What is the point of using W3C valid badges?

Question

I'm talking about these.

Yeah, I know they are intended to show that the page conforms to the standards and should link to page revalidation service. Ok. But why should I as a regular user bother with this? As a visitor I'm indifferent to whether the page is strict XHTML or not, whether it contains dirty IE hacks or not. It is important that a page renders correctly, is convenient and works fast. That's all! And in reality, in many cases these requirements don't get along with W3C standards smoothly.

So what is the mania to add something targeted toward developers to a product face? Am I missing a point?

Answer 1

It's just a way to show your technically competent users that you are technically competent. They have no other reason to be. I try to validate always, but never put them. If I had a blog, I might put them in the about section.

Answer 2

It's just bragging rights. Same as any badge/award implementation. Sure, it doesn't really matter to 99% of your visitors, but it might matter to you, the developer.

Answer 3

It's not a selling point like the "Be Safe With " type tags.

Including the w3c badges are a way to show that you know that there are standards that should be followed for web page construction. It's a way of showing that you want to be courteous to all users no matter the browser and to help promote the idea that browsers should implement, at least, the standards.

It's also a way to educate your readers. Not everyone knows that these standards exist or why they exist. Educating your readers will hopefully empower them to find a browser that fits their browsing expectations and to raise those expectations above "show me some images from 4chan."

Though, at the end of the day, it usually turns out to be another way to put things on a website because you lack the artistic savvy to make things look good without putting 'stickers' all over something.

Answer 4

It´s weird but virtual medals do work. It´s no coincidence that SO has rep and badges.

Answer 5

There are plenty of sites with important text that is missed by my browser because I don't use the browser that the author of the page used. If I see one of these badges then I can be confident that all of the page is rendered.

It is important that a page renders correctly, is convenient and works fast. Thats all! And in reality, in many cases these requirements don't get along with W3C standards smoothly.

You don't think these are conflicting ?

I would take the validated page over the "with hacks for every browser" page any day.

Answer 6

It matters to no one, including potential employers and other developers and especially not to users. I've seen pages that do NOT validate despite the badges, and valid markup only means the syntax is correct but does not mean it's well designed, laid out, formatted, well thought out, flexible, usable, or of any interest to anyone else. I'll look at the markup to see what the author has done and that is what counts.

Answer 7

As a visitor I'm indifferent to whether the page is strict XHTML or not, whether it contains dirty IE hacks or not.

Well, if you are using Safari and the site only works with IE because of "dirty IE hacks" then for you, the site is broken and useless. Likewise, if you are an IE user, and the site is full of "dirty Firefox hacks" then the site will be broken for you as well.

Answer 8

You do not need the badges. When they are present however, they indicate for you that all modern browsers will render the page [almost] identically.

An example: they give the user a confidence that when he goes back home (at office he is forced to use Mac OS X, but has Windows at home), the page will still display properly for him. Nothing critical, but sometimes really important to know.