Bullied by Moronic Joomla "Experts"

A Solution for Developing Joomla Templates Using Microsoft FrontPage
Written by Jack
The Reason Why - I Don't Like Being Bullied by Moronic Joomla "Experts"


A couple of weeks ago I posted a question to one of the many Joomla help forums:"Is it possible to develop Joomla templates using Microsoft FrontPage as the main WYSIWYG editor?
Does anyone have any helpful tips or suggestions to help with this project?"



Well, to my dismay I was bombarded with "flame" after "flame" replies in the forum. It seems there's a lot of Joomla designers out there who absolutely HATE the idea of Microsoft, Microsoft FrontPage, HTML table code and (in there esteemed, unenlightened opinion) ANYONE stupid enough to consider building a Joomla template using ANY Microsoft product.



I replied to first person's vile response by explaining that I have been using FP for over twelve years. I know it has limitations and faults. However, it was one of the first programs that allowed web developers to actually see what the web page under development actually looks like while data was being inputted. This speeded up the whole development process and probably aided the growth of the Internet as a whole.



FrontPage was designed to interact with all of the Microsoft Office Programs and that probably accounts for many of the perceived bugs user often come up against.



This (reasonable and polite) comment was met with absolute derision and outright hostility by many of the forum members. Not only did the forum replies become far more abusive, someone also did a bit of research and found my email address. They then began an email spam campaign of such intensity that I had to close the email account down.



So be warned; so called "Joomla Support Forums" can be dangerous places to ask innocent questions about FrontPage, unless you intend to trash the software and anyone using it.



OK... This is MY RESPONSE


The V sign, when the palm is facing toward the person giving the sign, has long been an insulting gesture in England and later in the rest of the United Kingdom, as well as in Ireland and parts of France. It is frequently used to signify defiance (especially to authority), contempt or derision and is often accompanied by the phrase 'fuck off'.


Project: Joomla Template Build Using FrontPage and Other Software


Introduction
Proving a point can work out to be expensive and ultimately produce worthless results. Therefore; this project will only use resources freely available to the author and aim to publish a fully working, interesting and hopefully profitable web site.


1. A new sub domain of http://www.jackchosting.com/ (my reseller account at HostGator) was setup and a default install of Joomla was uploaded to http://www.teamusk.com/ (an unused domain from years ago).
2. The aim of the Tea Musk site is to present controversial headlines of current events. This is actually an old idea, revamped for this project, as it does present some unusual coding problems.
3. Make the site user friendly and allow visitor participation.
4. Reduce maintenance of the site to the absolute minimum.



One Month Later - A Screenshot from The Tea Musk Times




From an idea born out of desperation the Tea Musk web site has turned out to be a good laugh.

The whole project is now live and be viewed here:
Support Forum for Uploading Ripped Headlines This forum enables users to upload their own Ripped Headline image for inclusion in the Tea Musk headline rotation program. This is a free service anyone can use. The Tea Musk support team will help anyone struggling to make a headline image. Just ask; it's free and a lot of fun. Make the headlines that SHOULD have been published! It's FREE so, give it a go!