I will NOT be critical of the design of other sites. I will NOT ...
... well, OK, I will. Just this once.

Few things annoy me more than reading some I-Know-More-HTML-Than-Thou blasting away at somebody's non-validated code or buggy JavaScript. Most of us are designing and maintaining these things just for fun, after all. And, while I have a pretty fair grasp of the basics of publication design, my knowledge of Web coding goes about an inch and a half past the basics.

I spend a fair amount of time reading Web material simply for entertainment. Some of the designs I've seen have been really creative and technically impressive. I stand in awe of how much spare time you seem to have.

But if you want me to read what you've written, Design Rule No. 1 is pretty simple: Be easy to read. Amazing how often this rule gets violated, and in such simple ways.

In my daily search for something to read during lunch, I came across a few semi-sort-of-interesting web logs. I beg, I plead, I whimper: If you want what you write to be read, please don't write i t   i n  a   f o n t  w h i c h  m a k e s  t h e  l e t t e r s  l o o k  l i k e  t h i s.

I now step down from the high horse. Back to the regularly scheduled drivel.