[WickyNilliams]

Why are people hating on HTML semantics? I fear it is out of some fundamental misunderstanding of how semantics work on the web...

First let me be clear that there are (at least) two types of semantics on the web, one for machines (bots and screen readers) and one for meat (humans!).

In writing HTML, the goal is not to use every semantically-rich tag available and avoid everything else like the plague. Where you can convey extra semantic meaning, use the most appropriate tag available; where you cannot, use a div or a span or something else. Use of divs does not make your page less semantic - it is not deductive. However use of the correct semantic tags will make your page more semantic - it is additive!

In writing CSS, the goal is not to avoid classes/IDs altogether to keep your HTML "clean". The machines care not if your HTML is rammed full of classes; though you will certainly care when it comes to maintaining your pristine HTML. When writing CSS the goal isn't even to strive for "semantic" class names. CSS classes convey no semantics, at least not to machines. CSS classes should be used to convey semantics to the meat bags reading the code - devs, interested users etc. Nothing else matters with CSS, write it how you like, in as maintainable a fashion as possible and forget semantics in that domain.

Excellent article discussing the fallacies around semantics: http://nicolasgallagher.com/about-html-semantics-front-end-a...