Re: Hippocratic Oath for Webmasters

OK time for a more appropriate answer. :)

Le 05-11-22 à 10:49, Martin Poulter a écrit :
> Webmaster Pledge v0.3
> Authored by the HE Academy Technical Group, edited by Martin Poulter
>
> 1. Pages on our site will have a clear, consistent structure that  
> lets you find and use the content no matter whether you are using a  
> graphical, text-only, speech browser, mobile device or even reading  
> the page on a printout. Although we cannot guarantee a site will  
> work on all past, present and future browsers, we aim to be usable  
> with all current browsers and operating systems.

What you are promoting here is
 "device independence" AND "appropriate usage of semantics".

> 2. Content on our site will have meaningful URLs and be  
> bookmarkable. If we move or delete documents, the old URL will be  
> redirected to a relevant part of the site.

This one is dangerous. It depends on what you call meaningful URLs.  
For example, we start to see things like

http://example.org/2005/11/23/You-mean-you-can-t-take-less-it-s-very- 
easy-to-take-more-than-nothing.

which is not usable, difficult to manipulate, and meaningless.

* URLs are meaningless * by definition
Semantics has been attached to the writing of URLs because of  
history, filesystem = Web structure, and now search engines.

On another side IRIs are not fully supported yet :( When it will be  
more implemented, it will show the irony of "meaningful URLs". This  
following IRI will not be meaningful to many people. Why do people  
think that english writing has to be meaningful for other linguistic  
communities.

http://example.org/こんいちわ


So let's come back to your point :) What you want to express is that  
the content of a Web page must be accessible by an non changing URL  
that you can bookmark. (Let's say to be RESTful)

http://example.org/something/blah/object0123

And not the usual, when you have put in the form "Alice", you got  
with the results the following URL:
 http://example.org/cgi-bin/book?

> 3. Our site will not break the controls on your web browser.

That's another tricky one. What's happening when the Web site has a  
good implementation and the browser has a bad implementation.
http://www.w3.org/TR/chips
http://www.w3.org/TR/cuap


Do you mean "Don't use javascript to abuse the navigation toolbar"?  
Do you have other examples than this one?

> 4. Links will give you a reasonable idea of what will happen when  
> you click on them, and warn you if it requires a large download or  
> a helper application.

Understandable, plenty of weblogs authors don't care, and don't think  
about having a "good" link. That will be a tough one to evangelize,  
but I understand the goal.

> 5. We will regularly check for and replace broken links. Content  
> that isn't marked as archived or given a definite date will be  
> regularly checked.

 Links external to your own Web site, or links to an external Web site?
Because Cool URIs don't break ;) So if you move the content, HTTP is  
here to redirect the person to the good place.

> 6. The document content of the site will be searchable in a way  
> that supports multiple terms, phrases and combinations of terms.  
> Search results will show you the location of each file and its  
> relevance to your search terms.

:)

> 7. We will not hold personal information about you without your  
> express permission.

Here it depends on the regulation of each countries. I think you  
could provide something like <insert here the reference to the legal  
boiler plate of your country>

http://www.w3.org/P3P/#what
http://www.w3.org/P3P/p3pfaq.html
http://www.w3.org/TR/P3P/
P3P offers a mechanism for a company to declare what is the policy  
with regards to private data.

> 8. We will never show you a bare error message. If there is an  
> error (e.g. incorrect password, mistyped link), you will be told  
> what the problem is and what you can do next.

:)

> 9. We will not make content difficult to read with superfluous  
> music or animation or intrusive advertising.

There might be something in the accessibility guidelines, but I'm not  
sure. To check.

> 10. When you use our site for a transaction, such as making a  
> purchase or creating a personal account, it will be clear at which  
> stage you are and what remains to be done.

What about the integrity of data? Security, etc.

Thanks Martin for the whole thing.  Feel free to react to my comments.


-- 
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager
*** Be Strict To Be Cool ***

Received on Tuesday, 22 November 2005 22:33:16 UTC