Joshua Kaufman & Anitra Pavka: Keeping me (More) Honest

In the past, I've improved Zen Haiku based Joshua Kaufman's postings on his web log or comments on mine. I may even be dragged kicking and screaming into using <cite> for citations and the <abbr> tag for abbreviations like CSS. I'm not clear why I'm a big fan of structural markup when it comes to headlines but not abbreviations.

So just now it occurred to me on reading Joshua Kaufman's mention [03/25/2004 - link removed] of a CHI-WEB posting by Cindy Lu about required form fields that I did not indicate which fields commenters must fill out. I like the Movable Type default of requiring Name and Comment and either Email or URL.

So now I am indicating which fields are required for a comment to be allowed. I like the word "required" more than the "*" marking.

I wonder how many usability web loggers have bothered to run usability tests on their own web logs. I know I haven't. Now that I have a search on the site it could be fun.

Switching gears slightly from usability to accessibility (that word is hard to spell right), Anitra Pavka is the accessibility site I visit the most. She linked to the Wave 3.0 alpha accessibility tool just as I started making Zen Haiku more accessible.

Posted by Chad Lundgren on Monday, January 13, 2003 (Link)

Comments

Posted by Blaine Monday, January 13, 2003 at 12:13 PM

I believe in regards to why you use some proper CSS and some out dated stuff is probably what you are used to. I know with me I'm always using the [b] tag instead of using "proper" CSS.

Posted by Joshua Kaufman Monday, January 13, 2003 at 02:06 PM

Thanks, Chad. If your looking into using the cite tag, you may want to read Mark Pilgrim's entry in which he explains how the cite tag will soon become semantically obsolete.
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/01/13.html#semantic_obsolescence

By the way, don't forget to check your Preview and Error template forms. I had some difficulty leaving this comment without my email.

Posted by Rotwang Wednesday, January 15, 2003 at 10:12 AM

Why *require* names and e-mail addresses on an unauthenticated web site? That's a bit silly.

Posted by Chad Lundgren Wednesday, January 15, 2003 at 11:53 AM

It tends to improve comment quality since people have to make the effort to fill out the email address, real or not. Besides, people's fake email addresses are kind of a verbal Rorschach test.

Posted by Rorschach Wednesday, January 15, 2003 at 05:25 PM

Fake e-mail addresses say nothing about anyone.

By the way, when I click "preview" the resulting page gives me an empty comment form. I then have to hit my "back" button and click "post" or my message is lost.

Posted by karen Thursday, January 30, 2003 at 09:29 PM

Actually, you should use the tag for acronyms like CSS. The tag is is for abbreviations, such as Blvd for Boulevard.