Hey all,
If you want to skip the background info and get straight to what the problem is, skip down to where it says PROBLEM STARTS HERE.
I've been working on my own company, developing a game, since last May, and since funds were tight, I took a 12 month contract job at a company that started at the beginning of Month. My role is as the senior web developer of the company, so my main task is to rewrite their major product using modern technology and good engineering standards (like not storing the passwords as plain text in the DB, for instance).
So, the way things work now, there is website A, which is being shutdown in favour of website B, at the end of April. A and B were both developed by the same guy, who has no DB design skills, and no website design skills either. B is live, but not really in much use. The plan is to shut A down at the end of April, and replace it with B. What I am doing is rewriting B, because it is so bad, and hoping to have that live by the end of April too, so we dont need to use B at all.
However, we still need to communicate to clients that A is being shut down in favour of either B or C (B and C will be called the same thing, so it doesnt matter). Clients only need to know that A is being shut down in favour of an improved replacement. So we decide to put a nice big message on A, explaining the whole thing, with a countdown timer, counting down until the big day.
I get asked to do the timer, so I do it in jQuery, HTML and CSS. Its basic but it works. Management decides that, instead of styling what I have done, they will get an outside contractor web firm to design a piece with both text as to what is happening, as well as links to the new site, information etc etc, and the countdown timer. Fair enough, we needed more branding and information.
So the outside contractor gets back to us today. They have developed the countdown timer using javascript and the HTML5 canvas element. I raise a concern with them, saying that many users with older browsers will be unable to see that element. Just note, I live in South Africa, meaning a lot of computers are older, and also, our clients are not likely to be tech savvy, meaning they may not even know what a browser is. Plus, some of them may work for banks, in which case they will absolutely no choice over what browser to use anyway. So the guy quotes us 4 hours of work to write another countdown timer in regular HTML, without the canvas element. To be honest, I would not have done it using a canvas element in the first place (in fact I didnt). But anyway, thats not the real problem.
PROBLEM STARTS HERE
The old site (A) is hosted on HubSpot, so we need to put whatever this outside contractor does, there. The simplest thing, or so I thought, would be for him to send me his HTML/CSS/Javascript, and have me put it live. Even though HubSpot is not that great, this is not difficult, and I've done it before.
He quotes us 1 hour of labour to "convert" it to HTML. I'm like, huh, what format is it in now? He says, its in JPEG. JPEG for the main content, including LOTS of text, and an iframe for the countdown timer, which links to the actual timer which is hosted on their webserver (whatever, I dont care, it works). So he says the one hour labour charge is for them to convert the content from JPEG to HTML by slicing up bits of the whole image into smaller bits, and then I presume using HTML and CSS to lay them out so that it looks appropriate. Since the image included the text we wanted, I assume he meant that too.
Sadly I am not the one in charge of this whole thing, otherwise I would have told him where to get off. There is another lady who is in charge of it, I was merely helping her out by liasing with this contractor. The lady, with the interests of the business in mind, says that the 1 hour of labour is not worth it, and if putting up that one big image will work, then we will just do that. I explained to her that using one big image is a really, really bad idea, and she knows he is being useless, but doesnt seem to want to cost the company more money.
My problem is that I feel like this contractor has not done his job. If we pay you to do content, for the web, that content should be delivered as HTML and CSS, as far as I'm concerned. You do not have content go live as a big JPEG. Especially not if you want the licks to be clickable (I hope they removed those!). As the client, it is not my responsibility to cut this big image up so that the links work. I do not feel that the company is getting value for money, and I think its outrageous that this guy wants to charge for something he should have done in the first place. If this was a print advert, or an email flyer, a PNG or PDF would suffice. For the web, I expect HTML, CSS and images.
What do you think I should do? I can A) email the lady in charge of it (she knows most of it anyway), B) email the CEO, the only person above her. I feel that the CEO is being ripped. Problem is, I dont know what relationships already exist. I've only been here less than 2 weeks. It just galls me that I am having to put a massive JPEG live, with text on it, when I know its the wrong thing to do.
EDIT: Just to note, the contractor did not develop A or B. I think they may have done the styling for B, but thats it.
If you want to skip the background info and get straight to what the problem is, skip down to where it says PROBLEM STARTS HERE.
I've been working on my own company, developing a game, since last May, and since funds were tight, I took a 12 month contract job at a company that started at the beginning of Month. My role is as the senior web developer of the company, so my main task is to rewrite their major product using modern technology and good engineering standards (like not storing the passwords as plain text in the DB, for instance).
So, the way things work now, there is website A, which is being shutdown in favour of website B, at the end of April. A and B were both developed by the same guy, who has no DB design skills, and no website design skills either. B is live, but not really in much use. The plan is to shut A down at the end of April, and replace it with B. What I am doing is rewriting B, because it is so bad, and hoping to have that live by the end of April too, so we dont need to use B at all.
However, we still need to communicate to clients that A is being shut down in favour of either B or C (B and C will be called the same thing, so it doesnt matter). Clients only need to know that A is being shut down in favour of an improved replacement. So we decide to put a nice big message on A, explaining the whole thing, with a countdown timer, counting down until the big day.
I get asked to do the timer, so I do it in jQuery, HTML and CSS. Its basic but it works. Management decides that, instead of styling what I have done, they will get an outside contractor web firm to design a piece with both text as to what is happening, as well as links to the new site, information etc etc, and the countdown timer. Fair enough, we needed more branding and information.
So the outside contractor gets back to us today. They have developed the countdown timer using javascript and the HTML5 canvas element. I raise a concern with them, saying that many users with older browsers will be unable to see that element. Just note, I live in South Africa, meaning a lot of computers are older, and also, our clients are not likely to be tech savvy, meaning they may not even know what a browser is. Plus, some of them may work for banks, in which case they will absolutely no choice over what browser to use anyway. So the guy quotes us 4 hours of work to write another countdown timer in regular HTML, without the canvas element. To be honest, I would not have done it using a canvas element in the first place (in fact I didnt). But anyway, thats not the real problem.
PROBLEM STARTS HERE
The old site (A) is hosted on HubSpot, so we need to put whatever this outside contractor does, there. The simplest thing, or so I thought, would be for him to send me his HTML/CSS/Javascript, and have me put it live. Even though HubSpot is not that great, this is not difficult, and I've done it before.
He quotes us 1 hour of labour to "convert" it to HTML. I'm like, huh, what format is it in now? He says, its in JPEG. JPEG for the main content, including LOTS of text, and an iframe for the countdown timer, which links to the actual timer which is hosted on their webserver (whatever, I dont care, it works). So he says the one hour labour charge is for them to convert the content from JPEG to HTML by slicing up bits of the whole image into smaller bits, and then I presume using HTML and CSS to lay them out so that it looks appropriate. Since the image included the text we wanted, I assume he meant that too.
Sadly I am not the one in charge of this whole thing, otherwise I would have told him where to get off. There is another lady who is in charge of it, I was merely helping her out by liasing with this contractor. The lady, with the interests of the business in mind, says that the 1 hour of labour is not worth it, and if putting up that one big image will work, then we will just do that. I explained to her that using one big image is a really, really bad idea, and she knows he is being useless, but doesnt seem to want to cost the company more money.
My problem is that I feel like this contractor has not done his job. If we pay you to do content, for the web, that content should be delivered as HTML and CSS, as far as I'm concerned. You do not have content go live as a big JPEG. Especially not if you want the licks to be clickable (I hope they removed those!). As the client, it is not my responsibility to cut this big image up so that the links work. I do not feel that the company is getting value for money, and I think its outrageous that this guy wants to charge for something he should have done in the first place. If this was a print advert, or an email flyer, a PNG or PDF would suffice. For the web, I expect HTML, CSS and images.
What do you think I should do? I can A) email the lady in charge of it (she knows most of it anyway), B) email the CEO, the only person above her. I feel that the CEO is being ripped. Problem is, I dont know what relationships already exist. I've only been here less than 2 weeks. It just galls me that I am having to put a massive JPEG live, with text on it, when I know its the wrong thing to do.
EDIT: Just to note, the contractor did not develop A or B. I think they may have done the styling for B, but thats it.
Last edited:
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