While reading http://www.intertwingly.net/rss/ I couldn't stop but compare (again) with the real standards - NNTP, MIME, etc.

The ESF format wins by simplicity - that's what's missing the most in today software industry. It won't work for sites where the link points to an ugly complex page where the content is hidden deep in tables ( i.e. most sites ).

By accident probably, RSS did something good - it allows you to extract the content without the formating. Not allways - some people include only a fragment, some include only the text version.

RSS30 is my favorite - it is the closest ( but slightly different ) to the MIME/HTTP standards, which is mirrored in VCard/VCalendar. Of course - I would wonder why not just using VCalendar ? Probably because it would mean that a large number of applications and libraries might support it - and we don't want this to happen, it's not cool.

Update: Sam is willing to support more standards. That's a great attitude - that's what we should all do, instead of writting our own. No - I am not going to propose a new RSS format, it would be against my believes :-)

I was just sugesting the use of an old one - take a look at VCal and VCard formats ( RFC2445 and 2426) A feed can start with a vcard for the author, and include vcal entries for each item. IMO it's as good as the RSS3 - except that a lot of software already supports those formats, so it is less fun :-). BTW - I think there is a mime type for it - and some browsers may automaticlly import them in the calendar program.