RE: Withdrawn entries / Super-simple feed format

["Jeremy Gray" <jeremy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Between Graham's

"4) Forget the idea of a flat file feed and do the whole thing
programmatically (cf POP), so you don't run into this problem in the first
place."

from Withdrawn entries and the whole "Super-simple feed format concept"
(which got a reasonable amount of coverage on the Wiki back in the day),
every time these kinds of things get mentioned I can't help but think of
NNTP and what lessons we might be able to learn from it. For all of its
faults it does a remarkable job, and whether one wanted to just borrow ideas
from it or even consider creating a modernized version thereof, I don't
think we can afford to ignore its history and we can certainly benefit from
considering what we are doing now in light of where NNTP has already been.

Random thoughts: my blog as the equivalent to a newsgroup, hosted on a
personal server or some centralized server hosting many blogs. Somehow, I
maintain authority and control over the content posted to my blog/newsgroup.
Comments, trackbacks, etc. as some kind of equivalent to replies on a
thread. All updated to be 8-bit friendly, leveraging Unicode, XML, etc. Web
sites served off of the data as if from a CMS database. Smart/thick/rich
client applications, whether aggregating or posting/editing/managing,
communicating with the server via this new protocol. Servers communicating
with one another, as hosting services, as single-blog servers, as personal
servers for aggregation / re-syndication, all acting as conduits for
original posts, comments/trackbacks (now just replies syndicated from server
to server), etc. all as hierarchical and/or peer distribution systems for
content.

It can't sound like a wild dream, 'cause NNTP's already been there. NNTP
just falls short in its ability to satisfy current needs/wants for security,
presentation layout, leveraging of modern technology, etc.

Jeremy Gray