Valid XML/XHTML Banners

Hello, I am not a member of this list, so am not sure if this topic is often brought up, I am just sending an email directly, so I apologize if this issue has already been addressed.



I am writing in regards to the "XML/XHTML/HTML Valid!" etc. banners that are offered for download after validation is confirmed through the various checkers on your site.@Over the last few weeks working on my site (small personal and of little importance mind you), I have come to greatly appreciate the need for standardized coding rules.... It's damn hard to stick to the guidelines though! With that said, I do feel a great sense of pride (and relief) each time my site is upgraded and gets the beautiful blue Valid Certification after I run it through your checker. With that in mind, I began to notice that many sites also claim to be CSS, HTML, XHTML etc. valid on their sites, and display a similar banner.  At first out of curiosity, now morbid, I check many of the sites I visit, and was (no longer) shocked to discover less than 30% of these sites were in fact VALID....Despite their claims.



Now I realize that your organization is not set up, nor would ever be able/desire to enforce strict aadherenceto these banner placing regulations, after all, regardless of these sites being valid or not the banners generate awareness (and traffic) to your sites/projects.  However, I do feel that a letter or an email to these sites advising of the misrepresentation would spur at least some of these webmasters to bring their sites up to snuff.  If losing the banner is something you would be cconcernedabout, perhaps the creation or offering of an 'in-progress' or 'pending' mid-level banner could be offered instead.



The misrepresentation of "Validly Coded" websites is in fact degrading the entire idea and purpose of the system itself, in my opinion.



Anyways, is there a system in place to contact these websites? I am sure you would find many volunteers (myself included) who would be happy to report the "offending" sites and come up with a mild - harsh system on bringing them up to snuff.....



Anyways, keep up the good work with the enormous task you have at hand.



Happy coding,



Kikugawa1@excite.com



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Received on Monday, 28 February 2005 13:58:48 UTC