Hi tilly,

I've seen you bring this point up in response just about every time CSS is mentioned for use at the Monastery, and I can sympathize. You and probably many others are in a situation where these particular tools in the web design toolbox aren't just impractical, they're downright disabling.

While I usually consider myself to be relatively leading edge in my _knowledge_ of web standards, I know that it is foolish to try to use technologies that are to young to have gained a solid foothold.

The rest of this post, since I'm going to rant, is no longer directed at anyone in particular.

CSS has been around since 1996. 7 years is ancient history for most computer-related technologies. So it isn't as if web authors are chomping at the bit to take their shiny new toy out for a test drive. They're sitting there waiting till they can wipe the layers of dust off of this very useful tool without getting their hand slapped.

I would *hate* to lose any member of this community over something that should be as trivial as the medium through which we communicate. But I would really like to see some progress made in said medium.

As a comprimise, I think it would be wonderful if we could set up a XHTML/CSS-theme that registered users could optionally switch to. Again, I'd like to volunteer some of my backordered tuits to help make this happen.