Sounds like a nightmare, Mike.
I wonder if the former web designer has any real claim to copyright on the site's original graphics, or did the client pay to be owner of the site's graphics in their original agreement? Rick From: li...@webstandardsgroup.org [mailto:li...@webstandardsgroup.org] On Behalf Of Mike Kear Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 12:42 PM To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org Subject: [WSG] Was given a shocker this week ... You might be amused to learn about the site I was given to rebuild this week. It was built by a photographer who had a mac and some free software, and the client said the problem was she had to get someone to update it for her every time she changed anything in her business. She wanted a content management system. That's no problem for me - that's mostly what I do . But I was appalled when I saw the site she was asking me to rebuild .. . here's what I found - the work of a woman who was claiming to be a professional web designer: [A] the site consisted of 8 html pages [B] each page consisted of some invalid html code produced by a WYSIWYG app, presumably used incorrectly since most WYSIWYG apps are CAPABLE of producing valid code. [C] the content on each page consisted of a single image for the header 1169px x 168px and another jpg image with all the text, photos etc 702px x 961px [D] because of the sizes of the header image and the body image, none of the pages could ever possibly line up across the page without a lot of tinkering about. [E] the html contained no content whatever, except the name of the designer [F] all links inside the pages were using image maps - something I haven't used for about ten years. I don't think I'd even remember how to do that now if I had to. [G] the layout problems caused by the different widths of the header and the image in the body were corrected by nesting tables with lots of cells and a transparent spacer gif to stretch the cells out. I didn't bother working out why there were so many of these spacer tables, I knew at a glance I wasn't going to be needing anything in this code! [H] because my client has had such trouble getting her site updated on a timely basis, she has taken the site away and is hosting it with me, which has sparked off a war between my client and her former web designer, complaining that I have taken her site by using a web archive, in violation of her rights to copyright. (As a first step, I used a browser to copy the files from her existing site, so I could see what's in there, just in case the former designer decided to take it off line. Which she did. So it was a good precaution. Then while my client and I are discussing her new site, I put the existing one up in her new hosting space with me just so the site stays alive while we work out what to do. You can almost hear the former web designer frothing at the mouth as she rants and raves on the phone DEMANDING that I pull everything down off the web within ONE HOUR - OR ELSE!!) It's like a cat fight. I'm expecting to see them both pulling each others hair, biting, and rolling in the mud any time soon. Anyway, I'd done quite a few sites now that I've enhanced by making them standards compliant, but I think this is the most extreme case I've seen - well since I tried Frontpage v2.0 all those years ago. Maybe I can write it up as a case study later when the new site is up. If the client agrees. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia 0422 985 585 Adobe Certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer AFP Webworks Pty Ltd http://afpwebworks.com Full Scale ColdFusion hosting from A$15/month ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org ******************************************************************* ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org *******************************************************************
