The Most Annoying Yet Most Important Task in Website Management
Published on Oct聽16, 2008 (updated Feb聽5, 2024), filed under development, quality. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon or on聽Bluesky.)
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鈥s link checking. There are tools out there, en masse, but we still have to run after professionals who neglect online fundamentals or don鈥檛 set up redirects鈥攁nd with that waste other people鈥檚 time.
Personally, even though I regularly do QA this doesn鈥檛 mean I myself am always handling this perfectly. Yet whenever I check links, it鈥檚 striking to me to see so many URLs changing. Link checking is not a fun job, and, in an ideal world, shouldn鈥檛 be necessary. It shouldn鈥檛 be, and yet it is. (RIP, links.)
About Me
I鈥檓 Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I鈥檓 an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I鈥檝e worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you use every day (like Google) and companies you鈥檝e never heard of, I鈥檓 an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O鈥橰eilly and Frontend Dogma.
I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also with respect to politics and philosophy. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my experiences and perspectives. (Please share feedback: Interpret charitably, but do be critical.)