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My HTML Standards

© Copyright 1997, Jim Loy

Everyone has a 200 MHz Pentium, and a 56K modem, right? I don't. And it really bugs me when I view a WWW page that takes all day to load onto my computer. Hey, I just wanted to send them email.

I have my HTML standards:

• The page that people access first (home page or some other page that people have links to) should load fast and easy, no frames, no big graphics, no Java. I was in the army. And I had to stand in line for three meals a day. I do not enjoy waiting.
• The visitor should be warned of any slow-loading page, before they begin to load the page (or while the page is loading).
• I think that content is more important than looks, generally. I like to see nice looking frames, backgrounds, and animation. But, most of the time, I would rather find information.
• Consider the poor people with cave-person WWW browsers. Do you want to exclude them? If you want to show off your Java animation skills, fine. But, be aware that some visitors will not be happy.
• Encourage comments on your pages, by email. You would like to hear that some browsers (or screens, like a black & white laptop) make your text unreadable.
• If your WWW pages have become very numerous, like mine, try to organize them into categories, with menus and sub-menus.
• Proof-read your pages. See what your pages look like, using your WWW browser. Make sure your links work. You're not always going to be aware of links, to other people's pages, which quit working later. Correct those when you notice them.

One page that I visit often let's you choose their text-only home page. Unfortunately, all of the sub-pages (whether you got there from their slower home page or from their text-only home page) are slow graphics/frames pages. They had the right idea, but they dropped the ball.

Consider what your own standards are. Perhaps you are even more visitor-friendly than I am. Or, perhaps you want to cater to only fast pentiums with Java. It's up to you. A further rule is:

• Violate your own standards, whenever you want to. But, be aware that you are violating them.

If you have difficulty with someone else's page, please email them a comment. Pages of mine contained misspellings, for years, and nobody commented. Visitors probably deduced (correctly, it turns out) that I am an idiot.

See Accessibility.

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