stillpixel's Journal: Web sites that are over 8 years old

For the third time I have been so lucky as to chosen to work on a project that entails redesigning a circa 2001 website from the ground up. While I am always glad to do my part at making the web a better place, it is always a love hate relationship. I love taking these old sites and bringing them up to date, but the process is very lengthy and at times can leave me awe struck at decisions that must have been made at some point in the past.

I encounter sections of these old sites that are created in Frontpage, Claris Homepage 2.0, Word 97??? and the like. There are references still intact to past Webmasters who must have been the ones responsible for the quagmire I am wading through. I just can't help but wonder what they were thinking at the time.

I created my first webpage/site in 1997 on a 486DX2 (smoking fast!) using notepad on Windows 95 while sitting in a GP Medium Army tent in southern Texas while on a field exercise. So, it boggles my mind to think that someone sitting somewhere much more comfortable than I was using Word or Frontpage to create webpages. Even as far back as that I knew that those options were somehow wrong and to be avoided. I guess I should just chalk it up to work ethic, some people are looking for quick and easy ways to accomplish something they must view as difficult.

Well, I'll stop there and get back to my clean up

- Ron Rattie stillpixelstudios http://www.stillpixel.com/