It was by chance I stumbled across the HTML markup for the front page of the mirc site.
I'm kinda shocked - it sure as hell doesn't even come close to validation, makes a huge use of ugly font tags and is gibberish syntax wise.
Once I forced the validator to try and call it HTML 4.01 Transitional, it spat out the following.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3...2C+worldwide%29I'd very much like to see the site lose the tables and font tags, make use of CSS, and generally have valid markup without horrible MS tags.
Below; I sketched out something (although it won't validate as it lacks the meta charset declaration) which might point you towards a better site:
<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>CSS mirc redone</title>
<style>
body {
background-color:#FFFFEF;
color:#000066;
margin:20px;
}
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
font-family:Ms Sans Serif,Sans-serif,Geneva;
color:#CC0000;
}
.date {
color:#006342;
font-size:0.9em;
}
a:link {
color:#0000CC;
}
a:visited {
color:#000066;
}
a:alink {
color:#000066;
}
#menu {
width:100px;
text-align:right;
padding-bottom:10px;
}
#content {
position:absolute;
left:110px;
top:100px;
padding-top:20px;
margin-left:10px;
padding-left:10px;
}
#header {
height:100px;
}
#header a, #menu a {
font-size:0.9em;
}
#footer {
border-top:1px solid black;
padding-top:3px;
margin:20px;
bottom:0px;
font-size:0.8em;
}
#logo {
width:100px;
height:55px;
border:none;
}
#search {
font-size:0.7em;
}
#links {
left:110px;
padding-left:20px;
position:absolute;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="header">
<div id="links"><a href="http://www.mirc.com.ar/">Argentina</a>,
<a href="http://mirc.eon.net.au/">Australia</a>,
<a href="http://www.mirc.queen.it/">Italy</a>,
<a href="http://mirc.kems.net/">Kuwait</a>,
<a href="http://www.mirc.co.za/">South Africa</a>,
<a href="http://www.mirc.co.uk/">United Kingdom</a>,
<a href="http://www.mirc.com/">USA</a>.</div>
<h1><a href="index.html"><img src="" id="logo" alt="Welcome to the mIRC homepage." /></a> Welcome to the mIRC Homepage!</h1>
</div>
<div id="menu">
<div id="search">
<form method="get" action="https://forums.mirc.com/cgi-bin/htsearch">
Search Website: <input type="text" size="8" name="words" value="">
<input type="submit" value="Go">
</form>
</div>
<a href="news.html">Latest News</a><br />
<a href="get.html">Download mIRC</a><br />
<a href="install.html">How to Install</a><br />
<a href="http://www.mirc.co.uk/translations/index.html">Translations</a><br />
<a href="https://forums.mirc.com/ubbthreads.php">Message Board</a><br />
<br />
<a href="irc.html">Intro to IRC</a><br />
<a href="ircintro.html">IRC FAQ</a><br />
<br />
<a href="mirc.html">Intro to mIRC</a><br />
<a href="faq.html">mIRC FAQ</a><br />
<a href="cmds.html">Command List</a><br />
<br />
<a href="register.html">How to Register</a><br />
<br />
<a href="mailing.html">Mailing Lists</a><br />
<a href="servers.html">IRC Networks</a><br />
<a href="mirclink.html">Chat Links</a><br />
<a href="links.html">More Info (Links)</a>
</div>
<div id="content">
The mIRC homepage provides the latest news on mIRC, general IRC information,
and links to many other <a href="links.html">IRC-related websites and resources</a>. Please click on
one of the links to the left to find out more. We hope that you find this
website useful, and your experience on IRC enjoyable! Have fun :-)</p>
<h4>New collection of IRC servers. <span class="date">(December 13<sup>th</sup> 2003)</span></h4>
<p>A list with a fresh collection of IRC servers for mIRC is available in the <a href="http://www.mirc.co.uk/servers.ini">servers.ini</a> file on our website. Save the file to the mIRC directory on your harddisk (c:\mirc\ or similar), replacing the old file, and enjoy this refresh! The server list will immediately be available to you from within mIRC. Have fun exploring some new IRC networks!</p>
<h4>Charity appeal: child vaccinations across Africa <span class="date">(November 20<sup>th</sup> 2003 - updated December 20<sup>th</sup> 2003)</span></h4>
<p><a href="http://www.ifrc.org" target="_blank"><IMG src="ifrc.gif" align="right" border="0" hspace="10" vspace="10"></a> Thanks to all of the mIRC users who registered their copies of mIRC between November 20th and December 20th to support our appeal, 100% of your registration has been donated to the <a href="http://www.ifrc.org" target="_blank">International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies</a> for use in their <a href="http://www.measlesinitiative.org" target="_blank">measles campaign</a> in Africa. <b>2826</b> mIRC users registered, raising a total of <b>$55,230.00</b>. Many thanks to everyone who helped out!</p>
<p style="color:#CC0000;">The appeal is over, however if you still have any questions about it please email <a href="http://www.mirc.com/khaled/email.html" target="_blank">Khaled</a> or the <a href="http://www.ifrc.org/contact" target="_blank">Red Cross</a>.</p>
<h4>mIRC 6.12 has been released! <span class="date">(October 13<sup>th</sup> 2003)</span></h4>
mIRC v6.12 has been released to address a remote vulnerability found yesterday, capable of crashing
your mIRC. The vulnerability affects versions of mIRC from v6.0 onwards, so it is highly recommended
that you upgrade to mIRC v6.12. You can do so by downloading the new mIRC from the <a href="get.html">download page</a>!</p>
<h4>mIRC 6.11 has been released! <span class="date">(October 10<sup>th</sup> 2003)</span></h4>
<p>A fresh new version of mIRC! With this new release we hope to address most the comments, requests and remarks we received after the release of version 6.1. Of course this new version fixes lots of the small but nevertheless annoying buggies found in the previous version. Details of all changes are available on the <a href="news.html">news page</a>. Discussions about the changes and features in this new version are very welcome on the <a href="https://forums.mirc.com/ubbthreads.php">message board</a>. Have fun and <a href="get.html">download and try mIRC 6.11</a>!</p>
<h4>mIRC 6.1 has been released! <span class="date">(August 29<sup>th</sup> 2003)</span></h4>
<p>With this release we hope to address most of the comments, requests and remarks we received after the release of version 6.03. Several new features and functions have been implemented. Details of all changes are available on the <a href="news.html">news page</a>.</p>
<div style="height:200px;">
<span style="width:45%;position:absolute;">
<h4>What is IRC?</h4>
<p><acronym alt="Internet Relay Chat">IRC</acronym> is a virtual meeting place where people from all over the world can meet and talk; you'll find the whole diversity of human interests, ideas, and issues here, and you'll be able to participate in group discussions on one of the many thousands of IRC channels, on hundreds of IRC networks, or just talk in private to family or friends, wherever they are in the world.</p>
</span>
<span style="width:45%;position:absolute;right:0px;background-color:#FFFFCC;padding:5px;">
<h4>What is mIRC?</h4>
<p>To use IRC you need a small program like mIRC, an IRC client for Windows, written by <a href="http://www.mirc.com/khaled/">Khaled Mardam-Bey</a>. mIRC is a friendly IRC client that is well equipped with options and tools. mIRC is shareware, which means that you can <a href="get.html">download mIRC</a> and try it out freely for 30 days to evaluate it. If during, or at the end of, the evaluation period you decide that you would like to continue using mIRC, you must <a href="register.html">register your copy</a>.</p>
</span>
</div>
<h4>Message board</h4>
<p>The mIRC website has a useful and friendly <a href="https://forums.mirc.com/ubbthreads.php">message board</a> where you can post questions if you need help, or just discuss mIRC and IRC-related issues. The message board can be used by anyone, so feel free to dive right in. If you're new to the message board and wish to post questions, make sure that you log in as a New User first.</p>
<h4>mIRC Release announcement list.</h4>
<p>We can send you an announcement by E-mail as soon as a new mIRC version has released! Subscribing to this list is very easy; just fill in your E-mail address below and we will make sure you will be among the first to know about every new mIRC version. We will update you on the new functions and features in mIRC and you will get a list of fast download addresses. We guarantee your E-mail address will only be used for release announcements. Read more on the <a href="mailing.html">mailing lists</a> page.</P>
<div style="background-color:#FFFFCC;padding:3px;width:250px;text-align:center">
<!-- start mailing list subscribe code -->
<form name="subscriptionform" action="https://forums.mirc.com/perl/subscribe" method="post">
<p>Fill in your E-mail Address:<input type="text" name="address" size="20" value=""><br />
and push the button:<input type="submit" value="Subscribe to mailing list"></p></form>
<!-- end of mailing list subscribe code -->
</div>
<div id="footer">
<p>Feel free to <a href="http://www.mirc.co.uk/linking.html"><FONT COLOR="#000066">link</a> to this official mIRC website. You can send requests for help in English to <a href="mailto:help@mirc.com">help@mirc.com</a>.
Please e-mail comments on this website to <a href="http://www.mirc.co.uk/krejt.html">Tjerk Vonck</a>.
These web-pages are Copyright © 1995-2003 Tjerk Vonck & mIRC Co. Ltd. mIRC® is a registered trademark of mIRC Co. Ltd. </p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
