I Validate the Web Design Home Page and There Were Errors

Question: I Validate the Web Design Home Page and There Were Errors

I am often asked why the HTML for my articles is invalid or uses codes I don't recommend. This may seem like a contradiction, but there is a reason for it.

Answer:

One of the most common misconceptions about the About.com Web Design / HTML site is that I, Jennifer Kyrnin, write all the HTML for About.com.

This isn't true. Not even close. In fact, I really don't write any of the HTML for this site.

I Write Articles on Web Design and HTML

In order to write those articles, I use HTML to describe my pages, but I only control the HTML within the article space of the site. And even that I have very little control over.

About.com Articles Have Tag Limitations

Like many bulletin board and wiki Web sites, the articles that I write for About.com have strict limitations on the HTML tags that I can use within the code. The allowed tags are:

• <p>
• <h3>
• <b> - note, not <strong>
• <i> - note, not <em>
• <br>
• <ul>, <ol>, and <li>
• <a>
• <sup> and <sub>
• <blockquote>

Any other tags that I use in my articles will be either stripped out or displayed as text within the document.

Why Do These Limitations Exist?

About.com is a huge network made up of hundreds of Guides, thousands of topics, and millions of Web pages. In order to manage this content, About.com employs the use of a content management tool. This tool takes the articles that Guides write and puts them into the About.com template. It ensures that no matter what skill level the Guide author has, the pages will all look the same and follow the same About.com rules.

But This Results in Invalid HTML

The developers at About.com had to make a choice between valid HTML, development time, site optimization issues, and Guide skills. Because of all these issues (and probably others I'm unaware of) they created the templates as you see them here. And they don't validate in HTML validators.

I feel that it would be better if the templates validated, but I don't write the HTML for them and I don't know what other constraints the developers are under. If you still feel that this is a serious problem, you can and let them know.