Five Ways to Delay Syndication of your syndic8.com Feed

syndic8.com Editors are volunteers who work hard to evaluate and approve your proposed RSS feeds for syndication. At any time, there are around 2,000 proposed feeds in the approval queue, so it's a big job, and it takes a while for new ones to be gotten to. We want your feeds syndicated as much as you do.

That having been said, here are some sure ways to delay approval of your proposed feed.

1. Ignore the On-Line XML Validator at syndic8.com

While you may not care about spelling or other typo's in the substantive content of your feed, its XML markup must pass the on-line Validator before syndic8.com Editors can approve it for syndication. Feeds that don't pass are marked Awaiting Repair, and Editors simply go on to the next feed in the queue; they won't come back to yours if it's marked Awaiting Repair (although they might e-mail you about it--see #3, below). There are half a dozen very common errors, and they are easy to fix.

Using the on-line Validator is simple:

After you propose your feed, look it up at http://www.syndic8.com/ by entering the numerical Feed ID you're assigned in the little box labeled Go to Feed ID.
This will bring up a page of summary information about your feed.
Right there is a "Validate" link; click it to run your markup through the Validator.
It'll tell you if you pass or fail, and highlight any errors in your markup with simple explanations of how to fix them.

You can also access the Validator directly with your web browser at http://www.feedvalidator.org/check?url=your_rss_url

2. Don't Include a Language Tag in your Markup, or Better Yet, Include one that's Different from the Actual Language in your Feed.

This is an aspect of XML that the on-line Validator does not check. Still, it needs your attention.

Automated translation applications use the Language tag to make your Feed accessible to more eager readers. We all don't read Estonian, but might be able to read your Estonian feed if it contains a Language tag. If you include a Language tag that doesn't match your real language, no one will be able to read your feed unless they read your language. Automated translators can't make heads or tails of German or Italian feeds that have English as their Language element (a very common error, by the way).

Editors mark feeds without Language tags, as well as those with incorrect ones, Awaiting Repair and simply go on to the next feed in the queue; they won't come back to yours if it's marked Awaiting Repair (although they might e-mail you about it--see #3, below)

3. Don't Include Contact Information when you Submit your Feed.

While syndic8.com will allow you to propose feeds for syndication anonymously, if you do, there's no way for syndic8.com Editors to contact you with information about fixing your feed (see #1, above). With no contact information, your feed will simply be marked Awaiting Repair, and you may never know.

4. Don't Omit or Obfuscate the Webmaster E-Mail address in your XML Markup

We all hate spam e-mail, but your XML markup will not pass the Validator without an e-mail address in the <webmaster> element. Also, the address must be in a valid e-mail format--that is something@something.something. The Validator doesn't check to see if an e-mail address actually works, but it does check its format and will bounce your feed if it's wrong. If your're bound on blocking spam here surely you can think of a solution.

5. Complain to the syndic8 E-Mail Lists at groups.google.com

While squeaky wheels sometimes get grease, syndic8.com Editors--who are volunteers--try to be fair about reviewing feeds in either strict chronological order or in random order. As noted above, there are usually around 2,000 feeds awaiting approval at any given time. Please try to be patient.

Tim Evans