Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Want to tell the list?

Author:Joshua Allen
Posted:9/4/2000; 9:53:18 PM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 9/2/2000
Msg #:20855 (In response to 20851)
Prev/Next:20854 / 20856

by far, the majority of people posting comments are in favor of the RDF+NS approach.

Well, is RSS meant to serve the interests of the people who have the most promiscuous and visible opinions on the list? If so, the new version will succeed. On the other hand, if the customer of RSS is someone different, I would propose that the current methods of determining user suitability may be misdirected. One crafty way to test if a product is good for users is to conduct usability tests. Creative people can think of many other ways.

There's been a lot of senseless FUD flinging.

Is it senseless? A sort of funny dilbertism in the typical office is that you can always get a co-worker's project scrapped by recommending that it be "passed by the legal department for review." When I first saw the RDF stuff being proposed for RSS, I thought, "they're trying to kill RSS!" That may not be the intent of anyone, but may well be the end result. I mean, if RDF has been around that long and not gained a critical mass, what's wrong with it? The answer isn't to keep passing the parasite from healthy host to healthy host leaving a trail of destruction in the wake. Just today I read a magazine article yesterday elatedly saying the RSS was finally a good opportunity for RDF to "prove itself." The way I see it, if the damn thing can't stand on it's own two legs, let it die.

So, I do not see it as senseless FUD. I see a useful standard being taken away from the users (in the sense that there will be a lower percentage of the bell curve that will be able to apprehend this standard) and quite likely being suffocated. Good developers are the scarcest resource in our industry. You personally may have a motive to yank RSS firmly into the domain of "tools", but that seems morally repugnant to me. Albert Einstein once said, "if you cannot explain something to your grandmother, you do not understand it well enough." If you cannot write a standard that is as easy to understand as, (for example) SMTP, then it is you that have a problem, not the millions of developers being confused by your spec. The fact that RDF can't breathe on its own and needs such high-IQ brain surgeons to keep it alive is a very clear indication that this spec was born a bit prematurely. Until it's as elegant and simple as e=mc^2, you should keep it in the womb. The current attempt at "semantic web" is about as elegant as the Rig Vedas, and like the Vedas, won't help anyone but the priests who hawk it.

A spec does not exist to dazzle the rest of the world with how big your brain is. Sometimes the most courageous thing that a smart person can do is appear simple-minded in a spec.

P.S. The red warning lights really start flashing when I see people arguing against another's POV "because you were rude and hurt my feelings."

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