REQUEST: If you already use an aggregator, please write and tell me what you think. The FAQ feed is currently set up to deliver the answers as headlines on the assumption that everyone has the questions memorized by now and would prefer to just skim the answer-headlines rather than having to expand each item's summary to read them. However, there are a few obvious flaws to this approach and I'm wondering how everyone feels.
Q: What is up with that "XML" link?
A: In honor of The Heidi FAQ's Sixth Anniversary, which passed unnoticed back in April due to some unusual spring craziness, Heidi tweaked her inappropriately high-tech FAQ updating system to automatically create a Heidi FAQ "newsfeed". Just like last year, Heidi forgot to mention this anywhere.
Q: Okay. But, what is a "newsfeed"?
A: Tutorials and explanations abound but, briefly, a so-called newsfeed is a different way of publishing a website. Sites with ever-changing content, such as news or blogs, repackage their work into short headline-and-synopsis format so their articles may be skimmed using a news reader or "aggregator." If the article seems interesting enough, the (human) reader can follow a link to read the entire article on the originating website.
Q: How can I get a news reader?
A: There are dozens of news readers, both stand-alone and
web-based. Heidi personally favors NetNewsWire Lite (MacOSX)
or SharpReader (Win9x-XP).
Q: The Heidi FAQ is "news"?
A: Not to Heidi, it isn't. Nor does she think it is
particularly newsworthy for anyone else. However, Heidi is a bit of a
news reader addict herself, as are many of her peculiar fans, and seeing
as the technology has become rather pervasive, if not down-right trendy,
Heidi felt the time had come to generate a proper feed. As the task was
mindlessly simple, the creation of a newsfeed was perfectly in keeping
with the long-standing dual precepts that The Heidi FAQ adhere to ruthless
text-only minimalism and be relentlessly low-maintenance.
Q: Isn't this somehow a violation of the news feed concept?
A: Heidi supposes that, yes, this is somehow a violation
of the concept of a news feed. Should you subscribe, you see what you always see, just without
the thrilling, if infrequent, color changes. There will be, as usual, no
links to click through.
Q: Doesn't this bother Heidi?
A: No. Not really. The only thing that worries Heidi is
that her chosen xml formatting is going to upset people, or that the feed
will be buggy and require fixing and, therefore, actual work on Heidi's
part, or, in the worst case scenario, that people will set their
newsreaders to update every five minutes thereby placing undo strain on
Heidi's web server, and possibly incurring some unpleasant bandwidth costs
for Heidi. But as for the philosophical questions of whether the Four
Question Answers are, in fact, "news" worthy of being aggregated, that
does not bother Heidi at all. At least, it is no more disturbing to Heidi
than the fact that so many people persist in reading The Heidi FAQ to
begin with.
Disturbing, perhaps. Flattering, often. Endlessly mystifying, always.
Updated: 19 July 2004 Amenia, NY 10:04 EDT