[my apologies... Some magical accidental keystroke sent out a partial message to the list]
I was checking out the latest addition to the microformats family--namely the WordPress hResume plug-in, which looks awesome--and I realized the opening line about microformats might be improved a bit. I may be sticking my finger into a bee's nest... But words are worth caring about, so here goes. The current opening blurb is: == Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards. Instead of throwing away what works today, microformats intend to solve simpler problems first by adapting to current behaviors and usage patterns (e.g. XHTML, blogging). == That's pretty good. Focuses on two critical pillars: humans first and paving the cowpaths. But when I read it today at the hResume site, with the mental filter of how this would look to a new audience, I was left wondering "But /what/ is it?". I remembered this feeling from the first time reading through the microformats wiki, which goes on from the opening blurb to state: microformats are: [snip] microformats are not: [snip] the microformats principles [snip] Again, all great descriptions... Yet still leaving me wondering the most basic level of concreteness: what are they? Javascript libraries? An XML vocabulary? PHP tools? The most specific language is "data format standard." Is that like HTML? Is it just an RFC for the next web thing? Of course, I know the answers to all of these things, now. But it took me a while to get there. May I suggest a revision to the opening blurb? I realize I could edit the Wiki directly, but this may be hallowed ground, hence the introduction via my experience. How about changing == Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards. == To == Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon (X)HTML and CSS. == This seems to immediately concretize the "existing and widely adopted standards". It's a bit shorter and to my eye a bit clearer and more powerful. Thoughts? -j -- Joe Andrieu [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1 (805) 705-8651 _______________________________________________ microformats-discuss mailing list microformats-discuss@microformats.org http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
