col·o·phon (kol'uh-fon', -fen)
noun

1. An inscription placed usually at the end of a book, giving facts about its publication.
2. A publisher's emblem or trademark placed usually on the title page of a book.
[Late Latin colophon, from Greek kolophon, summit, finishing touch;] 
 
Colophon definition provided by Dictionary.com

Fad or functional?

Colophon's have been gaining popularity on the internet. A colophon allows the webdeveloper to provide interested visitors with an insight into how the website they are visiting functions and some of the key components in its development.
 

CMS

The WorkersOut! website, like all modern websites, uses a CMS to manage data presented to the visitor.

 
The CMS we use to serve you the WorkersOut! website is called Drupal. Drupal is open-source and free to use and abuse at will.
 
The beauty of a CMS like Drupal is that non-webdeveloper netizens are able to easily create content and the CMS will store it logically. CMS frameworks also provide added functionality like forums, blogs, and online polls. A CMS is vital in producing a dynamic website which aims at building a community and strengthening social networks.

 
The CMS backend allows for a self-service approach. Visitors can join up using an automated system which does not require human intervention. Those that join a community can then become active in posting material to the website.
 
Of course, automation while convenient, comes with a danger in that security needs to be implemented to stop spammers, crackers, phishers and all those naughty little script-kiddies from plundering personal information about the members of the WorkersOut! community and defacing the information on our website.
 
For this reason, from time to time you may be required to answer a CAPTCHA! There is a fine balance between security and convenience -- we hope that the WorkersOut! website manages that balance. For security reasons, I will not detail the various implementations aimed at hardening the WorkersOut! website from malicious attacks.

Typography

If you have the right fonts installed on your computer, the WorkersOut! website should display using Gill Sans MT.
 
I pretty much exclusively use Gill Sans for its legibility, both in print and on the web. As a typeface, Gill Sans characters are beautifully configured.
 
If you are interested in how the Gill Sans typeface was developed, check out the Wikipedia entry on Gill Sans.
 

Browsers

All modern browsers should render the WorkersOut! website in the way I have designed it. If you are using an older browser, like any version of the dreaded Internet Explorer (prior to version 7), you really should do yourself a favour and consider downloading and installing the excellent Firefox web browser.
 
Being open-source, Mozilla's Firefox web browser is free. It offers greater security and rendering speeds than the current versions of Internet Explorer. I prefer, and recommend using Firefox.
 

Colour scheme

Simon once asked me why we didn't follow the current "trend" by having a white or light background. It's a very good question and I was pleased it had been asked.
 
The answer is very simple: with the WorkersOut! website's current black background, 95% of pixels are turned off.
 

Why is it important to turn pixels off?

I think we owe it to the environment to be conscious of energy efficiency in whatever we do. With 95% of pixels on the screen turned off, you are actually using less electricity to view the page. Less electricity to view the site means less carbon emissions released into the environment.

 
Yes, I agree, it does take some getting used to, however, I have utilised best practice methodologies to improve the usability and accessibility of the WorkersOut! website.
 
On explaining the energy efficiency principle of a black background, and the logic of a website being environmentall friendly - don't you also think a black background makes very good sense?
 
Simon seemed to come on board with the concept and appreciated that someone was thinking out of the box in order to make the WorkersOut! website as friendly to the environment as possible. Yes we need to deliver information to our visitors, but, do we need to destroy the planet in the process?
 
Unless this logic is explained, most people don't even consider the value of this energy saving aspect and the direct benefit to the environment of turning pixels off on the websites they design, develop and administer. It is a small step, but hey, don't we all need to do as much as we can to reduce our carbon footprint?

Web technologies

WorkersOut! has been developed exclusively using open-source technologies. The operating system running this webserver is Linux.
 
The website is served from a LAMP stack. The components of a LAMP stack are Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.

 
Drupal, as previously mentioned, is a free and open-source CMS. Drupal relies on PHP (an open-source server-side scripting framework) and MySQL (an open source database) to do its magic. 

 
Did you know that:
Linux is the operating system preferred by most website administrators?
Apache powers 46.90% of all websites in October 2009 according to Netcraft?
MySQL is the most widely used database on the internet?

PHP is one of the more widely used scripting frameworks on the internet?
 

Coding standards implemented on the WorkersOut! website

Drupal is a great CMS because it renders output as XHTML version 1.0 with the Strict doctype definition. XHTML  is a standard administered by the W3C. Being standards compliant is important because this means that the widest possible variety of browsers (including non-visual web browsers or screen readers) will be able to understand the markup code and successfully render the WorkersOut! website to visitors with visual or physical impairments.

 
When visiting the WorkersOut! website via your smart phone, hand held, desktop PC, netbook or other appliances yet to be developed, our site should present itself as designed. This is known as future-proofing.
 
Mind you, if you do not use the latest, most modern equipment, you should also be presented with human readable information. This is known as degrading gracefully and/or backwards compatibility.
 
I take pride in the work I have completed on the WorkersOut! website. I hope now that you understand some of the function, logic and componentry behind its design and development, you too may have a greater appreciation for the thought that has gone into the production of the WorkersOut! website.