About Webstandards.TO

In the dimly-recalled mists of 2003, Joe Clark, curmudgeon and author of Building Accessible Websites, flew back to Toronto from South by Southwest in Austin full of pith and vinegar. With the joy of so many standardistas in one place fresh in his mind, he put out a few feelers in the hope that the corpus of apathetic, substandard, backward, and mediocre Toronto developers might actually contain in their midst a few who actually knew what HTML was supposed to look like.

After a few messages to Webdesign-L and related lists, we put together enough people for our first meeting, which took place on 2004.04.03. Despite the fact it was held in early April, the weather outside was a pestilential mix of sleet, rain, and snow. Even so, some eight people (not all of them boys) turned up at a Suction Cup whose WiFi had, unbeknownst to us, been turned off. In any event, it soon became clear that nobody wanted to do any work at these meetings, and thus they became what are now known as pissups.

Every month or so, we visit a new location (usually – we have done a few repeats), sit around, and either talk about Web standards or not. Mostly not. The hardcore discussion, such as it is, takes place mostly on the mailing list, which you may join.

FAQ

Is it free?
Yes.
Do I have to come to the meetings?
No. Some people do nothing but lurk on the list. We don’t really care, you know. We’re talking about an essentially antisocial medium that people beaver away on in the comfort and privacy of their offices or homes. If you like to close your tags but don’t like to have other people looking at you, just stay home and read the list.
Do I have to buy something at the pissups?
If you want, sure. Or we’ll buy something for you. In fact, we have enough employed and flush people in the group that unemployed or unflush people should still come out to the meetings, since it’s pretty easy for us to spot you and we don’t particularly mind. You’ll do the same for us after the next dot-com bust.
Do I have to join the mailing list?
No, technically not, but that’s where all the action happens.
What happens at the pissups?
Most standardistas have a few drinks; some will order food. There will be much conversation, sometimes awkward and uncomfortable but more often rollicking and immersive.
How many people come out to meetings?
Between four and 13. A typical turnout is seven.
Mostly men?
Yes, but we’ve had only one all-male pissup. At one large gathering, a third of the attendees were women.
Who decides where the meetings are held?
Joe holds ultimate godlike veto power over pissup locations, but generally we decide at a meeting where the next one will be held. We try to disperse them across the city to even out travel inconvenience for most members over the course of a year.
I’m a person with a disability. Will you accommodate me?
We already have one of You People in our midst and we already do. So yes.
Who manages the Web site?
“Manage”? That’s a laugh. We barely got this site together after only barely securing the Webstandards.TO domain. We could use some help, particularly with graphic design.
Who can post to the blog?
Trusted persons. Prove, via the mailing list and/or in person, that you won’t make an arse of yourself and you’ll get authorship privileges. Joe can and will edit your shit if you really screw up, but his threshold is pretty high.

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