Thursday, January 22, 2009

Hidden comments

I was visiting Speaker of the House Rep. Kent Williams' (R for now -Elizabethton) web page and noticed Rep. Jimmy Naifeh's (D-Covington) name flashed by for a moment. I couldn't replicate it without clearing my cache so I viewed the html source and see that the webmasters have kept Naifeh's biographic information on the page but hidden from view.

For those unfamiliar with html it's the instructions your web browser reads so you can see the page as the coder intended. Hidden comments begin with a < followed by an exclamation point. Webmasters use this to insert information they don't want your browser to read but they do want to keep handy. Often it'll be a credit for a snippet of code they're using or some sort of reminder for whomever may need to edit the page in the future. This time though it's keeping former Speaker Naifeh's bio information handy.

Try it yourself. Go to Speaker Williams' page. Right click your mouse. From the window that pops up pick "View Page Source" and scroll down the window that comes up and you'll see it yourself. Maybe they overlooked this in the rush to update the page, but then why put it comment brackets and not just remove it/move it? And then I keep looking at this rediscovered Williams harassment issue and wonder--who really gains if Williams (R) is run out of town on a rail.

UPDATE Friday 12:30 p.m.: The comment code with Naifeh's bio has been removed.

1 comment:

Simone Collins said...
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