[Ansteorra] websites

[Vanessa]

Thank you. The website for 30 Year is beautiful.


--- On Wed, 6/24/09, Childers, Jeff <Jeff.Childers at ttuhsc.edu> wrote:

> From: Childers, Jeff <Jeff.Childers at ttuhsc.edu>
> Subject: [Ansteorra] websites
> To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 2:59 PM
> The following is merely my opinions
> based solely on my experiences,
> individual mileage my vary and could all very well ALL be a
> lie. 
> 
> The internet and websites in general is moved and turned by
> business.
> They expect to deliver their content for the least amount
> of expense.
> Because of this motivating factor many solid companies have
> gone under
> because of their dedication to delivering "content for
> all". The
> "internet" originally was to provide a method of
> information exchange
> but with the intrusion of advertisers trying make a buck.
> They learned
> from the big .com bubble bursting that the internet wasn't
> like any
> other form of advertising. They now pay $$$ for data mining
> and browser
> history gleaning to get a demographic to make products more
> appealing to
> a particular website audiences.
> 
> The people who buy, website based services, only see the
> price point and
> what they see and hear. I worked on a site that spent 1.3
> million for
> the development of its website and ecommerce package but
> didn't want to
> spend the extra 20k to provide text based services. It is a
> fact that
> the web is moving from information exchange to a multimedia
> TV like
> product. It is becoming many things. Take youtube for
> example it is a
> very popular website that a few years ago would not have
> been possible.
> Networking sites like facebook and myspace are basically
> forums. With
> the inclusion of games, music and messaging like
> capabilities to these
> sites they will only become more popular.
> 
> But I guess I am slightly off topic. I guess the point I am
> trying to
> make that it isn't developers who are to blame necessarily
> but the
> forces that drive the internet. These forces being
> development houses,
> users, browsers, operating systems, servers, server OSes
> and the biggest
> TIME. All play a role in content development. If a
> developer isn't paid
> to learn and implement the different ways to bring content
> to the
> disabled it lends to hap-hazard learning in a vacuum.
> 
> CMS systems tend to leave a bad taste in my mouth. I have
> migrated from
> one system to the next 4 or 5 times that ended up being
> quite the
> headache here at the university. 4 years ago we implemented
> luminous by
> sungard. The not having to learn html is true as long as
> you don't try
> and get fancy. Nonetheless I take about 20 calls a week on
> this 'hands
> free' approach lol. I have done video tutorials, walk
> thurs, and pdf
> training manuals but I still have to baby sit the users.
> Then when
> writing specialized packages/libraries/tools that have to
> be changed to
> some degree upon each deployment is a pain. Instead of a
> couple days to
> modify the code of a standalone web application it ends up
> be 2 or 3
> times that. Most developers really don't have the time to
> dedicate to
> learning a new proprietary language. A few of the amenities
> such a
> rollbacks, page management and rss feeds are nice but not
> for small
> sites. Now if the issue is merely to provide the content to
> the disabled
> a cms product doesn't insure this and is like using a
> atomic bomb to
> kill a gnat. A far less demanding way is to provide the
> content as
> text-only.
> 
> Here in the year 2009 providing content to users with
> disabilities is
> still in its infancy. There is a big push to use css in SCA
> websites but
> it carries no better a guarantee than html itself. It boils
> down to
> experience and realizing that website design is as much a
> art as it is a
> science.
> 
> Now how much can be asked of a person who is donating
> his/her time doing
> something that they might not have the knowledge base to
> accomplish
> isn't my call. If we should move to text only pages isn't
> my call as
> well. I DO think having a well developed site tends to give
> the
> impression of legitimacy to our groups. I also don't think
> most SCAians
> realize the work involved in bringing this convenience to
> everyone. I
> over the last 3 weeks have put in about 90 hours on the
> 30th year
> website plus a full time job and helping out at our local
> event. Reality
> is we do the best we can. And a thanks every once in a
> while is nice.
> 
> Garreth Silverthane
> Ansteorrian Virtual Scribe err.. Webminister
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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