Calgary web firms suck
March 17th, 2006
Web developers here in Calgary are stuck in the stone age. Visit any website for any business in Calgary or one that was built by a developer here it’s almost a guarantee that the site will not be accessible, semantic or even remotely close to employing even the most basic technique of web standards.
Why does it take so long for people to change? What does the local web community have to fear? Why do they feel that learning new techniques is such a bad thing?
Is it because these firms and developers consider the learning portion of their life over? They have already put the time in figuring out how to code HTML and how to build tables so they can achieve the desired layout. Since they did already put that time in should they really have to devote more of it to keeping up to date? What they’ve learned already works according to them. Most responses will probably be the typical, lazy response, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.â€
Sure, that would apply if using tables for layout and keeping text as an image wasn’t broken. The main problem with that attitude being those methods are broken. Would you ask a neighbour to build your new home because you heard he has a couple model houses in his basement that he built himself? Hell no. You’d interview actual construction companies and real estate developers. If you want to make a serious effort on your website — and after the whole internet bomb in the late nineties who doesn’t — would you not want the best?
Do you want your website to be found — and ranked highly — by search engines? Do you want the biggest audience possible to be able to view your website? Would you like to have a site that loads as fast as possible, even on slower connections? Then why do you keep going with Joe-schmoe nobody because he has a computer?
Every person and company that is serious about their website needs to do themselves a favor. Investigate the web development firms in their area. Research all the potential candidates. Ask them point blank if they are familiar with the latest web standards practices and make them prove it. To anyone that doesn’t think standards are important, I say this:
You. Are. Wrong. You’re lazy and wrong.
On March 20th, 2006, Scott said:
Can I get an amen!
No different with the majority of the bigwig agencies in Toronto. Sure they can make it look pretty, just not the underlying code/framework. We won’t even get into accessibility…
On August 30th, 2006, amacdonald said:
Vancouver is no better.
Hence, i’m back in calgary - LOL.
On July 27th, 2007, Mike said:
Not all of us, but a good majority are still living in framesets and tables. I think that companies are going to have to adopt eventually as their customers become more savvy, and as the tools evolve.
Working at a BigWig agency in Calgary, I can say that the reason I work here is because programming compliant (strict) pages is not a plus - it is a requirement.