> One of Andy's 10 questions answers reinforced this by the use of words > like "fascist" (a fascist is a pretty nasty thing BTW) to describe some > people (easily misunderstood as everyone) in the web standards > community who might be overly zealous about whether or not a site > validates. Not that I think even these creatures abound, and are > certainly not part of the hard core of the web standards community.
John, Andy has answered most of you comments eloquently, as always. However, I'd like to address the "web standards fascism" comment. The actual question was asked by me to Andy (so your criticism should be aimed at me). "Do you think there is an element of web standards fascism in the web development community?" Firstly, the term 'web standards fascists' was meant to be tongue in cheek. Secondly, the reason for the question was because a small section of the web community seemed to be attacking the Web Standards Awards for a period just after it began. Basically, any site that was nominated was attacked - and sometimes for extremely pedantic reasons. This sort of attitude is completely counter-productive. It can actually undermine the confidence of people who are just starting to feel good about moving towards web standards. I had already talked about this to Andy, so it seemed like a good question to be asking in public. Finally, I think your objection to the term is probably one of definition. So, here are my definitions for what they are worth: If you believe in standards, are passionate about them and want to convert others through co-operative behaviour then you could be considered to be an 'evangelist'. If you use web standards (or any knowledge for that matter) as a weapon against people, with the purpose of exposing them or making them feel bad then you could be called a 'web standards fascist'. This is a fine line as constructive criticism is always valuable, but destructive criticism is not. Am I sounding like a fortune cookie again? Russ ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help *****************************************************
