Validation links on business sites

[bjg]

Hey,

I was just curious, what are people's thoughts on having the "Valid
XHTML 1.x" and/or "Valid CSS" images on business web sites? Do you think it is
unprofessional and unnecessary? I am currently getting up to date with
the latest standards while doing a web site for a mate of mine's
business. So do you think those links to validate the code would make the
site lose some of its professionalism?

BJG

 

[altamir]

I was just curious, what are people's thoughts on having the "Valid
XHTML 1.x" and/or "Valid CSS" images on business web sites? Do you
think it is unprofessional and unnecessary?

i don't put them on business sites, because 99.99% of visitors don't know
what they mean. it's the same kind of information like 'powered by php',
'made in notepad', 'powered by gimp', etc. completely useless information.
btw those w3c, yellow icons are really ugly.

 

[Clive Moss]

Hey,

I was just curious, what are people's thoughts on having the "Valid
XHTML 1.x" and/or "Valid CSS" images on business web sites? Do you think it is
unprofessional and unnecessary? I am currently getting up to date with
the latest standards while doing a web site for a mate of mine's
business. So do you think those links to validate the code would make the
site lose some of its professionalism?

BJG

Just the opposite - They show that the client cares to do things right
You can link them into a page explaining the reason and need for standards
so that those with old, non-compatible browsers will know why they have to
upgrade

CM

 

[Andy Dingley]

I was just curious, what are people's thoughts on having the "Valid
XHTML 1.x" and/or "Valid CSS" images on business web sites?

Worth it for web developers, irrelevant for anyone else.

They certainly shouldn't be on a page that's a content-heavy major
user bookmark - you can probably find a better use for the screen
space.

 

[brucie]

in post

I was just curious, what are people's thoughts on having the "Valid
XHTML 1.x" and/or "Valid CSS" images on business web sites?

jukka has some thoughts on it near the bottom of the page here:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/html/validation.html

 

[Eric Bohlman]

I was just curious, what are people's thoughts on having the "Valid
XHTML 1.x" and/or "Valid CSS" images on business web sites? Do you
think it is unprofessional and unnecessary? I am currently getting up
to date with the latest standards while doing a web site for a mate of
mine's business. So do you think those links to validate the code
would make the site lose some of its professionalism?

My personal feeling is that they're a holdover from the mid-1990s when Web
pages were full of (rather meaningless) "award" icons. The W3C introduced
them as "awards" that were actually meaningful. Nowadays I think that sort
of thing looks rather silly. The big problem is that the people they're
conveying information to aren't the people who can make use of the
information; in fact they're generally not people who should *care* about
the internal details of the page's implementation. I don't think they do
much to promote the use of validation, again because the majority of people
who see them aren't Web authors and therefore have no use for validation.

I'm sort of reminded of a commentary I read the other day about World AIDS
Day, which was December 1. It pointed out that most of the day's events
were aimed at getting the general public to "care" about the AIDS crisis,
but that what's actually needed to solve the crisis is money and effort
that are beyond the ability of the typical member of the general public to
contribute. Merely changing the way typical Westerners *feel* about AIDS
does nothing to help the people in Africa and Asia who have to deal with
it. I think validation icons have the same problem.

 

[Leif K-Brooks]

I was just curious, what are people's thoughts on having the "Valid
XHTML 1.x" and/or "Valid CSS" images on business web sites? Do you think it is
unprofessional and unnecessary? I am currently getting up to date with
the latest standards while doing a web site for a mate of mine's
business. So do you think those links to validate the code would make the
site lose some of its professionalism?

I think they're annoying. I have my own bookmarklets for checking if a
page is valid, and I don't need screen space wasted to tell me they're
valid (some aren't even valid, despite the icons).

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Just the opposite - They show that the client cares to do things
right

You mean it's the right thing to ask each and every user validate your
page for you, instead of doing that yourself? Surely you would also
link to an online spelling checker?

You can link them into a page explaining the reason and need
for standards so that those with old, non-compatible browsers will
know why they have to upgrade

So that's your definition of doing things right? Quite some
pruhfessionalism. You would like to pollute all your pages with icons
that are cryptic to the vast majority of users, and _also_ throw some
other links at them, pointing all users to some information that the
vast majority cannot understand, and does not need to understand?

Besides, the great majority, using IE 6, has no option of _upgrading_
to a browser that complies with W3C and IETF recommendations, for some
years. They might _switch_ to a more compliant browser, but arguing
with their choice of browser is a rather unproductive way of doing
business, unless you sell browsers.

 

[Sam Hughes]

in post


jukka has some thoughts on it near the bottom of the page here:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/html/validation.html

Excellent. I am now going to put an icon on my page that says "Checked
SGUFDFY 42.5!"