It's even worse than it appears..
Saturday October 3, 2026; 6:56 PM EDT
RSS tip #2#
  • People really liked the RSS tip I posted the other day, so here's another one, also related to the channel-level title element. #
  • Consider the screen shot below, and the Thinking about... blog.#
  • Part of a blogroll with limited info about a great blogger, Timothy Snyder. #
  • I can't tell from the title who's speaking, whereas with the two feeds above it I know it's Brian Lehrer and Kottke, and below, an excellent local site called The Overlook.#
  • Now it's a shame that it doesn't say who's doing the thinking because it's someone who is on a roll right now, historian Timothy Snyder. So the title pretty much has to say his name, if it's going to look good in a list of other bloggers. #
  • BTW, just listened to Snyder on the Scott Galloway podcast, another thinker who I've just started listening to. With the two of them together, you will learn a lot. #
  • So remember the title sometimes is the only handle a reader has to figure out what it is. Choose it carefully and make sure it looks good in a tight space like the one shown below. #
  • If you have questions about how to make your RSS 2.0 feeds work better, please add note below. If I don't know maybe someone else does.#

© copyright 1994-2026 Dave Winer.

Last update: Saturday October 3, 2026; 7:18 PM EDT.

You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)