Amazed at what passes for web developer...

[WebJoel]

I spend the weekend in New York, visiting my father and family. We got to talking about hobbies and such, -he mentioned that a snomobiling club that he is a member of had hired someone to build a web site for their club, paid them a nice sum of money (I cannot disclose the amount due to forum rules), -and it has been THREE YEARS now and this 'web developer' is still "...not quite done with this site yet"!!!!!

I just about fell off my chair!! THREE YEARS!?!? OMG! I whipped out a handful of my business cards and my dad is going to pass these around at the next club meeting, -and if they want that site done *I* can do it for the price (negotiable), -and in all likelihood have it ready for beta-viewing in 2-3 days, with final release in about a week. We talked about Validation. cross-browser, Accessibility, download speeds, optimization, all the things that a site deserves and if this person is taking as long as they have been, -they've hired the wrong person for the job! -Clearly they hired a preemie.

I find this inconsciable to drag out this process for that long! Obviously this person doesn't depend upon this for a living..
__________________

[KDLA]

One of my non-profit clients was paying quite a bit a month for a website, and they wondered why people weren't using it. Come to find out, the coding was so messed up, Google couldn't even index it. (Not to mention a multitude of unfinished pages and distorted images.) I asked them why they never tried to get things fixed. They said they didn't want to bother with it, they didn't really promote the website anyway.

I don't know, Joel, it could be the fault of the club for not following up with the web designer, allowing this to happen. Many times, little organizations like this want a web page just to have a web page. They don't want to really be involved in its creation. That's why they let things sit for three years; they don't have a real vision for the website beyond obtaining a URL to put on paper-based promotional items.

[Sunny G]

...they don't have a real vision for the website beyond obtaining a URL to put on paper-based promotional items.This is true. I've dealt with 4-H clubs who are like this, and of course the robotics team in which I participated. Either they don't really know what to do with it (or don't care) or they just want a site only for kicks: pretty pictures, etc.

But in any case, THREE YEARS is way too long. A website should only take a couple weeks at (absolute) most, depending on the site.

[WebJoel]

This club should promote itself, -they advocate safe riding, conservation, respect of individual land-owners rights (no trespass, etc). They groom trails for their function in summer such as rock/stump removal, limbing of felled trees, watching for forest fires & reporting illegal poaching of game etc. (They use 3 and/or 4 wheeled ATVs, -they petitioned & received special permits from the D.E.C. to ride on State-owned land for this purpose) all this also to the benefit of everyone whom uses the land year-'round. On private lands, they collect maple sap for syrup production (although this Spring they did not... Spring was too warm & woods was too muddy to bother with it) with monies (portions of it after expenses I'm sure) going to selected charities.
They do other charity events when not riding, -mostly Veteran affairs stuff as the club is mostly people of that age group. My father is probably one if not the most senior person there at age 73, and he's certainly one of the most active in the group. They're a small group, -probably more than ten people but probably less than 20(??).
Reverse of that coin is that they do not understand 'webby' stuff like how long does it take to make a site~ etc.. :o But yes, -I hadn't considered that.. they maybe just wanted a web-presence but don't realize how quickly this can happen. Three years waiting after committing to this, is just wrong..

[skilled1]

not to just throw 2 cents into the barrell, but wow 3 years and the site is NOT complete?

i can understand making updates and maintaining the site over that long of a period, but acutal develpoment of a site for 3 years? cripes that is insane. you are definatly correct by this is someone that does not depend on webdesign for a living.

[Stephen Philbin]

Well I dunno. I mean I've been going on my site for about a year and a half now and I've only got (almost) two pages to show for it. Does this mean I'm a bad developer? :'(

[LeeU]

Well, it's your site so there is not really a problem. The other one is for a client, and it doesn't seem to be a complicated site. Someone mentioned previously that a site only should "take a couple weeks at (absolute) most". That really depends on the site and the customer. I don't think it would be unusual for a large site, that belongs to a major corporation, to take a few months (or longer), considering that they have committees, and lines of approval, purchasing agents, etc.

[WebJoel]

Without a common frame of referance, I am sure that are talking about vastly dfferent needs here. I am positive that the needs of this snomobiling club are merely to gain a web-presence. A 'facebook' of whom they are, what they do.

If I ever landed a super-big client like Ford Motors or Canadian Tire, -pretty much I would not be available to many other as their sites would require 99% of my work time, for sure. They would never 'be completely done', imo. My cash-cow. :D

Every site that I have built do-date, I've always sweated the time to build, procrastinated until a few days before I need to produce some beta-build for showing to the client, -and I've always managed to come up with something workable at least. This club doesn't even have a viewable site on-disk from what I understand... just the word of the builder that the site '...isn't quite ready yet'..

And I *just know* that the person they tapped for the club's site-build is using either TABLEs or FRAMEs... :( Or 100% FLASHcrapulance.. :o

[KDLA]

... just the word of the builder that the site '...isn't quite ready yet'..
Instead of "builder," I believe you mean "snake oil salesman." ;)

[skilled1]

point or fact for the OP post though, two years has gone by, and they have nothing to show for it, that is what is so insane.

given, if you landed a huge job, like ford's website, or yellowpages there would be a very long design / development process, still during that time you would have something to show for it, be it web comps, wireframes, some chrome, or even a few pages developed to show the perspective client.

[scragar]

if they just want a presence on the web then it should be easily done in a few days at most(I've whipped up designs in a few hours, then tweaked them for a day or so before now between various other things), how does it take 3 years to produce anything, if you want it done then a few days should be enough to atleast provide something worthy of presenting.

[LeeU]

given, if you landed a huge job, like ford's website, or yellowpages there would be a very long design / development process, still during that time you would have something to show for it, be it web comps, wireframes, some chrome, or even a few pages developed to show the perspective client.
Agreed. I was commenting on Sunny G's post ("A website should only take a couple weeks at (absolute) most, depending on the site.")