Shelley Powers: If a syndication feed supports complex or hierarchical categories but these are optional, and one weblog tools supports them, but another doesnât, using the syndication feed to export the data from one tool to the other will result in loss of data; using XML wonât improve this situation, or prevent the loss of data. Thatâs where the MT import/export format comes in handy at this time.
Randy: This statement is completely misleading. If tool A supports feature C and tool B doesn't support feature C, then no intermediary format will avoid loss of the feature when converting from A to B. That's is, MT's import/export format won't improve this situation or prevent the loss of data either. So, how does it come in handy? It doesn't.
All the blogs I run using my custom blogging tool support exporting to RSS out-of-the-box. This functionality is trivial and should be demanded in any blogging tool. Further, exporting to a proprietary format, especially one that is not XML, provides very little to zero benefit. Exporting to a proprietary XML format, provides little benefit. Exporting to a known XML format, is the only way to go. RSS is the best of breed intermediary format for converting between blogs. Please, don't invent me a new wheel, I've already got too many (Atom).
