A bump, a fork or a widening of the RSS road?

The Head Lemur says Microsoft is forking RSS.

Dave says,

Based on a quick look, in its current form I don't think I will write feeds that generate the extensions or write code that processes them.

However, I also want to be clear that I support the idea of Microsoft extending RSS 2.0, I am glad they're using it, very glad, and I totally appreciate that they are trying to work with the community on equal terms with everyone else. Yesterday in a video I recorded for the members of Team RSS at Microsoft, I congratulated them on a home run, and said I was totally proud of how they did it. Now here's an opportunity to make that home run a grand slam. With some quick work, while there still is no installed base, we can arrive at something that works for everyone and is as really simple as RSS 2.0 is.

One problem here is a semantic one. The Lemur is right that Microsoft has a long history of "embracing and extending" existing standards to its exclusive advantage. It's up to Microsoft partners in the RSS conversation to make clear how extensions to RSS aren't exclusive to Microsoft or Windows — or, if they are, how they don't lock anybody in or out of the development path for RSS.