[superkuh]

Atom is a response to not wanting to support backwards compatibility like RSS does in order to improve things. https://web.archive.org/web/20080216234454/http://www.sixapa... It's explicitly a different thing.

This is like pointing at the monitor of a desktop computer and saying, "that's the computer". It is effective to communicate with people who aren't interested in computers, but it's also not true and the distinction does have important consequences for behavior. Atom is not RSS even if some feed readers support both and most people don't know what feeds are.

And because of that, and the early popularity and widespread adoption of RSS, the better format (atom) isn't used nearly as much. And calls to increase use of betamax/atom generally went and go unheeded.

[stymaar]

> and the early popularity and widespread adoption of RSS, the better format (atom) isn't used nearly as much.

That may have been true 20 years ago, but now that pretty much no-one uses either of them , I'd be surprised if RSS was still meaningfully more widespread than Atom. (Except everything is being called RSS).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141336 is the only valid response to your VHS/Betamax comparison, really.

[verisimi]

I use RSS multiple times daily.

[kelnos]

One person using something doesn't mean it's popular.

[stymaar]

And you're also on HN, you're not exactly the average human being.

Do you use “RSS” as a protol specifically, or do you use “RSS” as in “any feed no matter the protocol”?