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A little rant about stuff

Tuesday February 22, 2005

The sun has been shining here for the last few days, it has a wonderful effect on me, read on and see for yourself!

Life was so much simpler when I didn't write down my thoughts and post them on a public website. It was possible, back then, to deny I ever said anything. A swift verbal upper cut to the frontal lobe usually sent people packing. But now, in this age of the Google cache and Bloglines holding on to every damn thing I ever posted, it's not even possible to fart and blame it on the children anymore!

So here, for the record, are things I said I'd do but probably won't and a few things that I am going to say that I may or may not do and, a little something I have wanted to get off my chest for months.

Live re-design

In principal a good idea, or at least I think so. It seems to have drawn a few critics but to them I say: up yours, get a real job. Or something like that anyway. For those who have been hanging around my little corner of the interweb for a while you will know, I already did it once and it went well. Hell it even squeezed it's way on to CSS Beauty in the end, so it can't have been all bad. What I had then was time, something I don't have much of right now.

Would I/Will I do it again? Yes but only when I have a lean patch in the work schedule, not before. Next time I will use nested tables for layout, lots of bad Flash animations, the <font> tag and some nice Frontpage extensions. Oh and it will only work in Internet Deflator 7.01, so stick that in your purist pipe and smoke it, ha!

Content management system

Textpattern, here, now and for always. Wordpress 1.5 is not out of the running though and is a thoroughly impressive piece of kit. I am going through a phase of investigating systems that I can offer my clients and it really does depend on the client, there are situations where Textpattern will suit and others where another may do the job better. In future I may not experiment directly on my live site though, on the other hand I might, who can tell what mood I might wake up in?

Ruby on Rails

Looks great, very exciting and all but it's still a programming language with no really visual bits (yawn!). Fuck it, I know people who can and will, enough said.

Signal versus noise

If there was one factor that ultimately led to the shutdown (other than long winter days depressing the hell out of me), it was the uncomfortable feeling that because I am a 'web designer' and because I just happen to have chosen 'web standards' as the way to go and because I managed, somehow, to attract a little attention to myself, that I should talk about web standards all the time, else my blog was not worthy to be listed anywhere. I think it even has a name, signal versus noise.

Some of this feeling, I am sure, I have inflicted upon myself but I can't be the only one to sense the slight undercurrent of content policing/snobbery that goes on in our otherwise superb community?

If I have something to say about my work, I will post it, but meanwhile, do I really want to be the 300th person to tell you about Skype? Do we really need yet another blogroll that leads us to those people/legends we all have bookmarked already anyway? Or should we all be looking elsewhere for good people who deserve more traffic? And what part of the USA Patriot Act says that I can't tell you that my three year old kicked me in balls if I want to?

Some might say that if you don't have anything real to say, then don't make a post just for the sake of it. And to that I can only say, who's paying for the bandwidth here, me or you? Better still, don't fucking whinge about it, go somewhere else!

I really do need to get this off my chest, it's been bugging me for months. I unequivocally, and without apology, reserve the right to post absolute cock and bollocks on my own website if I so wish, and plan to do so with increasing frequency, if only to annoy the beige people, who quite frankly have also been known to post bollocks but with not great passion, dressing it up as insight, making it a double whammy of worthless shite. Think about it, 99.9% of the content police out there are only policing other peoples content becuase they have fuck all to say for themselves.

Fortunately, I am blessed with you fine people who chose to frequent my little blog and I enjoy the banter, I don't care if the comments get de-railed, I don't want to impose any 'comment guidelines', if I don't like it, I'll delete it and if you don't like it, you don't have to read it - deal?

So bollocks to it all, I'm back baby and this time it's personal!

Disclaimer: I reserve the right to change my mind about all of the above, without prior notice, thank you!

  1. Jeff Wheeler

    1844 days ago

    Glad to here you’re doing better now that you don’t have that hidden down under your chest. :)

  2. Ian

    1844 days ago

    Just get some puppies and talk about them.. :D

  3. Jeremy

    1844 days ago

    Let em have it John! I definitely look forward to further ranting and the like. cheers

  4. jordan

    1844 days ago

    Hallelujah… all geek and no fun is quite boring.

  5. Rob Mientjes

    1844 days ago

    John, one can argue as one wants, one can agree as one wants—none of that matters. You may keep a weblog updated about anything. Heck, I’d read it if it all was about kicking your nose.

    It’s good to have you back, and it certainly is good that we’re starting to specialise now—blogs that discuss anything (a thing I can be blamed for—sorry!) are starting to get boring.

  6. Jeff Smith

    1844 days ago

    Atta boy John! I made this same decision myself about a month ago. To hell with what everyone else thinks about the content on your website. Write whatever the hell you want and if people don’t like it, they don’t have to read it. I think that we all need to get past trying to impress people on our websites and just write about what’s happening with us, what were interested in and cut out the useless bullshit.

    If I have something to say about standards, I write about standards. If I feel like writing about some kid ripping off my site, that’s what I’ll write about. Kudos to you.

  7. Kev

    1844 days ago

    I completely agree re: the self-appointed blog police stuff. I’ve recently noted a very big name in CSS telling people off for daring to post about their own children on their own blogs. How ridiculous.

    My own blog is ridiculously disparate and will always remain so. I write to please me first and foremost and so my blog contains posts about my thoughts about curing autism, how my daughter progresses on a day to basis with her autism, web design stuff and media things I enjoy.

    So, hurrah for diversity and big hairy bollocks to those who don’t like it!

  8. paul haine

    1844 days ago

    “I completely agree re: the self-appointed blog police stuff. I’ve recently noted a very big name in CSS telling people off for daring to post about their own children on their own blogs. How ridiculous.”

    Kev, I assume you’re referring to Eric Meyer, who recently posted his concerns about the possible effects on the children of these parental bloggers. I’d hardly describe it as an example of ‘the self-appointed blog police’ – as he says “For that stunning degree of selfishness, and for the damage I fear it will cause the children thus forced on display, I weep.”

    (The link for that post is http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2005/01/31/be-a-parent/ – I don’t know how to format a link with Textile, and my company’s filtering software is blocking all the Textile resource pages I can find.)

    If you accept that you have the right to discuss whatever you like on your own website, then you also must accept that Eric Meyer has that exact same right (as do we all). If you publish to the internet, then you have to accept the possibility that your actions may be criticised elsewhere. Personally, I thought Meyer raised some quite valid points about parental bloggers, but if you want to dismiss the whole thing as being some sort of attempt to police the content of the internet, then go ahead.

    John, you say ‘I really do need to get this off my chest, it’s been bugging me for months. I unequivocally, and without apology, reserve the right to post absolute cock and bollocks on my own website if I so wish, and plan to do so with increasing frequency, if only to annoy the beige people’ – I’d be interested to know if there were specific instances of people complaining about what you post, or if something else brought this on – I can’t say I’ve noticed anything recently…

  9. Jolo

    1844 days ago

    Hey john, glad your back once again… looks like you’ve overcome those pezzztty times around, I totally agree w/ yah john. :)

  10. John Oxton

    1844 days ago

    @Paul: I hadn’t read Eric Meyer’s entry but I have read it quickly just now and yes he does bring up some valid points.

    Indeed I have a private family blog, which is not for the rest of the world it is for me and my folks. I think in Kevin’s particular case he has very good reason to make indepth posts and bravo to him for doing so, his is about sharing his thoughts for other parents in a similar situation and I think that can only be a good thing.

    “I’d be interested to know if there were specific instances of people complaining about what you post, or if something else brought this on – I can’t say I’ve noticed anything recently.”

    In answer to that, then yes and no and even so I wouldn’t be prepared to start a personal slanging match here. Some of this I have brought on myself and I hoped I had made that clear. Although I haven’t personally been the subject of a direct and public attack, I have seen a number of posts and comments in various places where people take pride in the fact that they have spent twelve months reviewing the latest releases from Apple and then gone on to say, quite clearly, that their content is superior for this very reason. I also saw the now infamous post that took a swipe at Dunstan Orchard for posting a load of videos about his puppies. This plus one or two leading comments made here on this blog, plus a few emails I got, a couple of conversations I have had, all sort of led me to feel this way.

    If I have led you to believe that I have been the subject of heavy critiscim then I am sorry, that is not the case. My point is more general and is meant to illustrate how you can end up feeling when you read peoples opinions about what ‘validates’ as content if you are a ‘web standards designer’. My point is why people feel the need to do this but then maybe I am a hypocrite for even discussing the fact.

  11. Blair Millen

    1844 days ago

    Hey John I fucking LOVE your style! Looking forward to more of the same…

  12. Kev

    1844 days ago

    Paul: Trouble is Meyer completely generalises the whole issue. Some of us have very valid reasons for discussing our lives with our children.

    “If you accept that you have the right to discuss whatever you like on your own website, then you also must accept that Eric Meyer has that exact same right (as do we all). If you publish to the internet, then you have to accept the possibility that your actions may be criticised elsewhere. Personally, I thought Meyer raised some quite valid points about parental bloggers, but if you want to dismiss the whole thing as being some sort of attempt to police the content of the internet, then go ahead.”

    He can do whatever he likes. I don’t recall saying he couldn’t. All I meant was that sweeping generalisations about the nature of posts and their applicability to blogging is entirely subjective. I wouldn’t dream of telling anyone whats suitable as content on their own site.

  13. Matthew

    1844 days ago

    Hey John, I just popped over following your comment on my site (thanks, btw) to do what I’d been meaning to do for a week now: to email you about how I was missing JoshuaInk. Well, I’m happy to find that that won’t be necessary now. I might have known sooner, but I had to remove you from my RSS feed. Your non-existant feed was crashing Thunderbird (I guess Thunderbird missed you too).

    Welcome back, and I’m thankful that your hiatus was a short one. Since discovering your blog, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and read no other with such regularity.

    As for the bitches, I say fuck them. It’s your blog. Life is random, so a blog ought to be also if it’s to be any reflection of life at all.

    Cheers!

  14. paul haine

    1844 days ago

    Kev: I don’t think he does generalise on the subject of posting about one’s children; as he points out himself, he’s posted about his own children in the past. The point he was making was simply that parents should give the issue some more thought and exercise judgement and caution, as what might seem cute now might upset the child in the future, as these anecdotes exist as a permanent and public record. What some people are doing is documenting their child’s life without the consent of the child.

    As for telling someone what’s suitable as content on their own site, I think it depends upon the circumstances. If it’s a personal blog then yes, it’s entirely up to the owner as to what they post and I know that if anybody told me that I shouldn’t post something, that person would get a polite-but-firm ‘fuck off’. However, I’ve no problem with someone voicing their opinion that they felt the content was inappropriate, be it on their own blog or on mine.

  15. WillB

    1844 days ago

    Yawn! That post was sooooo 2004.

    ;)

    I love your blog John. It’s the perfect antidote to all those anally retentive bloggers in the web standards community.

    It really is about time I started a blog. You would not believe the amount of cock and bollocks I have to share with the world – whether the bastards want to listen or not.

  16. Kev

    1844 days ago

    Paul: fair enough :o)

  17. Indranil

    1844 days ago

    There you go.. let all that anger out.
    Now, take a deep breath. Good.
    Now, blame the farting on the kids. It’s your darn right. :)

  18. Shawn Grimes

    1843 days ago

    Bravo! Bravo! and one more damn time BRAVO!

    This kind of writing is the reason I started hanging around here to begin with. You write about what matters to you and to hell with the naysayers. Keep on keepin on Mr. Oxton. Give em’ hell.

  19. Andrew Hume

    1840 days ago

    Fuck yeah.

    Look at the crowd you’ve gathered with all your chat so far.

    Hottest blog in oh… whole of Oxfordshire. ‘cept for Mr Hicks of ocurse. ;)

  20. teli

    1840 days ago

    I know I’m late getting in on this – my feedreader conked out and haven’t been to many of my “fav” online haunts in a while.

    I’m glad to see you’re back – I was sad to read a post that you were possibly shutting down the site (even temporarily).

    I never did understand why people can’t understand – if they don’t like something, go back to their own blog and blog about it there – don’t bitch at the blog owner… but eh, some people are like that :)

    Anyhoo – welcome back, hopefully you’ll be around for a while still…

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