You make the point of unnecessary Microformat proposals. That must be frustrating. I sympathize. I also see the problem there.

My problem? The acronym itself. Yes, the actual word POSH. I have exactly the same problem with it that Molly had. (Apparently, Tantek explained it quite well to Molly, who has since changed her opinion.) Mostly the fact that the word “posh” itself implies unnecessary and even extravagant excess. It feels kind of laughable to me. My initial response was to laugh, and not take it seriously. And I decided to put on the black hat and poke some healthy fun at it.

So to be clear: I support your goals. I will end up using and supporting POSH because I support what it stands for. I just don’t like this particular word representing one of my favorite concepts. I do, however, find it an intriguing idea to create a marketable term, if you will, which could better spread the concept of semantic markup.

What have I got? Well, I’ve certainly got no interest in competing with very smart people whose work I admire and support. The marketing for POSH has already started. I think it would be pointless and silly to create two camps, when we all are on the same team. I will help advance the underlying goals of POSH in any way I can. And I respectfully reserve my right to poke fun at the acronym.

I have an idea which you may find useful regarding the unnecessary Microformat proposals. I’ll mail you.

@Barce: I’m not getting your first comment. As for the second, it is a good question.

@xian: Point taken. It should’ve been YASA. Molly has called it YADA. It’s precisely this reason that I’m not willing to think up possible alternatives for POSH. Whatever the acronym, it will only be successful if there is only one.

@Tim: I tend to agree. I don’t like it, but years in advertising have taught me that silly phrases, etc. can still have the desired effect.

The good: It’s a really good question. How do you get folks to use valid, semantic, mark-up?

@xian let’s bring out the rofl coptor

Better than POSH maybe “Semantic HTML Is Tidy”?

or “Semantic HTML Is (the) Zenith Now In Trends”

1.1 What an acronym stands for is how we would get along without the acronym.

2.0 “If not POSH — whachoo got?”

2.1

I talked to Molly (of molly.com) and my partner Tara about POSH at Mix ‘07 — and both adamantly hated it. They support the goal, which is promote the superset of semantic patterns of which microformats is merely a member, but don’t like the elitist connotations of “posh” given the somewhat-haughty perception that the Microformats community already has. Though in passing they make a valid point, I do think that the value of having JASA to describe the larger concept of “semantic markup” is useful — and yes, more easy to market — and pronounce.

That folks cried party-foul about AJAX in its early days suggests that we’re on to something, though I cringe at the need to have to invent yet another phrase simply to get the message out there. Nor would I have supported this effort if, after two years of development and the adoption of a process that derides the creation of new microformats, the primary activity of newcomers to the microformats community is to invent new, often unnecessary formats. Therefore we wanted to create a concept as cool as microformats are themselves, so that folks are equally incented to put their efforts into POSH as they are generating new microformats. Only over time will we see if POSH works.

So, think of it what you will; your criticisms are duly appreciated. If you do have a better idea for how we could promote the idea of using valid “meaningful markup” to a wider audience, by all means, tell us! Better, add it to the wiki! After all, that’s the problem we’re looking to solve — not in JASA — it was a small number of us who got together and decided to move forward with POSH — simply for lack of anything better (and for getting something out there instead of waiting for a marketing quorum to proceed) — so all it takes is another small group of dedicated folks to come together with something that works to reach the same end game that we agreed on. If not POSH — whachoo got?