Displaying W3C compliance

Question

I think most people agree that complying with W3C standards is a worthwhile pursuit.

However, do you advertise the fact that your site is compliant? Are there positives or negatives to doing so?

If you do display your compliance, how do you do it?

Eudora

Answer 1

I don't, because the average user has no knowledge of what it means for a website to "be valid".

If someone who cares about such things is interested, they probably wouldn't take my word for it anyway - they'd run my site through the validator themselves, probably using a tool such as Firebug.

Piderit

Answer 2

It depends on your audience. If it's a tech site, you may promote your compliance.
If it's a simple blog, it's just superficial.

There are buttons that link to the W3C, that immediately validate the referer site (as a check for your visitors, if you misplaced it).

I would put a little text with such a link in the imprint or about page. So interested people can look, but the normal user is not annoyed.
Such a button on every page would just steal space :)

Oujda

Answer 3

I don't, mainly for two reasons:

1. Nobody cares, and those that do will probably be using a Firefox extension that tells them anyway.
2. Being 100% valid isn't the be-all and end-all in web design, there are sometimes legitimate reasons to break validation.

Obviously #2 requires great caution, when doing the initial CSS build having valid markup is a must, and any errors in the final build should be well justified.

I also used to think that as a web professional it went without saying that my markup was valid, and to a certain extent that's still true but as you can see my standpoint has moved some what.

Bullington

Answer 4

i find it a good practice. i don't know if many users pay any attention into it, but as a developer, the more i see it on sites, the more i feel compelled to use the standards. i find it as a means of showing each other that we find this important.

don't see any negatives, and coding standard-wise has made my work much easier over the years.

as for how- i use the standard w3c logo, but i've seen many sites who styled their own version.

Wham

Answer 5

I used to, but I've come to the conclusion that it causes users more problems then the benefits are worth. Jukka explains it best.

There have been instances of people containing the W3C Validator community (through the mailing list) after following a logo link from Example Site and thinking the contact information for the Validator community was the contact information for Example Site!

Bedfellow

Answer 6

Several times I've seen people with these icons, where their front pages validate, but subpages often have errors that nobody noticed.

And you could actually click the XHTML valid image (the ones guerda's linked to) and be taken to W3C, which would say in big letters, "Validation failed!"

If you want to support the aims of the W3C, then go for it. By all means, knock yourself out. Get the pages valid. You don't even have to assert it to the visitors. But if you do want to assert it to the visitors, then your page had darn-well-better be valid!

You'll have to continue to check into the future as your content changes. If your site is huge or particularly dynamic, it may not be possible to do this. It may not be worth the effort.

Shortcake

Answer 7

I think it's a good thing to show it off. Most websites have some empty space at the bottom (like SO). Why not put the buttons there? The average user won't care and will just ignore them, and people like me will be happy to know that you follow the standards.

Unstriped

Answer 8

Mostly, it adds yet another unnecessary thing to your page - especially for non-technical users. When you read a page, how often do you actually care about it's HTML or CSS code as long as it works?

Symphonize

Answer 9

If the page is your professional web portfolio/IT-related site then you sure could, why not. The audience will understand it and should appreciate. However, on the sites with non-technical audience this is a bit pointless.

The validity information is in some sense like a build number of the app. Why someone would like to know that? And if someone does care, he can still go to "about" or "contact webmaster" page, where you can include those kind of information.

Having that said, as a programmer I like to see it on the pages. And it hurts nobody.

Reflective

Answer 10

I have a w3c compliant blog but don't display the fact. I'm a graphic designer and just made sure my site was compliant from a professional standpoint in case someone felt like checking before hiring me.

Cammie