Nothing pisses me off more than people that blindly follow “standards” for no reason than merely following them.

People blindly follow their “Internet Gods” and do as they say, because Jakob Nielsen has a shitty site. Some people look to them as “why they do what they do.” They’re setting standards, making things happen, living up to some… idealistic perversion. Listen to them speak. They speak of “oh yes, all the rules are true, but it depends.”

So the standards, the… “Rules for the Internets” are suddenly depending on everything a user may or may not do. Quite honestly, this whole “move forward” based on what some group says is redundant, and against the whole nature of the internet. Basically, it seems if you get enough sites to link to you, you are suddenly “knowledgeable.” This reminds me of the old adage “what is popular is not always right, what is right is not always popular.”

So this group of people dictates to others what “is” and “what should be” - but if you dig around a bit, you find a large group of growing numbers saying their approaches are hackneyed and inconsistent. What I’m noticing even more-so is that the “internet” is not about a consistent experience. It’s about common sense. Business sites can all be the exact same - look at walmart.com, target.com, bestbuy.com… now look at hhgregg.com - check these sites in different browsers, ith JS turned off, in screen readers - you won’t see a consistent experience.

Check our blog with these items turned off. See what I mean? We’re selling - nothing. No product. We don’t care if you click any ad we put up here because this isn’t what it’s about.

No site needs accessibility or usability. Sites have been built off of unconventional methods. A series of clicks to get you to the release date of a book. A website that consists of post cards that flip over. Fake businesses for the release of movies. Randoms notes that uncover pictures. The net is MORE than usability and accessibility - it is entertainment!

I can make a site that sells t-shirts and make it where you NEED javascript or flash to buy from me. That’s my choice. Perhapsmy market is a technologically savvy consumer, not any shmuck. I doubt the sales/revenues of MANY websites are shot down because you need JS enabled or you must have flash. I’d like to see Google Analytics track THAT. I don’t care who has what installed, what I want to knw is HOW MUCH people are spending that have NO JS and NO FLASH.

Show me the site that meets all users needs and generates a million bucks. More so, show me when all browsers will render the same content identically, so that development time is focused less on “cross-browser interoperability” and more on “working correctly.”

I know it’s a rant, but people need to recognize that “obeying the rules” is not what the net is about, and neither is making everyone happy.