Responding to my post Is Atom Ready for Prime Time?, Tim Bray wrote:

The right role for a standards body is to wait till the implementors have deployed things and worked out the hard bits, then write down the consensus on what works and what doesn’t.

I'll agree to the following version of the statement:

The right role for a standards body is to wait till the implementors have deployed things and worked out the hard bits, then write down the consensus on what works and what doesn’t without unnecessarily breaking or competing with what already works.

Atom feed format as it stands now creates too much distruption for too little gain.

Tim, do consider what works and what doesn't work in RSS 2.0 and fix it by adding to it or tightening loose parts of it instead of attempting to replace it entirely.  Then you can declare victory and everyone, even this grouchy donkey, will wholeheartedly join the victory parade.