Response to comments

[Roy Tennant]

Wow! There is so much here to on which I want to comment that I don't know
where to start, so I won't. What I *will* do is give my standard advice
whenever someone starts giving a lot of markup and site management advice.
Since there are many differences of opinion on this activity, as there are
in almost any field of endeavor, it's a good idea to go look at the site
of the person giving you the advice (such as http://www.banjo.com/ in this
case). If the site reflects what you believe to be good practice, then pay
attention to the advice. If it doesn't, then don't. This can be a highly
personal thing, as we know from the diversity of sites out there. So judge
for yourself. Thanks,
Roy


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 19:44:01 -0700
From: Bob Cherry <cherry at banjo.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at library.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Response to comments

I've been reading the current commentary and have been somewhat interested
in the dialog on CSS (Style Sheets), ADA guidelines, site management use
of frames and broken links. 

I'd like to share some of my experiences with you so hopefully you'll
benefit from my learning -- most of which was by making mistakes:)  Your
web pages should be fun and fresh and entertaining.  Guidelines and such
actually limit you and do not allow for creative expression. 

One soon realizes that they cannot control all of the users and browsers
in the market.  Everything from Lynx (totally text based) to the latest
MSIE4 and Netscape Communicator 4.x, must be capable of reading your web
site or you tune out readers.  The basic rule of any web site is to keep
it simple if you want everybody to be able to view or read it.  Plug ins,
special features etc. always eliminate somebody on the outside from seeing
the inside. 

Style Sheets -- Drop them like a hot rock.  There is a better and more
universal approach which achieves the same thing and will work with any
browser.  The concept of template files.  These are basic blank HTML files
which you insert your content into.  They have already defined the
background, horizontal graphics, fonts, etc.  These will allow you to
quickly add pages and maintain a consistent look and feel to every page on
your site.  It makes your site have a unique style and identity.  I use
these on my web site and its clearly evident as I have over 500 HTML pages
and they all have a consistent look and feel.  It also speeds up the
addition of new pages. 


You need a set of graphics you'll always use and maybe even a background
image.  Make sure you always put in alternate text for every graphic. 

As for <CITE> <BLOCKQUOTE> <STRONG> etc., not every browser treats these
uniquely and some don't do anything with these tags.  They will become
more predominant in the future but not right now.  Check out
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/html_ref.html for what to use and not use. 
This is an excellent reference for HTML. 

One last comment, if you're going to teach CSS and think that you want to
support it, teach it now so that content creators will be ready for it
when its reach constitutes a significant market share.  Don't try and play
catchup. 

ADA Guidelines -- Set your own standards!  Web sites which are unique and
have a fresh appearance will keep your patrons coming back.  If they all
look the same and act the same, they become boring.  Every book, article,
and document on successful web sites recommends avoiding global
guidelines. 


If libraries come up with standards and guidelines for web sites, they
should consider that each library may have a unique target audience
(legal, medical, public, K12, educational, etc.) and their pages should
reflect their purpose. 

For accessibility, use Bobby as was mentioned earlier.  This is a great
package and it isn't that difficult to make your pages compliant.  One
area I've had a great deal of difficulty with is forms and CGI.  Packages
like Bobby don't work with these very well. 

Fonts (Funky Old Nasty Things) -- Try and stick with browser standard
fonts.  If the reader doesn't have the specific font on their system, it
won't display properly.  HTML is a markup language and not a Page
Description Language like Postscript, Interpress, etc.  The user may
define the look and feel of their environment and if they are visually
impaired, your changing of fonts may make your pages hard to read. 


I believe its OK to change font sizes but try and avoid changing the
family (font name) of the font.  If you want expression, make and create a
graphic instead (remember the alternate text) and use that.  This way, the
reader doesn't require the font on their system and you don't need to
include it with the document page. 

Broken Links and Roving Sites -- These are a royal pain for any web site
which has links to other sites.  It also teaches you that if you want to
be found, don't move :)  Often a site keeps moving or changing its URL so
that one needs to constantly spend time and resources updating links.  It
isn't your fault but rather, the fault of those who keep changing.  I have
a rule on my site that if a site moves twice in one year, its history as
far as links are concerned.  I drop quite a few every month but, I also
add new ones.  This is both beneficial and detrimental but, it helps keep
the site accurate and less of a site management nightmare. 

Alas, managing broken links is made easy by various site management aids
such as LinkBot, Crystal Site Updater, HoTMetaL Pro's site manager and
many others.  These all basically do the same thing... They verify your
links directly through the web.  I highly recommend them! 

Finding Your Site and Search Engines -- A whole document could be written
about this subject but alas, there are basically three things to consider
for making your web site aware to search engines. 

1.  Register them.  Use tools like www.submit-it.com and the home page
"add URL" function on the main search engines. 

2.  Use META tags to define your content.

3.  Maintain two text files in your root directory:
    a.  robots.txt
    b.  site.idx

These will all aid your site and will automatically manage your updates
for you.  A real treat.  Note that CGI pages are never indexed however
ISINDEX pages can be.  Something to consider when planning your site.  The
web has all the info you need on these and some is referenced by the above
URL. 

Page Layout -- Although High Resolution displays are used almost
universally today, most folks still run them at low resolution.  Thus,
every web page should be viewable on a 640 x 480 display.  Dumb, yes but,
its a necessity.  So, what you want to do is define some site limits. 
Tables and graphics (horizontal lines, etc.) should be limited to 580
pixels wide.  I use 540 so things look centered nicely but 580 is a good
hard limit.  Limit the vertical to 360 pixels since browsers may have rows
of menu buttons on them.  If it looks nice there, any size will look nice
if its planned out properly. 


Frames -- I had them and spent so much time reading complaint mail that
they are now history.  I haven't had frames on my pages in over 2 years. 
I don't miss them nor their management and I find that I can do everything
I want without them.  I prefer script (vbscript, javascript, etc.) or CGI
which is mostly written in Perl.  Invisible Tables are a great alternative
also and allow a lot of flexibility in placing objects on your pages.  Try
it as they are very low overhead and give a lot of flexibility. 

Web Activity and Usage -- Analog is a good program and is easily
customized.  You may make it look unique very easily so that it matches
your site's look and feel.  Just a few minor edits to the code and maybe
changing the graphics will do it.  Track only what's important to you. 
You don't have to graph everything.  On a site like mine that gets 30,000
hits a day, you need to conserve CPU time in generating these.  Keep them
around monthly, quarterly or annually.  Print them out before you clear
your logs. 


There are other tools out there which are also great at trending reports
and usage statistics.  WebTrends and similar packages can help you out but
they aren't free like Analog.  I use different tools for different jobs
but, you'll soon find out what you need and don't need.  Play with it and
don't be afraid to change things. 

Final Comments -- HTML Editor Packages.  There are many of these and I've
found that SoftQuad's HoTMetaL Pro 4 is a good buy.  It includes Bobby,
Graphics tools, HTML Validation, the ability to import various file
formats and fully supports templates.  There are a lot of other perks with
it also.  FrontPage is also common but it doesn't generate as good of HTML
as does HoTMetaL Pro.  Some editors fill up your pages with &nbsp;
characters and garbage; don't end list items </LI> or paragraphs </P> and
allow illegal nesting of tags.  Beware of these! 

Browsers.  Basically there are three that your pages must work with...
  a.  Netscape
  b.  MS Internet Explorer
  c.  Opera

If your pages look good with ALL of these, then they work and should keep
your readers happy. 

Copyright Infringement is one area that really bugs me.  I spend a great
deal of time and money (software purchases) to keep my sites graphics
unique and pleasing.  I often find other site using my graphics and audio
files (midi) and that isn't right.  Take the time to build your own and
don't go and copy them from somebody elses site.  Sure its easy but, it
isn't right. 

Last of all, HAVE FUN!  Creating web sites is a LOT of FUN and allows
anybody to be creative and to express their purpose or ideas.  Try and not
fall into canned or predefined rules as they will limit you in trying to
achieve what you want to do.  My site breaks almost all the rules but,
over time, I've figured out what I can and cannot get away with.  My home
page is almost totally graphical and uses a CGI based menu to navigate
around in it.  Probably not a good idea to start with but, in my case and
with my audience, it works. 
  
I'm a webmaster for numerous Global Fortune 1000 corporations,
www.banjo.com, and numerous others, I'd like to share some of my
experience with all of this.  I have also been a worldwide network
consultant and am currently working for one of America's biggest network
service providers.  My web site was the 7th ever in the world.  This stuff
isn't new to me.  I was also co-author of Librowse, a free web browser
designed totally for libraries.  So, if you got this far and want to see
my site, its at http://www.banjo.com and is a bluegrass music site. 


Thanks for your time.
Bob Cherry
Internet and Networking Consultant