Todd Cochrane over at Geek News Central has been writing some rather snarky things about Feedburner. Todd doesn’t like Feedburner. I get that. No one is saying he has to like Feedburner. Just because I like Feedburner doesn’t mean everyone has to. What I don’t understand is his paranoid rhetoric.
For instance, it’s hard to take him serious when he proclaims that Feedburner is “evil”. In fact, not only does he announce that Feedburner is evil, he says they are pure evil. As though it’s evil hasn’t been diluted or watered down. We are lead to believe that Feedburner is 100% evil. Like Satan’s left armpit or fat-free mayonnaise.
Evil is a strong word that has absolutely nothing to do with what Feedburner has to offer.
Speaking of not taking him serious, today he had this to say:
I am blown away when I talk to bloggers and podcasters when they say they need FeedBurner. When I ask why, they say because they need a RSS feed. When I point out to them that their blog is already creating a fully functional RSS feed many are dumbfounded.
I just don’t believe that. Not that he was blown away. I just don’t believe that he spoke to bloggers and podcasters who thought they needed Feedburner because their blogs didn’t already have an RSS feed. One of the first steps when signing up with Feedburner is when Feedburner analyzes your blog and identifies any existing feeds. Feedburner then shows you these existing feeds and has you select one to use to syndicate your blog through Feedburner.
This is something Todd would know if he had ever actually tried the free syndication service known as Feedburner. The one he hates so much.
The one he thinks is pure evil.
I might believe that a podcaster or a blogger didn’t know their website already had an RSS feed before signing up with Feedburner. Maybe. They would certainly know they already had an RSS feed during the sign up process. I just cannot believe they would not know this until Todd told them.
Unless they were really, really stupid.
The feed that blogger uses is totally fucked up and antiquated- which is why so many people use Feedburner.
I might have to agree about Feedburner being evil, though. I once saw it sacrificing an infant to Satan and drinking its blood.