Comments on: Palm Bay’s New Website Already Outdated http://www.brevardoutlook.com/2007/10/08/palm-bays-new-website-already-outdated/ News and commentary on life in Brevard County Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:41:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Lawrence Salberg http://www.brevardoutlook.com/2007/10/08/palm-bays-new-website-already-outdated/#comment-22 Lawrence Salberg Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:42:53 +0000 http://www.brevardoutlook.com/2007/10/08/palm-bays-new-website-already-outdated/#comment-22 Hometown News reporter Rolanda Hatcher-Gallop wrote a promo piece for the October 17 Bay Bulletin in which she had not one professional web developer look at the site for an objective evaluation. Instead, ten Palm Bay residents were asked their opinion, some of which admittedly had never seen the old site. We did learn from the article, however, that the city never did higher a professional web development firm, either for consultation or development. Turns out, a single employee, Stacy LaVanture, spent a year to "revamp" the old site while also working on her other duties. Meanwhile, more problems and errors continue to crop up. Most notably we've learned that a vast majority of the links were changed, with no proper forwarding to the new link, leaving hundreds (possibly thousands) of external links on the internet now ringing 404 errors. We've also given the city and the "webmaster" (as Stacy refers to herself on the website) an opportunity to respond and make corrections. Thus far... nothing. Hometown News reporter Rolanda Hatcher-Gallop wrote a promo piece for the October 17 Bay Bulletin in which she had not one professional web developer look at the site for an objective evaluation. Instead, ten Palm Bay residents were asked their opinion, some of which admittedly had never seen the old site. We did learn from the article, however, that the city never did higher a professional web development firm, either for consultation or development. Turns out, a single employee, Stacy LaVanture, spent a year to “revamp” the old site while also working on her other duties.

Meanwhile, more problems and errors continue to crop up. Most notably we’ve learned that a vast majority of the links were changed, with no proper forwarding to the new link, leaving hundreds (possibly thousands) of external links on the internet now ringing 404 errors.

We’ve also given the city and the “webmaster” (as Stacy refers to herself on the website) an opportunity to respond and make corrections. Thus far… nothing.

]]> By: alesh http://www.brevardoutlook.com/2007/10/08/palm-bays-new-website-already-outdated/#comment-19 alesh Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:34:42 +0000 http://www.brevardoutlook.com/2007/10/08/palm-bays-new-website-already-outdated/#comment-19 LOL -- they display the W3C "Valid XHTML" badge, and their site DOES NOT VALIDATE as valid! LOL — they display the W3C “Valid XHTML” badge, and their site DOES NOT VALIDATE as valid!

]]> By: Lawrence Salberg http://www.brevardoutlook.com/2007/10/08/palm-bays-new-website-already-outdated/#comment-18 Lawrence Salberg Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:11:14 +0000 http://www.brevardoutlook.com/2007/10/08/palm-bays-new-website-already-outdated/#comment-18 Well, at least Palm Bay isn't the only city in Florida struggling with putting up a modern, functioning, website. Looks like the new MiamiDade.Gov <a href="http://criticalmiami.com/2007/10/07/10-ways-the-new-miamidadegov-website-sucks" rel="nofollow">just got slammed</a> for a bunch of the same faux pas. Well, at least Palm Bay isn’t the only city in Florida struggling with putting up a modern, functioning, website. Looks like the new MiamiDade.Gov just got slammed for a bunch of the same faux pas.

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