Off xml.com

when i recently wrote something on xml.com and mostly complained about the fact how the transition from xml.com to the general o'reilly blogging infrastructure had been handled, the post did appear in the general o'reilly post stream, but was not published on xml.com itself, even though the editor wanted to publish it.

after some discussions about how all of this had been handled and still is being handled, there were four things which i thought would be essential to restore some of xml.com's original appeal:

• posts should have xml.com domain names instead of broadcast.oreillly.com
• editorial policies should be transparent and well-defined, with the editor having the final decision
• stable infrastructure, so that broken feeds are fixed when they are detected (xml.com's feed has been broken for almost three months now)
• having a layout that indicates that the site is edited by a human, instead of the fully automated appeal of xml.oreilly.com

the last turn of events is that i am no longer on the o'reilly blogging team. i signed up for xml.com mainly because of its quality and prestige, and there seems to be no interest at o'reilly as the owner of xml.com to try to conserve some of that.

xml.com was great as long as it lasted, but it seems to me that it simply became collateral damage of the complete overhaul of the o'reilly newsblogging infrastructure.

courtesy of the waybackmachine, here is the history of xml.com. maybe when xml.com is really put to rest, somebody better informed than me can write some dramatic story about the rise and fall of xml.com.