Article Errata

15 Oct 2003

My article about XSS and CSRF was published today (technically yesterday, since it is after midnight) in php|a. When reading through it, I couldn't help my perfectionist tendencies, and I found myself noticing a few minor errors. None of these exist in the original manuscript, but the complexities of the editorial process can sometimes introduce a few problems. I have found this to be true with both book publishers and magazine publishers. Just as with writing code, any step that involves a change can introduce bugs.

The reason I decided to write about this is that php|a offers some nice forums, and each article they publish is given its own forum. This provides a convenient place for follow-up questions and discussions about the article. It also provides a home for article errata.

I have found many articles on the Web with serious errors, and given the likelihood for misinformation to mislead people, it would be nice if there was an easy way for people to find article errata (in cases where the article itself cannot be corrected). I have tried to contact the original author in a few cases, but it seems that most every email address I use for this purpose is outdated.

Would a single source for such article errata be the best solution, or should each publisher/Web site provide its own? I'm not sure, but I may give it some more thought.