I was looking at the source code of the Twitter Status blog, mainly out of curiosity to see how Tumblr was put together, and the first thing I noticed was this odd block of meta tags at the very top of the header:
<![CDATA[
<!-- DEFAULT COLORS -->
<meta name="color:Background" content="#fff"/>
<meta name="color:Title" content="#444"/>
<meta name="color:Description" content="#777"/>
<meta name="color:Post Title" content="#6498cc"/>
<meta name="color:Text" content="#444"/>
<meta name="color:Inline Link" content="#6498cc"/>
<meta name="color:Quote" content="#888"/>
<meta name="color:Quote Border" content="#6498cc"/>
<meta name="color:Quote Source" content="#555"/>
<meta name="color:Link Post" content="#c00"/>
<meta name="color:Conversation Background 1" content="#f4f4f4"/>
<meta name="color:Conversation Background 2" content="#e8e8e8"/>
<meta name="color:Conversation Border" content="#bbb"/>
<meta name="color:Conversation Text" content="#444"/>
<meta name="color:Date" content="#ccc"/>
<meta name="color:Date Block" content="#6498cc"/>
<meta name="color:Date Block Text" content="#bbd5f1"/>
<!-- END DEFAULT COLORS -->
]]>
Can someone tell me what the hell that accomplishes?
6 Comments so far
SHRIKEE, on July 1, 2008 at 2:46pm, said:
Looks like inline CSS, but it’s not … Weird!
Does it actually do anything other than generate errors at the w3 validator?
I think not…
Edit Comment
Chris Meller, on July 1, 2008 at 8:53pm, said:
It doesn’t throw any errors on the validator, since you can stick anything you like in a meta tag. I’ve still yet to find anyone that has any idea what it’s used for.
The only thing I can think of is that they have something else that’s scraping the page and needs to know which colors they’re using… Seems like the worst possible way to implement something if you’ve got access to the system itself, but if they’re doing it for third parties I suppose it makes sense.
Edit Comment
add mac, on July 9, 2008 at 6:17am, said:
Just checked and the colours in the meta tags allow your theme/colours to tweaked by other tumblr users - presumably when they view your page:
“Enabling Custom Colors
By including the special meta-color tags in your theme, users you share your theme with will be able to easily tweak those colors using their “Customize Theme” screen. ”
http://www.tumblr.com/help/custom_themes
never heard of tumblr - is it ANOTHER social networking site.. ? *YAWN*
Edit Comment
Chris Meller, on July 9, 2008 at 6:40am, said:
Hmm, looks like I was pretty much right - it’s being scraped, by itself.
I still say it’s a very odd way of passing the data around, but I guess it does get points for using existing functionality to implement, rather than creating its own little proprietary method.
Tumblr isn’t really a social network in my mind, just a light-weight hosted blogging service meets Twitter (ie: shorter, randomer posts). Anyhoo, thanks for the info!
Edit Comment
jidanni, on February 21, 2009 at 10:28pm, said:
All I know is that this very page we are reading does not validate either… probably why I couldn’t read it on my PDA…
Edit Comment
Chris Meller, on February 27, 2009 at 9:03pm, said:
Thanks for pointing out that the page was invalid. I committed about a dozen different assorted fixes for the theme I’m using last night. :)
Edit Comment