> Use of expletives on a public mailing list is pretty sub-optimal 
> vocabulary, wouldn't you agree? 

Expletives are simply a concise method of indicating the level of emotion.  And he did self-sensor. 

OTOH If you think that the level of emotion is misplaced, then that's another matter of course. This *does* read a little bit like a rant.  

My 10c.

> Additionally, it is all very well to claim the high ground of standards 
> compliance with plain white pages containing minimal content, and zero 
> stylistic formatting, however generally speaking the public at large 
> have moved on and prefer to see things like colour, animation, pictures, 
> movies, as well as new and interesting interfaces, rather than pages 
> designed primarily for a non sentient audience. My brain, for instance, 
> appears to have no trouble parsing an ampersand.

I don't see that as answering the question; sorry.  Is W3C standards compliance relevant, and if so, how seriously should we take it?

The pragmatic approach -- that if current browsers can read the page, it's okay -- can only go so far.

-- 
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