Free blog sites where the blogs can (if the template does) validate as XHTML Strict 1.0?

Question

I'm looking for a site where I may register a free blog and have the blog validate as XHTML Strict 1.0. On the surface this may seem like a trivial problem only related to the theme/template in use, but that's unfortunately not the case.

One example of a provider which can't fullfill this requirement is Blogger. Altough the pages of the blogs there presents themselfs as XHTML 1.0 Strict it is impossible to actually comply with the requirements inheritied by that markup type in the blog (as the XHTML which is generated by Blogger makes the page as a whole invalid).

I've sent a mail to Tumblr to see if it was possible with them, but so far my reply consists of them having forwarded my mail with a "suggestion" to the development department. I don't know if we had a communication error or if I'm actually going to receive a proper answer later. Time will tell. I haven't had time to investigate Tumblr myself, so they may very well be the solution to this problem.

To sum things up, I'm looking for any provider:

• Of a free blog.
• The blog must have the capability to validate as XHTML Strict 1.0. With capability I mean that the system shouldn't get in the way of creating/using a theme which complies as XHTML Strict 1.0.
• Preferably is large or at least likely to stay around for a couple of years to come. But I'm willing to take my chances if none of the established providers are up to the task.

Thank you for reading! I hope you know of any provider which would be suitable, preferably with proof by linking to a blog there which validates. I'm not looking for suggestions to look into, as there are far to many to investigate and far too little time. If you know of something for sure, I'd be very happy to know about it.

Answer 1

Your best bet is to write your own blogging system.

I have recently written a very robust templating system for my products that produce 100% valid XHTML 1.0 strict.

That said, XHTML 1.0 Strict is a very rigid goal that doesn't offer any major benefits for the overwhelming majority of people.

456 Berea Street, an excellent blog on standards an accessibility only validates as 4.01 strict. Not XHTML.

I think he's using WordPress with a custom theme, however I'm not entirely sure. It may be worth contacting the website owner to find out what he's using.

Answer 2

Wordpress with the right theme can definitely go to 1.0 transitional, but I have not tried strict myself.

You need to be careful with post content though, as all you need to do is embed one video using youtube's code (for example) and you are no longer valid.

Here's why Wordpress has problems with strict

There are three types of valid XHTML 1.0 document: Strict, Transitional, and Frameset. If you can get your document to validate with "Strict" then do so, however some legacy tags and attributes aren't allowed in Strict so you can use "Transitional" instead.

Note: you might have a problem getting WordPress to validate as Strict because, as of version 2.6.2, some of the internally generated elements still use the "name" attribute, which is not allowed under the Strict DTD, ie.

Note also that using a Transitional DTD takes most browsers out of "Standards" mode. It is much trickier to get your web pages to look consistent across different browsers when the browsers are not in Standards mode.