Expressing threads and comments in feeds

Niall Kennedy is one of the smartest guys I don’t know.  Robert Scoble tried to hook us up at one point, but it didn’t happen.

Niall knows syndication – nobody can or should argue with that.  But I am not at all certain that Niall understands what every-day people WANT or NEED from syndication.  I’m not Sure Dave Winer does either.  Perhaps they both do.  What I want is CONTROL – not only over which feeds I get, but what PARTS of each feed I get.

Why?  Because these guys are very close to the fire – they are the penultimate geek’s – we need them.  But we also need to build useful products.  With RSS one of the biggest issues is the over-flow of information.  There is just too much of it.

About a year ago I suggested using “negatives” when subscribing to feeds.  I think I blogged this here some time ago.  I *should* be able to subscribe to a blog with “negative keywords” that will limit the content I receive.

I think I used the example a year ago that I like Engadget, but I don’t care about Digital Cameras.  So let me subscribe to Engadget with that “negative” – where I get all of the Engadget content EXCEPT that which refers to Digital Cameras.

I need filters in my life, and I especially need them in RSS.  There is no reason software can’t figure this out for me.  I tell it what I am interested in (or not) and it gives me what I need – without a lot of excess.

Please built this into RSS and into RSS readers.  I know it’s not technically complex.

Rob 

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