Those six guidelines are not for everyone, and Kilian urges Web writers to view his book as they would a cookbook. But for the rest of us, it's good to have some help to ensure that the end product is edible. Recently, Kilian posted his six guidelines to the Online-Writing Internet discussion list, and got an interesting reaction. Many writers were defensive about the whole idea of presenting rules for the Web, and felt that Kilian's suggested guidelines were simply rehashed rules for print writing. But Kilian says that most people have been learning how to publish and write on the Web by watching others.
Web publishers throw something on the Web, and if it's good others model their own work after it.
Take the rules that anyone else presents with a grain of salt. Kilian says that some Web writers who are out there making their own rules can oftentimes teach us something new. The important part of Kilian's message is that we who work in the Web medium need to focus more on the content of writing for the Web. Those who truly care about how words are crafted have been slow to participate online in a publishing role, though they are starting to show themselves. The author says that they were concerned that the book as outlined by Kilian wouldn't have enough information about HTML and was a bit too focused on writing.