Oct 04
19
Indonesia Web Standards situation
It’s been a while since I wrote an entry about Web Standards issue. But since reading Priyadi’s entry about his research on Situs Terbaik competition entries, I think I will write a complimentary entry. (I have to admit that Priyadi’s research is quite amazing, well done pal! - too bad it is in Indonesian language only)
What is “Situs Terbaik”? For those non-Indonesian speakers, it literally means “The Best Website”. So it is basically a national competition looking for the best Indonesian website. So, what is the problem? You may recall my old entry about being a judge and read my rambling about how ignorant the competitors with Web Standards back then. So yeah, this entry will be another rants and raves about how ignorant those Indonesian so-called web developer on Web Standards issue.
I rarely wrote about Web Standards issue nowadays because I believe most people already get the point. But I guess I was wrong or maybe I just underestimate those people’s ignorancy. I mean, I used to criticize (sometime harshly, I have to admit it) some website that my designer friends made when they are not standard compliant but you know what are the respond most of the time? Yeah, you may know it, they just told me to shut up. So? I tone down a little bit and still they are ignorant with the fact that Web Standards is a MUST!
Some of them will (or already) make an argument that a good website could exist without using any standard. Well, people, I hate to say this but please learn about what is a “website” first… I hate to write the same rants about why we must use Web Standards again and again. Googling and you will find a lot of links explaining why. Browse my Recently Reading list on the sidebar, you will find some gems there. It’s time to re-learn, folks.
And don’t give me that crap about you have to follow your client because you need the money. You are THE designer! Your client doesn’t even have to know that you are using Web Standards, what they will know is their website is becoming more faster, more bandwidth-savvy and more accessible. Do you think all car owner know how the combustion engine worked? So stop those non-sense argument and do your homework on Web Standards issue.
My major point here is I am dissapointed. Total dissapointment about the Indonesia Web Standards situation. It’s been too long delayed and abandoned. I think I will have to do something about it.
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Situs terbaik from Catatan Pak Aris @ October 20, 2004 1:35 AM
Seperti biasa, tiap pagi jalan jalan dulu ke blog teman teman, ternyata pada membahas kompetisi situs terbaik. Pertama kali Priyadi melakukan validasi pada situs penyelenggara dan para nominator. Hasilnya tidak ada satupun situs yang melakukan pengkode... …
Nominasi Situs Terbaik 2004 versus Persyaratan from Benny Chandra dot com @ October 22, 2004 4:10 AM
Seperti juga Priyadi, Thomas, Jay, Boy, Idban, dan Aris, gw jadi tergelitik juga untuk menulis sedikit catatan soal nominasi Situs Terbaik 2004-nya Komputer Aktif itu. Bukan, gw bukan membahas seputar web standard juga seperti yang disoroti oleh teman-... …
15 Comments
slowly is not enough… it’s already more than 4 years late. we are losing ground…
the competition will come, don’t worry about that ;)
kalo boleh tau vi…menurut avi..standar apa ya yang harus dipenuhi oleh site agar dapat layak dikategorikan website yang baik..penjelasannya ntar aja ya kalo avi udah ngga sibuk lagi :)
It takes time, especially spreading the words in Indonesia.
To feed the fire:
The problem with web standards compliancy is that most browsers that people use (sorry folks, that is Internet Explorer) are NOT standards compliant. So why not use CSS where appropriate and let each designer have their own style and taste. Whether or not a site registers as perfectly compliant on the W3C code tester or not - no user will ever know or care! So let each designer choose their own style…until most browsers are also standards compliant.
greg, if not the designer that push the standard so the browser-maker will aware that there are needs for that then who else?
your reasoning is typically common for designer who already too comfort with their so-called style (hei, maybe they should called themselves “STYLIST” instead of designer, if they are more into STYLE than DESIGN) and don’t want to relearn how to use the new technology and take advantages of it.
remember, it’s the DESIGN that matters, style is just an accesorry.
nice flame, greg =).
This could burn down the house ;) …
There are two main aspects to designing a web page: the communication/interaction design and the technological implementation.
Whether the layout is CSS or table, or a hybrid, refers to the technology behind the site (and makes no difference to the user). You are right, the makers of websites need to inform the browser makers about the needs for technological standards.
But the standards debate (like the OS debate) ignores an issue of equal or greater significance: clear visual communication and coherent interaction paradigms.
So saying that DESIGN matters refers also to the graphic and interaction DESIGN. The technology that supports this design is important to refine, but let us not neglect the full spectrum of design issues.
People come first, technology second.
ah Greg, that is the point of using Web Standards. People! Using Web Standards upscale the accessibility and of course accessibility always mean people.
Your reaction is common among web designers that found it hard to readjust their capabilities to accept the fact that Web Standards is here to stay. Heck, some of them are not even HTML-savvy. Those designers are the one that cried because Web Standards take their toys away (the spaghetti tables around, dirty inefficient codes, useless javascript and other toys). They don’t realize that their toys (and yeah, usually using the name of VISUAL communication) are not helping the user at all. Try being a disabled user, try finding their web using Google, try access their website using a 56K modem… and you’ll find they NEVER care about people in the first place.
Don’t blame the technology and don’t blame people, blame yourself.
Avianto.. avianto.. dari dulu lagu lo sama… gak ada isu lain apa? cerewet banget sih lo soal standar? google dan yahoo juga gak lewat koq. tetap aja lo pake kan? kalo lo emang hebat, kenapa gak ikutan aja? jangan komentar yang sok jagoan kaya gini…
ah bedjo =). emang iya gue cerewet kok soal begini. kalo bukan kita-kita siapa lagi yang harus cerewet?
soal google dan yahoo, well… kita liat aja nanti, yang jelas yahoo udah mulai bergerak ke arah itu, google? we’ll see… you don’t know it yet =)
komentar sok jagoan? hahaha, gue sih cuma follow beberapa persen dari web developer yang concern soal ini, kenapa jadi sok jagoan?
santai ah, kok jadi sewot sih?
well.. well… i’m not the same man with samurai again, but i agree with you.
and your recently read is my fave clicks. it’s - yes- it’s gems.
now, would you excuse me because… aaahh… FireFu*ks.. whoops.. FireFox screwed my Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict design.
hmm. sekarang lagi ada kompetisi website terbaik lagi. salah satu nominatornya adalah ilmukomputer.com. gue udah posting ini di milis telematika, dan ownernya sudah respond terhadap mail gue, tapi detik ini saat gue cek lagi website-nya, tetap saja tag head dan title-nya dobel2. this is oh so funny kalo site ilmukomputer sampai menang, karena pertama dari sisi terbaik kok bisa website yang gak conform standar menang, kedua tema dari website itu sendiri, yaitu ilmukomputer. garbage in, garbage out you know.
soal para pembela non conforming standard, i think they have their reason. the same reason as lots of bikers in indonesia never give a damn about those white line on crossroads with traffic lights. they say “it’s all about efficiency, when i can stay ahead the line i will ease the traffic jams.” go figure. i’m a fellow biker myself, and i would not risk my life going over that white line.
Nice to know that you’re from a neighbouring country.
It’s the same over here. I estimate that there are less than 20 designers in Malaysia who care about web standards, 2 in Penang, the state I live in.
The solution? Go overseas, or keep on designing cool standards-compliant websites that load and download fast, showcasing all the benefits of standards compliance and sooner or later other web designers will realise how right you have always been.
well, Kris. I think it is more than 20 in Indonesia but still, we are a too big country so percentage speaking, I think we are on the same ground.
Already overseas and keep trying to designing cool standard-compliant websites. I am moving on =).
You are all invited to visit Masters of The Web - web developer ultimate competition, the first real thing in Indonesia.
ferdhie @ October 20, 2004 1:15 PM
ferdhie is totally agree with you since ferdhie is having the same problem of explaining the importance of desinging in “standard manners”.
but, ferdhie believe that slowly the indonesian designer will realize about doing their stuff in a standard way.
to make it faster anyway, ferdhie think that there’s should be a “indonesian webstandard design competition”, … there should be …