Tickle V Giggle: Australia Is Officially Nuts

The media outlets that claim to counter misinformation are busily spreading it, presenting a man called Roxanne Tickle as a woman scorned who rightfully won justice against an evil bigot.

Just look at the state of them! I'm furious. According to that eejit Judge Robert Bromwich, any man who puts on a skirt and claims a feminine gender identity (which, let me remind you, is merely a personal belief or feelings about oneself) is an actual woman like me. No. That's not how it works. 

Women are human beings in our own right and men have no right to arrogate to themselves the right to define us in their own terms. Let us define ourselves.

I've been lectured over and over again by the vilest of men about how Ts have feelings, etc., but basically, if we express fear or discomfort around male people in our spaces, we are somehow defective. So only they have feelings of fear or discomfort. Only they are vulnerable. Only they are worthy of consideration. 

This is my contention: any man who denies us the right to exclusivity on the basis of our biological sex discriminates against us on the basis of sex. Moreover, he paternalistically arrogates to himself the right to define us and to make choices on our behalf, even when they are against our interests. He basically relegates us to slave status, demanding complete subservience at all times without question in every area of our lives. No. Hell, no.

Sall Grover needs your help to appeal this case. Give what you can, however meagre the amount. Every penny put towards this case asserts that women are a discrete sex class with demands, needs, and rights of our own. To let that man Tickle win lets every woman and girl down. It tells every man that we are nothing, that we're nobody and that only men have the right to make choices for us. 

Sall Grover must prevail!

So You Want To Be A Web Designer: What You Should Know

I've been fooling about with HTML, CSS, and PHP for years as an amateur, setting up small specialist forums, then moving on to galleries, blogs, and other CMS (Content Management Systems). I even had a go at setting up a ZenCart ecommerce site but the owner wanted to tack on some pages and a gallery as well. The result was a multi-platform site that I could probably have done better on WordPress. When temp work dried up and I had to claim benefits, the benefits advisor suggested I turn my hobby into a business. This is what I learned.

Old Web Designers Never Die, They Just Volunteer

Web design never paid very well for me so I quit it and took a normal admin job. The thing is, I can't quit it. Not web design, not social media, not the great and groovy graphic design. I'm hooked, I tell you, and I don't want to give it up. Needless to say, when the opportunity to design the promotional literature for our church's women's discussion event came up, I simply couldn't resist the opportunity to stretch  my creative muscles in a professional capacity.

Happy New Year 2015

Well, I'm back. Rich and I went to Birmingham, then Stafford to visit the in-laws. All those jokes about them simply don't apply to us, we get along very well. On Boxing Day (26th Dec) we went to Birmingham to Richard's brother David's house, where we spent the night. David is a skilled driver, which is just as well as they'd had some snow and the roads were quite slippery.

My New Blog

Well I suppose I'd better introduce myself.  I'm Wendy, an administrator working for a facilities management company. I'm opinionated and a bit of a smart alec but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Fake Traffic And What You Can Do About It

To be perfectly honest, I never really bothered about fake traffic one way or the other. I could always delete spam because my blog is set to hold comments in a moderation queue, so I didn't really bother about the ones that slipped past my anti-spam plugins. However, when it caused my hosting account to be suspended, I realised I'd have to do something about it.

Free Comic: Wendy's Web Design Woes Episode 1: Premium Themes

I've had a lot of fun making comics, etc. and thought you might like to read them. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Wendy Cockcroft's Web Design Woes Episode 1: Premium Themes.

It's the story of a recent interaction with a client that went sour because I didn't stick to my guns about using premium themes. Many premium themes are excellent and well-coded. They don't conflict with plugins or otherwise make life difficult for web designers. Most of the time you don't even need to make changes to the colours and backgrounds, etc. but sometimes the job demands it.

Define "Premium"

There are free premium themes. Basically, for many people it's about whether or not you have to pay for them. For me, it's about whether or not they work as intended and allow me to do whatever I want without having to hack them. The trouble with hacking themes becomes apparent when you update and the old settings are put back in place. A good premium theme, to my mind, allows you to make whatever changes you want to the colours and backgrounds without limiting your ability to do so.

How can you tell whether a premium theme is any good?

The demo isn't much of an indicator. Personally I like plenty of widget areas and good interoperability with a variety of plugins. Over-coded themes can cause conflicts, as can badly-coded ones. One indicator of whether or not a theme is any good is the support. Another is the maker's ability to operate in English. A poor grasp of communicating in English makes me worry about his or her ability to code in English. If the code is not in English I can't work with it.

Built-in plugins

Themes that have built-in plugins are great if you're going to use them out of the box with the plugins you have. However, in my experience, having built-in plugins actually caused more problems than they solved because they conflicted with the ones I wanted to use. If your theme restricts what you can do with it, you've chosen the wrong theme. Rule of thumb; if you have to hack it to make it work the way you want it to, it's the wrong theme. Bear also in mind that the more JavaScript and excess code there is on a theme, the more slowly it will load.

Building with premium themes

Ideally, you ought to build from the content out and choose the theme accordingly. If you don't, you may find yourself having to rearrange the content to fit the theme whether or not this is a good choice from the point of view of presenting the content to its best advantage. If you've got a fixed idea of what you want your website to look like, you're better off choosing the plainest theme you can get and working from there. Otherwise you'll have to overwrite the CSS in the little customization box they give you and sometimes the customizations you can make are very limited. It goes without saying that the more gussied up a theme is, the harder it is to make changes to it because the theme author will be all the more precious about it. Bear also in mind that if the theme doesn't specify whether or not it's responsive or otherwise mobile-ready, it's probably not.

How do you make the right choice?

I've said it till I'm blue in the face; build from the content out. Be guided by your content and your message. That way, choosing the right theme is intuitive, based on what you want to present and how you want to present it. If you try to build your content and message around your theme you're going to have all kinds of things go wrong for you. Over-coded themes have their place if you're not planning to do much with the site and the development is already done for you. It's when you want to use an already code-laden theme for more complex work that the problems start.

Enjoy the comic; it's free to distribute and share if you post a link to this page and cite me as the author. Thanks in advance.

Blogger As CMS? Uh, Yes

When Mumba Kafula and I discussed updating Dynamic Heights, the brief was to provide her with a cost-effective CMS and hosting plan that would keep all of the features she liked intact while giving her the means to make changes herself as and when required. I'd noticed that Blogger can be used as a CMS, so went to work.

Typically, a CMS (content management system) has features that include static pages and a means to produce dynamic pages to serve content for users to interact with, e.g. call-to-action buttons, contact forms, or buying online. WordPress is the most popular one and most blogging programs can be used for this purpose. Until recently, Blogger's limitations left it out of consideration as a CMS because it was just too "bloggy" and I didn't know how to set a static page as the landing page. I also wanted to add a slideshow and make it look nicer than the old one.

Making the move

I set up the Blogger blog on Mumba's Google Apps account and copied and pasted the content onto it. One of Blogger's limitations is it doesn't like clever CSS in the template and won't stand for gradients like the one in the original. You can host the CSS in Google Developers and link to it but Mumba prefers the sunshine-y background I've got for the new installation and provided me with a lovely pic of herself to put in the sidebar. The old silhouette pic went and I found a decent stock images website to use, though I've given my husband Richard a cameo on the Services page. The old site was hosted on 000webhost with a blog on Google Sites. The switch to Blogger put the whole thing in one place. Now all I had to do was make it look like a website, not a blog.

The Home page

On Blogger static pages, the default is to put the page name at the top and bottom. It doesn't look right and I had a heck of a job finding the right bit of code to put in place

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>
<style>

h3.entry-title{
display: none !important;
}
</style>
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;static_page&quot;'>
<style>

h3.post-title{
display: none !important;
}
</style>
</b:if>

Then I did the menu. I wanted the Blogger website to look as much like the installation as possible. The Template/Customise/Advanced/Add CSS area permits you to add your own code, as long as it's CSS.

#navbar { height: 0px; visibility: hidden; display: none;}
.tabs-inner .section:first-child {
border-top: 1px solid #edddc6;
}
.tabs-inner .section:first-child ul {
margin-top: -1px;
border-top: 1px solid #edddc6;
border-left: 0 solid #edddc6;
border-right: 0 solid #edddc6;
}
.tabs-inner .widget ul {
background: #e7d6bd url(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r9Y1gqzu2qw/ULFk6MiE_BI/AAAAAAAAEVY/MIxcFFnAnO0/s1600/menubg.png) repeat-x;
_background-image: none;
border-bottom: 1px solid #edddc6;
margin-top: 0;
margin-left: -30px;
margin-right: -30px;
}
.tabs-inner .widget li a {
display: inline-block;
padding: .6em 1em;
font: bold 14px Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;
color: #d7b789;
border-left: 1px solid #84500f;
border-right: 1px solid #84500f;
}
.tabs-inner .widget li:first-child a {
border-left: none;
}
.tabs-inner .widget li.selected a, .tabs-inner .widget li a:hover .widget li a:active {
color: #84500f;
background-color: #d7b789;
text-decoration: none;
}

Change those values to whatever you want them to be. Note that I added an image for the navbar. I hosted it on Blogger by uploading the image to a blog post, then right-clicking and choosing "View Image." I right-clicked in the image, selected "Copy image location," then went back and deleted it from the post. Then I added the image URL to the code.

Blogger is a bit funny about colours and won't let you add your own code except in the advanced CSS. I got around that by uploading a small image 20px X 20px with the colour I wanted on it for the background. I wanted to change the page background. Here's the code:

.content-inner {
background-color: #ffeed5;
}

Getting rid of comments is best done manually. It's in the settings drop-down menu on the right-hand side of the page or post when you're in edit mode. You can also change the date of the post. Then there's the bloggy bits on the bottom of the page, the share buttons, etc. Here's the code:

.feed-links {display: none;}
.post-share-buttons {display: none;}

Finally, I didn't want all of my images to have that light-box effect so here's the code to change that:

.post-body img {
padding: 0px;
background: transparent;
border: 1px solid transparent;
-moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px ;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px ;
box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px ;
}

There is, of course, the matter of the slideshow. Nivo does some lovely sliders and they're responsive now. I'm pleased to say they do one for Blogger and there's a gadget maker service that creates the components for you. I didn't want to insert the slider in as a gadget, I wanted to be able to insert it into one individual post.

Way2Blogging has the solution. Use the script generator to generate the code, then copy and paste it into the Template/Edit HTML area just above </head> tag. Then get the code, which ought to look something like this:

<div id="w2bSlideContainer">
<div id="w2bNivoSlider">
<img alt="Achievement" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eQz8dFjOfQk/ULbE1zMKBaI/AAAAAAAAEZw/iEg4KynEj_8/s1600/slide2.png" title="Are you ready to achieve?" />
<img alt="confidence" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R-ihUVu7i4o/ULbExmWCJoI/AAAAAAAAEZU/LmJL3Uptz40/s1600/slide1.png" title="We can help to build your confidence" />
<img alt="Optimistic" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ccWvGzejI08/ULbE2tce9YI/AAAAAAAAEZ4/9VpvOEvHn2g/s1600/slide3.png" title="Be optimistic about your future" /></div></div>

and go to the post or page of your choice, then choose the HTML option in the edit mode, then paste the code in wherever you want it to go. One thing you'll notice is that the images don't fit the page properly. You need to get the original-sized images in there for it to work as intended; the script shrinks them, for some reason. If for whatever reason you get stuck with a revolving timer image, it's because the .js file has been deleted or moved. Drive HQ hosts scripts and there's always someone somewhere who does. You can use the file URL without causing any problems for anyone. If that fails, do a search for jquery.nivo.slider.pack.js till you find a storage service that lets you link to it. Or you can pay for a Google Apps account and store scripts there.

I chose the two sidebar layout; be aware that if you choose that, it's stuck like that for every page. That's why it was so important to get the slider to only go on one page.

The Domain

Moving the domain to the new installation was a huge pain, mostly driven by the fact that the instructions aren't as clear as they could be. If you're moving your domain from one website to another, here's what to do:

My BlogSpot URL is: dynamicheightstraining.blogspot.com

My domain URL is: www.dynamicheights.org.uk

DNS changes:

@ A 216.239.32.21
@ A 216.239.34.21
@ A 216.239.36.21
@ A 216.239.38.21
www CNAME ghs.google.com.
vlejgcawotqx CNAME gv-qzron2doln5ykisamrwr3qnrhqzcudage7vce7dtlxmb26evstja.domainverify.googlehosted.com.

If you do anything else you'll get a 404 error because it's not properly connected. Thanks to Nitecruzr at Google Product Forums › Blogger ›for his assistance.

Mobile

Blogger is a huge pain in the bum if you want to have a static page set as the home page, then view it on mobile. Since there's not a Blogger-friendly responsive Nivo Slider yet, or at least one I'm happy with, I've had to come up with two; one for the static home page (PC version), and one for the blog post that shows up on the mobile version. I didn't set it to go to a mobile template in settings; it'll default to mobile by itself.

Because of the need to scale the slider for mobile, I've had to make a mobile version of the home page and set it as a post published a hundred years in the future so it always shows up on the first page. I also had to make a separate menu for it that only shows up on mobile devices and style it so it wouldn't suck. You can use what you like; I used a link list and styled it as a vertical menu using a variation of the menu code above. I've got a browser resizer I use to check how websites look on different-sized devices. Add /?m=1 to a URL to check how websites look on mobiles.

Conclusion:

Ever since I learned that it's possible to build a website on Blogger and make it look professional I wanted to have a go at it. As free hosting option, it's a great idea and you can do most of the things you would do on a standard dynamic website there. Since you're riding piggyback on a Google service, it does wonders for SEO. Needless to say, it can integrate seamlessly with other Google products, e.g. Google Drive and Google Plus.

However, the limitations continue in that you don't have the level of control you would have over, let's say, a WordPress website and many of the functions and features I take for granted on WP have to be included as hacks, not options built into the template design area. Making it look like a "normal" website requires a coding sleight of hand that isn't necessary on WP. I'm happy to recommend it as an option to clients but I suppose I'm naturally biased towards WordPress. I'm open to persuasion, though.

Read My eBooks: Adventures In Self-Publishing

I've always been creative. Stories, songs, plays, then web and graphic design... I've been messing with all of them on an amateur and professional basis for years. Recently, I had a go at writing eBooks. This is what happened.

Well it's been a bit slow on the business front so I went back to my creative writing roots and dug up two entries for a Titanic competition. I've got a few more. Anyway, it's been an education because, as a Pirate Party supporter, I've been urging people to gain revenue from sharing their work instead of chasing infringers for royalties. It's a bit scary and precarious if this is your primary income source, I can tell you.

The books

Smashwords is free, and since I haven't got money to spend on the marketing, etc., I'm doing it all myself. Smashwords provides all the basic information you need for how to self-publish and how to format for self-publishing. It also tells you how to market your books for free. They allow you to set your own pricing. You can make your ebook free or sell it.

Once you've written and uploaded your ebook, add your cover art. If you can't make your own, Smashwords provides a list of artists you can pay to do yours. I did my own cover art and am learning about the dos and don'ts. When you've done that, add your blurb and get on with your marketing.

The covers

Smashwords provides details of dimensions for the cover art so you can do it yourself or instruct an artist. I've learned that since the thumbnails aren't terribly big your artwork needs to be legible at smaller resolutions. Look at the above images. Canterville's Quest has a tagline that's easy to read even at the small thumbnail size depicted above. What's wrong with The Marconi Men? The tagline is tiny. It matters; in the first few days Canterville's Quest got about 20 views and The Marconi Men struggled to get into the tens. I've changed it so the title and the tagline are bigger and legible at smaller resolutions. Even at 100px I can still read the title and tagline on this cover.

The content

The books themselves are, of course, about Titanic. Canterville's Quest is about a theatrical television medium who wants to stage a live seance at the site of the sinking of Titanic despite the protests of descendants of victims and survivors who think it's crass and vulgar. The Marconi Men is about the wireless operators on Titanic and how they used their new technology to save the survivors of the sinking. Okay, I'm a Titanic nerd. I'm hoping that the change of cover will raise the viewing figures but really I've got to get some actual sales.

Marketing

I took advantage of the 20% sneak peek feature that lets people try before they buy and people have been trying.

I'll let you know how it goes; I've got a few more ideas for eBooks including a story from ancient Rome called Vulcan's Yawn. What is it about me and disasters? If it's not that it's horror, sci fi or fantasy. Anyway I've given out freebies and asked people to share the links for my ebooks. All I can do is talk to people in the same boat and do mutual recommendations. And share, share, share on Google Plus, Twitter, and Facebook.

See My CETA Article In Techdirt!

I can't believe this! I'm so excited it's ridiculous — an article I wrote has been published in my favourite tech blog, Techdirt. This is what happened...

About two weeks ago, tech journalist Glyn Moody, whom I assosiate with on Google Plus, invited me to write the Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week, which was published on the following Sunday. Being me, I got a bit cheeky and told Mike Masnick in email correspondence about CETA, the Canada-EU Trade Agreement that the Internet Freedom Movement is helping to fight. He already knows about the treaty, but in the course of my investigations into it (and correspondence on G+ with Mr. Moody) I'd discovered a website, Council of Canadians, discussing Canadian cities and municipal authorities wanting to opt out of CETA. I thought there was a story in it so I contacted them and Canada's National Farmer's Union to see if they had a recent copy of the Agreement. It was the Council that provided me with a copy of the Draft Consolidated Text. Then I wrote it up and got back to Mike.

The story has been through several rewrites (the first one was a bit of a novel!) and after a while I became impatient and published it myself because I had wrongly assumed that Mike had lost interest. He hadn't, he was editing the thing to make it Techdirt-worthy. I feel really humbled by this and can't stop grinning. And that's not all...

People aren't obliged to follow me just because I follow them, and when they're particularly prominent, it's unreasonable to expect it. Yesterday I was chatting to Glyn on his net neutrality post and the subject of Libertarianism came up. To cut a long story short, an actual Libertarian came on and since I've had a lot of dealings with Libertarians I know something about it. Glyn circled me, and I'm convinced it's because of the understanding of the subject I demonstrated in that conversation. I hope I can continue to be interesting — and useful. It's not about being circled, it's about the breadth of influence I hope to gain. And when prominent people circle me, the reach they give me gives me the opportunity to influence more people, particularly when I'm involved in a campaign.

If you, reader, are on Google Plus, Facebook, or Twitter, and you're interested in digital rights, environmental issues, and internet news, follow, friend and/or circle me.

Techdirt Honour For Yours Truly

I can't believe how lucky I am — no less a person than respected tech journalist Glyn Moody invited me to write Techdirt's Favorite Posts of the Week column on Friday. Needless to say I was over the moon and wrote it up as quickly as I could, not expecting it to actually get published but... here it is! That's not even the best part...

I've been +1ing, sharing, and retweeting posts from Glyn on Google Plus and Twitter because they are interesting and push my activist buttons. Thanks to Glyn I learned a lot about SOPA and ACTA. He writes about human rights, digital rights, and the environment. When a Plusser (Google Plus user) shared one of his posts, I circled him and have been following him ever since.

Commenting on his posts led to an informal alliance and I've often linked his work on Internet Freedom Movement. We've been corresponding even more lately and it's culminated in the Favorite Techdirt Posts of the Week article that he gave me the opportunity to write. Anyway...

There's a new treaty, CETA, in the works. It's the Canadian-EU Trade Agreement, and I'd been hoping Mike would write about it. I supplied him with some information but he's so busy that, when we discussed it he suggested I write it. I've sent in a first draft and a finished version. Cross your fingers for me!

If he doesn't post it in Techdirt, I'll post it here. But oh, I'd be so chuffed if he did!

I've made this little graphic to go with it because... well... I can! I think it looks both threatening and cool so it probably has a chance of being used as the "official" symbol. My ACTA one didn't really take off but this one might.

Should Designers Work For Free?

As a designer trying to get business in a difficult economic environment I thought being involved with a high-status project would benefit me by association. This is why I did it for free. If I'd imagined that one of the admins would one day excise my contributions so he could claim all the credit for himself, I would have refused. This is what happened.

One of the first considerations to make when choosing whether or not to work for free is how well it's going to benefit you. If they remove your credit from the work and it's on your portfolio, there's a chance that people will check it and call you a liar for claiming that you did the work when there's no way of proving that you did it. That's why I'm so angry about the TEDxSalford situation.

The underhand way in which the deed was done and the dismissive response I got when I complained has led to a dispute with TEDxSalford, since it's the only way I can get enough pressure put on Vlad Jiman to put my credit back. If I'd imagined for a moment that he would remove my credit so he could claim the work as his own, I'd never have done it. Only a fool works for free when they can't even claim any credit for it. As far as I'm concerned, this is fraud if it was intended, from the beginning, to use me up and throw me away.

Timeline

In September last year, Mishal Saeed contacted me to ask for my help in sorting out the website. She explained that I would not be paid but that I would be listed as a sponsor. I agreed, explaining that having my credit at the foot of the page would help my business by associating me with the work.

She's the main admin and since she hasn't responded to my emails, though she's usually very good about this, she's probably completely unaware. It's been two days since I sent the emails to her. The event was in January.

I found out about my credit having been removed when a new client pointed out the fact that my name was not in the credits at the foot of the page. I tagged Vlad on Facebook with this picture:

He responded an hour or so later in a Facebook chat, but his attitude was so dismissive I'm sending it viral. This is the screenshot posted on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. It's going on Reddit, AKA Viral Central in a minute:

Click to enlarge

I make my living from the internet. I defend the internet through my activism with the Internet Freedom Movement and I trust that the internet will help me with this. I can't afford to launch a lawsuit and all I want is for my credit to go back on the site. He can have his there, too. I've never disputed that. I just want proof that I helped to build it for my portfolio. Why is that too much to ask?

Update:

The footer credit is now for TEDxSalford but the link goes to Vlad's email address. To be fair he did a lot of the work on the website, even when my work was still on it.

I've got no legal grounds to complain because there was no agreement to keep all my work on the site. With all my contributions removed, there's no reason to credit me. On the various social media websites where I have complained the consensus is, "Wow, that's nasty, but you might as well take this as a lesson learned and move on."

They're right. I'll make the necessary changes to my portfolio. Lesson learned: don't work for free, not even for a prestige project. As one commenter said, "Respect is proportionate to their investment in you." Since I did it for free, no money has been "wasted" by removing all the work I did. I'm annoyed at what I perceive to be complete contempt for a sucker, but it's their site and they can do what they like with it. I'm moving on. And please don't even THINK about asking me to work for free. The answer is no.

Muse, A New Design Tool From Adobe

Adobe has brought out a beta version of its new project, Muse, which it claims requires no coding ability and is simple to use. But is it?

PayPal And The Power of Social Media

A few days ago I wrote about how to resolve problems with PayPal. They've confirmed that the account of the non-payer who is using an email account that belongs to me has been limited and he can not receive money using that email address.

They've got my back, they say, but can't give too much away because even though I'm the one who set up the account I can't be kept in the loop about what happens to it. Fair enough. I was stupid to have added a certain conman's email address to it and got shafted by him. Lesson learned: if I set up an account on PayPal for someone I'll take payment upfront before I do so and after they've paid me for the website.

What I did

I was annoyed when they told me they can't remove details from another person's account. On the phone I was politely informed that it is effectively none of my business because it's someone else's account so I went mad on the social media, leaving messages on Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In. You have to be reasonable when you do this, so I left messages like "Please resolve case ################" and "@PayPalUK I've reported that someone else is using an email address belonging to me on his PayPal account. http://www.twitlonger.com/show/fmjiq1." When I got no response initially I visited their Linked In and Facebook pages and posted this tweet "http://www.twitlonger.com/show/fmjiq1 #PayPalUK #fraud #fb I'm going to tweet this every day until this is resolved." I'd left a message with Mr. Clarke, who kindly responded today, but I'll deal with that in a bit.

@PayPalUK

They followed me and invited me to follow back in order to resolve the matter. It's important to be respectful so I thanked them and got to the nub of the problem. There was a bit of confusion till the facts were properly related but the upshot is they confirmed that there is indeed a limitation on the account. Suspicious, I sent a test payment to info@elitebusinesstobusiness.com and it went through with no problem. When I reported this they told me Stan would not be able to collect his $0.01 because the payment won't complete. There was no indication of this on my end, though, I have to take their word for it but they have confirmed that there is a limitation on the account until the email address is removed.

Facebook

They responded to my message by asking for details and I told them that their people on Twitter were dealing with it. They deleted the message I left. They must get hundreds of these if the fuss on the internet complaint sites is anything to go by.

Linked In

I'd left a message on the Linked In message board and when they replied I told them their people on Twitter were dealing with it. Then Mr. Clarke replied and I realised I still had an ace in the hole: the address Stan had given as his home address is fake, it's for Micron Damp and Dry Rot Control. I took the opportunity to rat about the fake address while admitting that I'd put it on when setting up the website because I'd done it in good faith. "If he blames me I've got a CV he sent me with the address on it," I said, and gave him mine to prove that I'm not the liar. I also pointed out that Stan had tried to con the Kirsty Club and that none of the references on his CV check out. He can have all the evidence I've got if he wants it, including direct contact details for the Midland Hotel and the Kirsty Club.

So there we are; no need for any further complaints and PayPal's got my back. I'm happy to continue to deal with them and to recommend them for transferring money at home or abroad.

Problem with PayPal? Four Steps To Sorting It Out

I set up a website for a client who didn't pay me, then forgot to remove the email address info@elitebusinesstobusiness from the PayPal account I set up for him so he can use it to receive money. When I phoned them to get this sorted out they refused to do anything about it, saying it's a matter between him and me.

The background

I set up Elite Business to Business as a networking website. That's why it has a forum. The idea was that there would be a two-tier membership system with members being rewarded for saving each other money, thereby guaranteeing that none of them would ever go bankrupt. The design and development went swimmingly until I started pushing for payment. When money failed to materialise, I started running checks on him to find out more about him, then discovered that he's basically a con man. I can't take him to court because each of the five home addresses he has given to the people I contacted is probably fake. The one he gave me is of a roofing supplier, and he's nothing to do with them.

He actually tried to defraud the Kirsty Club to the tune of £5000 by getting them to pay for the charity ball he intended to hold at the Midland Hotel in October last year.

I discovered this too late to do anything more than retain control of the website, make sure my contact details are on the domain registration, and refuse to let him have any say on what goes on it until I have been paid in full. Memo to me: take a deposit first.

The complication

He realised I'd left info@elitebusinesstobusiness.com on his PayPal account earlier this month and changed the password in case I went in and removed the other email address. I found this out when the email alert came up in my inbox: info@elitebusinesstobusiness.com diverts to my personal email account. So I phoned PayPal and they offered to put a limitation on the account to force him to remove info@elitebusinesstobusiness.com or lose the use of his account.

I was satisfied with that until, a few weeks later, I received another email alert that he'd gone and changed the password again. I phoned up PayPal again and was blown off with an assertion that this was a privacy issue and the matter was best dealt with through the courts. Here's the problem: if he commits a crime using that email address, it's registered to me, so I'm screwed. I could go to prison for his fraud.

Okay, there I was, up the proverbial creek without a propellent. What could I do about it?

The procedure

I discovered how to do this properly after casting about looking for solutions online. Please note, the consumer websites aren't always helpful, particularly where this stuff is concerned. Here's what you should actually do instead of wasting your time phoning up:

1. Go to their general contact page and post your complaint in there. Resolutions is for buyer/seller issues so don't use that, they'll ask for a transaction number and there's not one for a complaint of this nature. You should receive a response in a few minutes' time. That's to let you know they received your complaint. They'll actually deal with it in a day or two. Give them three.

2. If their response is unsatisfactory, you have to wait EIGHT WEEKS before you can escalate the complaint. I know it's frustrating but there aren't any shortcuts that I know of apart from bothering this chap on Linked In. This might not be effective as he no doubt gets a ton of these a day, courtesy of Mukau Media's blog post about PayPal and how to resolve disputes with them. He might even complain about you to Linked In, particularly if you're rude to him, so if you really can't wait, and you do decide to contact him, be polite.

3. If you've waited for two weeks and got no joy, contact them again and announce that you are going to make a formal complaint to their regulator, CSSF, the FSA, and the FOS. I've linked to the English version of the complaint page on the CSSF website but if for any reason you end up on a page that's in French, click on the UK flag at the top of the page. It's written in French because CSSF is in Luxembourg, where PayPal is registered as a bank.

4. If none of that works, complain on their social media accounts, @PayPalUK, PayPal UK (Facebook), and their Linked In group. You can also have a moan on consumer forums and whinge websites, and see if that works.

If you do have a complaint about PayPal and tried to resolve it, let me know. I like to hear from my readers.

Update

Here is their response:

Dear Wendy Cockcroft,

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

I apologize but we cannot remove any information from another members account.

Thank you for choosing PayPal.

Yours sincerely,

Wendy

PayPal

Copyright © 1999-2012 PayPal. All rights reserved.

PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A.

Société en Commandite par Actions

Registered Office: 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg

RCS Luxembourg B 118 349

I'd jumped the gun by complaining to CSSF straight away and they included the complaint in their email as a forwarded message. Okay, I don't do waiting, so I've got on to their Facebook page and Twitter account to make my complaint there. Now I'm complaining about their refusal to deal with identity theft. See it here and please retweet it to help me out.

Update: it's resolved.

Are You Mobile-Ready? Four Free Options For Getting On Board

If you have a website and it's not optimized for mobile viewing or linked to a mobile-friendly version you may find you fall behind your competitors. You can't be complacent about it; more and more people are using their mobile phones to browse websites and the number is set to rise. Don't worry too much about it, though; there are plenty of options to sort it out for free.

Free Templates For Creative Hive

I just can't leave them alone. I love to play with graphics, CSS and HTML; I'm like a kid in a toyshop when it comes to this stuff so it's hardly surprising that when the opportunity to demonstrate my skills by making more templates came along, I jumped at it.

Alex Fenton has been adding my images to the Creative Hive servers so I've updated the templates I had here already and have written the new ones with the URLs of where the images will be when he's added the latest batch. I'm going to make a couple of seasonal ones, then I'll stop. I think...

[one_third]
Croc template[/one_third][one_third]
Pinstripe template[/one_third][one_third_last]
Teknik template[/one_third_last]

These new templates have rounded corners, text-shadows and drop shadow effects. Basically, I'm showing off my knowledge of CSS3 image and text display techniques. I've dug into the CSS of the site itself in order to get rid of unwanted borders and change the hr and the info box colours and, after taking Alex's advice on placement of the @import for the Google fonts, I've added effects to them, too. If you're a Creative Hive member, try them out. If not, ask me about making a bespoke one for your website. They're free for you to use, simply right-click and choose "save as" to save the text files. Remember, they're designed for use on Creative Hive so you'll have to tweak them if you want to use them for other purposes. All I ask is that you credit me as the designer and link to this website if you do decide to use them.

SEO: Is It Worth The Effort?

One of the problems of being a one-man band is that I have to do everything myself. I've got skilled rivals to contend with who have been around longer and know more than I do about SEO. For that reason, I'll never float to the top of the search results under "web designer Manchester." Is there a point in carrying on with it?

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.- Wikipedia

It's about being able to be found in a search on Google or whatever. The first five or so results are most likely to be clicked on in a general search. It's only when you're looking for something more specific that you're likely to find a particular thing. My website floats to the top of the search results on my name and is second from the bottom of the first page (at the time of writing this post) on my tagline, "Your website - your way." But who in the world is going to search for a web designer they've never heard of by name? By tagline is unlikely, but they might.

The problem

• The internet is chock full of web designers of varying ability who all use the same keywords


• People who have been in the game longer have more inbound links, i.e. links leading to their websites


• People who have been in the game longer have more people visiting their websites, i.e. they're more popular already


• People who have been in the game longer have optimized their websites and know their SEO


• They also have more pages indexed

I'm not even on the thirtieth page of the Google search results on "Web Designer Manchester" because I've got all these other people ahead of me and they've been there longer. The best I can do is

• Sign up to online directories, promotional websites like Skillpages and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter


• Comment on industry-specific blogs and forums


• Guest blogging


• Blog here on my own website to get more pages indexed


• Make sure my website is as standards-compliant as possible so I don't get penalised for anything

Well I've been doing that so far, and in eleven months, this is how far I've got. The fact is, since I started, other people in Manchester have also gone into business as web designers, swelling our numbers. That's more people using "Web design Manchester" in their keywords and on their websites. And at this point, you have to ask if it's really worth all the effort if you're going to stay at the bottom of the search results on the keywords you need whatever you do. The main problem I have as a one-man band is having to do everything myself. This includes

• Updating my directory entries


• Updating my portfolios on the general and industry-specific job boards


• Blogging


• Posting on other websites


• Adding new content to my website

This has to be done on a regular basis (good luck with that!) or I start to lose whatever ground I've gained. It's tedious and time-consuming enough, but since Google keeps changing its algorithms to stay ahead of the ad farm shysters and black hat practitioners (white text on white background, etc.), you have to keep working with whatever they're doing and keep on learning more about SEO and how it works. It's really a full-time job, is what I'm saying, and it's not my primary discipline; I'm a web designer, for goodness' sake! I've considered paying for backlinks to .edu, etc., but I've come to the conclusion that my rivals have already done this and they've paid more. Getting onto DMOZ would be great if I could manage it but they haven't listed me yet. If you need help updating your website free Article WritingServices will help you out with content for your site.

Is there a point to doing SEO at all?

What, without paying some industry expert an arm and a leg? Don't get me wrong, they're very, very good at what they do but I just can't afford it where I'm at. When you're up against a tsunami of competent professionals who do it full-time you haven't really got a chance, have you? It takes up so much time as well. When I'm attending to my SEO I have to drop something, usually an interesting design or writing project but I will say it's worth doing because

• You have to be findable in some way, shape or form


• You need to be able to demonstrate some ability in SEO to clients or they'll go to someone else


• Failing to update your portfolios, etc. means that if you do get found by chance, they're seeing your old work


• Getting on directories, etc. makes you findable by people who use them


• Intelligent comments on blogs, forums, or social media gets you noticed for the right reasons

Basically, it's unprofessional not to and we're expected to do it. People who don't understand SEO think you'll float them straight to the top of the search results. Erm, no. Not without paying for advertising. But it is worthwhile and we should do it. Just don't expect miracles from someone who doesn't do it full-time.

Image by Ian Parkes Licence: Creative Commons

Too Much Information? Five Pros And Cons For Sharing Knowledge Online

The availability of code demos and tutorials online has made it possible for me to learn my craft in a relatively short space of time. I have leapfrogged from basic to advanced web design in eleven short months after years of tinkering with HTML and CSS. This raises the question: are the designers and developers who make these giving too much away?

One of the reasons I've been able to learn so much about my craft is that kind people have put tutorials on the internet to teach noobs how to set up websites properly according to web standards. When new code attributes become available, they make demos of how to make use of them.

And if that's not enough, there's a fantastic array of generator tools that enable me to make rounded corners, drop shadows and even web page layouts on the fly. I couldn't possibly be any more grateful; I am deeply in their debt. However, when it comes to paying it forward, I find myself wondering if being so generous is such a good idea.

At 10.18, this video demonstrates the point I'm making here in this post.

 

Here are five pros and cons for posting tutorials, etc. online.

Pros

1. Helps to popularise your blog or website

When I first started blogging four years ago on other sites, it was all about me. Me, me, me. My website. What was on it and why it was so great. Why you ought to join in, etc. Whoo! Prizes! Join in the fun! It didn't last. When I went professional and got paid-for hosting and everything I started to seriously research good blogging techniques. The number one thing that's recommended is to consider why you subscribe to certain blogs and keep up with their latest posts. I have to admit, it's the tutorials ones that keep me coming back because I've learned everything I know from them.

2. Demonstrates your knowledge

People tend to put more trust in people who can prove that they know what they're doing. Writing tutorials has opened a lot of doors for me, leading to partnerships with people in parallel trades, e.g. backend developers with more in-depth skills than I have.

3. Gets you more involved in communities

I'm subscribed to several online communities. One of them is a WordPress users group. Being able to help people solve problems has encouraged them to think of me as a knowledgeable person. This can lead to fantastic opportunities down the line, including getting overflow work.

4. Raises your online profile

If you Google my name — just my name — there are many thousands of results for me. This is because of my frequent blogging. The variety of subjects I touch upon gives me a great number of keywords to bring me higher up the search results. Now if I only ever blogged about my latest projects, that would show that I am busy, but would not be as attractive to potential clients and partners as sharing what I've learned with others.

5. Makes you a leader in your field

If you lead at least one person, you're a leader. Now I'm not trying to suggest that I'm THE leader in my field; I'm not, I'm still learning my craft. Any serious professional is always learning. The point is, I can be PERCEIVED as a leader because I know what the reader perusing my blog wants to know. And that's what counts.

Cons

1. It takes time to write original works

Many of my tutorials are written from the point of view of a noob trying out a new technique. The others come about from personal experience as I finally work out how to do something. I do borrow from other bloggers but I don't just copy and paste their work in or just rewrite it. I try them out to see if they work (sometimes they don't!), then write from that experience. Some of them aren't relevant to my personal experience because they're written from the point of view of someone with a different server or they have their own, so that's a gap I can fill. However, doing this takes up time I could be spending doing other things. And I always have a HUGE amount of things to do.

2. Might make you redundant

It has occurred to me that since I learned all I know from t'internet, others can too. To be fair, they'll learn it from the same people I learned from if I don't write tutorials, but I thought I ought to mention it. Speaking of which...

3. Gives too much away to competitors

This is the thing I worry about, to be honest. It's what prompted the picture above. I actually got an email from some geezer who effectively wanted me to teach him how to leapfrog me in a series of tutorials that I was expected to write for him. Cheeky or what?! But paying it forward is how the web standards, design and development community works. You're supposed to give something back because they give so much to you. Now this guy doesn't devote himself to learning his craft so I haven't got that much to worry about. It's the ones who do want to learn to do it properly that scare me.

4. Exposes your weaknesses

The level of tutorial you write shows the level of your knowledge. I'm not writing HTML5 tutorials for a reason: I'm only just dipping my toes in it at the moment. The people who can learn from me are at the beginning to intermediate level of web design. I'm only one step ahead of them and trying to compete with people who know more than I do (This is my "Attention, neighbours!" moment).

5. Other bloggers might surpass you

Web design is my primary discipline. I don't devote myself to blogging, but to designing websites and learning how to do better at it until I'm the best I can be. Therefore, people who spend more time blogging than I do can do it better because that's all they do. And people who write better tutorials or are better known for it become the go-to guys for tutorials, so all you're really doing is taking up space on t'internet.

Conclusion

It's important to continue the pay it forward ethos of the design and development community, but maybe I worry too much about giving too much away. The fact is, there's more to design than colours or background. JavaScript has its place, but what you're really aiming for is to understand the underlying principles. In eleven months (so far) I've had to learn how to integrate the principles of good design with aesthetics, and that the look of a website should never supercede its primary purpose, which is to give its readers information about what it's intended to represent. Getting all that on straight is what takes up the time, not the technical side. Design is a discipline that requires, no, demands intuition and that's not something you can get from a tutorial, so I can relax. And write more tutorials.

Is W3C Compliance Necessary?

Web designer Valerie Manlick recently started a discussion on the importance of W3C compliance on Facebook, in which she basically asked whether style was more importance than substance :