Interview of Julian Egelstaff (cont')

RG: So, since timing is such an important issue on the 'net and you mentioned last week that knowing simple HTML was not enough, how much harder/easier is it for a person to get seriously involved in 'net development now as opposed to even three years ago?

JE: Well, I'll paraphrase Dickens: it's no harder, it's a lot harder. The technology is still totally backwards compatible. What that means for the user, and the prospective web designer is the simple HTML that worked just fine for the original Monastery will still render just beautifully in any browser out today, including IE5.0 (yuck!). And indeed it's the nature of HTML, nay, it's one of the underpinning principles of the web that content should be accessible and nothing, no browser included, should stand in someone's way of getting at that content.

However... people's expectations have changed a lot. The look and feel of most sites today, the navigation infrastructure of big sites, the technology used to create the standard, familiar, browsing experience of 1999 has advanced quite a bit over previous years. That's partly due to bandwidth increases, partly due to web browser sophistication increases. And on top of that there's just a whole lot more sites out there to see. I think the estimates are that year over the year the web has doubled in size in terms of number of users, and I'm sure there's been a similar if not greater increase in the number of sites. The end result of all those increases is it's a lot harder to get noticed. There's a lot more out there competing for a user's attention. The technology hasn't changed in terms of the minimum requirements, but the environment has changed a great deal. And anyone looking to set up a site has to do it with the environment in mind, or else you've got your eyes closed.

Incidentally, I don't think it's just the expected technology that has increased, it's the expected look and feel that's increased too. Because there's a lot more sites competing for attention, and because people don't want to have their time wasted, it's not like you can simply ignore these concerns people might have about usability and value-of-content. They're not going to come back today if your site doesn't give them what they want up front. Two, three years ago, they probably would, because sites themselves were still a novelty. You may recall I mentioned my friend Christina's site, and how it was a big hit, and the big thing was simply her diary from High School. That was cool and a big draw in 1996. But in 1999, that would be narcissistic clap track and no one would pay attention. Gone are the days when a site was worth visiting because it's there, and because of that I think people have to be much more concerned about the browsing experience of the sites they're creating.

That site I mentioned, www.jwz.org could be considered a bit of a narcissistic site. It's all about this one guy and just whatever he feels like putting up there and mouthing off about. But the difference is, he was employee number 20 at Netscape (and is a very cool guy as far as I can tell). So there's more reason to pay attention to what he's saying, than the average joe. It's not that self indulgent sites don't exist or don't have readers, but simply that that's not enough for a site to be generally successful anymore... there has to be another hook.

Incidentally also... this is kind of a major thing I'd like to do with the Monastery. Every day I visit lots of site and see lots of cool things I'd like to implement and make the Monastery more up to scratch for the times. But unlike the HTML of two, three years ago, the javascript and fancy HTML tags of today are not so easy to reverse engineer just by looking at someone's page source and cutting and pasting. Because of that I'm kind of weary of the time commitment involved. I mean, I want to learn C++ too sometime in my spare time, among other projects, so who knows when the major face lift will ever happen.

RG: Understandable. It is a daunting task for anyone.How has the input and praise you have received from fans affected you?

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