Thanks Just-B. It’s not a “GodThing,” it’s a simple matter of common decency.
Devil’s advocate here. I don’ think @Pixeltender was saying your objection to the language was a “god thing”. He was saying that he felt your language around God was also “not necessary.” As a Christian myself I don’t mind it, but I also don’t mind occasional cussing. especially in the circumstances in that PixelTender used it. It wasn’t directed at someone, it was to emphasize frustration with a situation.
Sure there are other ways to say it, but I think there is a pretty large distinction between occasionally emphasizing a point and someone using curse words in a way that is belittling, demeaning, insulting or truly vulgar within the forum. And in that case that should definitely not be allowed.
2 Likes
I was made redundant just at the ‘wrong’ age. Then COVID hit, so it was pretty hairy there for a while. However I had started to add to my skillset seeing how social media was driving the endless churn for basic design tiles and copywriting. Also with AI on the horizon I could see the writing on that wall too.
So I started touting myself about as a brand specialist, drawing on my years of working with marketeers and copywriters. I got diplomas in social media marketing and copywriting, so in theory with my design skills I had the whole package. I didn’t want to ever be over a barrel by an employer again, so I am now freelance and holding my own. I have won an award for the first time, and have good steady clients who value my expertise and ability to pivot and problem solve quickly. I use AI and templates when I am being squeezed on budget, if they don’t want to pay for bespoke design, then so be it. In some cases I agree that the end use is not worth the time or effort for the client, it’s about churn. Reading into the market and seeing how digital channels are moving back towards advertising, I think there may be a boom in TV advertising again, but as far as social media goes it’s quantity over quality. Agencies are still out there who want good designers. I know some who are brought in to conceptualise and then the art working goes abroad. The industry is massively changing, a good skill to develop is the use of non Adobe apps. Quick simple tools that fuel a particular use and are free or close to it. Companies are not investing in design tech, so the freelancer does have that in the bag over others.
Lastly being marginalised is not OK. Ageism is no less deserving of airtime than any other marginalisation. I find having a ‘this is me’ attitude actually works in my favour. Don’t apologies for being older, present your experience as a huge benefit (which it is), remind people that a true creative never stops creating, never stops reinventing, or experimenting. Some of the best designers hit their stride in their late 50s. Stay current, keep up with trends and language, but don’t be a slave to it. Your experience is your superpower, don’t let others turn it against you.
I didn’t say it was God Talk— it was his own description. As a designer who worked in the highest level of business with clients such as General Electric, Heublein International, Merrill Lynch, Kentucky Fried Chicken (National) American Dairy Association and many others, I can guarantee you that any designer who uses such language would be tossed out of their Board Room in a heartbeat.
Still being devil’s advocate here, but he used that language in a forum post, not while working with a client (perhaps he did, perhaps he didn’t.) However, I can tell you that as someone who worked for a Fortune 100 company, I can assure you that we had VPs and Directors (and others further down the chain of command) that when they got aggravated with a situation could use some colorful language. Once again, not in a demeaning or insulting manner. And while it wasn’t a daily occurrence, it was certainly common enough. I distinctly remember one of our VPs who grew up in the Bronx. He would say what he thought with no filter. But, he also was extremely intelligent, talented and experienced. And even if his language was “colorful”, he was extremely valued. And the more I worked with him the more I appreciated his candor. Language or not, he was one of the guys I respected the most while working there. You knew he had your back and you knew where he was coming from.
My 2 cents is that the language PixelTender used (IMO) wasn’t enough to warrant this level of response. But, at the same time, I’m not going to lose sleep over it and if that is the forum policy it is what it is.
1 Like
Quite agree. As I mentioned before, my first career was as a seafarer so I’m no stranger to colourful descriptives. However, I’m not sure I’m well informed enough on the forum’s policy on this aspect. Do enlighten us.
As forum topics often do, this topic has strayed off in an unexpected direction.
I’m sorry if @Pixeltender was offended by my removal of a word the forum filters didn’t catch. I’m also sorry that @PopsD was offended by the word Pixeltender used.
Since before I joined the forum up until the present, f-words, c-words, and n-words have been discouraged because they offend some people and parents. Lesser cuss words pose less of a problem. Other forums and social media sites have different rules and ways of doing things.
Rather than write and enforce rules over language, we added a few verboden words to the forum’s word filters to passively remove them. The forum software also automatically removes the names of specific design crowdsourcing websites. I wish the forum software provided a means to allow people to enable, bypass, or add their own filters depending on their preferences, but it doesn’t
We can’t make everyone happy.
While I agree with the forum rules about explicit language, I can’t comment with any certainty about the use of such language because the post had already been censored when I saw it.
Having said that, there are some times when only a swear word will do.
The use of such language is always going to offend some people and in a forum such as this, some editing is completely necessary. Having said that, this could perhaps have been done better.
1 Like
My view is this:
If the same situation happens in any other thread, the instigator will be hauled over the coals, and quite rightly so. In this case, however, the thread title clearly indicates a topic mainly involves people who are not young anymore. Not saying that there aren’t middle-aged bozos, but life experience with age demands that most of this age group have gathered some form of wisdom, discipline and ethics.
Grumpy old men they (we) may be, with the title object it’s like adding fuel to the fire. There might be other words in the English language to express this anger and frustration, but none more effective. One can say “You really shouldn’t do that”, but is it more satisfying than “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge”?
Well, I’ve got this off my chest. In the perfect world I would like to see a civil discussion. Regrettably we live in the real world. Still, I’m a strong believer in “Never put it in writing” (maybe with the exception of client demands).
1 Like
In hindsight, I agree.
I have to say – well; I don’t, of course, but I will – I am somewhat partial to a bit of potty-mouthed profanity. I find sweariness – and especially, colourful, inventive, original and creative sweariness – fairly entertaining. But, then again, as my wife keeps reminding me, I’m still 12 and have will often giggle at unexpected flatulence.
In my defence, several empirical, academic studies have concluded that there is a positive correlation between the use of profanity and intelligence – and I think it is always important to follow evidence-based conclusions, so I’m sticking to this one!
For me, it’s always about context. I can (chose to) be offended by even fairly mild swear words, if used aggressively, directionally and intentionally.
Offence is a fairly subjective concept and, in many cases, the responsibility lies with the offended, rather than the alleged offender. Again, it’s all about context and intent. If someone clearly is not intending to be offensive and uses language for emphasis that another person objects to, who’s problem is that? Conversely, if the same person uses the same words to intentionally insult or provoke, then the burden of responsibility reverses.
Overall, I think we should be more concerned by people’s behaviour towards each other than the words they choose to express themselves with.
In fact, if I think about the things people have said to me in the past that have caused the most pain, they were never about profanity. It is very easy to assume a sense of moral indigence, but this in turn, implies some level of assumed superiority.
The exception, for me, is swearing around minors.
Besides, they’ll have plenty of time to learn how to swear on their own. I’m not giving them a free pass to all mine!
1 Like
So, slightly revisiting this thread. I know I still have work to do to update my resume and portfolio, but part of that work, IMO is that I’d like to set up my own website. I’ve poked around and know generally what needs to be done to do so, but I’m asking for guidance/advice on hosting companies. I also will add that I have not registered a domain name yet either, and would prefer to do it “all at once” if possible with whichever hosting provider I go with.
I will also add, that I have a decent amount of experience with WordPress, so most likely will build out my site in WordPress. I am not looking for any sort of web design or web development role, so I don’t believe that would be an issue, but once again I am open to guidance and advice.
Lastly, I am also considering setting up a separate “hobby-ish” site that would be very, very low traffic. Ha. I’m not sure how that affects hosting. I know hosting sites pricing is based on the number of websites. However, would there be a possibility of having the “hobby” site be part of my “portfolio site”, but just not have any direct links connecting the two? or should they be separate domain names?
Thanks in advance for any guidance. Oh, and any guidance on best plugins for enhancing security for my WP site would also be welcomed.
Oh, and lastly what else might I not be considering as far as setting up a site?
To be clear, are you talking about creating one site for your portfolio and a second site for your hobby (cars, fishing, eating wings at Hooters, or whatever the case may be)?
@Steve_O Yes, but the hobby site can be built off of my main site just “hidden” and not directly linked. So, something along the lines of:
CraigDesign.com for my portfolio and I’d be open to the hobby site being CraigDesign.com/hobby. But I just realized that might be the problem. In that if someone searches CraigDesign.com and the hobby site comes up it could be distracting. Hmm, maybe they need to be two separate sites through one hosting company. Such as CraigDesign.com and CraigHobby.com
Unless, (and I’d be fine with this) there’d be some way of blocking the /hobby section from getting crawled or showing up in a search. Once again, the hobby site is more just a way to share and stay in touch with a handful of people. It is not meant to be reachable or viewed by everyone and anyone.
Obviously the URLs above are just dummy examples, not what the actual site names would be.
I have some thoughts that may or may not be relevant since most of the sites I’ve built have been high-traffic sites for government agencies, newspapers, magazines, and other such organizations. I’ve only used WordPress once as a temporary blogging add-on for a government Drupal-based website.
That said, I have some experience with my own website and with a start-up website that grew from no traffic to over a million views per month in two years, which required me to constantly move it to new hosts.
With that out of the way, all the lower-cost hosting companies are a little shady. They’ll start you out on a $5 per month plan, then increase the cost by 400% the next year, assuming that their customers will pay more rather than go through the hassle of moving the site.
They will also place your site on a shared server loaded to the max with other sites, which can slow everything to a crawl if one of the other sites gets a surge in traffic. If your site starts getting more traffic — even from search and spam bots and data harvesters — you’ll get a note saying that you’ll need to bump up your hosting plan to a more expensive option.
In addition, a backend hosting interface like cPanel is essential for me, and they always charge more for that. Customer support can also be a little tricky since you won’t be paying enough for the support team to spend more than a few minutes tracking down problems. For example, if your email stops working for no apparent reason, they might fix it easily or not.
The good news is that, despite the issues I mentioned, I would still recommend a low-cost hosting plan for a portfolio site since they receive very little traffic and can easily fit on a shared server. However, read the fine print to understand how much their introductory rate will increase in a year or two. Also, check how many email accounts, databases, and domains they allow. In addition, check the total limits on the plan and how many megabytes can be transferred per month. Never go with their cheapest option — it’ll be a sure-fire problem. Pick the next higher-priced option.
There’s no inconvenience in choosing a separate domain registrar from your hosting company, but if you want them lumped together, most of the low-cost hosting companies throw in a domain for the first year and even offer automatic WordPress and Joomla installation. Again, check the fine print to see how much they will charge to renew that domain for the next year.
I’ve been poking around and trying to read up on hosting sites to consider. Like everyone, for a site that will not be heavily used I don’t want to overpay, but I also realize you get what you pay for. Based on what little research I have done I’ve looked at the following: Ionos (cheap, but 1 site), bluehost (cheap but seems to allow for 10 site while I only need 2), A2 (cheap, but 1 site), siteground (slightly pricier, but still reasonable, but only 1 site).
You mentioned a backend interface like cPanel, what is the benefit of cPanel?
Also, based on the random hosting sites above, it sounds like I might need more than 1 site. Any recommendations for hosting companies that are reasonable and allow for more than 1 site (I also realize that means 2 domains to register as well.)
Inmotion allows for 2 sites and includes cPanel and is reasonably priced.
I just want to make sure I don’t pick some hosting company that is less than ideal. But you raised a good point, how easy/difficult is it to switch hosting companies for a site you own?
Sorry, this is very new to me, just trying my best to understand it all and wrap my head around it.
cPanel is a graphical interface to manage the most important backend server processes — for example, email accounts, databases, FTP accounts, PHP versions, SSL certificates, backups, server restarts, and whatever else your hosting plan comes with.
cPanel was one the first and best of these non-command line interfaces, and it’s still great, but you’ll typically pay extra for it. Today, there are probably a dozen clones that are very similar, if not quite as full-featured.
If I’m not mistaken (and I easily could be), cPanel comes with all BlueHost accounts. However, I’ve never used BlueHost, so I can’t vouch for it, but the company has a reasonably good reputation and has been around for a while.
You mentioned InMotion and A2, which are hosting companies I have used. I didn’t like either — not because they weren’t good hosting companies, but because I didn’t like how they set up user directories and backend control panels. That could just be me being used to something else, though. Plenty of people use both companies.
Last fall, I transferred three sites from HostPapa (which was always messing up email) to ScalaHosting, headquartered in Dallas (which you might like).
I bought one of their more expensive virtual private server (VPS) plans because one of the sites is huge. So far, I’ve never been more happy with a hosting company. Everything has worked perfectly. They don’t include cPanel, however, but do include sPanel, which seems to be just as good.
You might want to look into one of their WordPress plans, which includes an SSL certificate (which is absolutely needed since it provides https security instead of only http). Some browsers won’t even load http anymore without a warning message saying the site isn’t secure.
I don’t know how good their shared server WordPress plans are, but judging from their VPS plan that I’m using, it’s a pretty decent company.
I have one site on Hostpapa and one site on Bluehost. I have not had the email issues with Hostpapa that @Just-B has, but, out of the two, Bluehost provides the better experience.
I’ve always been in the habit of separating my domain and hosting. I get domain names from GoDaddy. That way, if I ever want to change hosts, I can just go to GoDaddy and update the DNS and not worry about the domain being tied to a host. Maybe there’s nothing to worry about there, but it’s just my practice.
Some hosting packages allow for multiple sites, so you could have craigdesign.com and craighobby.com as two separate sites. You could have the hobby site running in a subdomain such as hobby.craigdesign.com or craigdesign.coom/hobby.
You can password protect and send out passwords or you can allow people to create accounts and manage their own password.
If you do a subdomain, you could always get a unique URL for the hobby site, craighobby.com and have it point to hobby.craigdesign.com.
I don’t know what kind of content you want to put out or what sort of functionality you want in the site, but you might consider a Tumblr site or some social platform.
Really, you can do anything you want to do. It’s just a matter of how much money and energy you want to put into it.
Thanks @Just-B and @Steve_O for the advice. Now I just need to find the time to actually do all of this. Ha. (Not just the hosting/domain names etc., but before I do all of that I at least want to design out and plan out my portfolio site and get all of the files and content prepped, that way I’m not just paying for hosting and domain names but have no site.)