department zed | ramblings from the great white north

So, sometimes in my late night, insomniac browsing forays, I’ll decide to go take a look and see how some very former (in terms of the internet, anyways) colleagues are doing. Tonight, it was dhtmlcentral.com.

For those of you who think JavaScript is synonymous with the term “Ajax”, DHTMLCentral was a place, based in Europe, where many of us “old timers” used to gather and discuss many of the things some of you take for granted now. Tom Brattli was (I should say “is”) a pretty good dude, and though some of the others there could be arrogant as all hell, it was still not a bad place to be–at least in that day and age.

Today I hit the URL just for sh*ts and giggles, and I find:

1. A page ridiculously reminiscent of those general-purpose domain-sitting search pages, and
2. Some blog promising that “DHTMLCentral is moving to Web 2.0″, using an anonymous blog complete with default Wordpress theme.

Now, you might think this is a lament about DHTMLCentral being gone for good. But it’s not. DHTMLCentral was a great place when it was running, but like most things (ok, all things) it’s lifetime has passed, and (I’m assuming here, haven’t really spoken to Tom ever but I wouldn’t be surprised if Tim’s watching ) Tom let it die.

But that’s not the point.

The point is some anonymous chucklehead bought up the domain, hoping to cash in on the former reputation of a site that was pretty good and before it’s time. Everyone needs to make money, and that’s capitalism at work. But regardless, I find it despicable that someone thinks they can resurrect something like that and still remain anonymous.

Get it yet? It’s not about the demise of DHTMLCentral. It’s not even about the idea that the domain has been bought.

It’s about trust.

The internet is great for people who love to let their inner demon out. You can try to rip someone apart, usually through commentary, and sometimes it feels good (at least for most people). But unless you’re actually willing to put your name on it, there’s absolutely no trust involved–and therefore your comments are just noise. Loud noise sometimes, but noise nonetheless. If I have no idea who is making the point, then I have no basis of judgement. And don’t even start with people who post under someone else’s name. If there’s even a small reputation, just a tiny bit of research will usually dispel any believe that “this person actually said that”.

It’s a matter of ethics. If you are willing to state an opinion and stick your neck out on it by signing it with your real name, I will take you more seriously than the typical “anonymous coward”. Hell, even that crazy Phelps character–as despicable as he is, with his gay bashing and military funeral protests–has more ethics than a good majority of the people using the amazing medium we know as the Internet today.

At least he isn’t afraid to put his name to the things he says.