[wp-testers] Quote?

[Owen Winkler]

Doug Stewart wrote:
> All due respect, Owen, but semantics _do_ matter.  The default theme
> outputs blockquotes styled with quotes.  If the WYSIWYG editor is
> outputting <blockquote>, then newbies will start asking "Why are my
> indents all showing up with quote marks?" in the fora.

Don't you find this styling of a block quote perfectly acceptable for 
text that was marked-up as <blockquote>?  If anything is wrong, then 
it's the label on the button, not its function.

Perhaps the correct *question* to ask is, "How do I style the tags that 
WordPress does create to look like how I want?"

> I think that those on the design/implementation side of things MUST be
> pedantic and think through their actions, lest they incur all manner
> of unforseen consequences down the line.

Of what I've seen people ask for - usually two separate buttons, one for 
<blockquote> and one to indent - the only semantically correct tag is 
<blockquote>.  It is my assertion that there is no semantically correct 
"indent" tag, because the act of indenting is a layout feature.

Anyway, even popular services such as Technorati have all but eschewed 
semantic markup for microformats (custom rel attributes).  WordPress 
itself uses XFN microformats in its blogroll.  I've always considered 
WordPress an effective instrument in swaying web technology, but I'm not 
convinced that blogging will benefit from exclusively semantic tagging, 
nor will it suddenly change its course away from what it's already doing 
just because WordPress implements it.

Besides that, the markup that the WYSI editor creates is largely out of 
our control anyway.  The TinyMCE editor is a part of WordPress that is 
included from a separate project on sourceforge, and the button merely 
triggers a feature of the browser's built-in editing capabilities.  If 
there is a true argument to use semantically correct tagging in the 
editor, it should probably be addressed on their support channels.

Doesn't Andy have enough to do, after all?  ;)

Owen