# Purely selfish question about my website **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 12, 2005, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235 "2005-12-12T08:51:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johnegee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b2d939/32.png) [@Johnegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnegee)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/21 "2005-12-23T18:19:01Z")
> [@Johnegee](#): > > rkts, thanks for responding, although I’m unclear on the specifics of your complaints. > > 1. What I wrote was sincere and also in keeping with what I think you would agree is the popular fiction that Cecil Adams is a god to the teeming millions. What I wrote is also in keeping with the other pages in my Web Sites I Like series. What specific parts offend you? > > 2. I agree my attempt to clarify the SD website is inadequate, but it seems to me it is at least somewhat helpful. How would you improve the explanation? > > 3. According to you the design of my website is blasphemously worse than average. Can you give any specific examples? > > 4. You say, “I hate to seem disrespectful here, but you really do not need to make a web page for every thought that pops into your head.” May I ask on what authority you make that assertion? If this were your web site then that would be sufficient authority, of course, but I’m almost positive it’s my web site. > > How do you distinguish between a Web site and a blog? Which thoughts that popped into my head have wasted your time so far? > > –JohnnyG December 23, 2005 It seems to me that if a poster complains about something and the OP responds, the complainer is obliged to say at least something. Am I wrong? Is the utter failure of, in this case, rkts, to respond typical on the SD boards? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/22 "2005-12-24T17:43:37Z")
**Johnegee** : **rkts** is not obliged to do anything, even continue the ‘conversation’. He/she may have said everything he/she wanted to say and is now done with the thread, he/she may not have read this thread again yet and may yet come back to it at some future date. (The usual comment that this place isn’t a chat room and that you cannot expect instant replies doesn’t seem to apply as ten days passed between rkts’s post and the post I am responding to now.) As for your webpage, I find the current color scheme agreeable and moderately attractive. (I am not color blind but my sense of taste isn’t all that great, either.) Your content is good; it could serve as an introduction to Cecil Adams, the Straight Dope, and the SDMB for someone completely new to all three. I am not a big fan of people designing their own navigation systems with Javascript, however: I’m never quite sure precisely how they work, or even if they work in my browser the same as they were intended to work by the site designer. Plus, your site could be quite Lynx-friendly if it weren’t for the Javascript, which is important if you want Google to like your site. (Google is the one web surfer you really must please, and Google surfs the web using the equivalent of Lynx.) All in all, I think your website qualifies as ‘barely bad’. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/23 "2005-12-25T15:09:58Z")
> [@Caught@Work](#): > > You have a mixture of inline styles as well as a stylesheet. I would being consistent in using either inline or the stylesheet. Not to sound smart-alecky, but that’s why they’re called **cascading** style sheets. The idea is for the innermost nested style to take precedence over styles nested at higher levels. It is both more convenient and more in keeping with the spirit of CSS to override general styles with local styles wherever appropriate. I’ve seen developers try to use external style sheets so bloated with declarations just for the sake of one-time or two-time usages that they couldn’t even remember the class names anymore. On the other hand, I’ve seen web pages with \
copied and pasted throughout the whole page when a single reusable class would be much more appropriate (and easier). Anyway, that’s my opinion of it. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/24 "2005-12-25T15:42:31Z")
> [@Johnegee](#): > > . . . in my post of over 200 words I did not make a single mistake . . . . \*Hello, all, \* punctuation mistake _I have done wrote_ usage mistake _I have done wrote . . . I’m wondering_ parallelism mistake _this is the appropriate board_ vocabulary mistkake _the appropriate board of which to ask_ preposition mistake There were five mistakes before the second sentence of your OP. Reviewing further would be a waste of time. Similarly, your web page is a waste of time. When compared against the SD main page, your web page offers very little further information, and is laid out as a blog rather than as a reference page. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/25 "2005-12-25T15:56:18Z")
Although off topic, welcome to the boards, and top of the season to you. ---
**Author:** ![Johnegee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b2d939/32.png) [@Johnegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnegee)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/26 "2005-12-26T21:32:13Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > \*Hello, all, \* > punctuation mistake > > _I have done wrote_ > usage mistake > > _I have done wrote . . . I’m wondering_ > parallelism mistake > > _this is the appropriate board_ > vocabulary mistkake > > _the appropriate board of which to ask_ > preposition mistake > > There were five mistakes before the second sentence of your OP. Reviewing further would be a waste of time. > > Similarly, your web page is a waste of time. When compared against the SD main page, your web page offers very little further information, and is laid out as a blog rather than as a reference page. Gosh, Muffin, I’m intrigued that you would challenge my use of English in the ways you have. I don’t claim to be a good writer, but I do claim to have a fairly strong grasp of the technical aspects such as punctuation and grammar. Accordingly I will start by defending myself and end by asking you a question. I’ll be interested to see whether you respond. When I challenge someone in a forum such as this, I have the courage to stand there and wait for the response, as I will do here. I hate being wrong, but even more do I hate not knowing it. 1. As I think everyone else understood (except picunurse), “I have done wrote” was an intentional error. I thought it was mildly humorous (go to [Reverend Dr. Abe](http://barelybad.com/fprevdrabe.htm) to see a page that reels in a few e-mails a year), and I really didn’t expect anyone here would bite. Nevertheless, I tried to make it more obvious it was an intentional error in my second postscript, in which I said, “I can see now that in the first paragraph above I should have said, ‘I have wrote . . . .’ If I knew how to work the delete key on this computer I’d fix it.” I mean, come on, Muffin, did you really believe the part about how I couldn’t work the delete key? Did you really think I typed that whole original post and that whole page about Straight Dope and the other 230 or so pages of my Web site without ever figuring out how to delete characters? 1. You say there’s a punctuation mistake in my salutation, _but you don’t say what the mistake is_, so I have to guess. I’m going to guess that you object to the first comma, and if I’m right then I think you’re wrong. A comma would be wrong if the salutation were “Dear Bob,” i.e., it should not say, “Dear, Bob,” but that’s not what I said. I said the equivalent of “Hello, Bob,” and in that construction the comma is, I think, mandatory. And even if you can cite an authority who says including the comma is not mandatory, I’m sure I can cite several who would say including it is certainly not a mistake. Well Muffin, do you agree? \ \ 1. You say that “I have done wrote . . . I’m wondering” is a parallelism mistake, but here again _you don’t say what the mistake is_, and this time, Muffin, I can’t even guess. It might have been helpful if in pointing out my mistakes you had used actual sentences with subjects and verbs and everything. You went to the trouble to quote me, but _you failed to quote me in full_. You inserted an ellipsis for no reason I can discern. As an aid to you and anyone else reading this who doesn’t want to scroll back up to the original post, the quote starts as follows: “I have done wrote a Web page about the Straight Dope Web site, and I’m wondering whether . . . .” Since you haven’t explained yourself I can’t know for sure what your objection is, but I will tell you that I don’t think you can find any authority who would find anything wrong with that construction, whether a parallelism mistake or any other. Try it this way, Muffin. If I had instead said, “I wrote you, and I’m wondering whether you answered,” what would you say is the parallelism mistake therein? 1. You say there’s a vocuabulary mistake in the phrase “this is the appropriate board.” And for the third time _you don’t say what the mistake is_. Furthermore, not surprisingly, _you don’t quote me in full_. It seems to me it would have been more useful to me and other readers of this thread if you had added the word “whether” in front, but I suppose that’s your call. I admit I don’t know exactly what you mean by a “vocabulary mistake,” but seeing as how there are only four words in the phrase, why don’t you at least tell us which one is mistaken. I won’t ask you to go so far as to _explain_ the mistake, but if you can take the time to pinpoint the exact word, that would help me a lot in guessing what you mean. The phrase “whether this is the appropriate board” is perfectly ordinary to me, but if you can cite some authority saying it’s not, I’d be most interested in _that_ explanation. 1. You say there’s a preposition mistake in the phrase “the appropriate board of which to ask.” Not surprisingly, _you don’t say what the mistake is_. But this time at least I don’t have to guess which word you’re referring to. It can only be the word “of.” Not surpsingly, _you have again failed to provide us with a full-enough quote_, so let me again step in to help us all out. The full quote is as follows: **"I have done wrote a Web page about the Straight Dope Web site, and I’m wondering whether this is the appropriate board of which to ask a favor about it."** The first independent clause is irrelevant to whether “of” is incorrect, and we can further simplify. If I had typed, “Is this the appropriate board of which to ask a favor?”, would you have objected? Do you not ask a favor _of_ someone? I do. In concluding your list of objections to how I used English you say unequivocally, > [@](#): > > “There were five mistakes before the second sentence of your OP. Reviewing further would be a waste of time.” As I think I’ve made clear to anyone who’s slogged through this, Muffin, there were NO mistakes before the second sentence, which means YOU made five mistakes. And if that’s true then it follows that you were even wronger to challenge my technical command of English to begin with. As to whether reviewing further would be a waste of time, I hope you appreciate the amount of time I have spent trying to help you think about English better. And it would not be a waste of _my_ time, if that’s what you mean. I would be interested in, and possibly amused by, all the mistakes you can find in the rest of the post, but I would ask that you try out the idea of using actual sentences to explain them. Also, quoting the examples more fully might make your complaints easier for all of us to understand. You say, > [@](#): > > Similarly, your web page is **a waste of time** [emphasis mine]. When compared against the SD main page, your web page offers very little further information, and is laid out as a blog rather than as a reference page. Finally, Muffin, thanks for reviewing that page for me. I asked a favor of you, and you complied, and you even found the time to use sentences. I will give due consideration to your comments. Both of your specific complaints were expressed by rkts nearly two weeks ago (and I responded thereto), so I guess you were just seconding his motion. For that effort I thank you again. My question is this: Did you choose the phrase “a waste of time” because you were just being blunt, or did you intend to offend me? Unless you tell me different, I’ll assume it was the former. –JohnEGee ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/27 "2005-12-26T21:52:05Z")
Welcome, **Johnegee**. You’ve got the right attitude to snarky replies 🙂 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/28 "2005-12-26T22:05:25Z")
Well, your web page doesn’t validate. There is no DOCTYPE to start. Even so, the [479 errors](http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fbarelybad.com%2Fstraightdope.htm) found is not good. Your basic page code syntax is wrong at the top. Learn to nest tags properly. You are creative in spelling the non-breaking space tag. It’s spelled \*\* \*\*. If you have to use it, spell it correctly. Ideally, you should not use it at all, but I see you created the page with FrontPage. My condolences. As mentioned before, you have a combination of an attached stylesheet and inline styles. I suggest only using the former. Using tables for page layout are fine (although some CSS purists may not agree). However, you would do much better if you studied up a bit more on CSS and applied a standard approach to CSS. For example, use a table for page layout but everything else could be CSS. Once you appreaciate the difference between layout vs presentation, migrate to an all CSS design. There are CSS and JavaScript tags in the wrong places. Unless you have a defined need to use JavaScript, leave it out. Finally, when it comes to links, make them obvious. Using color boxes for links is not appropriate, especially when they are followed by phrases and sentences that should be the links. More importantly, usinhg colored boxes for links causes problems with people who are color-blind. While you are not legally bound by SEction 508 accessibility requirements, you would do well to make the effort. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/29 "2005-12-26T22:45:14Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Well, your web page doesn’t validate. There is no DOCTYPE to start. Even so, the [479 errors](http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fbarelybad.com%2Fstraightdope.htm) found is not good. Your basic page code syntax is wrong at the top. Learn to nest tags properly. > > …you created the page with FrontPage. My condolences. Criticism inappropriate for the situation. If you can see something that’s very wrong, explain why it’s wrong, or point to an explanation. Just saying “Nope, that’s not right” isn’t helpful. > [@](#): > > Finally, when it comes to links, make them obvious. Using color boxes for links is not appropriate, especially when they are followed by phrases and sentences that should be the links. More importantly, usinhg colored boxes for links causes problems with people who are color-blind. While you are not legally bound by SEction 508 accessibility requirements, you would do well to make the effort. That’s _good_ advice. I’ve had fantastic help from this place when I’ve asked about my own mediocre creations…I just hope other people can get the same. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/30 "2005-12-27T01:14:36Z")
**GorillaMan** : A webpage that doesn’t validate will often render incorrectly on common browsers and make you look like a boob. Trying to create good webpages using Frontpage is akin to trying to type with boxing gloves on. _That_ is why it’s not good. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/31 "2005-12-27T22:45:01Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > As mentioned before, you have a combination of an attached stylesheet and inline styles. I suggest only using the former. And again, I disagree. Stylesheets are **cascading** for a reason. The idea, again, is that the more local should override the more general. A bloated attached stylesheet is a clue that the developer does not understand the spirit and purpose of CSS. It is much better to define a general paragraph class for the attached sheet with the assignment of local attributes as appropriate than it is to define a slew of paragraph classes with tiny differences among them, the names of which you can’t even remember two days after you’ve saved the sheet. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/32 "2005-12-27T23:33:37Z")
**Johnegee** Well you did add the HTML tags but the first one is wrong. The \ tag should be _before_ the \ tag. Also, your home page [http://www.barelybad.com/](http://www.barelybad.com/) has no \ \ tags whatsoever. And just a bit of advice. You seem to be a tad confrontational for someone so new to the board. Heck, I can be a real hothead sometimes on this board (and others) but it is a bit disrespectful to ask for help and to come back with snippy remarks. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/33 "2005-12-28T03:36:00Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > And again, I disagree. Stylesheets are **cascading** for a reason. The idea, again, is that the more local should override the more general. A bloated attached stylesheet is a clue that the developer does not understand the spirit and purpose of CSS. It is much better to define a general paragraph class for the attached sheet with the assignment of local attributes as appropriate than it is to define a slew of paragraph classes with tiny differences among them, the names of which you can’t even remember two days after you’ve saved the sheet. As you wish. However, it becomes quite difficult to change a site when individual pages have their own inline styles. It is far easier to create another attached stylesheet, even if it is only used by a single page. One **cascades** from the other. ---
**Author:** ![Johnegee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b2d939/32.png) [@Johnegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnegee)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/34 "2005-12-28T09:47:12Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > **Johnegee** > Well you did add the HTML tags but the first one is wrong. > The \ tag should be _before_ the \ tag. > Also, your home page [http://www.barelybad.com/](http://www.barelybad.com/) has no \ \ tags whatsoever. > > And just a bit of advice. You seem to be a tad confrontational for someone so new to the board. Heck, I can be a real hothead sometimes on this board (and others) but it is a bit disrespectful to ask for help and to come back with snippy remarks. I have fixed the html tags problems on a few pages, but I fear the lack of HTML tags is rampant among the pages of the site. Obviously I need to do some serious search-and-replacing. I appreciate your less technical advice as well, wolf\_meister. If I have come across as unduly snippy, that certainly was not my intention. If you check the record you’ll see that I’ve been what you might call snippy twice, once in response to picunurse and once in response to Muffin. In both cases they started it by picking on me (gosh, I feel like I’m eight again instead of 6.5 times that), and I responded in full. If I was bit snide, I think my responses were less hostile, and certainly less factually incorrect, than the attacks launched upon me without warrant. I also admit I’m testing these boards a bit to see whether I want to pay $15 a year to join. Does my newness to the board disappear if I pay the money? You imply I was disrespectful in that I asked for help and then got snippy with the respondents. But wolf\_meister, with the two exceptions above (unless you count rkts, in which case I really was not being snippy, just provocative), I think you’ll find I have been pleasant and appreciative. (In the two cases above where I got snippy, you’ll note that the respondents offered their help not on that Straight Dope Web page I asked about but on the way in which I asked the question about it!) If I haven’t thanked each respondent individually, it’s not because I haven’t read and analyzed each response; it’s because I assume it’s not good form on this forum to clog the bandwidth with little “Thank-you” “You’re welcome” messages. In case it needs to be said, I really do appreciate all the substantive responses I’ve received, and I find the recent discussion of pure CSS versus some local tags interesting. I’m starting a new Web site just now for a friend, and I want to get started right. Anyway, wolf\_meister, I do appreciate your advice and the advice of other veterans on the SDMBs as to my attitude. I will continue to defend myself, as I think we all should, and I will continue to denounce falsery, as I think we all should, so I guess you’re saying I need to be less impertinent about it. –JohnEGee P.S. I don’t know what your nickname means, wolf\_meister, but I do know that my cousin, who lives on a farm about an hour south of here, owns and pens five wolves! As interesting as they are in books and movies, they’re just as interesting up close. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235/35 "2005-12-28T13:37:35Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > As you wish. However, it becomes quite difficult to change a site when individual pages have their own inline styles. It’s not either-or. They’re supposed to work together. Use the topmost sheet in the hierarchy to define the most general styles. Don’t rewrite those at the local level, but do augment them. For example: [External Sheet] \ p.CommonText { font-family:Verdana; font-size:10pt; font-weight:normal; margin-bottom:20px; } [Inline] \

I want this paragraph to look like all the others but have no bottom margin.\ You can change your CommonText class and change your pages throughout without disturbing the local overrides. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purely-selfish-question-about-my-website/335235.md?page=1)