[thelist] What to do before I ask for a Site Check

[MRC]

Eric,

    Personally, I would draw a distinction between a site-check request and
a "why is problem x happening?" plea. A site-check request is generally
intended to get feedback on the look-and-feel, usability, and accessibility
of a site. Some accessibility and usability issues are the result of the
underlying code (such as missing alt attributes on images), while others are
simply the result of overall design and layout.
    Some of these coding issues are obvious without having to view source,
but for the ones that aren't you should run your code through a validator
(especially the W3C validators [1 & 2]). You would also be wise to cover the
W3C's accessibility guidelines [3]. But the primary purpose of a site check,
IMO, isn't to sift your underlying code -- unless problems arise in certain
browsers.
    On the other hand, if you post to the list saying "my page doesn't show
up in Netscape -- can anyone tell me why?", you had better have validated
your code first to make sure you're not missing something obvious, like a
closing </table> tag, or that your code isn't so otherwise error-ridden that
it would be impossible for anyone to guess the actual cause of the
problem -- otherwise, some feathers will get ruffled.
    Basically, it comes down to common sense and courtesy -- if you cover
both of those bases, most everyone on the list who replies will do so in the
same spirit.

James Aylard

1. HTML validator: http://validator.w3.org/
2. CSS validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
3. http://www.w3.org/WAI/