March 26, 2006
RSS feed functionality I'd like to see
Okay, yes. I've ranted on RSS feeds before, I realize. And yes, it's done little good. No one paid attention to the "common location for RSS feeds idea" and even though Molly E. Holzschlag was nice enough to stop by and comment on my little whine about "helping people find your RSS feed in the first place," I think it was pretty much ignored, too.But if I quit writing, simply because I'm being ignored? Well, hypocritical would have gone under sometime in the late 1990s. I remain undaunted. So, with that in mind, I offer you, gentle reader, another random rant from the RSS soapbox. To wit:
The folks who subscribe to RSS feeds are a special bunch. And I say that not just because I am one, but because I also think it's true. I think that RSS feed subscribers are a unique market, served by hundreds of blogs and podcasts and newsfeeds and whatever else they want to consume via RSS feeds.
What's that? Oh my RSS feed? Why I thought you'd never ask. It can be found either where I suggested everyone put their RSS feed at http://www.hypocritical.com/RSS or by going directly to the hypocritical feed provided by the nice folks at FeedBurner. Please feel free to subscribe, won't you? If you do... oh wait a second, where was I? Ah yes, the folks who subscribe to RSS feeds. Let's get back to that, shall we?
But you know what else I think? I think that the folks who read the RSS feed are also being ignored.
Those folks that consume content via RSS feeds, while tending to be more interested in your content than the casual surfer (I mean, they actually had to take an action to subscribe to your feed), are treated as if they're a byproduct of a simple publishing technique.
Yes, yes. Some of us try to make it easier on the RSS feed types by using services like FeedBurner. But that's about as far as we go. And don't get me wrong, I love FeedBurner. But I think us bloggers who provide RSS feeds could do more. I think we should do more.
I mean, they are subscribers, right? And the point to really simple syndication? To be syndicated. To develop a subscriber base. Right? Um, yeah. That was a rhetorical question. I realize I'm right. But I did appreciate that ever so slight nod. Thank you.
So why don't we treat the RSS feed subscribers like subscribers?
There simply has to be more than delivering our feed to their virtual doorstep on a regular basis. We need to share a little more love than that. This is our public. Our engaged public. And we, as bloggers, need to recognize that.
So, the RSS functionality I'd like to see: I would love to be able to publish unique content for the RSS feed subscribers. Could be an article that only the RSS feed gets. Could be a coupon. Could be a fan club posting. I don't care what it is. I just want the ability to add that content. Without having to hand-code my feed. Without having to go to drastic measures. I would love it if there was some, easy way to insert an "RSS only" article into my feed and highlight it as such.
It's like getting the free book when you subscribe to the magazine. Or getting 30% off when you subscribe to the paper. Or getting the additional content when you buy the DVD. Or seeing those extra marginals when you have HDTV.
So, I guess I'd like two things:
- I'd like someone smarter than me to create a way to add RSS-only content to my RSS feed
- I'd like all the folks out there in the blogging community to provide RSS-only content
Why do I care? Because that's the only way we're really going to get the whole RSS thing to take off. Because the people who see the benefits of RSS need to be rewarded. And, perhaps most of all, because treating your subscriber base better than the casual observer is just the right thing to do.
Technorati tags: RSS, feeds, RSSfeed, FeedBurner
RSS feed functionality I'd like to see
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