Be strict in what you generate and forgiving in what you accept

This is a difficult issue.   Application developers are caught in the middle.  On the one hand, we are in a position to take a stand against bad behavior by the feed producers; on the other hand, our survival depends on pleasing users who don’t care about the implementation details.

I can’t believe that the feed producers are purposely making things difficult.  If there was a way to educate them, I’m sure they would respond in a positive manner.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease. I hate the implications of that saying but you gotta do what you gotta do.  What if newsreaders had on file the email address of CEO’s, VP of Development, the appropriate responsible party within the company generating the bad feeds, and each time we refresh a feed, we notify the responsible party, that they are not playing nice.  Perhaps they would take notice.

Dear "Responsible Party"
Though I enjoy your content at "x", the application I use to retrieve your content is having to undertake extraordinary measures to deliver your content to me.  They and I as a consumer would appreciate if you would adjust your newfeed to follow published standards.  This would save time, energy and money.

A plea for convergence in weblog publishing

Brent Simmons makes the case for standard weblog features.
First, categories rule. I can’t imagine using a weblog service that doesn’t support categories.  The alternative is to require that you maintain multiple weblogs.  I have different audiences and categories serve as a filter for my posts.  Now, if TypePad would just syndicate on categories, things would be perfect.