posh

2009-01-03T03:35:21Z

LavilAcdel: troctralelt

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<div style="float:right;margin-left:1em">__TOC__</div>
<h1>Plain Old Semantic HTML (POSH)</h1>

Welcome to the <abbr title="Plain Old Semantic HTML">POSH</abbr> home page.

== Origins ==
The acronym '''POSH''' was coined [http://rbach.priv.at/Microformats-IRC/2007-04-06#T091456 on 6 April 2007] on the microformats IRC channel, by <kwijibo> as a shorthand abbreviation for "plain old semantic HTML". A discussion on among John Allsopp, Tantek Ãelik, Jeremy Keith, and Chris Messina at the [[events/2007-04-18-web-2-expo-dinner|Microformats Dinner 2007 April 18 following Web 2.0 Expo]] reraised the idea of POSH and the importance of promoting the broader goal of POSH, which microformats are built from and are a proper subset of. For more see [[posh#History|History]].

== Why ==
The term [[semantic-html]] is a mouthful, and belies both how simple it is, how well established it is among modern web designers, and the fact that it has benefits far beyond the obvious doing the right thing for the Web by using semantic markup. We need a simple short mnemonic term that captures the essence of the concept, and is easily verbed (to posh, poshify, poshed up).

== What ==
POSH encapsulates the best practices of using [[semantic-html|semantic HTML]] to author web pages. Semantic HTML is the subset of HTML 4.01 (or XHTML 1.0) elements and attributes that are ''[[semantic]]'' rather than ''[[presentational]]''. The best way to learn and understand POSH is to do it. Pick a page on your web site to begin with, and apply the [[posh#The_POSH_Process|POSH Checklist]] to it. Continue with the [[posh#The_POSH_Process|POSH Process]]. Read [[posh#Resources|POSH Resources]] to learn more about POSH.

== The POSH Process ==
What can you do to be POSH and to make your websites POSH?

# Publish POSH content. Read POSH [[posh#Resources|resources]] and make sure your website publishes valid [[semantic-html|semantic (X)HTML]], and uses [[semantic-class-names]] accordingly.
# Spread POSH. Encourage others to be POSH and POSHify their websites by linking to this page.
# Improve POSH. Help us gather resources to enable more people to easily POSHify their websites.

== The POSH Checklist ==
* The first rule of POSH is that you must [http://validator.w3.org validate] your POSH.
* Second, drop the use of TABLEs for purely presentational purposes, spacer GIFs, and [[presentational-html]] in general.
* Next, fix your [http://tantek.com/log/2002/10.html#L20021022t1432 '''B'''ed and '''BR'''eakfast] markup.
* Eliminate [http://tantek.com/log/2002/11.html#L20021128t1352 Anorexic Anchors].
* Use good [[semantic-class-names]].
* ...

== poshformats ==
The term "poshformats" distinguishes one-off, ad-hoc or more informal class-name based formats efforts from the more formally researched and documented microformats. Another way of describing the distinction is that microformats are the proper subset of poshformats which have been developed via the microformats [[process]] and [[principles]], rather than made-up a-priori.

See [[poshformats]] for more.

== Resources ==
=== POSH Tutorials ===
Step by step tutorials to create POSH content or upgrade existing content to POSH.

* [http://westciv.com/style_master/house/tutorials/quick/validation/index.html Validating your css and html] A simple step by step guide to how and why you should validate your markup
* ...

=== POSH Bookmarks ===
* Check out the Ma.gnolia [http://ma.gnolia.com/groups/posh POSH Group]
* See pages tagged both [http://del.icio.us/tag/posh+microformats POSH and microformats] on del.icio.us.

=== POSH Presentations ===
Presentations which explain and advocate concepts and techniques for utilizing semantic HTML. If/when this section gets too big, we can move it to [[posh-presentations]].
* [http://tantek.com/presentations/2003SXSW/stylesheets.html CSS: Between the Style Sheets by Tantek Ãelik (2003-03)], specifically, see slides 3-4,6 starting with "Leaving the [http://tantek.com/log/2002/10.html#L20021022t1432 ed & eakfast]", and slide 9 "CSS & the Semantic Spectrum" which provides an overview of the semantic spectrum of (X)HTML tags.
* [http://www.tantek.com/presentations/2004etech/realworldsemanticspres.html real world semantics] (2004-02-11)
* [http://tantek.com/presentations/20040928sdforumws/semantic-xhtml.html Semantic XHTML: Can your website be your API? - Using semantic XHTML to show what you mean] (2004-09-28)
* [http://tantek.com/presentations/2005/09/elements-of-xhtml/ The Elements of Meaningful XHTML] (2005-09-29, first version: [http://tantek.com/presentations/2005/03/elementsofxhtml/ 2005-03-13 at SXSW Interactive]).
* ...
* See also more microformats [[presentations]] in general.

=== POSH Books ===
Modern web design books which document good semantic HTML practices.
* <cite>[http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wdnut3/ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/covers/0596009879_thumb.gif] [http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wdnut3/ Web Design in a Nutshell, Third Edition]</cite> by Jennifer Niederst Robbins See [http://jenville.com/ Jenville].
* <cite>[http://microformatique.com/book/ Microformats empowering your markup for Web 2.0]</cite> by John Allsopp. Chapter 3 is a detailed and practical overview of the appropriate use of structural, valid and semantic HTML.
* <cite>[http://htmlmastery.com/ http://htmlmastery.com/images/hm-cover-sm.gif][http://htmlmastery.com/ Semantics, Standards and Styling]</cite> by Paul Haine.
* <cite>[http://www.sitepoint.com/books/html1/ http://www.sitepoint.com/images/books/html1/books-index.gif][http://www.sitepoint.com/books/html1/ Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS]</cite> by Ian Lloyd.

=== POSH Magazines ===
Online (and off) magazines which frequently publish articles about semantic HTML. If/when this section gets too big, we can move it to [[posh-magazines]].

* [http://alistapart.com/ A List Apart: For People Making Websites] (see in particular [http://www.alistapart.com/topics/code/htmlxhtml/ HTML and XHTML Articles])
* [http://www.digital-web.com/ Digital Web Magazine]

=== POSH Blogs ===
Blogs that with some regularity post high quality discussions, insights, and in general have advanced the state of the art of POSH. If/when this section gets too big, we can move it to [[posh-blogs]].

* [http://dbaron.org/log/current David Baron's weblog]
* [http://zeldman.com/ Jeffrey Zeldman Presents]
* [http://meyerweb.com/ meyerweb.com - Eric Meyer]
* [http://microformatique.com/ Microformatique - John Allsopp]
* [http://simplebits.com/ SimpleBits - Dan Cederholm] (see in particular [http://simplebits.com/bits/simplequiz/ SimpleQuiz])
* [http://tantek.com/ Tantek Ãelik]
* ...

=== POSH Blog posts ===
Blog posts that provide specific, modern, guidance, techniques and tips for using more and better semantic HTML. This list is ''incomplete''. We know there are lots more blog posts out there that fit the aforementioned description - please add them! If/when this section gets too big, we can move it to [[posh-blog-posts]].

* [http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200711/posh_plain_old_semantic_html/ POSH - Plain Old Semantic HTML] by Roger Johansson.
* [http://www.plaintxt.org/wp-content/uploads/sandbox-v09_readme.html The Sandbox theme for WordPress readme.html] discusses what POSH is and how the theme helps users use it.
* [http://tantek.com/log/2002/10.html#L20021022t1432 Bed and BReakfast markup (B&BR)] (2002-10-22) - avoiding nonsemantic uses of <nowiki>old and eak</nowiki> tags and using <nowiki><h3>adings and aragraphs</nowiki> instead.
* [http://tantek.com/log/2002/11.html#L20021128t1352 <nowiki><A>norexic </A>nchors</nowiki>] (2002-11-28) - use the "id" attribute on existing elements instead of adding empty <code><nowiki><a name="foo"></a></nowiki></code> elements. Use [[rel-bookmark]] for post permalinks within the document.
* [http://tantek.com/log/2002/12.html#L20021216t2238 A Touch of Class] (2002-12-16) - introduction to proper use of the HTML 'class' attribute.
* [http://tantek.com/log/2002/12.html#L20021231t1850 Dive into Semantic MARKup] (2002-12-31)
* [http://tantek.com/log/2003/01.html#L20030104t1249 Comment markup, presentation and plumbing] (2003-01-04) - how to markup a list of comments, including example use of the rare "hreflang" attribute.
* [http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2004/07/18/competent-classing Competent Classing by Eric Meyer] (2004-07-18)
* [http://tantek.com/log/2004/07.html#d20t2359 More about the 'class' attribute] (2004-07-20)
* [http://www.uie.com/articles/holzschlag_interview/ Web Standards in the Real World: An Interview with Molly Holzschlag] (2005-06-01)
* [http://westciv.typepad.com/dog_or_higher/2005/11/webpatterns_and.html Webpatterns and websemantics] (2005-11-18)
* [http://www.thefutureoftheweb.com/blog/2006/2/writing-semantic-html Writing Semantic HTML by Jesse Skinner] (2006-02-22)
* [http://www.thefutureoftheweb.com/blog/2007/1/who-will-read-your-semantic-html Who will read your Semantic HTML?] by Jesse Skinner (2007-01-04)
* [http://microformatique.com/?page_id=109 Semantics in HTML] by John Allsopp (2007-01-08 - 2007-03-12)
** [http://microformatique.com/?p=83 Part I - Traditional HTML Semantics] (2007-01-08)
** [http://microformatique.com/?p=97 Part II - standardizing vocabularies] (2007-02-20)
** [http://microformatique.com/?p=108 Part III - Towards a semantic web] (2007-03-12)
* [http://microformatique.com/?p=82 Built in HTML semantics] A list of the semantic elements and attributes of HTML by John Allsopp (2007-01-08)
* [http://tantek.com/log/2007/04.html#d20t0823 The Importance of Being POSH] by Tantek Ãelik (2007-04-20)
* [http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/04/21/getting-back-to-posh-plain-ol-semantic-html/ Getting back to POSH (Plain olâ Semantic HTML)] by Chris Messina (2007-04-21)
* [http://friedcellcollective.net/outbreak/2007/04/22/im-posh-are-you/ Iâm POSH - are you?] (2007-04-23)
* [http://www.unintentionallyblank.co.uk/2007/04/24/plain-old-semantic-html/ The Internetâs Upper Class Or Why Your Site Should Be POSH] (2007-04-24)
* [http://nate.koechley.com/blog/2006/12/15/divitis_and_correct_div_usage/ On Appropriate Use of DIVs, or When Divitis Doesnât Apply] by Nate Koechley, 2006-12-15
* [http://nate.koechley.com/blog/2006/12/22/note_on_structural_and_semantic_meaning/ Quick Comment: Choose Class/ID Names Based on Semantic and/or Structural Meaning] by Nate Koechley, 2006-12-22
* [http://leland.nu/think/2006/07/31/seeing-is-believing/ SEEing is believing] - using standards and efficient design, coding, maintenance, and marketing to produce a search-engine-efficient site by Richard Leland (2006-07-31)
* [http://nascentguruism.com/journal/perfection/ Perfection] - by Steve Marshall (2007-11-02)
* ...

See [http://technorati.com/search/%22semantic%20HTML%22 more blogs talking about "semantic HTML"] and [http://technorati.com/search/posh+semantic+HTML POSH].

===POSH Podcasts===
If/when this section gets too big, we can move it to [[posh-podcasts]].
* 2007-05-03: [http://www.netmag.co.uk/podcasts/07-05-03-net.mp3 A talk about POSH] in the .Net magazine podcast episode 8 (56 minutes; 26 Mb. Relevant section 30:10-42:40)
* 2005-09-29: [http://microformats.org/media/2005/09/we05-2-tantek-celik.mp3 The Elements of Meaningful XHTML] - podcast of Tantek's presentation by the same name ([http://tantek.com/presentations/2005/09/elements-of-xhtml/ slides])

=== Hidden POSH Treasures ===
The following sites have POSH related articles, tutorials etc. on them, but you have to dig for them from the home page. Help find the hidden POSH treasures in these sites and add ''direct'' links to POSH related articles, tutorials etc. to the specific sections above. You can leave the top level site links here until/unless you have dug thru the entire site and found all the treasures.
* [http://www.w3schools.com/ W3Schools Online Web Tutorials]
* [http://dev.opera.com/ Dev.Opera]

=== POSH Bling for your Blog ===
If you want to improve your existing blog, there are some pretty simple things you can do:

==== WordPress ====
* Use the [http://www.plaintxt.org/themes/sandbox/ Sandbox] or [http://getk2.com K2] themes that already support hAtom and hCard
* Add the [http://redmonk.net/archives/2007/04/18/wordpress-widget-hcard-about-box/ hCard About Widget] to your site

== Spread POSH ==
Now that you've poshified your website(s), what next? Well, help spread POSH to other websites!

* Promote POSH. Make a POSH button (perhaps using semantic HTML and CSS ;) linking to this page and put it on your site, in your blogroll, in your footer, etc. Maybe even come up with a nice POSH button graphic and share it with the microformats community with a liberal license (public domain, CC-by-3.0, MIT, etc.) Like these:
** [http://redmonk.net/archives/2007/04/25/the-new-question/ http://redmonk.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/are_you_posh.png] - [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-by-3.0]
** [http://redmonk.net/archives/2007/04/26/chic/ http://redmonk.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/chic_fancy.png] - [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-by-3.0]
** [http://www.hauntedpalace.net/pandora/craic/poshscribbles.png http://www.hauntedpalace.net/pandora/craic/poshscribbles.png] — [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-by-3.0]
** [http://www.hauntedpalace.net/pandora/craic/poshChopin.png http://www.hauntedpalace.net/pandora/craic/poshChopin.png] — [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-by-3.0]
* Tell a friend. Talk to web design friends about POSH and convince and help them to poshify both their personal websites, and the websites they build for others. Blog about your experience with poshification and what steps you went through to poshify your websites. Write a [[posh-testimonial]]!
* Come up with more ideas to help spread POSH. Here are a few.
** Hold a PoshPit - a one or half day marathon session mixing semantic HTML experts with folks who maintain/run web sites in general and see how many websites you can collectively upgrade to POSH during the course of the day.
** ...

== Improve POSH ==
As you read the [[posh#Resources|POSH resources]] documented here, what other POSH resources did you find? Add them to this page.

With your experience with both poshifying your sites and helping others do so, what have you learned? What kind of [[posh-issues|issues]] did you run into? What questions were commonly asked? What do you feel like you need to more easily and quickly help more people poshify their content?

== History ==
A brief history of references to "POSH" in this context and "plain old semantic HTML".

=== plain old semantic HTML ===
The earliest references to "plain old semantic HTML" that have been found so far are:
* [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.infosystems.www.authoring.site-design/msg/2373e9043c08cba4 1998-05-01: Kirrily 'Skud' Robert on comp.infosystems.www.authoring.site-design] - "The site is implemented in HTML 4.0 Transitional with style sheets; this means that anyone with an older browser won't get presentational markup, just plain old semantic HTML. "
* [http://www.highrankings.com/advisor/tables-seo/ 2006-09-21 Drew's comment by on "Tables and SEO"]: "Iâd say itâs well worth it for a variety of reasons to only use tables when youâre presenting tabular data, and use plain old semantic HTML to mark up your content in all other cases." (retrieved by [[User:Tantek|Tantek]] 08:20, 20 Apr 2007 (PDT))
If you can find earlier references, please ''add'' them and include a brief quotation of the context of the reference to "plain old semantic HTML".

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