Re: HTML Differences - Details

This is a point to remember: there are clashes when there are changes,
especially on the corporate level.

Nothing to do about it...corporate culture demands in-fighting, and
survivalist tactics.  If one department doesn't get their "piece of the
pie", they might not be able to "justify their existence", and this could
lead to their functionality being taken on elsewhere....causing job losses,
status losses, or other inconveniences.  Of course, the actual emphasis
might be on justifying the existence of the company as a whole, but that
seems too sensible for the corporate level of thought...:).

Were all this to be transferred to writing code, it would be known as
"bloat".  In the case in point, the real question (as others have noted)
should be: "what is the most cost-effective way to produce a site that does
what the COMPANY needs done?".  Not "Will I lose my job?" or "Will this put
a feather in Joe's hat, instead of mine?" or "Am I losing money from my
department's budget?".  Any of these on either your department's part, or
the IT people, are a waste of company time, and are indicative of the
corporate culture's present-day flaws.

So, Patti, if you *really* want to be the Hero of the Day and settle this in
an intelligent and unique manner, do as some people here have suggested, and
look at it objectively.  Take the best, most suited talent from both
departments, place an open-minded, forward-thinking person ( someone with a
proven record of placing the company over themselves) in charge, and let the
actual, bare, blunt truth come out.  The only thing that should be off
limits for this committee will be any references to company politics.

Simple common sense says do the job correctly.  I seriously doubt that
anyone reading this is an expert on *every* angle of Web
Development...there's enough of the pie to go around.  Human nature often
gets in the way...especially when it comes to self preservation, or self
advancement...

Darrell

The Web Center
Web Site Solutions
admin(at)webctr.com
www.webctr.com

----- Original Message -----

> This sounds like a botch from the git go. When you design a site you
> have to know what OS it will be working on and what capabilities the
> server it will be hosted on will have.
>
> Frankly, what I see evidenced is complete ignorance of these issues on
> your departments part.
>
> For instance, the email forms. Most of these require CGI. When writing
> the HTML for using those, you HAVE TO KNOW THE PROGRAM to write the
> HTML. So, when ya'll decided to use email forms did anyone give a call
> to the IT department and say:
>
> ''Howdy, we want to do an email form. Do you, or could you install
> ProGram.cgi, or do ya'll have Perl on your system etc, etc.''
>
> Was that questions asked? Hmmmmm??
>
> I am both a system admin and a webmaster, and you have to know both
> sides of the equation in advanced. We get calls all the time from
> customers who have outside contractors do a site, and the contractor
> never checks to see what we have installed on our system...they just
> fling out the HTML to access the program  they are famaliar with.
> Seemingly they do not think to ask questions.
>
> In reading over your post, I'm going to come down on the IT departments
> side in this matter. From that one line (Unix server running NT
> software) I'm assuming that nobody in your group ever talked to or
> considered that what ya'll were creating would work on the IT servers.
>
> Regarding Company Logos: they mostly SHOULD be redesigned for the web. I
> fight all the time with logo love by marketing departments. Usually
> logos that are perfectly suited for the print media and letterheads are
> a disaster for a web site. Well, I fight and I lose. I have one site
> where the logo, to match the marketing committes guidelines manages to
> consume a tad under 60 PERCENT the height and 70 PERCENT of the width of
> a page for viewing by 640 x 480 browsers of each and every page and to
> get the desired quality of looks with such a large logo, the logo, just
> the logo, is the largest graphic on every page.
>
> the page looks great when printed out.
> --
>
>
> Jim Tom Polk -:- jtpolk(at)texas.net -:- http://camalott.com/~jtpolk/

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