This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Python Buzz
by Jarno Virtanen.
Original Post: Don't use the timestamp in RSS feeds to sort the entries
Feed Title: Python owns us
Feed URL: http://sedoparking.com/search/registrar.php?domain=®istrar=sedopark
Feed Description: A weblog about Python from the view point of Jarno Virtanen.
I just wanted to interrupt my usual broadcast by saying that, based on
my experience, one should not use timestamps in RSS feeds, such as the
ones in elements dc:date or pubDate, to determine the display order of
blog entries from different weblogs in an RSS reader. I use one that aggregates all
entries into one page (and I've seen this happen in other RSS
readers too) and everything gets screwed up when it tries to determine
the date and time the entry was posted from the information in the RSS
feed. What one should do instead, in cases like this, is to discard
the timestamp found in the RSS feed (or merely use it as an anecdotal
or a historical little detail shown in the user interface somewhere)
and sort the entries in reverse chronological order based on the time
the entry was first fetched. That way the entries are sorted
the way that best serves the user: always showing the ones (possibly)
not seen by the user first.
You might or might not agree or disagree with me on this one, but that
doesn't matter; I just wanted to share this with you.
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