Re: Just getting started on the FAQ site...

Don Aitken wrote:
It has all the usual faults which are becoming so common. Especially,
I suspect, on sites using "content management systems". I quailed when
I saw the phrase, but thought I should wait to see the result before
commenting. One of the main features of the HTML standard is that what
the site looks like ought to be determined, as far as possible, by the
visitor, not the designer. This one seems to take all possible steps
to defeat that. And every page is intolerably cluttered. Looking at
the HTML code makes me want to be sick.

As someone who's been involved in the web since before most people even in computing had heard of it, I do sympathise with your point of view.

I agree about the clutter. As I've said in another posting, this is just a start-up template. It will be replaced with something better when I've had the chance to settle it down.

It's mainly the template itself that is to blame, not the CMS engine behind it. I would say, though, that the raw HTML code is something that only purists like you and me care about. For almost all other users, it's inconsequential, so long as it looks OK and works OK.

Arising from that, I have one *big* beef with it. Non-resizeable text
is an abomination. I keep my browser set to "text size - larger",
becaus my eyesight is not good enough to do anything else. I do not,
indeed cannot, make any use of sites which deliberately defeat this.

I imagine that you're using Internet Explorer. Normally, I hold to the premise of "write once, read anywhere", but when it comes to accessibility, Firefox does a far better job: you can set a minimum font size, and Firefox gets it -right-. If you're having general problem in IE with sites whose fonts don't resize, you might want to consider switching your browser loyalty!

All of which does not address the actual problem, which others have reported too. Given that there's a lot of older people involved in genealogy, it's a particularly significant one. I'll do what I can to find out why the fonts don't resize in IE.

I certainly join those who thank you for your efforts, but I also
seriously urge you to dump this "system" before you get too committed
to it, and rethink from the beginning.

-Right now-, I don't think it's necessary to trash the whole thing and start over. The issues that are popping up are all addressable without having to go to that extreme.

> Even Hugh can be right
sometimes - form before content is a mistake. All that is needed is
straight text with a few HTML tages inserted by hand.

I don't disagree with that principle. The important thing is that the content is there - and it is, now.

From (a lot of) experience in similar projects, I suspect that the site will grow and develop. A few hand-hacked pages are all well and good, but they don't satisfy the criteria that:

- Editing of specific sections (or the whole site) can be handed over to others
- Administration can be shared, but assistant admins don't need to know about web or FTP servers, etc.
- Editors don't need to know HTML; they only need to know how to use a word processor (because that's how it looks to an editor)
- The site can expand easily without major rewrites every time.

I've not used Joomla before, and it's on probation. There's an alternative CMS (which I know much better) that might well be a better choice, so don't worry - there's a fallback if Joomla doesn't work out, or if the fonts issue can't easily be resolved.

Thanks for your thoughts.

John
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