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I would mostly agree with these ideas if only there wouldn't be one large obstacle in the face of having RSS publishing and consuming be considered "social medi
by mariusor 4y ago
I would mostly agree with these ideas if only there wouldn't be one large obstacle in the face of having RSS publishing and consuming be considered "social media": the main tenet that makes social media, well "social", is the consumers' ability to interact with the content they're consuming. If the plan is missing that essential component, then it's not "social" media, it's perhaps a better way of consuming and aggregating media, but that's it.
If you want to bolt interactivity on top of RSS then my question is why use an XML document with a very limited vocabulary when you can have a JSON document with a wide (and extensible) vocabulary in the form of ActivityPub. (I don't mean to imply that the later is perfect, but it's a better fit than RSS). An ActivityPub actor's Outbox is exactly an RSS feed by a different name. Instead of a list of "content" items, it has a list of "interactions" the actor had with the rest of the ActivityPub ecosystem, but once you reach the interactions which signal new content, you get that RSS feed experience.
- CharlieDigital 4y ago> If you want to bolt interactivity on top of RSS then my question is why use an XML document with a very limited vocabulary when you can have a JSON document with a wide (and extensible) vocabulary Quite ironic reading this. Do you know what the "X" in XML stands for?
- mariusor 4y agoI'm sure it's not for "Extendable RSS" or "Extendable Atom". [edit] Never mind, I'm (somewhat)wrong. Both stipulate extensibility: https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html#extendingRss https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html#extendingRss and https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5023#section-6.2 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5023#section-6.2 However in ActivityPub extensibility is specifically mentioned in the growing of the vocabulary to cover areas that the initial specification doesn't include (the way some members of the community created source forge related objects and activities).
- CharlieDigital 4y agoXML is a data interchange format specification that allows extensibility. RSS is a protocol specification on top of XML. Whether the underlying data interchange format is XML or JSON doesn't restrict extensibility. XML namespaces are designed explicitly around the idea that document schemas can be embedded and remixed. Ultimately, the mode and points of extensibility is a function of the design of the protocol and not the data format. ActivityPub wouldn't be more or less extensible had it been built on XML instead of JSON (you can make the case that it would be a less wire efficient implementation on XML).
- mariusor 4y agoI know that XML is extensible, but my impression was that RSS and Atom are not (hence why Atom superseeded RSS) but looking at the specs it looks like they might allow for some improvement.
- _heimdall 4y agoThe last version of RSS actually specifically calls out that the spec is effectively frozen with the expectation that new features and vocabularies can be added in as modules https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification#roadmap https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification#roadmap
- jacobobryant 4y agoIn this proposal, interactivity would happen within the community apps (discord, slack, forums, whatever new ones are built in the future) and not over the protocol. You use a reading app to get a feed with posts with the various communities you're in, and if you want to leave a reply/reaction, you click on the post and get switched to the relevant app/website.