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Welcome!
This
page is a long one and it takes a little time to load.
Nevertheless, I kindly ask you to read the extremely important
information on this page while the images are loading. I
assure you the contents are of vital importance to all who use
the Internet. Please Read!
First
off, let me say that I am not a professional web designer,
although you will find some very humble attempts though out my
pages. However, I am a defender of these artists, and of what
is right.
If you are accustomed to browse around the Internet, you must
have noticed that most pages do not give credit to the
designer. This unfortunately is common practice because it is
very easy to copy any graphic that appears on any web page.
All it takes is a right click on the mouse for most users. It
is one of the first things that anyone new to the Internet
learns. They go surfing along collecting graphics all over the
place sometimes book marking the site, sometimes not. However,
when they have figured out how to either use any web page
editor or write HTML, and they are ready to use the graphics,
they often have no idea where they came from. I am not
exempting myself, the same thing happened to me when I
discovered the web. By the time they learn that it is
important to give credit to the creators of the free graphics
they are using, the task is oftentimes an extremely stressing
one and most people do not accomplish it.
Some people have found that the easiest way to deal with the
problem is to create a "Credits" page.
People just do not use the "Alt=" text for any of
the images, so unless one recognizes a URL they are forced to
wait for the images to load before they have any idea where
each link might lead to. This is often the case with most
"Credits" pages. The "Height=" and
"Width=" attributes are not used either, so what
happens is that you are forced to wait for the whole page to
load and you can not even read any text that may be on the
page while you are waiting. Please keep in mind that because I
have used the "Height" and "Width"
attributes here (so that you can read this text while you are
waiting) you can see the graphics loading. If I had not used
them, you would be looking at a blank screen for a very long
time, depending on your connection speed.
The points above are general coding tips that can help improve
the load time of any of your pages. I have included them here
because they are so common with "Credits" pages and
they serve to further aggravate anyone trying to find out
where you got your graphics. I hope that by now, all the
graphics for this page have already loaded. Well, I apologize
for the length of this page but I am not quite off my soapbox
yet. The harder it is to find the owner of link ware graphics,
the more tempting and easier it is to just simply right-click
and grab them off your page.
Since there is no credit given on the page, people believe
that the graphics are in the public domain or even that you
are the author. They will then do any or all of the following:
1)-Use the graphics on their pages and not give credit
anywhere.
2)- Give freely the graphics to friends or anyone else who
asks.
3)-Add them to public domain graphic collections.
4)-Make them available to Web TV users to link to.
5)-Use the graphics to make their own free graphics awards,
gifts, etc.
6)-Very sad to say but, worse yet, is to see some individuals
that will actually charge people for the graphics they make
using other people's hard work.
These things are not theory - they have actually happened as a
direct result of mostly inexperienced or usually unethical web
surfers finding graphics on pages that do not have any mention
of where they come from.
Honestly speaking, do you expect people to look for a
"Credits Page"? You would not believe what I have
had to go through in order to find some of these pages. I have
found them on separate servers, buried in multiple layers of
sections on a website, pages with titles such as "General
Stuff", "My Favorite Things", and my all-time
favorite: "Recipes & Other Stuff". Believe me!
This is no joke. I have heard several times from people on
this subject say "But I think it is more convenient for
my visitors to have all the graphic links on one page".
Well, if this is how you feel, could you take these tips in
consideration?
1)- Add credit links on every page where other people's
graphics are used.
2)- Rename your "Credits Page" as "Graphic
Links".
3)- Change your graphical link page to text links so it loads
faster.
4)- Last, but not least, if you like a site enough to have a
link to it, why not be kind and inform the creators?
Notice that I am not stating that link pages are bad; it is
all in how they are presented though. If this situation
remains as it is, with artists being literally loosing their
rights to their artwork, the end of this story will be the
total absence of their art free of charges for the WWW. That
means that if you don't know how to do graphics, compose,
program, and so further, you will have to purchase what once
you had free.
If this is not your expectation for the World Wide Web of the
future, you can help by participating in the struggle against
the ever growing copyright infringement that exists on today's
Web. Only with education and understanding we can keep the web
filled with original creative content.
There is finally a way for you and myself, as conscientious
Internet users and/or creators of web graphics, writings,
music, or programming, to support the creators of web content
in their effort to eliminate online plagiarism, the unlicensed
use of copyrighted works, and bandwidth robbery. One voice
alone can't do anything. However, many voices together cannot
be ignored and can make a huge difference.
I think I made my point. I'm doing my part. What about you?
Think about this!
Enjoy
your visit!
Lady
Sylvia Ann |
