[thelist] Pixel size fonts, cookies, javascript and other spooks

Kasimir K evolt at kasimir-k.fi
Tue Sep 20 03:58:50 CDT 2005


There's been a couple threads recently here on font sizes, cookies and 
Javascript and what not, and whether they are done properly and "right". 
  Some seem to insist that as the idea of the web is independence of a 
particular system or software, then all and any site must be accessible 
and usable to every visitor. Meanwhile others argue against that, and 
talk about the majority who have cookies and Javascript enabled.

The owner (or publisher) of the site does what they want to do with 
their site. If they wish to have Flash intros and Javascript rollovers 
in their navigation frame, then they do. I think none of us should have 
nothing to say to it - after all it's their site. What we can (and 
should) do instead is to inform people of the consequences of their 
choices: "you have Flash intro - you could lose sales n% 	to Nielsen 
research x". And then people can make their own educated decisions on 
their site.

Obviously the site owners are responsible to those who pay for the site. 
If I have a personal artsy fartsy site and pay for it myself, then it's 
my own problem. If I'm selling stuff, then my clientele is paying the 
bills - if they like my site, they buy and I thrive, otherwise they go 
elsewhere and I go bust - again my own problem. One special case are 
obviously governmental etc. sites: if the site is funded by the tax 
payers, then each and everyone should be able to use the site, 
regardless of their own or their system's capabilities.

So instead of discussions like:
- that site uses Foo and I have disabled it - I'd never buy my Bar from 
such a site - it just sucks!
- I wouldn't care for your pennies! Besides, 99.99999% of Bar buyers 
have Foo enabled.

We could have discussions like:
- I noticed that the site uses Foo for Baz - that could have 
consequences like...
- In addition to its benefits Foo has also negative effects, which could 
be dealt like this...

In short: instead of telling people what to do and not to do, we could 
help them to make educated decisions. Instead of being preachers 
protecting the purity of sacred web we could be teachers guiding others 
to the labyrinth of the working web.


.k



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