So the thing that drove this person to Gruber et al's notice is an RSS Reader that doesn't count how many new items are pending? It's the kind of thing that can get you significant mindshare among the last few people who use RSS readers and have disproportionate impact on the discourse apparently

This whole affair seriously undermines Terry's credibility, however it needs to be said that his take on how RSS readers should work is genuinely new and -- to some audiences -- interesting.

It's as if real people are not all good or all bad, but can do good things, and bad things too.

I don’t particularly buy the author’s story here, but “doesn’t count how many new items are pending” is a feature for me. I don’t want my RSS reader to feel like yet another list of tasks I’ve to get through.