This week I really started to notice a trend of merely following instructions. I set up the web page by following the instructions in the link, and got to the link by following the instructions in the e-mail. And although I may have understood part of what I did, I’m sure the bulk of it was lost on me. I actually think I even purchased something on GoDaddy.com that I didn’t need to. For example, why is it that I created my domain with GoDaddy and then had to pay extra to move my domain to GoDaddy? Or was that just the DNS that I had to move over? I may have been “bamboozled.” The other thing I don’t understand is why I have to go through GoDaddy to create my own domain using WordPress? Doesn’t WordPress have an option where you can create and use your own domain?

In Codecademy I found that one of the assignments wouldn’t accept my answer, despite it being correct (from what I could tell, anyway). It was the jQuery assignment that required me to make an object fadeTo when I hovered over it. Codecademy consistently told me the “opacity” had not been set to “1,” even though it had. In fact, in that part all you had to do was copy and paste mostly. I skipped it, and in the next portion it worked fine; the same exact code. Problems like this really lower the user’s confidence in the lessons, and make it difficult for someone unfamiliar with code to troubleshoot.

Despite all the problems, I still find it interesting that computer code can be used through servers to create such interactive webpages. I also have a newfound respect for people who have the painstaking job of keeping sites not only up and running, but also functioning the way the pages should. I am sure, once a developer begins to add databases and more interactivity in a webpage, it becomes increasingly difficult to predict how users will interact with the page and difficult to anticipate problems that may arise as a result.