why-examples

2006-12-21T22:34:40Z

AndreiScheinkman: /* Why examples first */ Fix spelling

= Why examples first =

Author/Editor: [http://tantek.com/ Tantek]

The microformats [[process]] requirement to first document [[examples]] of real world publishing behavior is an adaptation of the "gather information" step in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method scientific method] to standards development. The microformats process is the first to explicitly adopt and require this methodology among standards efforts, and to date is the only effort to do so in the world of standards development as compared to other standards development organizations.

Common behavior in typical standards development organizations is to simply invent standards / formats based upon intuition or so-called "expertise", and to either not bother collecting examples at all, or to do so only incidentally, or for brief illustration, always serving at best as secondary. Sometimes this intuition masquerades as formal "requirements" that are similarly invented rather than based upon actual publishing practice in the real world.

That non-scientific technique has been tried in many (most) standards and results more often than not in bloated overly complex (certainly not "micro") standards. There are exceptions, where an individual with exceptional discipline and near obsession with simplicity makes something small and elegant, but they are the exception, not the rule, and even in those cases you will often find features that no one ever ends up using.

This particular contrast between traditional standards development and microformats can also be summarized as the philosophical difference between ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_priori_and_a_posteriori_%28philosophy%29 a priori and a posteriori]'' knowledge. That is, traditional standards take more of an ''a priori'' approach, independent of real-world experience (data), while microformats take an ''a posteriori'' approach that is dependent on real-world experience, where "experience" in this sentence refers to actual "experiences" that occur in the real-world, in particular the Web, and are documented as such, not someone being "experienced" or an expert in their field etc.

== More Reading ==

References and see also:

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method The scientific method]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_priori_and_a_posteriori_%28philosophy%29 a priori and a posteriori (philosophy)]
* [http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/nature/I3basicquestions.shtml Science Asks Three Basic Questions] - in particular for this topic, "What’s there?"

vote-links

2006-11-30T06:56:26Z

AndreiScheinkman: Fix Technorati URL

= Vote Links =
__TOC__
== Specification 2005 ==
=== Editor ===
* [http://tantek.com/ Tantek Çelik], [http://technorati.com Technorati, Inc.] (formerly of [http://microsoft.com/ Microsoft Corporation])

=== Concept ===
* [http://epeus.blogspot.com/ Kevin Marks], [http://technorati.com Technorati, Inc.]

=== Authors ===
* [http://epeus.blogspot.com/ Kevin Marks], [http://technorati.com Technorati, Inc]
* [http://tantek.com/ Tantek Çelik], [http://technorati.com Technorati, Inc]

=== Copyright ===
{{MicroFormatCopyrightStatement2004}}

=== Patents ===
{{MicroFormatPatentStatement}}

=== Inspiration and Acknowledgments ===
Thanks to everyone who has given feedback on VoteLinks. Thanks especially to EtanWexler, who provided the first really good documentation that VoteLinks should be using 'rev' instead of 'rel' (see [[VoteLinksFAQ]]), and John Allsopp who similarly challenged the use of 'rel', and helped co-author the [[RelFAQ]] exploring questions and issues about the use of the HTML4 'rel', 'rev' attributes and linktypes in general.

== Introduction ==
Indexing and tracking applications treat all links as endorsements, or expressions of support. This is a problem, as we need to link to those we disagree with as well, to discuss why.

== Specification ==
VoteLinks is an [[elemental-microformat|elemental microformat]], one of several [[microformats|microformat]] open standards.
We propose a set of three new values for the rev attribute of the <a> (hyperlink) tag in HTML.

The new values are "vote-for" "vote-abstain" or "vote-against", which are mutually exclusive, and represent agreement, abstention or indifference, and disagreement respectively.

A link without an explicit vote 'rev' value is deemed to have value "vote-for" or "vote-abstain", depending on the application.

Additional human-readable commentary can be added using the existing 'title' attribute, which most browsers show as a rollover.

Examples:
<pre><nowiki>
<a rev="vote-for" href="http://ragingcow.blogspot.com"
title="neat spoof">Raging Cow</a>
<a rev="vote-against" href="http://ragingcow.com"
title="nasty corn syrup drink">Raging Cow</a>
</nowiki></pre>

=== Deprecated: Using 'rel' for VoteLinks ===
A previous draft of the specification used the 'rel' value instead of the 'rev' attribute. Analysis and feedback has demonstrated this to have been inappropriate use of the 'rel' attribute, when the 'rev' attribute was much more important. See the [[RelFAQ]] for more details.

Implementations MAY support links with the VoteLinks values in the 'rel' attribute for backward compatibility with any existing VoteLinks content.

Authors MUST NOT use 'rel' for VoteLinks values.

== XMDP profile ==
<pre><nowiki>
<dl class="profile">
<dt id="rev">rev</dt>
<dd><p><a rel="help" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html#adef-rev">
HTML4 definition of the 'rev' attribute.</a>
Here are some additional values.</p>
<dl>
<dt id="vote-for">vote-for</dt>
<dd>Indicates agreement with or recommendation for the referred resource.</dd>
<dt id="vote-abstain">vote-abstain</dt>
<dd>Indicates abstention or indifference for the referred resource.</dd>
<dt id="vote-against">vote-against</dt>
<dd>Indicates disagreement with or recommendation against the referred resource.</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
</nowiki></pre>

== Implementations ==
This section is '''informative'''.

* [http://moloko.itc.it/paoloblog/ Paolo Massa] created [http://moloko.itc.it/paoloblog/semantic_links/ SemanticLinks], a small Firefox extension that shows vote-for, vote-against links information. (Note the download links for SemanticLinks have been removed by the author.)

== Normative References ==
* [http://gmpg.org/xmdp/ XMDP]

== Related Work ==
* [[xoxo]]
* [http://gmpg.org/xfn/ XFN]
* [http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/attentionxml Attention.xml]
* [[rellicense]]
* [[reltag]]
* [[relnofollow]]

== FAQ ==
* See [[votelinks-faq]] and the broader [[rel-faq]].
* See also [[votelinks-issues]] for issues which have been raised with the votelinks [[microformat]].

Microformats Wiki - User contributions [en]

why-examples

vote-links