i'd be shocked if anyone made a fully w3c compliant site.

too many people have a "good enough" approach to code.

Yeah, W3C compliant is like a blank page with words. Anything above that takes time to get done in spec.

I actually tend to disagree.

Getting things done to spec should be something that is considered in the initial planning. For instance, making a massively complex table layout will probably not conform to spec because you didn't write in the little summary attributes in the beginning. Thus, it becomes a pain to get everything together. On the other hand, keeping in mind w3c specs early on, and working with them instead of around them... that works.

W3C standards were not necessarily created so that every web artist would go by the standards. Rather platform standards are only a guides that a programmers can use. W3C standards are good though they are slow in coming hand to hand with todays progressing Browser technology. Also if you use version 4 browsers:mad: , there is no need to bring that up as a valid argument.

Well just if you are wondering if you really need to make you team site going by the W3C standards, i would say there is no need to. Though if you really care about following the standards, Go ahead, because your will certainly not attract more visitors just by puting a W3C logo on your site.

Of course you don't attract more visitors by putting a w3c button on your site.

Neither does flash, or even prettier layouts. People come because they want the information contained therein. Does the end user care how the code is made? Does anyone really care that you used an industrial-strength Oracle DB to make sure everything runs fine and dandy? Not really.

The point of conforming to w3c standards is not for the sake of conformance. The issue is that by doing so you are pushing toward a more uniform web (IE: my site should display the same in IE as it does in Netscape, or Opera, or Insert Name of Browser Here). Just because a browser puts up with your bad coding doesn't mean that it should.

The reason W3C standards are not exactly hand in hand with current browser technology is that the browsers are not supporting standards. There are some crazy CSS properties that do everything but make coffee in the morning, but aren't supported by IE/Netscape. Those features are actually useful. (min-width/max-width anyone? Or how about columns without resorting to tables?)