Incompetent Competition in Web Design

That's right, I'm not even justifying this post with an image.

I find it incredibly disgusting at how the web design industry has progressed in smaller communities. I look around at my competition and find that.. well.. they aren't truly worth being called competitors.

For the sake of saving face (and not screwing myself over professionally), I will avoid linking to any said "competitors", giving any names, or affording you any specifics on who you should be avoiding if you are seeking web design services - if you are curious, you can ask.

There are a number of businesses in the area that offer "professional" web design services for a modest (or insanely high) fee. The price usually varies - I know some who charge 14-year-old-in-his-mom's-basement prices, and some who charge more than high quality contract designers who have a waiting list a mile long. Either one seems to easily be able to dupe the local shops into contracting them for services that aren't even worth their time, let alone their finances.

For instance, I know of one company (yes, an actual company) that does their web design work in MS Word.

MS WORD. Not exactly a high class design tool.

Of course, there are some who actually know a little bit about web design. They can perhaps write a little markup language, or even use tables. The sad part is, the MySpace generation has aided in creating a mass breed of such designers, affording us little choice but to grab our pitchforks as professional web designers and go on a hunt to skewer these so called designers who aren't giving the client the products they need.

The technical market is suffering in rural areas, still. Clients don't research what they can get, and it shows - the amount of poor quality websites served up by sub-standard design firms is astounding. I'm not expecting perfection, but for Pete's sake, your damned abusive nested table based layout is costing the customer money in bandwidth costs!

Just because it is perceived as working doesn't mean it works well. Besides the aforementioned bandwidth costs, the lack of accessibility across various devices and platforms means that the person who contracted the designer isn't getting a full reach for their clients. Beyond that, a lack of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) means that even fewer eyeballs will even casually stumble upon the website unless they see a physically printed product.

Why the hell are designers like this surviving? What hasn't the market demanded more?

Because nobody bothered to educate the rural market about what they can get, and nobody will.

-WFL

MySpace: It Sucks.

Yeah, I said it. MySpace is an unworthy hole in society that seems to suck in nearly all of us who are social, anti-social, hip, online, or any other descriptor you see fit. I don't even want to link to it, dare I increase their search engine viability any more (if that is even possible).

I have been a MySpace user for a few years now - I have 3 profiles. Some would call it overboard, but I call it proper usage - two are band profiles (one for my neoclassical/blues/jazz/rock music, another for my industrial/neoclassical fusion work), and one is a profile for promoting myself as an artist. Therefore, I think I have a good amount of insight as a user regarding the suck-factor of MySpace.

I'll try and keep this short, and in no particular order.

• The code is quite obviously a monstrous pile of steaming crap. Downtime, regular unexpected maintenance, exploits galore, and much more.
• Profile customizability was found in the form of bloated CSS hacks until only recently, when they finally started offering prefab templates. Beyond that, the fact that MySpace still uses table based layouts shows the sad state of web design in the mainstream world.
  
• Mobile accessibility is a nightmare - try interacting with it on your PDA. Sure, they offer cellular access, but I'm not about to waste my money on it - and I'm sure much of the userbase (aside from the teenagers who don't pay their own cellphone bill) isn't willing to, either.
• Spam is so prolific that you (well, men at least) will spend more time weeding out webcam girl friend requests than actually interacting with real human beings. Of course, that is assuming that he can figure out that the girl who thinks he is a stud is really just trying to get him to buy some Viagra, or something else that is commonly promoted through spam. This goes for band profiles, too.
• For some reason MySpace still hasn't figured out that you might actually want to automatically subscribe to someones' blog if you add them as a friend (aside from bands, of course) - there is no setting for this. Why not? With every friend request I have to click "Subscribe to blog", and confirm that I REALLY want to do it. I firmly believe Vista's "Confirm or Deny" was inspired by MySpace.
• MySpace's blog system still has problems with "alternative" browsers and "alternative" OSes. I try posting a blog to MySpace in Firefox under Linux, I get switched to a lesser editor.
• The advertising doesn't serve the users. I'm sorry, but I'm insulted by the fact that they allow crap like "You've just won a free iPod!*" and more.

That is my rant about MySpace, and why I'm leaving her for someone who is a little more mature. I already use Facebook for my personal profile, and am looking towards Virb.com for my music.

That concludes my rant.