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Newsreaders are amazingly stupid. Google Reader, for example, will ignore both your "301 Permanent Redirect" and ignore your Atom link="self" as well. Something tells me it will ignore your "410 gone" too. You should test what major newsreaders (MyYahoo, Bloglines, Google Reader) do when you deep-six a feed with a 410.

Even still, 410 is stupid. A 301 redirect to something generic would be better, even if the readers are too brain dead to get the message. 410="lost traffic".

All the best "RSS" feeds are Atom (http://atomenabled.org/)

Atom is the IETF standard syndication format (RFC 4287), and is supported by a lot of software (i.e. there's 67 feed readers listed as supporting Atom, so it's hardly some obscure format).

Atom is also spelled R S S, just ask mozirra! Of course, a format can't dictate the behavior of your reader...

At least "RSS" is the *name* of the technology.

Surely you've heard of Atom? Do you suggest to display an "RSS" icon for that, too? Or have two icons? What if a site offers both formats?

Nah, a single, neutral icon is the better choice here. Granted, it may not be the most intuitive one imaginable, but it should not mention the technology behind the feed.

Actually, that's an old web wisdom: Don't mention the mechanics. Looks like the Firefox and IE developers got that one right for once.

and do yourself a favor: http://www.atomenabled.org/

Let it not go unsaid (sorry if others have brought this up) that RSS is a crappy standard to build upon, but then, Micrsoft liked SOAP enough to mangle it. RSS is a defacto standard thanks to the wide userbase; but it was ill-conceived from the start. What kind of 'standard' needs an extension just to be able to account for more than one author of a piece of content?

Atom would have been a far better building block...

Is it a spec for a document, or a software application? All this talk of "posting new content into the feed"..

http://www.atomenabled.org/developers/tutorials/ap i-quick-guide.php

Someone needs to write a simple RSS->Atom migration guide, leaving out all the content-management crappola.

With Atom all official and whatnot, why would anyone be working on RSS 3.0?

Atom seems far superior to RSS 2.0 and much farther along than RSS 3.0.

Is someone trying to give Dave Winer a heart attack?

Well, these are are XML syndication formats. In other words, they move headlines and article summaries from server to user in machine-parseable format.

There's RSS, which is the reigning de facto standard, but it also is regrettably very, very liberally specified, and even less frequently heeded. Everyone's extending it to their own heart's content more or less competently. There are lots of different variations. Not easy to implement, not easy to learn.

Atom is an attempt to make a real standard-like standard out of RSS's best features and some of its own. It tastes more commitee-like, is probably initially less funny to implement on the server end (if you're lazy), but it is very nicely standardised and as a result it's far easier to write a parser for it, too, so client support is coming fast. And, it's more than just a syndication format: There's API for publishing and the atom format can, as such, also be used as a standardised weblog backup/storage format.

You may find the Atom web page quite informative.

RDF (Resource Description Framework) is a meta-language, like XML. Except it's not even really a language, it's a model. Extra confusing because there are different syntaxes available, one of which is XML.

RSS 2.0 (Really Simple Syndication, I think) is what most people are talking about when they say RSS these days. Based on the original RSS 0.9x format, some people complain it's underspecified.

RSS 1.0 (RDF Site Summary) is a completely different specification, using the same basic concept & elements but all in the RDF model. Its detractors claim that RDF is too damned confusing (I won't argue there) and make the usual comments about ivory-tower intellectuals.

Atom's (not an acronym) the new kid, it hasn't actually been released yet but should be coming very soon - within weeks/months. Difficult to say anything about it until it's finalised, but it's got some nice stuff. I particularly like the Atom API. Clean & RESTful, mmm-mmm good. In my opinion (Atom ~= RSS 1.0) > RSS 2.0, but don't take my word for it as I'm fairly new to all this.

First off, Firefox also includes Atom support.
Secondly, Atom is more than a syndication format. Atom also includes a counterpart of the Blogger API for authoring. Thus you only have to deal with one standards group for both authoring and distribution.
Thirdly, Atom is a open standard with an open development and review system, unlike RSS.
Lastly, the RSS which? 0.9x, 1.0, 2.0, they are all quite different.

RSS as in RSS 2.0 stands for Really Simple Syndication, while when the R in RSS stands for RDF, we're talking Semantic Web.

So, if you had mentioned the two in the wrong fora at the wrong points in time, it would invariably have set off a huge flamewar...

What resulted from the flamewar was a fork, and Atom was created. Now, it doesn't seem to me Atom is a Semantic Web application either, and I probably lost many points here....

There seems to be some peace possibilities though.

Anyway, the funny thing I meant to point out was that one could inadvertly spark a flamewar by just saying the wrong things yet meaning nothing bad about it...

there is no point using CSS without using XHTML, IMHO.

The reason you can't find an RSS feed is because Blogger uses Atom for their feed format. The feed is available here. Not every RSS reader supports Atom just yet - but they're getting there.

Fine !

Call it Atom.