Web Celebrations: The Return of Full RSS Feeds

Last week I griped about Mental Floss (one of my very favorite blogs) truncating their RSS feed.  At the time I wrote:

Enter the most recent source of my web-frustration: Mental Floss.  I’ve read the Mental Floss blog (which is absolutely terrific) for about a year and a half.  While catching up on their prolific feed after a week of travel, I discovered that in early July they switched from a glorious and full feed to a sloppy partial feed.  I’m pissed.

Maybe I’m an atypical feed reader, but I suspect not.  The truth is, a partial feed decreases the likelihood that I’ll read something by approximately 100%.  [...] When content providers refuse to provide a full feed, they disrupt [my] information flow.  As a result, I read less of their material.  In other words, don’t be surprised if fewer Mental Floss items end up in my Monday Links or anywhere else on this site.  I still receive the (partial) feed, but I’m. Not. Reading. It.

Harsh I know, but hey: that’s why I have a blog.  Well folks, it brings me great joy to share this *breaking* news:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Birmingham, ALA. Today, at 4:15pm EST, the editorial board of mental_floss magazine kept their promise to  readers and turned their blog’s RSS feed back to full blast. The feed had been temporarily disabled due to hacking issues. The gushing stream of full RSS stories hitting inboxes around the nation was quickly followed by cheers heard across America, and the popping of champagne corks distribution of celebratory juice boxes around the magazine’s headquarters.
“This is a great day for mental_floss and this is a great day for our readers!” exclaimed a triumphant Will Pearson, President of the company. “But mostly this is a great day for mental_floss.” The comment was nearly drowned out by the thunderous sounds of high-fiving and back patting taking place.

Well done, Floss Nation.  In honor of their editors seeing the light, I hereby shamelessly plug the geektacular shirts available in the Mental Floss store.

It’s a web celebration (a webebration?).  Ball’s in your court now, Freakonomics.

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Flickr user ~Twon~.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like:

- "Web Frustration: Partial RSS Feeds", posted by Taylor on July 23, 2008

- "Of Mountaintops and Mashups", posted by Jarred on February 13, 2008

- "Google Reader Gets Magical", posted by Jarred on October 23, 2009

- "T.M.I.", posted by Jarred on April 2, 2008

- "A Sign of the Times: “Extra” Lets You Really Read All About It", posted by Jarred on December 5, 2008

  • I heard a rumor once that mental_floss was started by a Davidson grad? Maybe? Anyone?

    Either way, it looks like by the dateline that it's headquartered in Birmingham, AL, so it's already pretty sweet.
  • It was founded by two Duke students (strike one) and is, in fact, headquartered in 'Bama (strikes 2-6). But their stuff is great.
  • Ashish
    Even by the standards of Dookies, those shirts are obnoxious.
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