Strider Icon    Some bookmarks don't load and have a question mark as their icon
 

When a bookmark appears with the mystery icon , that usually means that some part of the XML file that represents the headlines on the site has some errors in it that Strider can't resolve. An XML file is a text-only file that contains values with some special character suites that are known as tags. If the syntax of these tags is missing something, then Strider might have problems to parse that XML file and display the headlines for the site referenced by the bookmark. To see if the error is a syntax error, select the problematic bookmark in the bookmarks list. Then, choose Validate Selected Bookmark from the News menu. A new page will open in your default browser and you will be taken to one of the RSS feed validator available on the Internet. If there is any error with the site, Feed Validator will display those errors. Sometimes, while the XML file is edited by the webmaster of the site, the error will disappear by itself the next time the bookmark is refreshed. But if the problem persists, it is likely that the problem won't be fixed until it is brought to the attention of the site's webmaster.

On the other hand, if Feed Validator doesn't display any error, it is possible that Strider has encountered an abnormal situation. Make sure that the website you are visiting supports the RSS version 0.9.x through version 2.0 specifications or the Atom version 0.3 specification.

If you think you found a problem in the way that Strider handles a specific bookmarked web site, please send an email to Nemesys Software. Tell us what site you were visiting and what the problem is.

Keep in mind that the RSS specification, although released for some time, is still catching up with a lot of web sites. Unfortunately, there is nobody that enforces the specifications defined for RSS. As more and more people put their attention on RSS, more and more sites will try to stick to the specifications.