Jason Pearce

Mom, this post is just for you.

I know I make fun of you for being my site’s biggest fan. So when I came across this story from The Onion about a 30-year-old who just learned that his mother discovered his Web site, I couldn’t help but think of you. Here’s the story and a few quotes that made me laugh out loud.

The Onion | Mom Finds Out About Blog

MINNEAPOLIS, MN—In a turn of events the 30-year-old characterized as “horrifying,” Kevin Widmar announced Tuesday that his mother Lillian has discovered his weblog.

“Really, the blog is just a record of what I think about the world and how I spend my free time,” Widmar said. “In other words, exactly the sort of information that no 30-year-old wants his mom to have access to.”

“I know Mom will instantly become the site’s most avid reader and most vocal fan,” Widmar said. “As I write it, I’ll think, ‘How would Mom feel about this?’ Even worse, I’m sure she’ll give the address to all our relatives.”

Thanks mom for being my biggest fan.

SprintPCS.com released its new re-designed Web site this weekend that meets Web Standards for XHTML and CSS. This is big news, for it’s another comercial site that has made the conversion to a more accessible Web.

There are only a few comercial sites that try to meet Web Standards. Most of the sites that do try to design to these standards are hobbiest sites like my own, or sites that are designed for Web developers (like A List Apart and SitePoint).

Every time a comercial site joins the Web Standards movement, my job gets just a little bit easier for I’m able to show our clients another example of how standards could benifit them.

The site that really got it all started was Wired, back in October 2002. Other standard-based comercial sites include…

• Adobe Studio
• ESPN
• Fast Company
• Inc.com
• PGA Open Championship
• Quark
• Sprint PCS
• Wired News

It’s limited, I know. But it is growing.

By the way, if you are ever interested in submitting an article to ALA, members of their team are great to work with. Simply stroll over to their Contribute page to learn more.

I simply pitched my idea to Erin Kissane (managing editor and producer) and Jeffrey Zeldman (site designer). Within a few days, Erin wrote back saying she liked the idea and that I should put something together. So I did.

A few weeks later, I finished my article and sent it back their way. They responded within days, made only a few changes (thanks, they were good changes), and posted it that Friday.

I have no idea if the process is as painless for others, but I found them to be a pleasure to work with. So if you’ve got a good idea, don’t sit on it. Pitch it to ALA so that one day, others can benefit.

I’ve received good feedback on my CSS/PHP article, which was published by A List Apart last Friday. Though some are critical of the PHP code I used, many have liked the article and offered ideas to expand upon it. Thank you all for the great comments. Do keep them coming — yes, even the critical ones.

Though I’m pleased by the response, I wish I had been a little more prepared. For starters, I’m embarrassed by my personal Web site’s state of affairs. I really should have taken the time to clean it up, update content, and improve its code. Though I’m not unhappy with my site, it just doesn’t accurately reflect my abilities.

For you non-programmers and designers, it’s like inviting everyone over for an open house before finishing your kitchen counters. And if I ever wanted an open house for my personal Web site, publishing an article on ALA was the grand invitation.

On Friday, November 7, traffic to my site soared within hours of my article’s posting. On a typical day, I used to get about 30 unique visits a day (27 of which are likely my mother). Now, my site receives more than 100 unique visits each day, averaging 3.3 pages per visit.

Google rankings also jumped. A search for Jason Pearce has held the top ranking for several years. Other projects I’ve worked on appeared in the search results, but in no particular order.

Now? Well, my article on ALA is listed second in Google’s rankings. Furthermore, all of those other projects that I’ve worked on have jumped up to the top as well. Now my obscure Peace Corps profile and genealogy research receive similar acclaim. Oh the power of Google’s PageRank technology.

Sadly, it will be some time before I perform some house cleaning on my personal site. So, thanks for dropping by — please excuse the mess.

It gives me great pleasure to report that A List Apart accepted and published an article of mine. For the next week, my article appears on the front page of their site.

A List Apart Magazine (ISSN: 1534-0295) explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on techniques and benefits of designing with web standards. I’ve learned so much from them over the years and wanted to give a little back.

So I submitted an article on how to use PHP and CSS to keep track of your current page in navigational menus. Here it is:

Keeping Navigation Current With PHP: A List Apart
by Jason Pearce

Turning unordered lists into elegant navigational menus has become the new favorite pastime for many web developers. Adding a unique id or class attribute to indicate which menu item reflects a user’s current page, however, can become laborious. Even if you use body id attributes instead, as ALA does, some labor is involved and it is easy to make mistakes. But thanks to PHP, we can add these current-page indicators automatically.” …more

Thanks ALA for the years of ideas, tutorials, and articles.