I’ve just removed Martin Schwimmerfrom my subscription list. Why? Because he doesn’t want his posts reprinted in Bloglines (and, I assume, in sites like my link site).

The real trick here is: if you don’t want your full posts reprinted somewhere else, don’t put them into RSS. That’s one reason most commercial sites don’t include full content in their feeds.

I don’t mind that Bloglines reprints my content and I don’t mind that anyone using an RSS News Aggregator looks at my content without seeing my design or my navigation links or my email address or cell phone number.

If I did care, I’d switch my RSS feeds to only shove out partial content, or I’d delete my RSS feed altogether.

[Via Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

After reading Martin’s post and his reasoning for contacting Bloglines, it sounds like much ado over nothing. In my humble opinion, he’s making a myopic mistake in action and reasoning.

First of all, if he’s going to provide an RSS feed for his blog, his argument against Bloglines is disingenous. His RSS feed is stripped of his contact info and branding as well.

I have a simple solution for him, simply put your contact info at the head or tail of every blog post. Problem solved! You can now take a step forward instead of a step back. If you’re trying to get your promotional information out there, why make it harder for others to receive and consume. Especially given the popularity of bloglines. It just seems so short sighted to me. Then again, never underestimate the power of controversy to get you noticed.

Here’s an example of how to do a tagline:

This post was brought to you by Haacked, please send money. <— Sample of a promotional tag line.