Re: Free hosting services append invalid HTML ads

Friends,

Please see my new "Free Hosting Service HTML Validation Test Page" at:

http://linuxquality.sunsite.dk/articles/validationtest/

It is a valid XHTML 1.0 strict document that is meant to be copied to 
free website hosting services.  It explains to the hosting service why 
it is there, and has the "check referer" link in it so the hosting 
services can validate their local copies:

http://validator.w3.org/check/referer

For comparison, it also has a link that validates the original document 
off of its original location at the Linux Quality Database.  There is 
also a link to a list of the locations where other copies of these pages 
may be found at other hosting services.  So far there is just one copy 
of the test page at a free host:

http://free.hostdepartment.com/goingware/

Go to this last page and click the "check referer" link, and you will 
see that it doesn't validate because of the advertising markup added by 
the hosting service.

The page goes on to explain why it's important to generate valid markup, 
has some links to several validators and an article I wrote on how to 
use them, and finally instructions that any reader can follow on how to 
place copies of the page at other hosting services - along with an 
admonition to be polite when notifying their support services of any 
validation problems.

There is also a note about how to deal with a problem that might be 
encountered with declaring the document's character encoding - some 
servers include it in the HTTP headers, and some don't.

If you'd like to propagate the test page, you can find a list of free 
web hosting services at:

http://www.freewebspace.net/

I placed the page under the GNU Free Documentation License.

I appreciate any suggestions you have for improvement.

Use and enjoy!

Michael D. Crawford
GoingWare Inc. - Expert Software Development and Consulting
http://www.goingware.com/
crawford@goingware.com

     Tilting at Windmills for a Better Tomorrow.

Received on Sunday, 30 June 2002 20:35:58 UTC