Webmaster Ethics!
You know I was actually saving this for my blog but I decided that while sitting here reading my email history and writing blog posts at 1:20 am I figured I'd publish this scaled down version.
I'm curious in part for feedback and in part to provide a perspective on the subject of ethics.
Here are my top 5 pet peeves with guys in my business.
1) Retaliation and Vindictiveness;
Irritating more so than any other facet and in my opinion is second only to stealing. I hold hackers in higher regard than I do a person that retaliates against a person or company for whatever reason they seem to justify.
In the years I've been in this business I've witnessed this behavior in about 10% of all clients that have hired me after dumping their former provider. Tragically most of those cases the vindictiveness is substantial and may include things like harboring a domain name and refusing to release it. That leads me to number two.
2) Control Freaks;
I can't count how many times I've encountered a situation where a person wants to move his/her service or have another designer work on his/her site where outright and bold obstruction takes place from "designer - hosting" companies. Now most "web-hosting" companies don't directly design sites and could really careless who owns a domain. With Design firms this isn't always the case and possession of a domain name means control and therein the obstruction takes place.
Reflecting on my personal experience as a designer, like many of my colleagues, we often provide hosting to clients either freely or as part of a design and maintenance package. This is done for a few important reasons with the first being that chasing the $5 plans is simply not possible for small firms and secondly (in most cases) maintenance and updates for software or applications can be easily managed with things like server root access. Update service that are either free or part of a maintenance package are easily understated even though they are a truly beneficial feature for many site owners. Thats the good part!
However, when a designer offers full service to a client that includes; registration of domain, SSL certificate, purchase of commercial applications and concluding the design and development of a site, there are some that refuse to let such slip their grasp. Reasons are as broad as designs naturally, but self justified controllers may initiate battles, inclusion of guilt, and outright retaliation or simply shutting down a site.
Now I could discuss this for hours and not effectively articulate the importance for site owners to make certain they possess their domains DIRECTLY. Possession in the eyes of many is 9/10 of the law, right?
3) Nay Sayers Who Talk You Out Of Every Idea You Have
Man I hate this one. Designer and Developers by and large do what their clients wish them to do. We know you don't have our skills or you wouldn't hire us. What really annoys me is the ones that will take your money but then make you feel guilty for requesting changes, additions, or expansion to their project.
All to often I hear a person say "My web developer said that can't be done" or "My web designer said thats a bad idea because....." and the list of those types of things goes on. Granted, many times those kinds of statements may very well be true, but just as frequently they are not. Usually stated by inexperienced or simply lazy "professionals", objection to your ideas can serve a purpose with enough excuse making to achieve their objective.
I'm not a JavaScript or AJAX programmer but I have one I work with. So, it would be unethical of me to tell a client (not versed in these technologies) that the inclusion of either would be a poor idea because of this, that and so on. If true then its a responsibility, if not its deception and all to often when I encounter people who have been quoted mis information the first thing to surface in my mind is that the designer or developer is either inexperienced or lazy.
4) Inflexible Bias or Misleading - When they DONT want you to see any other way.
Now, its okay for a web professional to have expertise and bias in a particular genera of the profession but its fully unethical to be bias in deliberate indifference of alternatives when advising a client in relation to the options available. Misleading is a troubling thing that surfaces to frequently.
I witness types of misleading time and time again when I see people battle over which of the Open Source flavors of blogs or CMS solutions are better for instance. I'm fully bias towards the solutions I use and against those I don't. Nothing misleading there. Misleading begins when a person knows a solution is better for your project, but choses one that may not be the ideal either because he doesn't want to lose your business or simply can't be effective in project assessment as the most common reasons.
In recent months I know a few professionals that bid against discount designers having lost the bid only later to be contacted with a persons frustrated "I wish I would of or I should of hired..." I know they bite their tongue with the temptation of I told you so, but lessons like that are expensive in the long run and bad overall.
Most ethical design professionals will walk away from a project that they can't do an effective job on. Its ones that boldly lie and mislead that causes so much distrust in this business more and more daily.
5) Stealing someone elses work and calling it your own.
Maybe a little petty among many, but when it happens in such a way that leaves a bad impression in someones perception its frowned upon and most consider it unethical.
It was said that Picasso once quoted his objects of inspiration by stating that "good artists copy, and great artists steal". Although it is arrogance to believe in the existence of a truly original thought, inspiration from others is an acceptable design practice. Its when a person clones or steals a design ultimately calling it their own that I have the issue with for personal reasons. Again, pointing out from experiences having seen this, its troubling to watch a person under the impression that what they assumed they paid for, as in custom work, that they purchased a counterfeit.
Basing designs off someone else's work is acceptable from the perspective of inspiration. Many students of design keep an inventory of examples based entirely on other peoples work. Knowledge and eventually experience is frequently gained in such a way. But taking inspiration to the point of plagiarized works in my eyes is an unethical act.
And there you have my short list for scrutiny;
~ Jared Ritchey
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