WordPress Theme change: better validation

I’m continuing to learn as much piece meal or trial & error as in an organized read the manual manner.

After fiddling around with the last theme until I liked it I read an article Chris Price at A3Webtech wrote.  He said, “The simplest way to check a basic level of quality, as ever, is to go to the W3C online validator at http://validator.w3.org and check the website’s index page.”

So I checked. Lots of errors. Lots.

I tried out the themes I had uploaded at various times: same or similar results. Went to Cutline. No errors!  Well, after all the theme shifting I did pick up a couple of html errors, mostly in the footer that weren’t there – but they’re not design errors. I also discovered some of the plugins I was using were responsible. They were there regardless of theme.

I hear arguments pro and con about the importance of validating.  Such as, “The site of the big companies who sit on the validator boards don’t validate and they work well.”  So I keep this in mind so a to not become rigid on this. I like seeing validation as an indicator of quality though. What are your thoughts on validation?

Oh,  comments on this theme?