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FAQ about W3C Web Site

Below are frequent questions and answers about the W3C Web site.

Is W3C sending me spam?

No. W3C is not a spammer. W3C does not allow its servers to be used to send spam, and unsolicited bulk e-mail is strictly prohibited from our mailing lists.

There are two reasons you might think that W3C is sending you spam, however.

1. You found "w3.org" in the source of a document or email

If you look at the source of many HTML documents (including HTML email), you are likely to find some text that explains which version of HTML was used by the author. Versions of HTML are defined by the W3C, and therefore HTML documents contain a reference to the W3C, for example:

    <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">

Many people see this text and conclude that W3C had something to do with the creation of the document. All that this text means is that the text was written in HTML, a language defined and maintained by W3C. The text does not imply that W3C had anything to do with the creation of the document itself.

2. Somebody forged email to make it look like it was sent by W3C

Unfortunately, people at times forge email addresses. Many W3C email addresses are very visible to the public, and this makes them targets for forgery. Thus, you may receive spam from a w3.org address, but this only means that the address has been used to send a forged email.

I lost my password / Forgot my account login

You can recover a lost password and see more information about accounts.

What Domain Names are used by W3C?

w3.org. The two most common uses you will see are "www.w3.org" and "lists.w3.org" (for our Mail archives).

If the domain name is something else, it's probably not related to W3C. If you find "w3.org" in the content of the page, that is likely just related to the fact that the page is HTML; see our FAQ question on spam.

If a page on w3.org is not working, how do I let you know?

We encourage you to let us know by sending a message to site-comments@w3.org with the URI (that is, the Web address) of the page(s) in question. This is a publicly archived mailing list.

Can I have my email removed from a public list archive?

In general, no. See the FAQ entry on archive editing.

Why is W3C blocking my IP?

W3C is most likely blocking your IP because of excessive traffic, often this is dereferencing the same XML Schemata (DTD, Schema, Entity, Namespace, etc) incessantly from us. We give extensive caching directives and there really is no reason to request over the network the same resource over and over that is not going to change. Your XML library or utility probably has a means to use a XML catalog and/or have a caching mechanism, please consult that documentation on how to utilize such features. If there are no such options you should contact the party responsible for the library or utility used, you may also put a caching proxy between your application server and the internet.

Maybe. W3C does not endorse any particular software. However, because it is useful to provide links to software that implements a specification, we often link to multiple products or services (thus: many, not one). At the bottom of each page you will find contact information for the person responsible for updating links on that page.

Do you have a list of all DTDs or Schemas available from W3C?

No. Each specification includes links to useful resources (such as DTDs and schemas) for that specification. A search engine should also be helpful in finding a particular DTD or Schema.

Why is my browser trying to download a page instead of displaying it?

Your browser (or other tool) may not be configured to display that type of content, either natively or wtih a helper application.

Is W3C Service X or Y down? (System Outages)

See the systems status page. If you experience a problem not listed there, please send email to site-comments@w3.org.