Still not naming names.

---

From time to time I examine this territory, though admittedly it's been a long time since I last did so, which was a bit more than a year before the first time. Now as then (both thens), I've chosen the Dragnet strategy of protecting the innocent. The path toward templates is, after all, paved with good intentions. I have no interest in embarrassing anyone in public.

I should perhaps also ask whether this time around I've dealt with this issue differently than in those previous columns. Perhaps it would be enough simply to link to those earlier columns. Why did I have to write a (sort of) new one now? A good case can be made that although the tools have changed, so that this time I'm dealing with templates, the basic result remains the same - the march of standardization (with highly questionable standards at that) continues. The tools change, but the basic effect remains the same - people and/or groups in need of web sites are led to believe that there's only one proper way for that site to look. Perhaps this is just a rehashing of an old issue, but there are old issue that sadly refuse to die, issues that insist on raising their ugly heads again and again. And if I can do my small part to try and stem the tide of the onslaught of templates, raising it again after three years most definitely seems justified.

---

Go to: Templates from hell.