Not Sure Where the Problem Lies
April 02, 2008
I'm not exactly sure who's to blame, because I'm not sure where the problem lies. What is the problem, you ask? Well, ugly, non-standard HTML. I know this is nothing new to the web, but this is the very issue — it's still around! The internet has become saturated with do-it-yourselfers, "mom and pop" web companies, and others that use the freedom of the internet to put their garbage online. It's been going on for years.
I'm not saying my design skills, my code, or my news posts are perfect. But at least I'm making an effort to do so somewhere along the standards of the web. And I'm not saying people shouldn't have freedom of speech [or posting]. That's a separate issue all together. What I am saying is that the web has markup standards that should be followed. And that certain people shouldn't be allowed to make websites or call themselves "web designers." I'll go into why I think this is a second. But, since the web medium is so vast, it's hard to pinpoint the culprits and it's even harder to educate them. Some could careless, and some just don't know these standards exist.
If you've ever read about web standards, ever dealt with clients in the web profession, or ever messed with a CMS before this may be nothing new. But, I needed to rant a little bit, and share the most absurd piece of code I've ever seen:
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...<font color="#0000ff" size="+0">Some link</font>...
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More: absurd code in its entirety + result.
Content Management Systems, which are most likely to blame for this incident above, are sort of a separate issue. I have yet to see one that can give a client full control over publishing without giving them too much freedom to produce junk without even knowing it. Perhaps this is the nature of the beast. Are these to blame? I don't know. But I do know that they've been allowing clients to add non-standard and ugly markup to beautifully crafted sites for years. And they create a bit of a headache for myself.
People that call themselves "web designers," webmasters, or any name that may dupe unsuspecting clients into hiring them have a hand in this too. Granted, this is America, "a land of opportunity" where anyone can build their own company. So, they have a right to do so. However, they also have a responsibility to learn their craft and stay current with the industry trends. If these professionals aren't with it, they could very well produce the above example — and to my horror, I've seen it before. But are they really to blame for everything? Not sure, maybe not for everything.
"Do-it-youselfers" are in a similar category as the so-called "web designers" (please notice the quotes) except that they may not be claiming to be professionals. And more than likely, they're not creating more havoc on the web than their own little corner. They wouldn't really be to blame at all, except that there are so many of them! It's a bit of a Tragedy of the Commons.
E-Commerce solutions programmers, wiki creators, and other programmers that don't really follow standards are in the same boat. And for me, this is the most annoying group of contributors; they're the ones that develop the CMS soultions (rather than the users or the beast itself mentioned above). I won't go into too much detail for fear of a long drawn out rant.
If you have any thoughts on this. I would love to get some more guidance on, relief from or what have you on this problem.
- Not Sure Where the [...]
- April 02, 2008
- 4 comments
Comments
4 comments
Mark said...
My soapbox@Rob: I appreciate you diverting my attention to my goalkeeper site. I was unaware, since I have forgotten about the site, that someone had hacked into my DB. This site was developed over 2 years ago. My methods then were not quite what they are now -- I'm learning my craft. And since I'm too busy to update my GK site with better security, it has had a few attacks on the unsecured database. Since I don't have time to fix it, I guess I will just pull the site down. Thanks for the heads up. However, I fail to see the relevance between standards compliance and my Goalkeeper101's 2 year old security flaws. I was unaware that the W3C made guidelines for best hack protection. For me (not a programmer) I'm learning the hard way and fixing these security leaks. Second, if I fail to update an old site or check up on it during my busy life, how does that make my soapbox a glass house? And, it's rather ironic that if one followed your email address at 24hourtrading.co.uk, they'd see a lovely set of "our sites" where at least one of them contains offensive material too. A simple warning about my GK site would have been a nice gesture.Fri, 9 May 2008 11:04:00 EST
Rob Scott said...
Glass Houses?Hey, I got here from a goalkeeping website that you presumably have forgotten about. You should go there and see the latest article that has your name on it. Its funny that you feel able to preach standards and compliance when you fail to take offensive content down from a site you could easily have removed rather than letting it go stale. Unless you left the article in question.Fri, 9 May 2008 10:33:00 EST
Mark said...
Resentment who?@ SnAcKs: First off, you missed the fact that I didn't really blame do-it-youselfers. I more or less pawned their issue off on to the Tragedy of the Commons. If you're learning HTML, great! That's how I started, but then I found that I wasn't doing things completely correct. So I learned more and adopted standards. Now that you know about them, do you think you'll keep old habits? That was where the responsibility of web professionals lies. They should be constantly trying to be "professional" and be the best at their craft. If they don't know any better can they really be called professionals? Secondly, I don't think I'm a big shot. If you want to hire a big shot, hire Dan Cederholm (simplebits.com). But, I feel I am a professional, and I think I'm good at what I do, but I'm always looking for more ways to improve. That's the difference. Moreover, money isn't always the case. Plenty of bad web designers cost just as much, if not more, than I do. The difference is the level of education on the client's part. Meaning, do they really know what they're getting for their money? And, while we can't prevent clients from wasting their money, perhaps we should prevent non-professionals from abusing the industry. After all, you wouldn't hire a non-professional architect to build you a house just because you couldn't afford a real one. In fact, the government won't really allow this to happen (i.e. building codes). But, I guess because a faulty house can kill people and an faulty website doesn't really injure anyone it's not cause to involve regulations by the government. So, what do we do? We complain about non-standards and we try to flood the web with info about standards so everyone can learn. Hence my post. Perhaps it'll cause some strife, and through strife someone will try to learn more to prove me wrong.Wed, 2 Apr 2008 14:32:00 EST
SnAcKs said...
Hey!!! I resent that!!I'm a do-it-yourself-er!! We all aren't privileged enough to know all the standards or that there may be standards. When I started, it was solely to understand more programming and do a basic web page. I didn't follow any standards and as I learned I would improve things. Only because of you, I now know there are standards, but if you would have asked me a year ago I would have responded...Standards who?! And frankly, not everyone can afford to hire some big shot like u to design their website... so leave them alone!!Wed, 2 Apr 2008 12:26:00 EST