Comments

February 7, 2008 at 7:10 pm

(1) brian walker says:

Your survey needs to ask the current age of participants. Most of my generation pioneered HTML use starting at the age of 40 to 50 because HTML simply was not available before then.

February 7, 2008 at 7:22 pm

(2) Jennifer Kyrnin says:

Brian: True, but I was trying to be sensitive to the fact that some people might not want to announce their current age in a public forum - even an anonymous poll.

And, I was also curious to know if people are willing to try learning a new language like HTML at an older age - and thus it wouldn’t matter how old you are now (unless you only started learning HTML now).

February 8, 2008 at 12:30 am

(3) Walter says:

I started trying to master website building
about two years ago (when I was 73 years of
age)
and I’m not bothered that my age is known.

elwaltura

February 12, 2008 at 11:50 am

(4) Jeff says:

I second Brian’s comment. I starting learning html after compiling my first Mosaic web brower. My point is that it makes a difference when you began, not just how old you were. If there had been a web when I was a teenager I would have been writing html then.

February 12, 2008 at 1:42 pm

(5) Jennifer Kyrnin says:

I have to say I’m somewhat confused by the concern that this poll is somehow unfair or biased because HTML wasn’t available when many of us were teenagers (or younger).

You’re right - if HTML had been around when I was a teenager or in Jr. High, I probably would have learned it then. Instead, I was learning to move a “turtle” around a screen (Pilot) and how to make endless loops -
10 PRINT “Hello World!”
20 GOTO 10

But even though HTML came much after that time frame for me, I’m still doing alright in the Web industry.

My point with this poll was that people learn HTML at all ages - not to set up some arbitrary competition between young and old. After all, someone who learned HTML in her 50s 10 years ago is going to have a huge leg up over a teenager who started learning it last week.

Plus, our survey tool is limited to one question at a time, so there isn’t any real way for me to set up a “when did you learn HTML and how old are you now” type poll.

February 12, 2008 at 1:44 pm

(6) Ellen says:

I started learning HTML back in about 1994-1995, and used the HTML data dictionary at CERN labs as my source. I still have the stuff I printed off that site. About that same time, my children decided they wanted their own pages, too. They were 11 and 14 at the time. We were about the first personal web pages on our local ISP, and for years they used my site as an example. Today, I look at that web page I built and re-built, and chuckle at the simplicity of it. I even had a page on the site with my tips for building web pages.

February 12, 2008 at 2:28 pm

(7) Jennifer Kyrnin says:

Ellen: That’s cool! I found one of the first pages I ever built for myself a few months ago, and like you I was amazed at it’s simplicity.

Back in 1995, there wasn’t a lot of HTML to use - and many of the Web browsers didn’t support basic things like images! I remember when NetCruiser added images and colored fonts, and we thought we were all going to die and go to heaven.

February 14, 2008 at 3:28 am

(8) jeffspost49 says:

I agree with most of the comments and felt quite proud to have achieved my basic website, by the comments from my cousins all over the world. The only criticism i have if any is that there is not enough regular help when a beginner like me has a problem. I think there should be more workshops where a person can phone or email in for advice.

February 16, 2008 at 3:10 pm

(9) Jennifer Kyrnin says:

Jeffspost49: Yes, that would be nice - for nearly anything we want to learn. In fact, that is often the reason that people take offline classes, so that they have an instructor they can talk to in real time.

If you take my class, I handle most questions via the forums and that seems to get most questions answered fairly quickly (both by me and other people who know HTML). I try to go to my forum every weekday and only typically miss when I’m sick. But as I said, that isn’t for everyone - and there are lots of offline classes where you can learn HTML and Web design if you need a more personal approach. Check your local junior college, they are almost certain to have something that would meet your needs.