Request for Comments: Proposed changes to <cite> CSS markup

[raamdev]

Background

Currently the Independent Publisher theme applies the following style to <cite> elements:

blockquote cite:before { content: "\2014 \0020"; }

This results in a long-dash character (—) being prepended to the citation, so the following markup:

<blockquote>
Someone said something. <cite>Author</cite>
</blockquote>

Looks like this:

Notice the long-dash (—) was inserted automatically.

The problem

This looks fine on the web, however in an RSS feed the long-dash doesn't show up, because it's added using CSS. This results in RSS feeds (and any email campaigns that may be attached to the RSS feed) to show the quotation like this:

Someone said something. Author

And that just looks wrong. The only way to fix this would be to manually add the long-dash when publishing the post, which is the correct way to do it anyway. However, without removing the CSS style that adds the long-dash, this would result in a double-dash.

The Proposal

I propose to remove the CSS style that prepends the long-dash to <cite> elements. This would mean that anyone who is using the Independent Publisher theme and relying on the automatic insertion of the long-dash would need to go back and insert the dash manually. (If you're not using the <cite> tag at all, this change wouldn't affect you.)

If anyone has any objection to this proposal, please voice your concerns here.

[rmorabia]

Instead, could you add italics to the author CSS? Therefore, the long dash would still remain on the site, and it wouldn't look odd in feeds?

Someone said something. Author.

[raamdev]

Instead, could you add italics to the author CSS? Therefore, the long dash would still remain on the site, and it wouldn't look odd in feeds?

The problem with that is that quotes are sometimes styled with italics. For example, in my email campaigns my quotes would look like this:

Someone said something. Author

[rmorabia]

Wouldn't the email campaign then go:

Someone said something. Author.

On 6/29/2014 11:06 AM, Raam Dev wrote:

Instead, could you add italics to the author CSS? Therefore, the
long dash would still remain on the site, and it wouldn't look odd
in feeds?

The problem with that is that quotes are sometimes styled with italics.
For example, in my email campaigns my quotes would look like this:

/Someone said something. Author/

—
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#115 (comment).

[raamdev]

Wouldn't the email campaign then go:

Someone said something. Author.

It could, but that just looks confusing to me. It makes more sense to me that everbody can choose to format things however they want, instead of needing to account for the automatic insertion of a long-dash.

[rmorabia]

Hm. Agreed. Maybe create a quick child theme with the option for those who are already used to the long dash?

[raamdev]

I already have a child theme maintained here: https://github.com/raamdev/independent-publisher-child-theme

You could submit a pull request with an updated style.css file.

On Jun 29, 2014, at 16:08, Radhika Morabia notifications@github.com wrote:

Update: I'm making it myself, here. Independent Publisher Child Theme

—
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[raamdev]

Closed via raamdev/independent-publisher-child-theme#3

[raamdev]

Actually, I just realized this issue isn't closed yet, as the theme needs to be updated to reflect this change.