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CSS Naked Day
dustindiaz.com — April the 6th will be a day for sites to delete their stylesheet. Go naked for a day with just good ol' HTML. Props to bullockd for posting this, however it deserves more than ~10 diggs.
SamKellett- 834 diggs
- digg it
- JimmyShelter, on 10/12/2007, -7/+28In the article they talk about april 5th being the day.
- SamKellett, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Yeah, my bad.
- macgabriel87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4remember remember the 5th of no- aprilmember!
well you get the idea. - mozzep, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3how could you miss that, man? it's like the whole point of the article... haha.
- philrenaud, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1god DAMN it. April 6th is my birthday, and you know I'm going to somehow end up naked after the drinking, anyway.
And now you want me naked on the fifth, as well?
This is too much nakedness. Nobody but Jessica Alba needs this much nakedness.
- JJP0223, on 10/12/2007, -5/+45I want to see digg do this for a day.
- quick5pnt0, on 10/12/2007, -19/+9LOL, exactly. This whole thing is pointless. We spend a ton of time trying to get our sites to look good with CSS, and now we are going to turn it off? Sounds like a good way of losing any new visitors you get that day.
- veritech, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5mobile users see sites all the time without css, sadly some of them look nicer. It also shows the "cheats" who use tables for the tricky layouts. ^_^
But i'll do it on my blog, not that, it has any monetary value to me, i'm gonna do a new style soon anyway.
- Thezeppelin62, on 10/12/2007, -30/+16kinda stupid
- kevinski, on 10/12/2007, -31/+14Nobody with any self respect would do this.
- uptown, on 10/12/2007, -5/+40Someone make sure to let CraigsList know......
- FlyingLlama, on 10/12/2007, -23/+4W00T W00T lets do this boys!
- silenceHR, on 10/12/2007, -25/+28whats the point?
- allenu, on 10/12/2007, -10/+28Man, people keep modding down naysayers, but honestly, this is totally pointless.
- carguy84, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6Gotta agree with silenceHR here, what's the point?
Sites that are going to take part in this, well, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no one will notice.
Chip- - panic, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1i agree
- moitio, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10The whole idea of CSS is that when you turn it off, it will be accessible to people with screen readers and the such. You'd be pleasently suprised (if you're a good coder) at how well your information gets organised. I always make sure that when you veiw the page in lynx, which ignores CSS and images and stuff, it will look relitively normal and you can distinguish between subtitles, titles, and the paragraphs.
- Xoligy, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4This is just a cheap way for him to get loads of traffic to his site!
April 10th: annual link to my site day. - sfields, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I agree. I worked hard on the CSS on my page to get it just the way I wanted; why would I let a day pass without having it on my site?
- lexa, on 10/12/2007, -22/+8Totally pointless and in no way amusing nor interesting,
no digg - zachtib, on 10/12/2007, -9/+15i'm in. my page will have no css for day
- jmcmunn, on 10/12/2007, -23/+16
Lame, no digg. If you want to see sites with no css, just go to your (firefox) view menu and choose page style->no style, we don't need an ugly day for this...- UGM2099, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11to say you're missing the point is an understatement.
- earache, on 10/12/2007, -9/+20Great idea. Make your site visitors (who mostly have no understanding of html or css) wonder why your site looks like crap now.
- seanslater, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Thats what I was thinking. I can understand the motivation for wanted to show good clean code for mobiles, etc.. but seriously 99% of the website visitors are probably goint to think WTF
- aletornw, on 10/12/2007, -8/+9great idea but it's on april 6th or 5th?
- Daniel591992, on 10/12/2007, -2/+175th :D
- Omicron, on 10/12/2007, -17/+11but.... why?
- vhtrading, on 10/12/2007, -16/+10Lame, pointless and stupid.
- Quarks, on 10/12/2007, -12/+23This is stupid.
Stylesheets will be removed, people wonder what happend to the site and email the person/company/organization, stylesheets will be back up.
Most sites are so complex that it will confuse a lot of people without stylesheets. - norbiu, on 10/12/2007, -5/+15Some sites look like crap even with css, so this might not be a bad idea after all.
- phntm, on 10/12/2007, -6/+13oh yeah, i'm sure the clueless people i try to make money from will understand, sure
- deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -17/+15Here's some free advice: Next time you make up a boycott please explain why it's happening. What's wrong with CSS? What is turning it off for one day going to do?
- SamKellett, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7swhite's right here, do you want me to paste the whole article into the description? If so what's the point in linking it.
- Nanobe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Nothing's wrong with CSS. In fact, the whole idea is to promote the use of CSS, in a way. The idea is to design your websites with separation of content and presentation, meaning the HTML is used to describe what your page MEANS, as if a computer program (search engine, etc.) is trying to understand the purpose of each part of your page, and then the CSS is used for all presentational aspects, as a human would wish to see it. If you're doing it right, your page will still be quite readable and usable even when CSS is disabled.
I'm participating in this program. In fact, I'm taking it one step further: I'm stripping a bit each day until the April 5th full monty!
- swhite1987, on 10/12/2007, -4/+32Here's some free advice, read the damn article. It explains why the "boycott" of CSS. It's not even a boycott really, but you wouldn't know that, because you obviously didn't read the article.
- jiminoc, on 10/12/2007, -17/+15I have never seen a dumber idea
- jals, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21It's a pretty strange idea, but the author of the link makes a good point with this.
"The fact of the matter is, if you're writing good solid markup to begin with, it shouldn't be all that bad anyway."
To all you saying how it'll make your site look like crap, I'd start thinking about fixing that.- factorial, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0"The fact of the matter is, if you're writing good solid markup to begin with, it shouldn't be all that bad anyway."
"To all you saying how it'll make your site look like crap, I'd start thinking about fixing that."
This is ridiculous. What is there to fix? My site has "good solid markup" and a strict separation of style and content, which is precisely why I *wouldn't* want to disable my site's style. Have you ever looked at what a non-styled page looks like? It looks like an ugly, stripped down bunch of text with the occasional bulleted list. That's not attractive at all, and it _will_ drive users away.
- factorial, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0"The fact of the matter is, if you're writing good solid markup to begin with, it shouldn't be all that bad anyway."
- mark1372, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4It would be more productive to call for a boycott of Internet Explorer: scourge of the web and originator of inconsistent standards.
I agree with most of you that it's totally pointless. "Woot! Look at us! Aren't we wacky? Basic HTML! You never know WHAT will happen on the web!" - Claw787, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4Canno't believe this got in to the front page. 10min, 30min......at least 1 hour okey. but 1 day?????????
sad.... - beatdigga, on 10/12/2007, -8/+7this is lame.. what a way to confuse the ***** out of normal folk.
- godofpumpkins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24the *point* of CSS is to divorce design from content. If your site relies on design to effectively present content, then you're breaking the model. The point of this is to see whether websites can retain their information and navigability without the visual presentation they're typically associated with. If your website is unusable without CSS, then you're not using CSS the way it's supposed to be used. Having complex rollovers, floating sidebars, and a specific font shouldn't be necessary to view your site.
This isn't only philosophically better. It also helps search engines *understand* your site better, as their page processing algorithms get better. If you use logical markup inside your site (i.e. not the b, i, u, etc. tags) it'll ultimately allow for different viewing paradigms and let automated scanning bots work better, which is ultimately to everyone's advantage.- SavannahLion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I was kind of confused as to the intent of this article until I read your post. Yeah, I see what you mean.
The thing is though, there will always be extremists. There will always be people who will always insist on using pure HTML to hold content and presentation. Then there will always be people who will insist on using almost pure CSS for everything possible.
It's just like those people who continue building websites looking like they're straight out of the early 90's, have every single image an animated gif or who think it's still cute to have that stupid "Under Construction" digging animation on every single page of their site.
- SavannahLion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I was kind of confused as to the intent of this article until I read your post. Yeah, I see what you mean.
- antareus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Why don't we drop the whole "cascading style sheet" requirement and just have naked day. It'll be fun!!
(You first.)- AllenS, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3i'm alread there !
- bpapa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is kind of an interesting idea... if anything it's just a lesson in good standards, and since I'm wagering on only personal sites participating, then it should be a cool way for people to help get the word out.
- stuartc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7The point is that going without CSS for a day will give people an appreciation for what CSS is all about. Also it's a promotion of markup...sure anyone can make a page that looks good with CSS, but what is their markup like? Is it semantic? I guess it's kind of like creating a xhtmlzengarden for a day. :)
I'm sure that it's intended for the blogs of CSS-minded developers, not for the front end of sites where people wouldn't understand what's going on. It's not going to cause mass confusion and hysteria - it's just a bit of geek fun. - marcan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Firefox:
View->Page Style->No Style.
Digg looks just fine. Fugly, and some normally hidden things are visible, but surprisingly fine.- godofpumpkins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It shouldn't be surprising. A webdesigner who understands the philosophy of CSS rather than just seeing it as a tool to make his/her page prettier will make sites that work fine without CSS (see my comment above)
- marcan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Of course. What I meant is that, for a relatively complex AJAX site, Digg is designed quite well, keeping that philosophy in mind.
- dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Or as stated in one of the comments on the link, with the Web Developers toolbar, Ctrl+Shift+S disables CSS for the current page
Anyway, interesting, aslong as all the sites taking part put that message explaining why the site is broke-d... For someone who has no idea what CSS is, I think it'd be interesting to show them what the site would be like with out it, and if you get lots of complains for your site being unusable without CSS, you need to sort it..
- Ben - scorpy01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I just looked at my site that way and everything was visible. Since I don't use tables, all my thumbnails were lined up, down the page and my site map was, too. It looks nicer with the CSS but I'm in on April 5.
- Swoop_dk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1sounds like fun hehe.. im in with reflection-design.dk ... dont see i need a point for doing this :D
Also i know it looks pretty decent without css anyhow :D - Moose_Head, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3No major sites will do this, none that care about customer reactions anyways.
This will go unnoticed. - energyblue, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7I'm doing it for my sites:
mattchesters.com & realityb.org
Anyone else joining in?- UGM2099, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5your realityb site uses a table-based design, so all you would really lose is type-syles. The impact of CSS nakes day is much greater when the entire presentation of the site is in CSS so that when it's turned off all you see is some and a few all running down the left hand side of the page.
- noseeme, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Most CSS heavy sites are unreadable if CSS is simply turned off.
- stuartc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Quite the contrary. Turning off CSS should should how well structured and readable your makup is.
- Katana, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3If you want to try any site without the CSS, and you have firefox, goto (in firefox) View > Page Style > No Style. and the page will lose it's stylesheet.
- busta, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Will digg participate in this? If a major site signed on, this would be newsworthy... and it'd be good for some free press for the major site that DID sign on.
- Swoop_dk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I doubt any major sites are going to participate.. but some people take this WAY too seriously imho.
Why start spewing negative stuff about this ? If you dont care shut up ;)
If we find it funny to do this for a day .. let us :D - liquidrums, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I think only small, niche, tech sites and bloggers will take part in this. You won't see any businesses take part in this kind of activity.
Novel idea, but I say we have DOM-Exploit day where we all put some code into IE to pop-up Calculator.exe every 5 seconds with a window to download Firefox.- paleck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I used to do that on the main page of a personal site i ran. Even used some firefox exploits. Just poking around bugging my readers. lol
- TitoJackson, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1"No CSS for a day" should go nicely with its "no visitors" everyday.
- MikeCampo, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1This is very dumb...It will just be a day of ugly ass sites that no one wants to see.
- liquilife, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I suppose this could have it's ups and downs. The up is people may actually want to participate and update thier site html to be more compliant. The downside is that visitors don't give a rat's ass about compliant html. If your visitors are not fellow web designers then you'll just end up confusing lot's of people.
- saifatlast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It seems a neat idea, I would do it, except that I'm pretty sure I would get fired. Still digg, 'cause I think it's neat.
- sapo916, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2How about something that will actually have some effect
A Geek Go Outside Day... we will of course need guides outside in the real world since we won't know what to do or where to go and feel so bored that we will return to our habitat. There will have to be many tame women who can take it very slow and can understand a Geeks shortcomings (not physically of course) and for just one easy payment of $150 you get the FULL TOUR! Virginity Loss Guaranteed. Might as well call it Help a Geek Lose His Virginity Day.
FEMALE VOULENTEERS MAY CONTACT ME BY ADDING @GMAIL.com to the end of my username - i6koi, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1DUPE
- SamKellett, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yes well done, you read the description.
- anillop, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Yeah this sounds like a pretty stupid idea to me. I don't quite understand the point but maybe I am missing something, or I just have better uses for my time.
- dogdoodoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5This is awesome! Well, just for a preview I’ve took out the CSS on a seperate file:
Regular home page:
http://www.bigpawsonly.com/home.php
No CSS
http://www.bigpawsonly.com/home-no-css.php
That’s some serious damage heh. - danp, on 10/12/2007, -8/+0Just when I thought I had found the stupidest idea on the Internet, Digg proves me wrong once again.
- Kaaosa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What, by allowing you to post your own?
- midorigin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Although when considered directly it does technically defeat the purpose, all of us who use MySpace (just admit it) should try to spread to word there. True, disabling the custom css on your MySpace doesn't actually prove anything about your (or MySpace's) ability to write proper markup, but I do think it's still an effective way to spread awareness and speak out in support of the project's efforts.
So come May 5th, take away all that flashy stuff from your MySpace as well. Stick up a notice like the one provided in the article, and when people wonder why your page got so ugly, there's a chance they might get to become one more (we need all we can get) enlightened individual. If things go well, they might even do the same. Awareness is the most important thing here, so any attention at all is good.
MySpace has this wonderfully annoying "bulletin" system that's been the catalyst for several small and large rapid spreadings of information - Let's make use of it the best we can. I'm no writer, but if someone could start a bulletin spreading, make use of the "Naked Day" title, it might have an effect worth our efferts.- Sudar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4But on April 5th not May 5th
- jonnie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I think people are missing the point. A page without CSS should be readable, i.e. you should only rely on CSS to style your site. If removing the CSS screws up the layout to make it look horrible and/or unreadable then perhaps as the main source of this posting states is to prove that your site meets W3C standards.
- kevinarth, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0My vote...Dumb idea. What's the point?
- godofpumpkins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4read what I wrote several comments up
- polvero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I generally never read the comments on digg, but seeing as how this whole event was my idea, I had to come check out what was being said over here. Clearly there are those who know what this is really about, and the people who don't. Thanks digg for adding a "comment rating" - it makes it easier to distinguish those people.
Anyway, the fact that over 200 (at this point in time) developers are participating says something pretty big.
And for those who said that this will go unnoticed, well, Mike Davidson, Jeremy Keith (DOM Scripting), Ian Lloyd (Accessify), even Håkon Lie (Inventor of CSS) will be participating. Not to mention the fact that the event has been translated into a dozen languages.
Lastly, for those who didn't read the article details. This is about Standards, creating semantic markup, and proper document structures. It's a test case to see how usable your site is without its design.
Thanks again for those who continue to support the cause :) Now let's all get naked on April 5th! -
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