The Most Annoying Yet Most Important Task in Website Management

Published on Oct 16, 2008 (updated Feb 5, 2024), filed under development (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)

This and many other posts are also available as a pretty, well-behaved ebook: On Web Development.

…is link checking. There are tools out there, en masse, but we still have to run after professionals who neglect online fundamentals or don’t set up redirects—and with that waste other people’s time.

Personally, even though I regularly do QA this doesn’t mean I myself am always handling this perfectly. Yet whenever I check links, it’s striking to me to see so many URLs changing. Link checking is not a fun job, and, in an ideal world, shouldn’t be necessary. It shouldn’t be, and yet it is. (RIP, links.)

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you’ve never heard of and companies you use every day, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)