Re: Anyone in the mood to be cut-throat and opinionated?

Well,

I am sorry that it took so long for me to respond to all the critiques of my
webpage.  My husband and I took a brief vacation over the holiday.

I want to thank everyone for their critiques, especially those who did as I
asked -- "Gave a *cut-throat* and *opinionated* analysis.

I believe that the key words in this statement are VERY obvious.  While I
appreciate the defense of those who believe that Mr. Foliot's opinionated
response was cruel, I actually did not pay that much attention to his
rantings!  *smile*

The first thing I do after receiving a critique is to view the author's
personal homepage so that I know where their viewpoints come from and can
filter their critique accordingly.  After viewing Mr. Foliot's page, I
realized that no matter what he said, he and I would never agree about what
a homepage should look like!!!!  BUT, and I stress that BUT, he has the
right to his opinon as much as I do and I appreciate him freely giving his
opinion at my request.

However, several people had responded to my request with various compliments
about my design style -- once again, the whole situation boils down to the
fact that everyone has a different OPINION.

While one statement from Mr. Foliot was that my site was 'vanilla' I have to
disagree with his definition of vanilla -- my colors (cream, hunter, and
black) were pale in comparison to his vivid, wavy blues, yet my color-blind
husband could read and enjoy our site while he cringed in horror from the
"horrid combination" on the Four AM site (direct quote!).  As this is
accessibility month, I think we need to keep in mind that their are various
forms of handicaps in the world.  While Mr. Foliot may cater to those people
who have complete function of their faculties, I will be glad to carry my
'vanilla,' completely accessible site to the other percent of the
population!  (Which totals several million people!)

As this clearly shows, there is a place for everyone and everyone's
thoughts, opinions, and preferences.  While some may think that my site
shows a 'GeoCities' style, I may think that some have no style at all!  But,
I can accept those differences, no matter how rude or offensive someone may
be in stating those.

Also, there was a mention of the validation errors on my page.  There are
many different validation services available and I choose to use the W3
Consortium's validation service.  According to their definition of HTML 4.0
Transitional, I have an error free site.  I prefer to use the W3C
guidelines, as they are the originators of HTML.  I placed a W3C link on my
site, showing my error free HTML, and prefer others to use the W3C standards
when observing my site.  If you choose to use another service, that is your
opinion.  However, do not assume that all users refer to your particular
validation services.

Thank you to all who responded to my request and gave sound advice.  Thank
you to those who still have common decency when giving your opinion.  AND,
thank you to those who are still raw enough to give a 'slap in the face'
when you believe it is needed.  It is this combination that makes the HTML
Writer's Guild worthwhile and I, for one, am glad to be able to share ideas
and *opinions* with everyone.

Sincerely,

Jaime Hartpence
PaigeCrafters, Internet Page Designers
http://www.river-valley.net/cobrah
cobrah(at)river-valley.net

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