Friday, May 15, 2015

End of an Era

I think my ‘career’ as a web designer is now officially over. I taught myself to do web design in Microsoft FrontPage when we took over the Universal Studios Japan Alumni site (www.usjalumni.com) in 2001. We’ve maintained it ever since.

This was, without a doubt, the easiest software in the world to use. Everything was WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). I didn’t have to learn HTML code, and I could preview exactly what the site would look like when it went live. I began building other sites, including our author site, using this tool. They weren’t fancy, but they were user-friendly and provided information.

Unfortunately, in 2008, Microsoft in their (IMHO) questionable wisdom, decided to stop supporting the product. However, it kept on working, and I continued using it.
I built the site for our writing group (www.lagunitawirters.com), the one for our friends Len and Luanna Rugh (www.rughfamilywriters.com), and the one for our artist friend, Bob Schwenck (www.schwenckart.com) using it.
For quite a few years, we maintained our church website (www.sjcpres.org) on it as well. Fortunately, a couple of years ago, the church hired a professional to redesign it, and we got out of the web site business—at least for that site.
We tested the website for our high school class on FrontPage, but a friend designed the final version in HTML code. (www.ahs64-alumni.com) I am very grateful, not only for her friendship but also for her considerable skill and talent!
I also built our original writing website on that platform (www.lornalarry.com), but several years ago, our Japanese son twisted my arm to let him redesign it. Thank God he did, or it would be going the way of the dodo as well.
When I chose hosting for my sites, I picked GoDaddy. They were one of the few hosting sites to continue to support FrontPage extensions after Microsoft abandoned the program. They have continued to run my sites. That will stop next month for several of them (www.usjalumni,.com, www.lagunitawriters.com, www.rughfamilywriters.com, www.schwenckart.com). We’ve been notified that they are shifting to a new hosting platform and will no longer support FrontPage. I don’t know whether this means they will all go away as of that date or some of their pages won’t look right or what.
I spent all morning (starting at three a.m.) exploring the alternatives, but none of the existing programs will allow for straight conversion from FrontPage, and all of them would require a substantial learning curve.

Six years ago, I took a class in Dreamweaver. I received an A, but discovered I loathed the program. It was much too complex for the kinds of sites I worked on. And it also would not allow for direct conversion.
I am now retired—at least I’m supposed to be—and I have no desire to take on mastering a new program. So I guess those sites will just go away unless I can find someone to take them over.
I won’t pay anyone to be webmaster for these. It's not worth it to me. Two belong to groups with numerous other members, and the other two belong to friends.

Does anyone have any suggestions for going forward? I’d still like to be able to tweak the group sites from time to time or at least make suggestions or contributions. Has anyone else faced this issue?

12 comments:

  1. Dear Lorna, it seems that you are another wonderful soul who has truly failed retirement. hehe At the end of the day, MS FrontPage is just a UI frontend to create HTML interpreted pages. Just edit them manually for a while, if the changes are easy, and when it gets at all onerous - follow the direction of the well known words from the movie "Frozen." -dlb (you asked :-)

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    1. I get it. And I think it may be God's way of saying it's time to move on. We may have someone who is willing to redesign the USJ site. I'd feel terrible if we lost everything. It's been a wonderful way to keep the team in touch. And you're right. I'm failing retirement!

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    2. And yes, I got the reference. Larry is rebuilding the Lagunita Writers' site since it's pretty simple. The fellow who designed the Universal site said he'd redesign it. I have asked our friends to take over their own sites. The artist has found a program recommended by an artist friend, and I''ll help him get started with it. And I've asked our other friends' kids (both of whom are tech-savvy) to take over their parents' site. It all feels right.

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    1. Some people thrive on change. I'm not one of them. But then you knew that! <3

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  3. Microsoft rolled out Expression for Web to replace Frontpage. You can use that or WordPress to author new pages. Your existing web pages will not be changed when your ISP stops supporting extensions. You can "translate" the pages by simply uploading your existing websites from their home folder on your Website instead of using FrontPage. By the way Dreamweaver is the best substitute for authoring. You can use Dreamweaver to upload your home folder directly from your ISp hosted site. You can use Worpress to author new pages. MS supplied a migration site for old Frontpage users to migrate to Expression.

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    1. Expression is no longer supported, either. I am well aware that Dreamweaver is pretty much the industry standard, but I found it extremely difficult to use after maintaining/updating seven sites for years using Etch-a-sketch--uh--FrontPage.

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  4. Lorna, I'm sorry an era is ending.
    I hired someone to create my website from the start because I just didn't want to deal with it. Then I learned the limits of many webmasters. My first one retired in disgust two years ago.

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    1. Janet, I'm just too cheap to spend the money--especially when I could do it myself. But at my age, I have finally come to the conclusion that I can't do everything. (Really?) ;)

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  5. The HUGE blessing is that our darling son begged to redesign our website a couple of years ago, and it's gorgeous. Same with the one for my high school class. The gal who did that one created a fabulous site. And I didn't have to pay for either of those. (Our son does ours in exchange for a bedroom when he comes to stay here. The gal who did the class one is a member of the class.) Truly blessed with those two!

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  6. Lorna, I had no idea they are dropping expression as well. You can tell how out of the loop I am. I would like to help you with the USJ site. I have Dreamscape CC and two college sons who know who to use it. I also can trade rent and board for web design and video/audio production. I will bend their arms if you want to work on it together. I would only want to do it with you not instead of you. I am no web designer but I have built a few. Email me at bobdennis@me.com

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    1. Thank you So much! Jeff, who designed the site has volunteered to convert it. He's still doing some web work. Is this OUR Bob Dennis? Hi, friend! Come and see us whether or not we work on the site.

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