[uf-discuss] Hidden elements considered harmful (Was: Inline styleconflict?)

[Mike Schinkel]

Scott Reynen wrote:
> In general: hiding elements only hides them from humans, and 
> leaves the content more accessible for machines than humans.  
> Microformats are for humans first.  For publishers: hidden 
> elements are less likely to be kept up-to-date.  

Counterpoint:  For data generated from a database where the data is visible
elsewhere, this becomes a specious argument.

Scott Reynen wrote:
> For parsers: 
> hidden elements are more likely to contain spam.

John Allsopp wrote:
> I think the fate of the meta element (unused by any search 
> engine) pretty much demonstrates the difficult with invisible 
> meta data

Counterpoint: These are specious arguments in the context of metadata that
is more tightly constrained and of the type that would provide spammers
little or no benefit. For example, I am not aware of spammers using <LINK>
elements yet <LINK> elements are invisible metadata that are used
appropriately on the web today.

It really makes more sense to look at the use-case rather than to issue a
blanket edit of prohibition.  FWIW.

-- 
-Mike Schinkel
http://www.mikeschinkel.com/blogs/
http://www.welldesignedurls.org/
"It never ceases to amaze how many people will proactively debate away
attempts to improve the web..."