Trench Webfare
Today I was skimming through the A List Apart article entitled “What I Learned About the Web in 2011” and it got me thinking about whether or not the forerunners in our industry are fighting the same war as the rest of us?
Archive
Rant
What to do with my blog
Here I am trying to write any old guff because it’s been over 3 months since I last wrote a blog post. The reason for the delay is a mass mixture of other commitments such as writing for other blogs, having a social life and lacking the time or inclination to be writing yet another post.
It would help if I could feel as if I could knock up a post in 20-30 mins but I try to get the post perfect, rewriting it a few times as if hundreds were going to be reading it (they don’t). A lack of decent stuff to write about also causes issues, with any truly awesome idea reserved for posting on other larger websites design websites. These posts take even longer to write and thus swallow any time I would realistically wish to spend writing for anyone.
The largest blog ever
History is made today as I have declared my blog the largest to have ever existed. But what evidence am I using to back up this ever so bold statement?
Absolutely nothing
I know what you’re thinking, he can’t just decide he’s got the largest blog ever without justifying this with some cold hard facts and you’d be right. I would have to supply some kind of data to prove such a claim. This could be in the form of traffic figures or maybe it’s something stupid like my site has the most amount of code ever. This seems stupid right? Yet so many websites use such bold claims regularly without anyone seeming to question their lack of humility, or the basis for their claims.
So many sites use such matter of fact terms such as ‘the largest’ or ‘the best’ to promote themselves as the industry leader in order to attract new work. Instead these companies or individuals should tone down the arrogance a little. Claiming to be ‘one of’ the best provides a way to promote yourself as an industry leader but is a little more humble and also accepts that you might not be the best if one does actually exist. It’s a fine line between showing confidence and being cocky.
In certain industries there will always be the situation where you are the best. Google for instance could possibly back up such a claim, but as a web designer it would never be the case that I or anyone else for that matter could be seen as the best in our industry. It’s all down to finding a balance when it comes to marketing yourself.
Disclaimer
If you find a site where I’ve ever done this then read this blog as do as I rant not as I do 
Web Design Con Artists
Yesterday I received an email from a client whose friend was having trouble with their current web development company. Without naming the site or the people involved I can say that the friend is a person who has been in the public eye and the site is a small ecommerce website.
The email I received flows a little like this
The current web company takes months to fix any problems, such as those involved with the ability to purchase online. A small text change is being quoted at £175, and once agreeing to allow the site to be moved they quoted £10,000 to hand things over, but apparently not an exact copy of the site due to not wanting to give away ‘secret code’. Doing so will apparently open them up to hackers.