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Can I give you feedback guys?

When the RSS Feed has errors, the following things happen:

some casts do not show up in itunes, sometimes I listen to a podcast, but if I want to go back and listen to it again, it's not there, itunes behaves strangely (any time soon, the feed might get messed up altogether in itunes).

See [url=http://rss.scripting.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.manager-tools.com%2Fwp-rs... feed validator[/url] for the errors.

If you'd fix that, we would all really appreciate it, it'll help everyone, it'll help listeners go back to older shows, and it'll prove that I listened to the "feedback" show.

Some word of caution though, sometimes, if the RSS feed changes locations (i.e. you move to a new server and the URL changes), itunes might think that it's a different podcast, and re-download all shows again (if that's what itunes is set up for). So you might want to test it before releasing the 'fix'.

Thanks!

mauzenne's picture
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MisterB,

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm sorry you're experiencing issues. We try hard to make the process as painless as possible.

I'm aware of the "validation issues". Until now, they haven't been an issue. To be honest, I'm also not convinced that they have anything to do with the issues you're experiencing (of course, I could be wrong). The current process has been in place for a long time and until now there haven't been any issues reported related to the feed semantics.

Despite that, I have put in a large number of hours trying to resolve the issues the validator identifies (I've used it many times). There are a number of challenges related to resolving the issue so it validates completely; mostly related to issues related to the CDATA block that exists as a result of providing a flash player for those who *don't* use the feed (which is a large number of folks). I've put a significant amount of time into it already, and frankly I'm at the point of diminishing returns. If you (or others) have some specifics on how to resolve the issue, it would be incredibly appreciated at this point.

I can't help but make one quick point on the feedback model ... Although your suggestion was very much appreciated, I think we should be careful not to confuse your suggestion with the feedback model. There have been other posts/comments related to the challenges of both written and public "feedback" that you might find interesting. You'll find the discussion here: http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/05/time-management/ .

Thanks again ... hopefully someone here can point me in the right direction so we can have a fully-compliant W3C RSS feed!

best regards,
Mike

mauzenne's picture
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Just read my response from earlier today ... I did get a bit prickly, didn't I? :shock:

Oops! Sorry about that!

JayC's picture

For the record, I have the same problem. Curious - it looks like the RSS for the forum works, are there other feeds that work? I appreciate the effort all you guys make.

mauzenne's picture
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JayC,

iTunes has some documented problems with shows intermittently disappearing from the iTunes Music Store (see here: http://discussions.apple.com/ann.jspa?annID=143 ).

The latest word is that they have identified the root cause of the issue and are working on a fix.

Thanks for sharing your issue.

Mike

P.S. By the way, I did substantially redo the RSS feed and eliminated any "validation" issues. Of course, the validator used in the post below shows one issue with a duplicate image -- why, I have no idea. Other validators completely validate the feed. With the changes we've made, and the admission by Apple of the problem, at this point I'm fairly certain our RSS feed doesn't have anything to do with the issues described.

mauzenne's picture
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It's been a while, but I failed to let everyone know that the RSS feeds are now 100% standards compliant. At least according to [url=http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A//www.manager-tools.com/po... .

Here's hoping it makes a difference for those of you who have had issues.

regards,
Mike