Delayed RSS/feeds
One of the primary benefits of RSS and other syndication technologies is that I can get the content I’m interested in without visiting all the web sites that the content originates from. For newly discovered web logs, you typically get the last 10 to 15 posts and just skimming them for interesting bits is good enough. The scenario is similar for podcast shows that are posted on regularly – though for really interesting podcasts going through the back catalog can be worth while.
Just recently, I’ve started listening to “audio book” podcasts. These have a specific number of posts and once the book is finished the podcast feed can be removed from your aggregator. There a few problems with the default RSS/aggregator behaviour for these type of podcasts:
- The XML feed files have a maximum number of posts defined. If the podcast has more “episodes” than this maximum you have to go back to the web site to find the first “episode”.
- Even if all the episodes are brought into your aggegrator, they stay in the aggregator display list until you have time to go through and listen to all the episodes. Similarly your mp3 player gets filled up with all the episodes even though you may not have time to listen to it all for a while.
I really love the way RSS aggregators drip feed me my content. My preference is to not have to go back to the original web site to get extra content or missing “episodes”. A handy solution to this on the web server side would for the user to be able “create” an RSS XML link by appending a start date and an update frequency in the URL. The web server could then form an RSS file on the fly which drip feeds me the podcast content from the first episode from the day I subscribe. My aggregator would then get new “episodes” at the rate I specified e.g. every couple of days or once a week or whatever. This is probably also the way re-run TV shows will end up being delivered to their audience in the future i.e. what I want, when I want it.