Technorati and the case of the missing wiscon tag
I sent Technorati tech support three queries over the course of a few days two weeks ago. They finally got back to me today.
(Note to non-techies: apologies for the jargon that follows. Feel free to skim or skip the next two paragraphs.)
What they told me is that their system can only index either the main page of a blog or an RSS or Atom feed. They furthermore noted that they can only find an RSS feed if you specify it in the code for your main page in a particular way.
And if you don't display the full text of blog entries on your main page, then your RSS feed has to go through some special contortions to use Technorati's tagging system.
All of which is to say that the reason so many of us had trouble tagging our posts with the "wiscon" tag is that Technorati's system doesn't work with certain kinds of blogs. And the reason so many of us wasted time trying to get it to work is that Technorati's FAQ and Help pages don't bother to explain that; in fact, they go out of their way to give the opposite impression, that they work universally with all kinds of blogs. And the reason that we didn't know there was information missing is that Technorati's support people can't be bothered to answer questions in under two weeks.
Yes, I know, it's a free service, why am I whining about it?
Mostly just 'cause it bugs me when a system that looks promising and that other people rave about has a bad user interface or doesn't work as expected or has problems with the help pages or the customer support.
I should note in their favor that Technorati has improved their FAQ drastically in the past few months. Six months ago, there was basically no information at all available on their site, and they weren't answering support mail at all. They used a bunch of cryptic phrases like "claiming" your blog, with no information on what that meant or whether it was required. The Help page was basically geared toward people who already understood how the system worked. As it still is, in fact, but at least they've added an FAQ that gives the info that should be on the Help page.
See what I mean about "crotchety"? I should probably go to bed.