One project I’ve been working on recently has been adding RSS feeds to a major government department website. I drafted a quick page saying that RSS was a good way to stay informed of site updates, quoting the BBC as an example (inevitably!) and listing the feeds. Only a couple of feeds so far, but with functionality in place to deliver nearly 100.
A furious debate ensued. Shouldn’t we say more about RSS? List a few software options? Give full instructions on how to subscribe? I’m sure you’ve seen similar pages on countless sites. There’s often a similar discussion about ‘an accessibility page’, telling people how to use their own software.
I’ve always avoided creating such pages. They never get the attention they deserve, and rapidly fall out of date. Most of the examples I see don’t mention personalised homepages like My Yahoo, or the embryonic efforts from Microsoft or Google. They rarely refer to Live Bookmarks in Firefox; and obviously, IE7 never gets a look-in.
On the flipside, I sat in on a recent presentation which stressed the need for your website to be perceived as ‘a good host’. It’s a valid point, and arguably, even more valid in the public sector. A few simple lines can communicate the essentials, and maybe encourage the novice reader to have a go.
But I remain firmly of the opinion that, if you’re going to explain an evolving concept like RSS, you need to do it properly, and keep coming back to it. Nothing is worse than outdated content. Or rather, nothing is better than outdated content. You know what I mean.
At the end of the day, you’re looking at another resource commitment. Maybe not a huge drain on your day, but another thing to bear in mind. Take a hard-nosed business decision; if you think there’s real business value in doing so, if you think it will contribute to your targets (whatever they are), if there’s space on your task list, do it. And please tell me where you get all your spare time from.