not after some painful mistakes), the content is
crafted specially for reading in a streamed feed (that'll
probably take 5 years to get right...).


Paola
--
http://www.limov.com/