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CHange "The cite element represents the cited title of a work; for example, the title of a book mentioned within the main text flow of a document." to "The cite element represents the cited title of a work or the author of a quotation; for example, the title of a book mentioned within the main text flow of a document." And remove text "Although previous versions of HTML implied that the cite element can be used to mark up the name of a person, that usage is no longer considered conforming. The cite element now solely represents the cited title of a work; for example, the title of a book, paper, essay, poem, score, song, script, film, TV show, game, sculpture, painting, theater production, play, opera, musical, exhibition, legal case report, or other such work." Replace with "A common idiom for citing the author of some quoted text is to cite the author's name within the blockquote containing the quotation." This reverts to the HTML4 meaning of the element, restores millions of WordPress blogs to conformance (as they often use the cite element to represent the name of a commenter), and documents established use by authors in the wild - see http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2013Aug/0082.html and http://oli.jp/example/blockquote-metadata/
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If you have additional information and would like the Editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the Tracker Issue; or you may create a Tracker Issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document: http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html Status: Accepted Change Description: https://github.com/w3c/html/commit/fdb9ff6bafb3972288081a075790d0dd8ec39faa Rationale: After reviewing the historical and current discussions and articles discussing on the definition of cite[(for example) 1], and usage in the wild , I agree with comment 1 that it should be allowed to be used (as it already is) to identify the author of quoted text. I have also widened the definition to allow cite to include all citation information in the case of academic citation formats such as MLA or Chicago [1] http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/Cite_element http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2013/on-citing-quotations-again/ http://oli.jp/2011/blockquote/ http://html5doctor.com/blockquote-q-cite/
Actually, the cite element should be a bit more liberal. There are many ways to refer to something, and we should accept them as valid content. I note that both Google and Bing, invalidly according to the spec, use cite for URLs in their search results. I think it is reasonable on the web to treat a URL as a reference. In practice even a description such as "in <cite>the book about HTML by the guy with the funny hair</cite> they sometimes say sensible things like <q>and</q>" seems reasonable, if not the most common case. I would change the text "It must include either the title of the work or the name of the author (person, people or organization) of the work, either of which may be in an abbreviated form as per the conventions used for the addition of citation metadata to quoted content." to something like "The content of the element should be a reference in some commonly understood form, such as the name or a nickname of the person cited, or the work, a URL, or the like." (Note that I have changed must to should. Although I am happy with a must requirement for authors, it is quite difficult to validate whether a reference is valid or not - there are simple cases, and then there are very difficult ones).
Commit pushed to master at https://github.com/w3c/html https://github.com/w3c/html/commit/1beccd20474fdc96dad84a1a88cda8c77bab944a relaxed cite element def to allow URLs see bug 23008
(In reply to Charles McCathieNevile from comment #2) > Actually, the cite element should be a bit more liberal. There are many ways > to refer to something, and we should accept them as valid content. > > I note that both Google and Bing, invalidly according to the spec, use cite > for URLs in their search results. I think it is reasonable on the web to > treat a URL as a reference. > > In practice even a description such as "in <cite>the book about HTML by the > guy with the funny hair</cite> they sometimes say sensible things like > <q>and</q>" seems reasonable, if not the most common case. > > I would change the text > > "It must include either the title of the work or the name of the author > (person, people or organization) of the work, either of which may be in an > abbreviated form as per the conventions used for the addition of citation > metadata to quoted content." > > to something like > > "The content of the element should be a reference in some commonly > understood form, such as the name or a nickname of the person cited, or the > work, a URL, or the like." > > (Note that I have changed must to should. Although I am happy with a must > requirement for authors, it is quite difficult to validate whether a > reference is valid or not - there are simple cases, and then there are very > difficult ones). I have relaxed the definition to allow URLs as their are millions of <cite>URL</cite> instances being published in search results. I have left the author requirement as a must as it may reduce the misuse of cite, but am not holding my breath. It would be really useful to have some data about use of <cite> by search engines for example, but again not holding breath. Will leave this bug open for now for further feedback.
Commit pushed to master at https://github.com/w3c/html https://github.com/w3c/html/commit/dc88f04742cf1354b2e368315f244e5b94ff437b added cite example with URL example based on Google search results code refer to bug 23008
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If you have additional information and would like the Editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the Tracker Issue; or you may create a Tracker Issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document: http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html Status: Accepted Change Description: refer to commits listed in comments Rationale: agreed with comment's. --
Commits pushed to CR at https://github.com/w3c/html https://github.com/w3c/html/commit/1beccd20474fdc96dad84a1a88cda8c77bab944a relaxed cite element def to allow URLs https://github.com/w3c/html/commit/dc88f04742cf1354b2e368315f244e5b94ff437b added cite example with URL