[uf-discuss] Visible Data...a Microformat requirement?

[Tantek Ç elik]

On 10/22/06 11:10 PM, "Mike Schinkel" <mikeschinkel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Brian Suda recently said:
> 
>>> the problem with using Meta elements is that they are out-side
>>> of human-readable realm. One of the key factors in microformats
>>> is to keep the data visible, it keeps it fresh, prevents   many of
>>> the abuses that have befallen meta-keywords, and also allows
>>> for microformats to be fully emebedded in other formats like
>>> Atom, RSS, etc.
> 
> My question is this: What about when what you have is really metadata and
> not anything (currently, at least) stored on the HTML page?

Rarely is metadata actually metadata.

It is most often simply properties of the information which are still
relevant to the user and thus should be visible.

If it is not worth or appropriate to make the information visible, then it
is not worth trusting the information and certainly not worth the time to
make a microformat for it.

Note that in addition to visible text, visibility can be in the form of a
the interactivity of a hyperlink (its URL), or in the CSS used to style
something with a particular attribute (e.g. XFN), or in the tooltip shown
for title attributes.

> (I'm asking
> because several things I want to propose will fit into that category...)

Have you tried using as many existing microformats as you can on your
current sites?

Tantek