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Joe thinks that RSS parsers that are "too liberal" (that is, are willing to accept RSS feeds that are not well-formed XML) are the wrong way to go. I wrote such a "too liberal" parser for Aggie which I hope will be accepted into Aggie RC5.
The issue is not technical, but rather a matter of principle. Today, if Aggie (or any other aggregator) were to refuse to accept an RSS feed that is accepted by its (friendly) competition, users will simply ditch it. The only way coordinated aggregators "strike" will work is if one aggregator becomes dominant, or all aggregator writers agree to it "behind the scenes". I just don't see that hapening any time soon.
I propose a "shame them into submission" scheme. Each feed that is not well-formed will be marked by Aggie (and hopefully other aggregators) by a shameful icon that claims the feed is not well-formed. In my experience, weblog authors that receive requests to modify their feeds because of well-formedness issues usually jump on the opportunity to improve.
UPDATE:
There must be something in the air. I just read Don Box's latest spoutlet, in which he says something very similar:
The bottom line is, tolerance is great, but vocal tolerance is even better. Keeping your tolerance to yourself only exacerbates the problem.
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