[documentation] Re: NEED CHANGE IN RSS OUTPUT

[Steven Wittens]

>>
>> This is such a basic SEO issue, why in the world don't they ask the  
>> designers, vendors and consultants BEFORE making code changes like  
>> these? I feel it is a waste of time when basics of optimization are  
>> not implemented.
>

I've noticed you seem to constantly repeat the same mantra that 'they' 
are such clueless people who can't do anything right. Who is this 
mysterious 'they' that you think develops Drupal? Did it ever occur to 
you that the people who work on Drupal are, amongst other things, indeed 
designers, vendors and consultants? We are not apparations that do 
nothing but produce code on demand when summoned from a mysterious lamp.

Secondly, you seem to forget that Drupal's development process is open 
to anyone. If you don't like a particular change, you can voice your 
opinion before it gets included. All changes to Drupal are submitted to 
the patch queue on drupal.org, where any reasonable argument will be 
read and considered. Do it at the appropriate place, at the appropriate 
time, in the appropriate fashion and in the appropriate tone.

Now about the issue at hand, I agree with the others that prefixing the 
site name in each RSS item title is a bad idea, for the following reasons:

- It harms usability by putting non-specific and unrelated data (the 
feed/site title) in a specific field (the item title). The feed's title 
and source are already sent elsewhere in the feed, so that any good 
newsreader can (and does) show it in an appropriate fashion to the user 
when they ask for it.

- People read from left to right, so prefixing with the site name forces 
them to read it for each item. It takes longer for them to decide 
whether the newspost interests them. It will also take up screen space 
that is often limited (most newsreaders use a column view). Given that 
people who read newsfeeds generally do so to save time, they would 
associate your name with 'annoyance' if you implement this practice.

- It harms search engine ranking because you put the most relevant data 
(the item title) at the end of a field. My experience has shown that 
most engines pay more attention to early data. Search engine guidelines 
themselves also always say not to pollute your data with irrelevant or 
overly general keywords. Most search engines prefer specific, small 
articles to overly broad and unfocused pieces.

Of course, these are just opinions, and you can debate them. But I can 
provide argumentation of why I feel this is right. I'm also the author 
of Drupal's current search.module, and for the Drupal 4.7 changes I did 
a lot of reading about typical search engine algorithms (both academic 
and practical). This gives me insight that is based on more than just 
observation.

Drupal has also consistently shown to be extremely search-engine 
friendly/optimized out of the box (look around on Drupal.org to read 
various user reports of this), so it's fair to say we have some 
credibility in this area.

You on the other hand just shout that what we do is wrong, that it is 
'such a basic issue' and that we should all jump when you say so, 
because your solution is somehow obviously right.

I don't buy it, and I see no reason to implement your suggestion.

Steven Wittens