title: ASP.NET - ViewState: empty placeholder generates view state
body: <p>On my web-page I have PlaceHolder, not controls are loaded into it.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;asp:PlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderStatMain" runat="server"&gt;
  &lt;/asp:PlaceHolder&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am looking the ViewState generated for the page, it is the following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value="/wEPDwUJLTg1NDkyNTUzD2QWAgIDD2QWAgIND2QWAmYPZBYCAgEPZBYCZg9kFgJmD2QWBmYPFQEYL3N0YXRfc3RhZGl1bS9sZWFndWVfV0VGZAIBDxUBGC9zdGF0X3N0YWRpdW0vbGVhZ3VlX0VFRmQCAg8VARgvc3RhdF9zdGFkaXVtL2xlYWd1ZV9GQ1VkZEuSBUr5LFL6WfCehNBJgjrq0GzwWCWN2qlU70V7LAAb" /&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I set EnableViewState to false:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;asp:PlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderStatMain" runat="server" EnableViewState="false"&gt;
  &lt;/asp:PlaceHolder&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The viewstate content was decreased significantly:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value="/wEPDwUJLTg1NDkyNTUzZGTTn8Y28VwmpE/K7yPPkLFvhrqMdU8THijFW/BMFzk0tQ==" /&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Question: how to remove 'useless' viewstate content without disabling viewstate for placeholder himself (I would like other control loaded into placeholder to has viewstate)?</p>
  
  <p>Is it possible at all?</p>
  
  <p>Any thought are welcome!</p>
  
  <p>P.S. I am using ASP.NET 4.0</p>