Error in Category Icons : you must deactivate and reactivate this plugin.

Deactivating/ reactivating had no effect.

to add category icons in the feeds, I tried this and it worked (I don't know if the code will appear correctly) :


function bm_caticons_excerpt_rss($content) {
$content = get_cat_icon('echo=false&link=false').''.$content;
return $content;
}
add_filter('the_excerpt_rss','bm_caticons_excerpt_rss');


This Decription tag must be where WP puts the Tagline then

Yes, WP properly inserts the tagline/ feed description via <?php bloginfo("description") ?> in theme/header.php and <?php bloginfo_rss("description") ?> in wp-includes/feed-rss2.php.

Adding more tags in Reading Settings won't make it any more valid D. since you still can't nest <image> inside <description>; they should be on the same level inside <channel>.

This Decription tag must be where WP puts the Tagline then, I suppose I could wrap it in more tags... The other required sub-elements can be as for the main feed.

However, viewing your XML source in NNW you have this nested in the <description> tag. The spec requires a feed image to be within an <image> tag and, if that is used, with 3 required sub-elements for url, title , and link. Check on Google for XML examples (e.g. here) to be convinced of the uniqueness of your approach ;-)

Setting the excerpt can be far more descriptive in isolation - depends to a large degree on which news reader you use of course.

an image link in the General Settings - Tagline

Interesting idea D. Although this does trick the Feed Validator an img inside <description> is not consistent with the RSS 2.0 spec, which specifies a required "Phrase or sentence describing the channel" and puts feed images inside a separate <image> channel sub-element. Furthermore, any URL entered as a tagline is rendered as text in the blog header.

Also, if you want a different "excerpt"...write a different one in the "Excerpt" box ;)

Correct. I've always put my "intro" into ecto's main editing area, with the main body of the post in the "Extended" editing area. When I post these two areas are automatically separated by <!--more-->. But ecto also has a "Summary" editing area, which can contain a different version of the article known as the "excerpt". I've never used this, but if I did I imagine the contents would be used for the_excerpt() in place of the post intro.

So technically I guess I'm not using the_excerpt() in my feeds or on my blog, but rather Summary in Reading Settings means "intro" and Full text means "intro + extended" using only the the_content(). Confusing, huh?

I wonder how many other folk using offline editors are doing this without realizing the bit of their post before <!--more--> is part of the_content() and not the_excerpt()? This would explain why I had to set Full text to get my hack to work.

Also, if you want a different "excerpt" or synopsis of a feed without people having to read the post. or the first few lines of your post is not suitable for an excerpt - write a different one in the "Excerpt" box ;)