Elliot Jay Stocks

Hear me speak at SXSW!

Written at 1pm on 20.09.07
Filed under Life In The Real World / ALL CATEGORIES / Publication & Recognition
4 comments (closed)

Yes, I admit this is just an update to a previous blog entry, but there are now only hours to go, so I though I’d give this a final push!

Even though the web design blogosphere threatens to collapse under the weight of countless ‘vote for my SXSW panel’ requests and people are getting angry at the prospect of more public voting, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to add one more to the ring.

So, if you’d like to hear me chair a panel at SXSW next year (or even if you don’t and would simply be kind enough to offer your support), please vote for me using the interactive Panel Picker. Although I can’t reveal the other web folk I’m hoping will join me in the panel, I can of course reveal the panel idea itself:

“Pedantic Semantics: Using Subtlety to Fight Lazy Web Design” As designers, it’s in our nature to agonise over the details - perhaps even to an obsessive degree. But this level of perfectionism should be celebrated and embraced, especially when it comes to applying that ethos to our markup. Care about semantics! Care about code indentation! Care about class names! Only through perfectionism can we convert the non-believers who are content to mark up sites like MySpace.

Sound interesting? Please help me by voting! And even if (for whatever reason) you’d rather not vote, let’s open a discussion: what are your own thoughts on the subject? Do you care about indenting your code? Are you proud to be pedantic? Or do you think adherence to Web Standards and such is a load of old cods wallop and we should all just dust off our old friends tables?

The comments are open and I’d love to hear your thoughts!

4 comments (closed)

Comments are currently closed on this entry, but you can still read those that have already been posted...

• Jonathan E

  23.08.07

  

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  Hey Elliot. While I probably won’t be attending SXSW, this does sound like a great topic to put up for discussion, and one I’d be pretty likely to sit in on if I was there.

  I’m fairly pedantic with my own code and I really think it comes down to taking pride it your own work. I think the hardest part for people like us is when we have to give up control of the project, especially if it’s being handed off to someone who isn’t as concerned with semantics.

• Matt Munsey

  25.08.07

  

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  This sounds like a great panel. You have my vote. I am going to try really hard to make it to SXSW. Austin isn’t too far from Tucson, only about a twelve hours drive or so. With any luck, I will be there.

• Elliot Jay Stocks

  26.08.07

  

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  Thanks ever so much, guys! I definitely agree about it being even harder when handing over work to someone else. The plugging in of third party CMSs always seem to have the power to butcher one’s carefully crafted code.

• Kyle Meyer

  27.08.07

  

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  I’m hoping to make the trip down there this year, finances and vacation time permitting.

  I think the idea is excellent, though I would bring up the point that there is a point when it starts devouring time and extending the project timeline unrealistically. I have a tendency to go back and perfectionize (new word) my code after launching as long as it renders fine across browsers.

  However, I would also have to say that this type of stuff is something that becomes inbred during the process and as a result doesn’t waste much time unless it’s going back to change something.

  In either case, sounds like a great idea. Hope to see you there. :)