This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Web Buzz by Douglas Clifton. Original Post: Re: The Real Problem Feed Title: blogZero Feed URL: http://loadaveragezero.com/app/s9y/index.php?/feeds/index.rss1 Feed Description: Web Development News, Culture and Opinion Latest Web Buzz Posts Latest Web Buzz Posts by Douglas Clifton Latest Posts From blogZero

It's too bad that Tim Bray has commenting disabled on his blog. This is an issue that really needs discussion.

I've been saying the same thing since I first started to encounter RSS feed links. Your reward for clicking on one of them is get a bunch of XML source code in your face. Not good! I can only image what some users think when this happens, perhaps something like "what did I just do, I broke my Internet connection!"

Here’s the truth: an orange “XML” sticker that produces gibberish when you click on it does not win friends and influence people. The notion that the general public is going to grok that you copy the URI and paste it into your feed-reader is just ridiculous.

The biggest problem is what to do with visitors who don't have a feed reader installed. Browsers are ubiquitous, email programs are likewise. Most people have a multimedia applications, and so forth. But this is not the case for feed readers (yet).

My solution so far is three-fold. First, every Web site owner should have a tutorial that explains the basics of a feed subscription and readers (or link to such a tutorial). Second, provide details on how to subscribe to the feeds on your site. And third, offer links to both the raw XML feed for advanced users, and use a service like Feedburner that provides a preview of the feed that works in the browser, and offers them additional ways of subscribing. I also provide links to popular aggregators, and links to Yahoo! and MSN for doing the same.

To read the entire post, visit Tim's The Real Problem.