Separate content from presentation
by Volker Weber
It is generally a bad idea to mix content and presenation. If you compare the two screenshots above, you can see what you lose in the mix. No, I don't want to single out Ed's site. It is just one example of an RSS feed that is rendered useless (for me) by this mistake.
Comments
'useless', ouch. I think you might be going a bit too far.
To me, presentation is very important to content. If handed straight informational, dry text in large quantities, I am not going to read it fully absorb it completely. Given the same text wrapped in a nice layout with pleasing fonts and accompanying graphics or colors, I am not only going to be able to endure reading it, but I will remember what I have read and retain it longer.
As an example, have a look up your favorite magazine or a popular newspaper.
I am not a robot.
--Mac Guidera
I should add, that as a developer, I believe that content should be separated from presentation. This gives the flexibility of having content that exists without the presentation or can be displayed in another way.
As far as the end user is concerned they should be able to request content without the wrapper, but they should enjoy it if there is one.
To sum it up...
presentation - good
font tags - bad
useless, too strong.
I am somewhat a robot.
--Mac Guidera
Right - useless sounds too strong. But in the end, I actually remove all feeds that force me to look at their own fonts. Ed is an exception - the only one. That is why I had to take him as an example.
To me, presentation is very important to content
To me as well. So it better be good.
