Re: Rip it to shreds please

From: William C. Stratas <president_at_planetcast.com>
Date: Tue 24 Aug 2004 21:56:55 -0500

Thank you, Cliff, for the opportunity of exercising my well-practiced
knife on your new site at Adastro.com

There are so many inadequacies here that I figure someone on your staff
recently dusted off a copy of Adobe PageMill 1.0 to create this site --
that's a circa 1995-96 HTML application, for those new to the industry.

I'll save the obvious interface deficiencies for others to comment more
fully on (subscription box dispatched to bottom of page, some images
that look like they came from a stock photo site, lack of authority to
first user impressions, no use of CSS, no testimonials or
personalization to create added credibility of the newsletter, etc) and
apply some specific inspection techniques that I practice here at
Planetcast.

My first-look examinations for new clients/prospects immediately begin
with the HTML code (see the 'view source' command in your browser menu).
Faulty code is a leading cause of browser rendering faults, and will
cause search position deficiencies. Adastro.com presents inadequate and
antiquated HTML code. Headers are non-existent and none of the pages
validate to any W3C standard. As with many starter sites, designers
often focus on the look and not the integrity of the HTML code, a
decision that costs the client in lost reputation and functionality.

Additionally, a simple browser hack of your images directory
(www.adastro.com/images/, www.adastro.com/images/rotate/,
www.adastro.com/images/rotate2/) reveals the entire collection of images
used in this site, plus two related sets of images and a php script for
the rotation of the top-page banners. This is a common oversight when
default index pages are not uploaded for all sub-directories. It is a
potential major security hole and a huge strategic oversight, especially
if previous or future versions of various images/pages are located in
the various sub-directories, thus tipping curious visitors about your
past or future deployment of the site. Fixing it is easy but the
presence of this error again indicates a definite level of technical
incompetence that should be of concern to you as site owner.

Cliff, I wish you well on these technical repairs, which are not
difficult to accomplish. Validated, standards-compliant web page code
should always be the goal of all serious web developers and site owners
and the foundation for every new web project.


- William Stratas
president_at_planetcast.com


~~~~~~~~~ Planetcast Presentations, Inc. ~~~~~~~~~
  William C. Stratas, President / Toronto, Canada
  Tel: 416-593-6993 USA/Canada: 800-663-7054
  Corporate: mailto:mailbox_at_planetcast.com
  Confidential: mailto:president_at_planetcast.com
  Corporate Site: http://www.planetcast.com/
~~~~~ Web Corporate Communications Specialists ~~~~~






Received on Tue Aug 24 2004 - 21:56:55 CDT