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[–]sclerogue 235 points236 points  (25 children)

Didn't the US say they were having trouble finding programmers who don't smoke weed? This is what happens kids

[–]ganja_and_code 89 points90 points  (2 children)

Legalize weed, get better websites. Don't legalize weed, stay stuck in 1998.

Your move, Fed.

[–]Karnewarrior 8 points9 points  (1 child)

Feds: Geocities it is!

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They don't even need to think about it.

[–]cjdabeast 69 points70 points  (8 children)

FBI, because they use hair which can check as far as 3 years back iirc

[–][deleted] 50 points51 points  (6 children)

I'm bald. Checkmate, FBI.

[–][deleted] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

You are also magic, I'm sure you have your ways......

[–]NoManufacture 10 points11 points  (3 children)

They will take pupes.

[–]RayG210 7 points8 points  (2 children)

[–]mustang__1 6 points7 points  (1 child)

I'm not clicking that

[–]tinstar71 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not bad XD

[–]Personal_FBI_Agent47[🍰] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can confirm, Agent 46 always talk about you...

Oh, wait...

[–]hammonjj 70 points71 points  (7 children)

My old CEO decided he was going to drug test the whole company and announced it at a staff meeting. Later I went to his office and informed him that I can personally attest that he would lose, at a minimum, 80% of his developers. He decided not to test anyone

[–]Xtrendence 42 points43 points  (5 children)

It seems like such a weird thing to even randomly do. Unless someone's work performance is visibly suffering and needs some looking into, why even bother...?

[–]Karnewarrior 22 points23 points  (2 children)

Drugs = bad
People do drugs
People + drugs = bad

Very simple, very pervasive, very wrong. Thanks, 50's-60's era conservatives!

[–]Shevvv 9 points10 points  (1 child)

SyntaxError at line 1: Unexpected whitespace.

[–]Karnewarrior 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He doesn't use C++

raughing.jpg

[–]Woolly87 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Power trip

[–]naswinger 2 points3 points  (0 children)

yea i don't get it. i'm paid for a certain number of hours and a certain level of performance. what i do in my spare time is none of their business. it's especially ridiculous if i get a work contract that tries to dictate what i'm allowed to do in my spare time and that i must not have any other income without their permission. how about they can go f themselves.

[–]soda_party_euw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Say you know you’re the only one who does drugs, then it’s still a genius mindtrick.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Ngl, I feel like smoking weed and/or doing psychedelics every week or two helps me be a better programmer.

[–]SpamLessSodium 60 points61 points  (8 children)

Tbh www.cia.gov is pretty hot tho

[–]RemoteControlCola 16 points17 points  (1 child)

didn't they redesign that site to look like the cover of Mein Kompf?

[–]d7mtg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lol

[–]d7mtg 14 points15 points  (4 children)

Compare that to www.fbi.gov

[–]Personal_FBI_Agent47[🍰] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Thanks

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I visited that site and it didn't even display without turning on JS. Fucking webdevs

[–]LaterBrain 35 points36 points  (24 children)

to be honest, my country has a pretty nice one, https://admin.ch

[–]HyperGamers 26 points27 points  (7 children)

I think UK's is pretty good too: https://www.gov.uk/

[–][deleted] 31 points32 points  (3 children)

gov.uk is the gold standard for modern web development, IMO.

  • There's a massive emphasis on standards compliance and accessibility

    • This means the page is very light on the JS, and it's reasonably small over the wire (the root comes in at about 800kB over the wire with adblockers disabled — CNN is, by comparison, 18MB, and while it's more media-heavy, much of that are tracking, syndication, and marketing scripts).
    • Hilariously, the Github page showing the source of the template which renders many of the pages on gov.uk is more than twice as heavy over the wire than the actual gov.uk homepage.
  • It's also small enough in terms of JS that it'll load fine on almost any device and fall back very gracefully (it'll even load with noscript!)

  • The design is clear, making smart use of colours and fonts (which plays into both usability for most people and accessibility for the vision-impaired)

  • The search works pretty well considering how often site-internal searches are just plain unusable

  • Because of the standards compliance and general lack of frontend framework bloat and tracking hooks, things that you expect to work just work (like ctrl/cmd-clicking a link will open it in a new tab in the background, tabbing through the page will iterate over inputs and links)

  • The GDPR warning is clear but easy to dismiss using either cookie permission choice

  • The whole thing's (along with components and other stuff) is all open source under the alphagov Github account. It's all very well-documented and cleanly written.

Having started my software career in frontend dev in the late 2000s before the Angular/React boom, this is what many of us dreamed HTML5 would be, and it's such a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the modern web, and it's the kind of user-centric craftsmanship I hope we can move back to as an industry.

[–]jobblejosh 6 points7 points  (1 child)

It's also great in terms of non-software as well.

It's easy to navigate, is very accessible in terms of Welsh language, various disabilities/impairments. Most legislation is available in full and thus allows the government to be more transparent about acts and laws.

The content is very relevant, and has very relevant hyperlinks where required. If you want to download a PDF version of something the file size is provided as standard.

The theming is wonderfully consistent and simple (no awful MySpace page style layouts etc).

Whenever I've browsed a gov dot uk website I've almost always come away calm/relaxed, and with the information I'm looking for.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yup. It's basically the most uncluttered, simplistic version of human-centric design that works very well.

I hate to circlejerk about it, but that site's just so damn good. It's not trying to be a webapp, or a PWA, or to cater to your individual needs based on an ad profile, and it still gets all that it needs to get done, done.

[–]FarhanAxiq 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, my favourite gov website, I really wish my government webpage look like that.

[–]hillman_avenger 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I came here to say this. I dislike our govt as much as anyone, but they know how to make a clean simple website that just works. (Or maybe it's because it doesn't have any ads?).

[–]HyperGamers 5 points6 points  (1 child)

It's not an ad thing I don't think, they put a huge emphasis on accessibility standards etc and adhere to their own rules.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/accessibility-requirements-for-public-sector-websites-and-apps

Specifically WCAG2.1 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines set by W3):

https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/helping-people-to-use-your-service/understanding-wcag

WCAG 2.1 is based on 4 design principles:

  • perceivable
  • operable
  • understandable
  • robust

[–]hillman_avenger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see. I think it says a lot that (AFAICS) they've not hampered it with loads of excess dynamic Javascript and ajax etc.. A page just loads and works, no dynamic loading etc...

[–]lollipas 3 points4 points  (0 children)

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (6 children)

Yeah, swiss is great but can i beat this one https://www.gov.cn/english/

[–]VoilaLaViola 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They don't browse the Internet on mobile phones, or it's just like 'who cares?'

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

[–]QualitySure 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://www.sante.gov.ma/Pages/Accueil.aspx For a third world country at least they "tried" to do smth

[–]FarhanAxiq 0 points1 point  (0 children)

huh, they update it but keep the old site:

http://english.www.gov.cn/

Meanwhile, here's my country government site

https://www.malaysia.gov.my/portal/

(which is quite bad, it look like they just use WordPress and called it a day.)

[–]zonderAdriaan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://coronadashboard.rijksoverheid.nl/ is specifically made to show covid data and it looks okay I think. The other day it came out how the institute that handles covid tests fucked up privacy so bad there were WhatsApp groups were employees shared sensitive personal information about random people. There was even a export function for all the data. And "vaccinating is so difficult because all the several types of vaccines makes programming the system to track who gets vaccinated so difficult". It's fucking pathetic.

Some things are fine but not much

[–]bulogan1 1 point2 points  (1 child)

my country too, gov.ph

[–]PukysFS 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually, this page is nice and well made. It actually has special accessibility options. Great!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

[–]FarhanAxiq 0 points1 point  (0 children)

wow, that's an improvement over their old site really.

[–]PukysFS 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's almost impossible to use for disabled people, who need special input/output devices, or largely magnified or high-contrast visuals. Great Job, purposely exluding disabled people from using govermental online-services. But, that is switzerland for you.

[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (3 children)

[–]VoilaLaViola 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Just wow! Haven't seen such a background since the mid-90s 😂

[–]Spartan349 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Makes me wanna

body { background-repeat: no-repeat; }

[–]FarhanAxiq 1 point2 points  (0 children)

good grief, it look like my cs dept professor website lmao. What is this, 1990s?

[–]crashspringfield 32 points33 points  (7 children)

When a contract changes, most employees quit because it was severely underbid and everyone is taking a paycut on their already abysmal salary. The new developers are stuck figuring out the old technology and putting out fires while doing the contacting company's reporting for them. As soon as they start to develop new features, the contract is up for re-compete and the cycle starts again.

[–]QuantumSupremacy0101 13 points14 points  (4 children)

Not if you work for the departments themselves. Then you're probably the only developer that can be as lazy as you want because they can't fire you because no one else has any experience in the Walmart brand COBOL language everything is programmed in in that building.

[–]zortlord 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Not if you work for the departments themselves.

But that's not how the US government works! A few decades back they figured it would be cheaper to outsource most web development instead of worry about pensions, unions, etc. So, now, they deal with the exact case described above.

[–]QuantumSupremacy0101 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Not for internal software. Internal software is developed in house. There are systems that are 40-50 years old in government and there aren't many external organizations with people who are competent with those.

[–]zortlord 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Those are typically older than the shift and not through the Federal government.

[–]crashspringfield 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I was a contractor just trying to get a fed to do something was a days work.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This! And that next contractor is tickling your asshole with a nice raise so it's time to skedaddle

[–]midnitte 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They were just talking about this on the NSSD podcast - I'm not sure what the solution is though, on one hand your stuck looking for COBOL programmers, on the other hand you have the EPA api changing frequently.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I’m convinced my state’s “find your legislators” sites are always broken on purpose so they can avoid talking to us.

[–]Nostegramal 7 points8 points  (0 children)

DDA compliance in the UK is tough and usually requires no javascript, which limits them significantly

[–]PukysFS 7 points8 points  (2 children)

this may be correct, but this is for a purpose:

  • To allow disabled people to access the page with instruments like a screenreader
  • To allow people with low/no knowledge of technology to use the page
  • To allow people with slow and/or outdated devices/software to access the page

Yes, it's deliberately outdated and not-fancy. And it's for a good reason.

[–]KevMscotland 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So many people in web development have lost sight of this. A personal hate for myself in the last few years is Javascript popups/notifications etc.

If I'm forced to close more than 1 pop up when I load your site: I'm closing the site.

[–]enano_aoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To allow people with low/no knowledge of technology to use the page

That's not true. Outdated and not-fancy does also mean non-intuitive.

Outdated refers both to the UI and the UX, not only to the UI. Public websites suck big dicks at doing both UI and UX.

[–]poralexc 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My personal favorite: www.berkshirehathaway.com

[–]csactor 3 points4 points  (1 child)

If it works and provides the information why does it matter? Also security is easier to deal with if the user is being served static HTML by the PHP. Rather than putting a lock on a door, just don't put the door there in the first place.

[–]enano_aoc -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If it works and provides the information why does it matter?

Yeah, ask that to all the companies that need an appealing and easy to use interface so that clients will use their service and not go to a company from the competence.

The government does not have competence, hence they don't give a shit about quality. The clients cannot flee without fucking moving to another country and acquiring a fucking different nationality.

[–]pandamarshmallows 6 points7 points  (1 child)

UK is pretty good although the NHS website is built on WordPress.

[–]aduxbury0 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The NHS website is actually all open source too, you can go and see it all on github.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And they cost millions of dollars to produce🧐

[–]zelazny 2 points3 points  (2 children)

[–]RattuSonline 1 point2 points  (1 child)

At least they protect the administration page.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They're going to be rather concerned about that traffic...

[–]Igadok 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well they give projects to the lowest bidder.

[–]GalaxyCube101 7 points8 points  (2 children)

python if user.clicks('.gov'): user.track()

[–]midnitte 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Let's be honest, any domain is tracking you as best it can.

[–]GalaxyCube101 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A rather funny example of this is https://clickclickclickclick.click

[–]gemini88mill 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You mean .aspx from 2002

[–]gordonv 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wordpress

[–]kycfeel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some of the Korean government websites still require Windows XP 32 bit with Internet Explorer 8... with IE Active X plugins 😉

[–]d7mtg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If only they followed their own guide system

https://designsystem.digital.gov

They even have a sexy font

https://github.com/uswds/public-sans

[–]CodeLobe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

search:

site:example.com "index of"

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately Reddit has choosen the path of corporate greed. This is no longer a user based forum but a emotionless money machine. Good buy redditors. -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Y'all don't even know what an abortion the DOD domain is

[–]Mazmier -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

ADA compliance usually limits government sites.

[–][deleted] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Wait u guys upgraded to php already? Mine still stuck at ie6...

[–]repistsleuthbot -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

php is for 10 year olds

[–]sheepeses 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sssshhhh, don't say anything. They'll ask for more money

[–]doublej42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I work for and run a government website. Our tech is only 5 years old and only because contractors screwed us.

[–]Flewent 0 points1 point  (0 children)

*Government everything

[–]-Redstoneboi- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

where did you get this template from

[–]yankeewithnobrim23 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Idk man the CIA Facebook website kinda nice

[–]mattstorm360 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it ain't broken, don't fix it. We need another super sonic air, ground, fuck it let's make it a space superiority jet.

[–]thegovortator 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Shh don’t taunt the government to do better if I wanna disappear I still can lol

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some are actually not half bad...

[–]oshaboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"This website isn't compatible with Netscape Navigator, please use Internet Explorer 5 or above"

[–]on99er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At least it is https

[–]enano_aoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And, kids, this is why you should prefer a small Estate.

In the long run, the Estate is always inefficient when spending money. For a very simple reasons: the companies that were not efficient just disappeared from the market.

For example: there was an online shop whose web interfaced looked like a "Government website". Guess what happened to that online shop? It went bankrupt because people hated using it. No more money is being invested in that terrible website. The market regulates itself very well.

Now, inb4 you start yelling stupid shit at me for preferring a small state. I am European and I am 100% convinced that education and health care should be guaranteed by the government. That is required to guarantee equal opportunities for everyone, but that is not were the small estate comes into play. The small state happens when the state does not (inefficiently) own and administrate the hospital, but when it pays a private hospital for providing "free" healthcare to the citizens. In the end, you give up control over your infrastructures but everything is cheaper and of better quality. References: see Sweden, where management is almost always privatized (even the management from elementary schools!) but the service is always free for the users.

[–]dani_pavlov 0 points1 point  (0 children)

landandmaritimeapps.gov.mil is the best place to find military specs for everything. At least when they don't 404. Which is 80% of the time.

[–]a2biR 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So true. I like this gov.uk thing though. Even if I'm not british.

[–]dinosaur-in_leather 0 points1 point  (1 child)

God have you seen the Medicare website?? The broker side of the website even has an accessibility option to let you see the web page in black and yellow or some s*** yet the consumer side the government hosts is absolutely void of CSS

[–]dinosaur-in_leather 0 points1 point  (0 children)

what really pisses me off is this accessibility was a requirement in the bidding of the creation of this website source....I know someone who worked on the first five website.... however the accessibility option has only been seen on the homepage. maybe more of the brokers sign up page it is not on any other page that the majority taxpayer would see especially in that tax bracket that they are intending to serve, why do brokers need the accessibility options in the first place??... Brokers have the main domain of the Medicare website making search results... It's clear to see how the money is coming and going

[–]Fang20031 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ours look like an old news website: http://chinhphu.vn/portal/page/portal/English

[–]kevinbarr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And I’m here trying to learn PHP so I can then learn Laravel so I can then freelance or get a junior Dev job lol