Re: Doing Things Right

Paul


> Forgive the cross-post.  I'm trying to get a wide opinion from as many
HTML
> gurus as possible because this is a philosophical question.
>
> Here's the issue:  Should I "fix" coding from a third party's site while
> saving it for the responsible organization on CD?  What would you do?
>
> We have a database where many people input training information.  A third
> party pulls that information and generates web pages from it (using MS
> products).  The pages have errors input by people into the database which
> are too numerous and too frequent to be caught before the third party
pulls
> the information.  And, of course, we all know about what MS sometimes does
> to code.

Short answer - no.

It's always hard to come into an existing website.  Are you stepping on
toes, why is it the way it is, how free are you to make changes?

Personally I would leave their messed up MS code alone.  It doesn't seem
like you could easily mesh your work and keep it appropriately updated.  It
doesn't seem like they are paying you for this...so why do it?

Many designers are so hungry that they promise anything even giving away
websites for free to get started.  Personally I would not flip burgers at
Micky D's for two weeks as a training exercise just to get a job - so this
concept escapes me.

I used to try and do everything before I learned I could not be everything
for everyone.  I have worked on a couple of sites done previously by other
designers where the customer started out wanting a few "adjustments."  I
found it often takes too much time to rework what they had, it was seldom
appreciated and the more I bent over backwards, the more the customer
expected.  Furthermore, whenever I delved into new territories of
programming it ended up costing me for software and training, not them.  End
result, I ended up building things I was not proud of and I usually lost
money.  I don't do that anymore.

Wasn't it one of your taglines or Ted Temer's that used to say:

"Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler?" Albert Einstein

If elegance is something like a little black dress, then understatement and
simplicity is very important to me in building websites.  I see few
designers subscribing to this idea as they go off building flashy sites
lacking any content.  How could I mesh what I do with what someone else has
done?  If the customer won't agree to a complete redesign using my
standards, we can't do business.

I'm not stuffy.  I am a happy guy that does not surrender myself to
expediency.

Paul Wilson

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