Comments on: A long, angry entry about web design and my job http://heliologue.com/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/ Let joy be unconfined. Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons, and necking in the parlor. Wed, 23 May 2012 05:37:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: A Modest Construct » Dreamweaver, how I loathe thee! http://heliologue.com/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-74036 A Modest Construct » Dreamweaver, how I loathe thee! Wed, 09 May 2007 01:01:35 +0000 http://heliologue.com/blog/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-74036 [...] See, if I was at a competent university that cared about their website, we wouldn’t be having this problem, because we’d have some sort of decent CMS, and faculty wouldn’t be allowed to edit anything outside of their own personal area. But that’s a topic I’ve already covered. [...] [...] See, if I was at a competent university that cared about their website, we wouldn’t be having this problem, because we’d have some sort of decent CMS, and faculty wouldn’t be allowed to edit anything outside of their own personal area. But that’s a topic I’ve already covered. [...]

]]> By: Ben http://heliologue.com/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-14661 Ben Fri, 17 Feb 2006 00:46:57 +0000 http://heliologue.com/blog/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-14661 Sounds painful. Of course, everything hinges on "competent" people. The fact that GVSU is running Coldfusion says to me that <em>somebody</em> who makes the decisions isn't particularly competent. Sounds painful. Of course, everything hinges on “competent” people. The fact that GVSU is running Coldfusion says to me that somebody who makes the decisions isn’t particularly competent.

]]> By: John http://heliologue.com/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-14660 John Thu, 16 Feb 2006 22:26:08 +0000 http://heliologue.com/blog/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-14660 Of course, you could always have the opposite problem where you run into a Web system that is completely controlled by web admins and thus all changes have to be done by them. This is the problem I have run into at GVSU. I submitted some pretty simple html/php stuff to our web admins to be added in whatever way they do (the html/php was supposed to be a model, GVSU uses coldfusion for its website). They proceeded to rape the layout and functionality that I had painstakingly crafted, and left only a shell that had errors and disfuntionalies that would make a kindergardener blush. They left it half-finished, and havn't touched it for months, despite a detailed follow-up that pointed out the specific areas that needed to be changed and how. Of course, you could always have the opposite problem where you run into a Web system that is completely controlled by web admins and thus all changes have to be done by them. This is the problem I have run into at GVSU. I submitted some pretty simple html/php stuff to our web admins to be added in whatever way they do (the html/php was supposed to be a model, GVSU uses coldfusion for its website). They proceeded to rape the layout and functionality that I had painstakingly crafted, and left only a shell that had errors and disfuntionalies that would make a kindergardener blush. They left it half-finished, and havn’t touched it for months, despite a detailed follow-up that pointed out the specific areas that needed to be changed and how.

]]> By: Ben http://heliologue.com/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-14655 Ben Thu, 16 Feb 2006 13:29:42 +0000 http://heliologue.com/blog/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-14655 Oh, and to answer your question: no, I don't think most people would be averse to the idea of a CMS: in fact, most people would prefer having it abstracted to that point. A lot of people are completely lost with Dreamweaver. There would be some, however, whom we would have to wean off the idea that the webserver isn't their personal playground. If they disagree, I'll kick them. Oh, and to answer your question: no, I don’t think most people would be averse to the idea of a CMS: in fact, most people would prefer having it abstracted to that point. A lot of people are completely lost with Dreamweaver.

There would be some, however, whom we would have to wean off the idea that the webserver isn’t their personal playground. If they disagree, I’ll kick them.

]]> By: Ben http://heliologue.com/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-14654 Ben Thu, 16 Feb 2006 13:27:59 +0000 http://heliologue.com/blog/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-14654 Well, I tried to build a bunch of classes into the template, so they can just choose element classes from a dropdown box. The problem comes when they try to be cute and have font colors and sizes all wonky: they don't know the first thing about how and why to do certain things certain ways. I don't so much care if <a href="http://www.stfrancis.edu/hi/chamberl.htm" rel="nofollow">faculty pages</a> are fugly, because they're an entirely different context. Butt when faculty members (usually administrators, not teachers) try to do cutesie garbage <a href="http://www.stfrancis.edu/assessment/" rel="nofollow">within the template, <em>then</em> we have a problem.</a> Well, I tried to build a bunch of classes into the template, so they can just choose element classes from a dropdown box. The problem comes when they try to be cute and have font colors and sizes all wonky: they don’t know the first thing about how and why to do certain things certain ways.

I don’t so much care if faculty pages are fugly, because they’re an entirely different context. Butt when faculty members (usually administrators, not teachers) try to do cutesie garbage within the template, then we have a problem.

]]> By: Jeff http://heliologue.com/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-14650 Jeff Thu, 16 Feb 2006 05:46:02 +0000 http://heliologue.com/blog/2006/02/15/a-long-angry-entry-about-web-design-and-my-job/#comment-14650 I don't think you can really expect faculty to do much with CSS or to even spend a lot of time with it. Would they be against moving to some sort CMS like you suggested? I've seen some bad faculty pages, of course. The worst one was from a CS professor, even. He has a better one now, but holy shit, it was the ugliest thing I've ever seen. There's a copy of it <a>here</a>, but without the graphics you don't get the full effect. I don’t think you can really expect faculty to do much with CSS or to even spend a lot of time with it. Would they be against moving to some sort CMS like you suggested?

I’ve seen some bad faculty pages, of course. The worst one was from a CS professor, even. He has a better one now, but holy shit, it was the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. There’s a copy of it here, but without the graphics you don’t get the full effect.

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