In my last post, I mentioned how I felt a bit underwhelmed at the coding practices behind the new msnbc.com website. Judging by the majority of the response (and the ‘web elite’ response at that), I have no idea what I’m talking about. Doctypes apparently are throwaway items in standards-based web development, and using TextMate automatically makes you a web expert.
I admit that I could have been a bit more tactful with some of my previous comments, but I did compliment the design, and I am still very impressed with it. However, even after the explanations and the excuses about 10 year old code and CMS limitations, something doesn’t sit right with me. I can’t quite put my finger on it, and I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I feel like the front-end development on the site could have been executed better.