Waveflux Older

Not a real blog post

Just a test. I’d like to see what shows up in my published RSS feeds when I provide an excerpt (something I don’t normally do).

…the answer is, apparently, just the entry, but the excerpt. Hmm.

…and yep, that’s the way the feed is configured on my end, in the messy guts of the code. Actually, that’s just fine for what I have in mind; my plans for the excerpts involve their use at the blog proper, not in the feed. So good.

The next question is whether to continue to provide full entry content in the feeds - as is the practice now - and whether to cut the number of available feeds here down to one (and, uh, which one).

Sorry, boring stuff, I know. But it’s all with a purpose.

…Continuing this train of thought now; just hashing it out, and out loud, as it were. The thing about providing full entry content in the feeds is that it makes it easy for vultures unknown others to copy and republish the blog - in its entirety - elsewhere. Sounds like a hilariously unlikely thing to worry about, except that it’s already happened once to me, and I know that it has to others. The mere idea that it might happen again really pisses me off even as I sit here.

The other impetus toward partial content feeds would be a desire to have people actually visit the blog. But that’s a rather five-years-ago attitude, I imagine.

I know that an increasing number of people who read RSS feeds prefer full text. In the case of partial content feeds, these folks are increasingly unlikely to make the interminable journey across plains, deserts, and oceans to the originating blog to read the entry in full. That trend probably isn’t going away.

In the end, I think I have to act with the convenience of my blog’s readers in mind. It really does kind of astonish me that there are a handful of people who subscribe to the feed(s) here; I have no idea who they are, but I feel rather tender toward them and want to make their Waveflux experience an enjoyable one. So the full entry feeds live on.

As for the number of feeds…I consider the Feedburner output to be the “official” feed here, but should I get rid of those “unprocessed” feeds that aren’t directed toward the Feedburner mill? I’ll think about it sometime after lunch, and perhaps a nap.

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