Comments on: When Techies Criticize Non-Techies [Video]

By: Dave Doolin

Dave Doolin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:16:46 +0000

Boyoboyoboy could I wade into this one!

But I won’t.

Fortunately, I *do* have the coding chops to tell anyone to FOAD if I get beefed about shilling for Thesis or whatever. Thesis is very well engineered. I’m happy to have bought it and not had to reinvent the wheel. Again.

My coding chops are a matter of public record too. Publicly archived on sourceforge.net since 2000.

So don’t worry about what anyone thinks.

What’s coming next: drag and drop WordPress theme layout (if it’s not here already). I know how to do this in theory, and WordPress would support with Thesis like theming. Would take me 6 months to ramp up on the required Javascript. But it’s coming. After that I suspect we’ll have multiple loop capability within WordPress… tied into the drag and drop framework. Again, a simple matter of programming. Future is very bright folks.
Dave Doolin´s last blog … Value Versus Effort: How Much Time to Write a Blog Post?

By: dean dyer

dean dyer — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:36:02 +0000

hey lisa,
there are those that agree and those that disagree.
you just need to get with the ones that agree, like me.
I love your stuff.
please see my site, and help me find a product I can sell on it.
dean

By: justintime

justintime — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:41:01 +0000

From the developer and designer perspective…
There is also a good side, for us, to promoting tools that produce garbage code because guess who gets called in to ‘fix and optimize’ sites when things don’t work or just slow down…or better yet when end user realizes their site looks like 100,000 other turnkey solutions.
Unfortunately, many developers don’t see it this way and turn into overprotective grunts. Now whole another story is that tools like these ruin (or do not make) good, accessible websites and give fake sense of “I can make websites” to people who should not be making these statements. I see a lot of people in discussions (eg. dreamweaver forums) looking for help because they use these tools and have no understanding of what exactly they are building.
Here is a scenario how those attitudes are developed:
—
I have a hammer,nails even a power drill…I can do construction! ….3-4 months later…”My roof is leaking can someone help me for free?Oh no, not with advice to hire someone who know what they are doing but with solving my issue for free”
—

My favorite quote when it comes to these types of discussions is…
“Only Fools Worship Tools”
Painting is art but if you can paint your house by yourself and be happy with results then go for it. But if you bring a professional painter by your place and he/she critiques the quality be ready to accept it.
If you have things to write and share by all means run something such as free & simple theme and WordPress and ignore what people say. Writing is art and chances are those developers can’t do it as well as you .
So keep it up Lisa!

By: Fcarentz

Fcarentz — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:23:21 +0000

actually you need to make sure you go lower than the full 1024, i’d even say down to 980 tp play it safe for your max width. Some browsers are off by 10-20 pixels, so if you play it save at 980 max width you will fit for everyone. 1000 probably works fine too so it’s really up to you, i just like to play it very safe with the 980.

By: lisa

lisa — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:10:45 +0000

I agree with Fcarentz, there just aren’t enough people on 800×600 to design for them anymore. You’re fine with 1024. I usually do 1000 to give myself a little room on both sides.

By: Fcarentz

Fcarentz — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:11:01 +0000

Hey Dave, great question!

According tohttp://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp you’re pretty safe switching to 1024 resolution.

As of January ‘09 only 4% of internet users are still at 800×600. 36% are at 1024×768 while 57% are even higher than that. So I would say upping your dimensions to 1024 would be more than safe. The 1024 is pretty much the new 800×600.

Hope that helps you out!

- Frank

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:04:34 +0000

quick question. Nobody on the internet can agree on website width. I am building mysite 800 pixels wide even though very few people have this resolution. Would it be safe to jump up to 1024? any input would help, thanks

By: Fcarentz

Fcarentz — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:09:49 +0000

Lisa and fellow readers,
Being a designer and a programmer myself I would like to point out that not all of us are against these fantastic tools that are giving power to the people. The truth as I see it here, as to why some programmers/designers dislike such tools is because they are thinking to small. Tools like these will never put professional developers, programmers or designers out of business. There will always be people out there that just don’t want to commit the time to learning these tools and those folks will end up hiring us. Similar to a plumber. I could go and learn all about plumbing when my pipes break and try to fix them myself, or I could hire someone that already knows how to do it. Myself I’d hire some one, others will go and haev a go of it on their own. It’s the same thing here. Kudo’s to you and your audience for giving a go and being successful at it. Wordpress is a great system and thesis looks pretty neat as well. On a side note, even developers and designers are using these systems to make their clients lives easier, and there’s nothing stopping those clients from downloading them without your blog and giving it a go. So I think it’s fantastic to see such a wonderful resource here for those very folks. Not everyone can afford professional designers, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have a nice website.

So again, Kudos to you! Keep up the great work, and don’t let the nay-sayers get to you!

By: Sue

Sue — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:07:08 +0000

Designers are always ahead of the affiliated programs, they now create (and have been for years) personalized CMS websites where once its up and running even a child can update their own website. Where do you think these affiliated programs originated from (CMS).
The only problem with programs such as thesis and sitebuild is security, not very high standards….. and they do not use the latest code, its very yesterday……..just take a look at the W3C standards ouch “120 errors” in code geez thats gotta kill the bandwidth (extra costs involved there)
http://validator.w3.org/check

BUT! hey that’s not to say that you cant make money from thesis and such, if it works ‘go for it’ but if i was a professional business i defiantly would want a professional site… sorry just an honest opinion.
Happy blogging

By: Sue

Sue — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:49:39 +0000

I dont think that web designers will fade out because of programs such as Thesis. To be honest with you if your company is going to spend hundreds of thousand dollars (as they do) on building a website, the only way to go would be using a private designer/developer and then for CEO(boost your search engine rankings) purposes use affiliated programs along with your website.
But if your building a personal business website buy all means affiliated programs are the way to go.