Abstract
Use a value for rel other than "alternate" for feed autodiscovery
Status
Open
Rationale
According to HTML 4.1 the relationship of alternate "designates substitute versions for the document in which the link occurs." It is often desirable to link to feeds that are not substitutes for the current document. A common example is linking to the main feed for a blog from an individual entry's page.
Proposal
Change the keyword from "alternate" to "feed." Key change is
4.1 rel attribute The rel attribute MUST be present in an Atom autodiscovery element. As defined in section 6.12 of HTML 4 [W3C.REC-html401-19991224], the value of the rel attribute is a space-separated list of keywords. The list of keywords MUST include the keyword "alternate" in uppercase, lowercase, or mixed case.
To:
4.1 rel attribute The rel attribute MUST be present in an Atom autodiscovery element. As defined in section 6.12 of HTML 4 [W3C.REC-html401-19991224], the value of the rel attribute is a space-separated list of keywords. The list of keywords MUST include the keyword "feed" in uppercase, lowercase, or mixed case.
Impacts
Autodiscovery will no longer overload the meaning of "alternate"
Using an unreserved value, such as "feed," will allow users to indicate both the actual relationship and that the link in question is a feed to autodiscovered.
Notes
Having multiple link types in rel is permitted by HTML 4.1: "the value of this attribute is a space-separated list of link types."