Modify CSS for a span with equalsign - css

Question

I have this strange code:
<h1>Firmware 0.6 <span="postdate">April 02, 2015</span>
</h1>
How can I change only this certain span that has ="postdate" in it with CSS?
The problem occurs in a widespread template in the posttime of for example: http://luebeck.freifunk.net/2015/01/07/announce-0.6.html
the main source in github is corrected already, But I wonder how to fix such with only access to the CSS file.

Answer 1

That's not valid HTML.
If you validate it using an HTML validator, you will receive the following:
an attribute specification must start with a name or name token
An attribute name (and some attribute values) must start with one of a restricted set of characters. This error usually indicates that you have failed to add a closing quotation mark on a previous attribute value (so the attribute value looks like the start of a new attribute) or have used an attribute that is not defined (usually a typo in a common attribute name).
For what it's worth, you can technically select it by escaping the =/" characters.
Unfortunately, this will also select all succeeding elements due to the syntax error in the HTML.
span\=\"postdate\" {
color: red;
}
<span>Other span</span>
<span="postdate">April 02, 2015</span>
<p>Some paragraph</p>
<span>Everything appearing after the invalid span will get selected due to the syntax error!</span>

Answer 2

Ignoring the weirdness and considering it just another span there's usually another way to select it as it has a unique place in the DOM (though what that is may be unpredictable with dynamically created content such as you get in a CMS).
I'm guessing you've thought to target any ancestor items with an id attribute or determine if there's a way to target it through ancestors without affecting sibling spans or spans that sit within a similar structure elsewhere? Basically - does it sit within a unique structure in some way?
If not then you could also try to target it through span:nth-child(5). There's also a fist-child and last-child. This may help uniquely target it within the overall structure. https://css-tricks.com/useful-nth-child-recipies/
You could also try to enter an inline script in the html view of the wysiwyg (a bad CMS may allow this!) which will allow you to check the content of spans and do something to if it matches (like add a class or id for a styling hook).