Moron Funkiness »
Normally I probably wouldn't post so quickly on the same subject, but this one just floored me. You may have read my piece on a non-funky RSS 2.0 template. If you didn't, you might want to go back and do so, so this makes at least some sense. If you're familiar with the debate on funkiness, there is probably no need.
The problem is this - all of a sudden, my fancy, non-funky templates were actually smelling bad again! How in the world did this happen? I knew I hadn't changed the templates - so it had to be something in the data. But what?
I painstakingly tested Da Funkidator to try and reach a conclusion - any conclusion. The results may surprise some of you and may not surprise some of you at all.
It turns out that two strings I was using were causing the problem. The first - if you string RSS and 1.0 together into a single phrase (put a space in the middle), then put that phrase into your entry, any feed you generate from that entry, no matter how un-funky you try and get it, will show up as funky. Similarly, if you string together the letters R, D and F, in that order, with no spaces between them, be it in a link or in text, your feed is funky. Naturally, I had done both.
I've at least temporarily removed those occurences from my feeds so that you can see my templates as being non-funky.
I'm all for the promotion of a standard if that standard uses certain fields, and to not replace those fields with extensions. That makes loads of sense. But this - talk about petty! Apparently you can't even mention certain topics within your feed if you want to be un-funky? That's pushing it.
