Here's a depressing story from news.com: Sites bow to Microsoft's browser king The headline about says it all; the article claims many Web developers are ignoring Web standards in favor of using proprietary Internet Explorer code.
On the other hand, here's a reaction to the story from a member of the Web Standards Project.
Comments
Posted by Rob on July 9, 2002, at 4:56 a.m.:
In the web journaling community, lots of people have sites that proudly proclaim their reliance on Internet Explorer. I think it's interesting how this compares with the "Netscape Now!" pride campaign from, say, 1996. Back then, it was almost a cardinal sin to use Internet Explorer, much less openly tout the fact that you used it. But things have changed, and I'm left feeling like an old man when I visit sites from "up-and-coming" designers that pay short shrift to the higher calling that the Web Standards Project article references. Maybe what we should do is start some sort of community of online journalists who give a damn about the medium itself. I've looked around in the past and haven't found too much stuff: most sites cater to writers who just happen to be taking their craft to the Web. Anyway.
Posted by Adrian on July 9, 2002, at 6:03 a.m.:
I agree completely. There needs to be a community of tech-savvy journalists who care about where the medium is going from a more technical standpoint. There's already E-Media Tidbits and a list-serv or two, but that stuff is all more philosophical than technical. Most contributors to those sites spend their time waxing poetic on the place of traditional journalistic tenets in this new medium and, more often than not, how to make money doing journalism on the Web. While there's certainly an importance in talking about those things -- and I no doubt join in the discussion sometimes -- you'll rarely hear them talking about the other important Web stuff. The stuff that everybody else in the industry is talking about. The Zeldmans, the Eric Meyers.
In making this site, I wanted to connect online journalists who do, as you say, "give a damn about the medium itself." Are they even out there? Surely they must be. Let's find 'em all, bring 'em together and tap each others' brains.
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