Hi Shelley -- I didn't "bring" Ben Hammersley into the discussion. Morbus Iff was one of the editors of his RSS site, and his product was featured in his Guardian article, and the relationship was not disclosed. Further, Hammersley is an active participant and advocate of one school of thought in the debate over the future of RSS. That wasn't disclosed in the Guardian piece either and is where the taint comes from.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with in RDF-based syndication, as long as it doesn't stop the market from moving forward independently, innovation is great to see.

Anyway, I hope you can find a good balance, and avoid painting me and my company as evil (we aren't) -- reasonable people see right through that.

I recommend freelists.org for the list hosting -- ad-free, free of charge, tech-related lists only. The admin interface is, er, unpolished, but it's quite flexible.

I spent some time yesterday lurking on the rss-dev archives. I will probably continue to lurk, but the chances of my having anything useful to contribute are fairly slim.

Dave, you brought Ben into the Monster posting without any connection between Ben and Morbus' and Bill's comments. Just because Ben shares a weblog with Morbus and wrote on aggregators for The Guardian doesn't provide a link in to the Monster posting. It doesn't make sense, and it was uncalled for.

I don't like Morbus' joke. I did not like your "monster" posting, which was over the top. My personal opinion. End of story.

Personally, I think this little bash should end. It has grown boring.

Dorothea, you should post the freelists.org suggestion to rss-dev. I wish you would get involved there, as I strongly believe you would contribute more than you give yourself credit for. I think more voices need to be heard in these little working groups rather than less.

Less chest thumping, more attention to productive technology one might say.

In explaining who Morbus is, in re RSS, the Ben Hammersley connection is unavoidable. They both made it this way, not me.

About over the top, I just want to say one more thing and then let it rest, unless you have more to say. Morbus said some other things, about Hitler and "Jewgregator," which in combination with his not-funny humor about me dying of a disease I actually have, was aggravated by the fact that a large part of my family was killed in the Holocaust. Morbus said he didn't know this, and you may not know it either. You may change your opinion about whether I was "over the top" in objecting to it publicly. Or you may not. Either way we'll learn something about you Shelley.

Yet more equivocating the bad behavior. How patently ridiculous.

These continued tactics of slandering by association are utterly contemptable. And your back room attempts at slandering are equally despicable:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radio-features/files/misc/voicemail/

No, we're not going there. Nope.

No more of this battle. I posted my opinion, and I think all sides aren't helping. Including me by getting into this mess.

I think both sides have gone over the top. I stated my opinion so. I shouldn't have responded to Dave's original comment, that was my mistake. I don't want to compound this.

Time to formalize the rift. And if there any more fingerpointing comments, I'll pull this friggen post.

Good god, thank you, Shelley. I grew bored with this discourse a few hours after it blew up with #monsters.

Time to move on. Let Userland have RSS if they wish. The folks involved with RDF/RSS should come up with a different name, as simplified a syntax as possible that is still valid RDF, and let folks use what they want.

Amen. At this point... why is the name of a file format so important to fight over? Overwhelm the world with compelling applications, and they'll remember the name later.

Hey Shelley if you wanted to let it rest, I totally support that, but why does your post begin with a moral judgement. Too many people have said too many ugly things that have NOTHING to do with syndication technologies. You're right that it's time for a divorce, I never wanted to get married. Go back and read the archive for a clue. Pulling this post would be a great idea Shelley, start again -- without all the history and judgement.

Test comment

Here's a few outsider's observations:
Bb's "RDF: As simple as A, B, C" did it for me. I have been studying RDF for an non-syndication app and following the RSS discussion. Generally I'm thinking RDF makes sense,
especially as this whole community writing project grows.
As a reader I see one huge problem with weblogs: as I approach the written record of a discussion all the links go the wrong way! Except when someone summarizes (eg http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/09/16.html#rss_linkpile) it is hard to find good starting places. I suspect that RDF will help.
Now think about scaling. What if 1000 people were participating? What about discussions that aren't driven by a few expert personalities, but are truly a mass process? How would I find my way? How would the "meaningful" discussion show through? Again I suspect that RDF is the next step in the path.

To Dave: I care. And for your health I ask you to step out of this rancor. Ask a friend to filter for a while. Take a week and just breathe. robably harder than quitting nicotine for you, but please Stop Digging for a while.