On metadata

Just added some hidden metadata to my HTML: Open Graph data and some bits for Mastodon.

Let's see if it becomes visible somewhere, because the biggest problem with hidden metadata is that we—humans—tend to forget about it. That's why we have validators and tools like Polypane to make it visible to us.

My biggest help is to keep hidden and visible metadata as close as possible to each other in source code. And to stay as close to the raw materials as possible, without abstracting too much. A simple partial template or include with a bunch of HTML lines, over some <AbstractedMetadataFactory> for example. So next time I'm updating a visible bit, I'm required to also think about some invisible bits a few lines down. And preferably test those as well.

The best example of hidden metadata not working probably is ARIA. We—humans—are just too stupid to use it correctly, which is why the advice to not use it is so interesting.