Dave, we're actually trying to include as much "generic" support as possible in the "blog" feed. We already support MediaRSS thumbnails, videos, and audio plus GeoRSS to trigger maps. If there are other RSS attributes that we should be pulling in, please let me know and we'll try to get them added. The purpose of the "special" services is to be a little more user-friendly by asking for username instead of feed url (the feeds are sometimes buried, or people don't know that they exist), and to deal with bugs in popular services (such as Facebook using the same GUID on every status update!). Our preference though is to do as little custom development as possible and to give all services equal access. - Paul Buchheit

Reposting this from comments on Louis Gray's share of the same item: I'd like to see FF break out the existing "Blog" into "Blog" and "Feed" where "Blogs" would be the general purpose service type for 80%+ of the users who just want to add a blog, and "Feed" would give you more granular control over how the fields in an RSS/Atom feed get mapped into new items. See also this feature request convo over in the FF Suggestions forum from a few days ago: http://is.gd/9CWY - Ken Sheppardson

See more comments here --> http://friendfeed.com/e... - Susan Beebe

That's a good idea Ken -- I think we'll do something like that in the future. What fields would you like to control? - Paul Buchheit

@Ken that's a great idea. I'm frustrated with WordPress's inability to tweak the RSS, but would love to have an interface in FF to manage it, without having to write an API. Now I'm going to read more about my WP RSS, wonder if I'm missing something. (it doesn't issue images with the feed, like I've done on other hand-made RSS apps.) - anna sauce

Anna, there is an mrss Wordpress plugin that will get you part of the way there. Also, Paul Reynolds posted a link to some mrss mods in this thread http://friendfeed.com/e... - Jason Wehmhoener

Yay- thanks Jason! - anna sauce

If you want multiple thumbnails, here's a hint: http://friendfeed.com/e... - Jason Wehmhoener