Re: Adding Semantic Metadata to Webpages' Elements via CSS Selectors

On 2026-04-14 11:50, Adam Sobieski wrote:
>     RDFa requires adding attributes to HTML document markup to indicate
>     and express semantic metadata. 

RDFa is used in markup languages such as HTML and XML-family (XSLT, SVG, 
MathML). It is not merely "metadata" but simply "data" in hosting 
languages that are designed for express structure and semantics of some 
content for humans and machines.

> The indicated technique allows
>     statements, graphs, and/or datasets to be attached to documents'
>     elements by means of these elements being selected using CSS. So, no
>     extra markup or attributes are required for the indicated technique
>     (aside from, in some cases, style classes using the class attribute).

CSS is intended as a presentation layer language for styling documents, 
as opposed to expressing structure and semantics of content.

>     RDFa adds semantic metadata to HTML documents within the HTML
>     documents themselves. In the indicated approach, semantic metadata
>     could be expressed within <style> elements in the documents or in
>     external stylesheets. As considered, elements would be able to have
>     a style property named "metadata" which would, per /Additive CSS/,
>     be able to hold zero, one, or multiple semantic statements (i.e.,
>     graphs or datasets).

Unclear what problem or use case this is solving beyond theorising. The 
notion of structure, presentation, interaction layers have been well 
established on the open web platform. Stuffing structured content 
intended for humans and/or machines in CSS conflates the purpose of 
these technologies and layers,

> *From:* Martynas Jusevičius <martynas@atomgraph.com>
> Wasn't RDFa created for this purpose?
Indeed.

-Sarven
https://csarven.ca/#i