I am using a few page validation tools one problem i have is they tell me textarea must have rows and cols attribute. If i am setting this in CSS or using display:none (and
Stop using a textarea. If you want something to hold raw data, then use a element (if you plan to access it with JS) or an input of type hidden (if you plan to submit it as form data).
Don't use semantics that say "Let the user enter data" if you don't plan to let the user enter data.