Yesterday Dave Winer launched Really Simple Syndication, a site devoted to helping non-tech users learn about RSS.
“Every publisher that supports RSS has to explain what it’s about, and every one tells a different and incomplete story.”
The above quote certainly hits the nail on the head. Once people use a feed reader such as FeedDemon, they know what it’s all about – but it’s a slow road to get to that point.
BTW, I’m sorry to see that the usual Atom vs. RSS comments have already started in this site. Get a clue, folks: this endless bickering is slowing the adoption of both formats.
Nick, one of my hopes is that developers like yourself will help with the new site. I want to get a comprehensive and maintained directory of tools. And explain how everything relates. I’m very deliberately staying away from the format issues, they are so low-level, this site is for people who use the stuff. As so many people have correctly said, they don’t particularly care how it works, that’s up to a very small number of people, with not-too-glorious jobs.
I’m not too worried about people bringing the usual arguments into the new site. It’s an outgrowth of having the discussion in the open without moderation. On the RSS-User mail list, which is heavily moderated, we have none of that. It’s a big list, and as we go forward I’m going to try to involve those people in the building of this site. There are almost 300 people on the list now, almost all of them users, not developers.
I’m going to fill in another piece of the puzzle tomorrow to keep the discussion going in a positive direction.
someone needs to make a site for reallysimplecss.com – to help us newbs understand CSS. ;)
Dave, count me in :) Feel free to email me if you have any specific requests.
Anthony, have you tried the tutorial that’s built into TopStyle Pro? It provides a simple introduction to using CSS.