(Below is a short resume in Bulgarian / По-долу има кратко резюме на български)
Recently I had to choose a theme for another WordPress blog. Simplicity was needed (with the feeling of strictness) – elegant, clean, less colors, at least one sidebar on the left, widget ready, valid HTML and CSS according to W3C validator.
Next logical step – search the WordPress theme viewer. Start of browsing and comparing. A lot. There are thousands of themes out there. Did not exactly count them, however I looked at at least two hundred. So I come up with a list of fifty (50) visually acceptible ones. Test runned these, and guess what – most of them did not validate.
Fourty three (43) WordPress themes out of fifty were invalid. I must admit that there were some with only one or two errors – which could be fixed easily by source code editing, but the fact is a fact. Only seven (7) themes meet HTML web standarts. But that’s not all, folks. The test run can not fully substitute real theme implementation in a working blog. Uploaded them and started switching. Was really surprised to see that only one (1) of them was valid XHTML and CSS!
I could understand some issues about the problem. If a theme is comlpex, has a lot of add-ons, three of more columns, super-extra-mega-giga funcionality, is ultra-fancy-fashion-modern etc. – the code is more likely to break invalid. But come on – 86 % for a simple WordPress theme is way too much, even in the test run. Really. Not to speak about the 98 % which failed the real test. Awful.
Are most theme authors so ignorant about web standarts? I guess they are. Or just plain lazy. Why they have to break the admired WordPress usability and accessibility? A fact – most visual designers mess up the CSS and HTML in order to achieve the look they want. No wonder the result is invalid.
The beauty of open source is in its variety and creativity; freedom. The ability to make changes to someone else’s work. I’ve seen themes done by begginers, that overcome those made by veteran so called „professionals“. Anyone can contribute to the project and anyone can benefit from it. But people, please, try to keep your work valid!
Code shoud be poetry. Invalid poetry is bad. No matter how aestetic and beautiful the visual desing of a site/blog is, if the code powering it is broken, the whole value depreciates drastically.
I strongly believe, that the most important thing on an Internet site/blog is the content – correct, passionate, nicely put information; analisys, feelings, stories. I expect the visual desing should help me read/listen/watch the quality (sometimes quantity) content; perception without troubles. On all platforms, OS’s, browsers. The core idea of existing web standarts. The reason why content is separated from design.
That is why I deny to willingly look at invalid sites/blogs. Sometimes I am pressed by inavoidable issues to do that. But the look at the red cross in the status bar (HTML validator plugin for Firefox) makes me feel uncomfortable; I dislike bad feelings.
An appeal to coders, designers, theme authors – guys, please, I beg you – do you best to validate your work! I admire it and will strongly appreciate that.
Thank you in advance. Salute you with a love song about web standards :).
Кратко резюме:
Огромен брой визуални теми за уърдпрес (не особено сложни или с екстри) не са валидни според уеб стандартите, както установих при търсенето на нещо семпло за един друг блог. От общо 50 цели 43 се провалиха на вградения тест, а при реално прилагане – само една – 1 – се оказа валидна! Авторите им или не им пука за уеб стандартите, или са просто мързеливи. Не е редно при стремежа към визуално съвършенство да се пренебрегва валидното кодиране. Аз търся в Интернет качествена информация, идеята е визуалното и пакетиране да не ми пречи на възприемането. Без значение платформата, операционната система, браузъра. За това съществуват и уеб стандартите. Отказвам доброволно да гледам невалиден код. Не ми харесва, кофти е.
Апел към кодери, дизайнери, автори на теми – хора, моля, умолявам ви дори – направете възможното, за да е валидна работата ви! Възхищавам и се и ще съм ви много благодарен за това.
Мерси предварително. Поздрав с песента за Уеб стандарите, за която Мишел писа :).