A wholistic rss namespace for podcasting that is meant to synthesize the fragmented world of podcast namespaces. The broad goal is to create a single, compact, efficient
namespace that is easily extensible, community controlled/authored and addresses the needs of the independent podcast industry now and in the future.
Our guiding principles for development of this namespace are the "[Rules for Standards Makers](http://scripting.com/2017/05/09/rulesForStandardsmakers.html)" by Dave Winer.
Please read it before contributing if you aren't familiar with it.
The podcast namespace is part of the larger "Podcasting 2.0" project which exists to bring control of podcasting's protocols back into the hands of the open podcasting community. A good overview can be found here: [Podcasting 2.0](podcasting2.0.md)
* [Official XMLNS Definition](docs/1.0.md) the official definition of all formalized tags.
* List of platforms and apps that currently implement some or all of these tags: [Supporting Platforms and Apps](docs/element-support.md).
* Example Feed: There is an example feed [example.xml](example.xml) in this repository showing the podcastindex namespace side by side with the Apple itunes namespace.
* [Other recommendations](docs/other-recommendations.md) when creating RSS podcast feeds.
**Phase 1** - [Closed] Comment period closed on `11/15/2020` and [5 tags](https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/podcast-namespace#phase-1-closed-on-111520) were **formalized**.
**Phase 2** - [Closed] Comment period closed on `1/31/2021` and [4 tags](https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/podcast-namespace#phase-2-closed-on-13121) were **formalized**.
**Phase 3** - [Closed] Comment period closed on `6/1/2021` and [5 tags](https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/podcast-namespace#phase-3-closed-on-6121) were **formalized**.
**Phase 4** - [Closed] Comment period closed on `12/1/2021` and [3 tags](https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/podcast-namespace#phase-4-closed-on-1212021) were **formalized**.
**Phase 5** - [Closed] Comment period closed on `7/15/2022`. Tags [here](https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/podcast-namespace#phase-5-closed-as-of-7152022) are under active consideration.
To be adopted as an official part of the namespace, there must be consensus around a tag's usefulness and either commitment to adoption by at least 1 host and 1 app, or a recognition
that the tag is already being used in the wild.
It is ALWAYS ok to delay a tag to a future Phase if there is any concern about it. That is to be expected and encouraged.
When a Phase comes to a close, there will be a full review of any tags currently open for comment and questions will be asked to gather consensus before final adoption. No tags
will be adopted by fiat, or if there are unresolved questions. They will just be moved to the next Phase for further comment and refinement.
Tags that are proposals or rough ideas should be expected to have syntax problems or typos. Those should be refined away as they are worked on. If they are not, that is a good idea
that the tag in question isn't being seen as useful and should be considered for dropping.
We are not a "standards body". It is a community driven project where all stake holders are encouraged to participate, so that many voices are heard. This is an open-source
project to be built fully in the open. Discussions also take place on [podcastindex.social](https://podcastindex.social) where anyone is free to register and participate.
There is significant overlap amongst the many existing podcast namespaces. Each platform and publisher has created their own namespace to give their respective
system and audience the metadata they need in the way they want it delivered.
The only required tags should be those that solve an overwhelming need in the industry. Requiring tags is a roadblock to adoption and should be avoided. Attributes
should also only be required when they are key to the functionality of the tag.
Reinventing the wheel helps nobody. When at all possible, existing conventions should be maintained. For example, it would make sense to turn **\<podcast:explicit>** into
a unary element, where it's existence is taken as a "yes" and it's absence as a "no". But, that has never been the standard. And, given as how this namespace will probably
sit alongside at least one other namespace, it makes sense to keep existing conventions in place.
There is no way to address every possible metadata point that each platform would want. That is not the aim. Instead we focus on defining the elements that would be useful
to the broadest set of apps, publishers, platforms and aggregators. Individual parties can keep their respective supplemental namespaces small and targeted as an adjunct to
this larger namespace. But, we don't want to be so general that the spec becomes overly complicated. A beautiful, "perfect" spec is not important. Solving real problems is.
The following tags have been formally adopted into the namespace. They are fully documented in the XMLNS document located [here](docs/1.0.md). Please see that file for
The following tags have been formally adopted into the namespace. They are fully documented in the XMLNS document located [here](docs/1.0.md). Please see that file for
The following tags have been formally adopted into the namespace. They are fully documented in the XMLNS document located [here](docs/1.0.md). Please see that file for
The following tags have been formally adopted into the namespace. They are fully documented in the XMLNS document located [here](docs/1.0.md). Please see that file for
The following tags have been formally adopted into the namespace. They are fully documented in the XMLNS document located [here](docs/1.0.md). Please see that file for
This element allows a podcaster to express which platforms are allowed to publicly display this feed and it's contents. In it's basic form, it is a direct drop-in
replacement for `<itunes:block>` and functions identically. The addition of the `exclude` attribute allows for a comma separated list of platforms from the [slug list](serviceslugs.txt)
to be given which operates as an inversion of the intent expressed by the node value.
- **exclude** (optional) A comma separated list of platforms that will be interpreted as a block list or an allow list based on the inversion of the node value (yes or no).
This element allows a podcaster to signal to the world that this podcast will never publish another episode to this feed. In it's basic form, it is a direct drop-in
replacement for `<itunes:complete>` and functions identically. The addition of the `archive` attribute allows for specifying the url of a complete archival feed of the
podcast that contains every episode in case this feed does not.
Specifying a value of `no` is the same as this tag not being present.
#### Attributes
- **archive** (optional) A url of a feed that contains every episode of this podcast.
Examples:
```xml
<!-- This podcast will never publish again -->
<podcast:complete>yes</podcast:complete>
<!-- Redundant usage and not recommended -->
<podcast:complete>no</podcast:complete>
<!-- This podcast is over, and a complete episode archive feed is "here" -->
If the "locked" element is present and set to "yes", podcasting hosts should not allow importing of this feed until the email listed in the element's owner="" attribute is
contacted and subsequently changes the value of the element to "no".
There can be multiple **\<podcast:id>** elements to indicate a listing on multiple platforms, directories, hosts, apps and services. The "platform" attribute shall be a slug
representing the platform, directory, host, app or service. The full list is [here](serviceslugs.txt). More should be added by the community as needed.
