<Rebuttal>More Info

At 09:48 AM 10/3/01 , Paul Wilson wrote:
>I appologize for jumping down your throat.  I also tried to keep quiet and
>failed.

First, I would like to start with a personal message to Paul:

That is very kind of you Paul, but no apology is necessary or expected. I
do tend to be a little more direct and plainly spoken than most folks are
accustomed to. I see very few shades of gray - especially in computer
languages.

With that said, you commented:

"It's too easy for you to be an advocate for standards. You don't appear to 
share the hassles the rest of us do."

This has prompted me to share a little Fuzzy Theory that some readers *may*
find useful. I'll apologize up-front for getting a little long winded, as I
usually do regarding this subject.

My (Web) business focuses on two areas primarily 1) "Public Information"
sites. 2) Repair of "broken" commercial sites.

We have a few genuine public information presentation experts here, so I
won't go way into the theory used in building those types of sites beyond
stressing UNIVERSAL ACCESS is paramount. By nature that means very few
(read: almost ~no~) bells and whistles that are not server (SSI) based.
Browser specific code, is the kiss of death.

Being a simple minded guy, this is a natural for me!

What I would like to spend a little of your valuable time preaching about
is the perceived need on the part of many developers to give those "normal"
customers all the fancy little gizmos they ask for.

I often get the same request, or I am brought in as a hired gun to fix
someone's "broken bell". While it may be because of my simple minded method
of operation, or something I have no clue about, I _ seldom _ have any
problem convincing these customers ~not~ to use this kind of stuff. The
discussion usually goes something like this:

Cust: Fuzzy, we want "this" to work, it's broken now.
Fuzzy: OK, no problem. But do you realize that 1% of your customers
browsers are going to crash or they will NOT be able to see your site
because of that?

Cust: 1% ? I don't see how that is a problem - do it.
Fuzzy: OK, that's good for me. But I do have to say that I am in awe of
your business.

Cust: Awe? Why?
Fuzzy: Heck YES, Awe. This is the only place I have ever worked for that
could afford to turn tens of thousands of potential customers away
potentially frustrated and/or angry.

Cust: !?!?!?!?!?! WHAT !?!?!?!?!?!?! TENS of thousands away ?!?!?!?!
Fuzzy: Yup. Maybe more, you know, you have a global audience. It *may* be a
lot more than that. But, no problem for me, I'll get right on it.

Cust: Wait a minute !! Let's rethink this! Can you fix our Web so that NO
ONE is frustrated or angry and EVERYONE can use (see) it????
Fuzzy: Certainly. But you ~will~ have to loose that dancing cursor (drop
down JS menus/seamless backgrounds/etc. - whatever).

Cust: Loose the dancing cursor, but keep ALL the functionality? . . .
huuummmmm. DO IT!
Fuzzy: Yes. Oh, and to boot, you get an unconditional full 100% money back
guarantee that this page will NOT crash ANYONE's browser and EVERYONE that
visits will be able to see and use the page.

Case closed. Seriously, this works 99.99999998% of the time. Especially if
"Cust:" owns the company, or get commissions on web sales!!

On a side note, and pretty much pure bragging: In the last six years I have
made one refund (a database driven site I screwed up and didn't have
sufficient knowledge to fix [for universal access] at the time), and I
still service virtually _ every _ customer I have _ever_ had. I do
absolutely NO cold calling or advertising of any kind (look at canopy.net
sometime!), and my shop ~stays~ buried with work.

HTH,
Fuzzy. 
______________________________________________________________
Captain F.M. O'Lary
ctfuzzy(at)canopy.net
I asked Mom if I was a gifted child... she said they certainly wouldn't 
have paid for me.
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