[Bug 23008] Change definition of <cite> to allow it to refer to names of people, not just works

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=23008

--- Comment #4 from steve faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com> ---
(In reply to Charles McCathieNevile from comment #2)
> Actually, the cite element should be a bit more liberal. There are many ways
> to refer to something, and we should accept them as valid content.
> 
> I note that both Google and Bing, invalidly according to the spec, use cite
> for URLs in their search results. I think it is reasonable on the web to
> treat a URL as a reference. 
> 
> In practice even a description such as "in <cite>the book about HTML by the
> guy with the funny hair</cite> they sometimes say sensible things like
> <q>and</q>" seems reasonable, if not the most common case.
> 
> I would change the text
> 
> "It must include either the title of the work or the name of the author
> (person, people or organization) of the work, either of which may be in an
> abbreviated form as per the conventions used for the addition of citation
> metadata to quoted content."
> 
>  to something like
> 
> "The content of the element should be a reference in some commonly
> understood form, such as the name or a nickname of the person cited, or the
> work, a URL, or the like."
> 
> (Note that I have changed must to should. Although I am happy with a must
> requirement for authors, it is quite difficult to validate whether a
> reference is valid or not - there are simple cases, and then there are very
> difficult ones).

I have relaxed the definition to allow URLs as their are millions of
<cite>URL</cite> instances being published in search results. I have left the
author requirement as a must as it may reduce the misuse of cite, but am not
holding my breath.

It would be really useful to have some data about use of <cite> by search
engines for example, but again not holding breath.

Will leave this bug open for now for further feedback.

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Received on Wednesday, 11 September 2013 11:26:58 UTC