RE: [Article] Web-Quality v1.1

I would like to add two points, but I need your help.

* "Major companies have invalid websites. They don't care about 
standards, why I should care?"

Remember the "David slaying Goliath" story?  Just because big companies
have badly written, non standards compliant sites doesn't mean you
should.  Being large doesn't automatically mean that you are always
correct.

You should care because you want to provide a solid service for your
clients and users now and in the future.  If large companies don't want
to do that for their users, want to spend more money now on hacks and
even more money in the future on reworking those hacks, then let them
waste their bottom line.  Me, I'd rather keep my money!


* "I'm working in the real world, I'm doing business with real 
clients and they don't care about standards, they want something that 
works."

Well, standards work.  At what point are you going to keep on coding for
old browsers?  Netscape have even launched their own campaign to get
people to move away from NS4.x  IE has moved from to 5.5 to 6 and people
don't generally code for IE4.  Netscape have from from 6.0 to 6.1 to 6.2
to 7 - at what point are you going to carry on pandering to the 4.x
range?  And in the time that these 2 browsers have had that developemtn
we've seen Mozilla reach 1.0, 1.1 and Opera leap up the version numbers.

How about something like this:  "You want to be seen as a forward
looking company that's leading the way in your field.  You spend X
amount of money on billboards, TV advertising, staff uniforms, etc, etc
but the public image you portray to the world via your web site is one
of not caring.  Coding to standards not only gives you a great site now,
but will actually save you money in the future which, I'm sure, your
shareholders and investors will think is most beneficial".

Don't know if that's any good...

Regards


Francis

-- 
Karl Dubost / W3C - Conformance Manager
           http://www.w3.org/QA/

      --- Be Strict To Be Cool! ---

Received on Saturday, 21 September 2002 04:02:47 UTC