Quality in Web Pages

QUALITY IN WEB PAGES

Since I often refer to "quality" on my home page, I thought some explanation might be in order.
I have quite a lot of links on my pages. But just because I have seen a link on a topic does not mean I am going to list it. Aren't you tired of those pages with tons and tons of links, half of which don't work and the majority of the rest not really worth visiting? Well, when I decided to start adding all these extra pages to my web site, I wanted to do better. I figure, if I'm going to wander around the web looking for pages, why not only list the ones that are worth visiting and save you the trouble of sorting through them yourself? Thanks to all the other sites out there that have led me to so many great places on the web!
I also try to keep the pages up-to-date. I routinely go through and check each page once-in-awhile to remove dead links and fix ones that have moved. Please let me know of any links you find that need up-dating and I will fix them ASAP.
Page validation is very important, too. There are too many browsers and platforms out there to be able to check your page on them yourself. Running your page through a validation service is the answer. It's free, and easy to do. Just go to my web author's page for information on these services.
I think it is also important that your page will still work on all browsers, whether you mainly design for Netscape, or IE or whatever. Take graphics. They're nice, but the page should not depend on them. How does your page look on Lynx? Can you get to all the pages? Do you use the "alt" tag enough? You might argue that everyone should be using these high-end browsers by now, but what about blind people? Try to make you pages as downgradable as possible.
Speaking of graphics, keep them small! Pictures are nice, but more than a few small pictures on a page, and it starts getting too tedious waiting for them to download. Use thumbnails instead, reduce the color depth, use jpegs, etc. There are many pages I look at that don't get listed here at the Dogpatch, because the graphics are too big and the page is not worth the long wait.
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. Go look around and see if I've followed my own rules.