Re: proper use of validation icons

Rui del-Negro wrote:

>> Jukka K. Korpela <jkorpela@cs.tut.fi> wrote:
>>
>> What about the 99 % of surfers who have no intention
>> of reporting markup errors?
>
> What about the 99% of visitors that have no intention of ever clicking
> Google's "Privacy" link?

They are not bothered because they know what "Privacy" means, more or less. 
Validity icons are obscure and enigmatic.

> The validation icons exist for a reason (for several reasons, in fact,
> both practical and ideological), which people have explained over and
> over again.

Several justifications have been presented, usually on a very loose ground.

> Clearly the W3C undestands those reasons, or they would
> not make the icons available.

I don't know their motives, but they are clearly presenting false arguments 
like
"To show your readers that you have taken the care to create an 
interoperable Web page",
which is absurd, and W3C people should know that. Validity certainly does 
not mean interoperability. - Funnily enough, the FAQ says "taken some care". 
There's "some" difference in tone!

They don't say _why_ a web author should show such a claim to visitors (and 
don't explain how the visitor is supposed to derive the idea of 
interoperability from the expression in the image or its alt text)

I guess it's just human not to remove some propaganda you have been 
presenting even if you realise it's fake. And within an organization, who 
would want to make such a move? You would just run into trouble; it's easier 
to let things be as they are.

> Must the validator list go through this argument whenever someone
> asks a question related to the icons?

If the question is whether one can use an icon claiming valid XHTML 1.1, for 
a page that isn't valid XHTML 1.1, then "No" is a correct answer but "You 
shouldn't use those icons at all", with a reference to arguments, is both 
correct and much more useful. And the person who asks probably hasn't seen 
the previous discussions.

> You don't like them?

Did I say so? Did I refer to my own feelings? Anyway, in a weird sense I 
like them - as signs of cluelessness.

-- 
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Received on Sunday, 7 June 2009 20:46:18 UTC