I use Geocities because:

1. I can't afford to pay for a separate site. I get a Geocities website free with my ISP contract.

2. My ISP charges extra for FTP capabilities. I have to use their file upload utility to avoid paying extra. So I can't upload pages to other sites.

3. I have in the past four years had to regather my usual users TWICE, after suddenly losing each of two site urls my site used to be on. In each case, I lost the url with very little advance warning.

- The first time, the company I used to work for had a free url as a perk of employment. They had to change the free site urls, because the old one contained "php" (for "personal home page"). PHP sued them over the use of their trademark, even though the company I worked for had the urls before PHP was PHP. But instead of paying a lawyer, they changed the urls.

- The second time, the company division I worked in closed. They downsized me. Since I don't work there anymore, I lost my url again. That's when I moved to Geocities, because I already subscribed to my ISP at home.

I do not want to make my regulars have to change where to look for me again.

I don't mind watermarks on images, because I don't need to read them. I mind watermarks under text (both become an unintelligible jumble), and text on top of graphics (can see the graphics, but can't read the text).

The watermark stays on the quick reply window until the scrollbar appears.

Actually, the watermark on the quick reply window has an erratic behavior. Sometimes it disappears as soon as I click on the textarea, sometimes it changes after I've typed quite a lot of text.

I noticed it too. I think it depends on when the page must be redisplayed. Sometimes it disappears if I scroll the main page after I type.As for the hosting, I think you need a server/host with PHP because you have a lot of content and I couldn't imagine how you manage to update all of them. =(

I just feel you can do better. My sub-site is hosted for free by someone. (Not a corporate free host) It has all the perks of a 'paid' hosting except it isn't paid.

I update pages one at a time. Most of them do not change. Some of them need updating, because a change in IE made some of my older techniques fail.

I still couldn't service it through my ISP, because I would have to pay extra for the ftp capability to reach other sites.

And I still don't want to make my regulars move bookmarks again. I can't email all of them, because I don't know all the addresses.

Get me a job that pays more, and then I could afford two sites.

Typography layouts (the well-done ones) might be the best examples of what midimagic wants us to see. They call attention to headings and important parts of the page through contrast (relative size, darker or lighter colors) and not images or flash effects.

There are two reasons for that, not necessarily connected to the accessibility issue:

1. The pages load fast.

2. My ISP has limits for the free web page service. You have to pay for more services, and that requires a change in the url that I don't want. There is a storage limit of 15 MB, and a 4.2 MB/hr download limit.I still think that there are some rules that can be bent if you're designing for a specific audience. (Like a site showcasing the latest model of a car --- usually for men and their "eye-candy")

Just realize what will happen if a disabled person reaches your site by accident (e.g. Googling for something else), and some of the items I listed are present. The disabled person reaches your site, thinks something is wrong with his computer because it is changing pages by itself, and calls tech support for a pay service call. Your bells and whistles might cost him money.Watermarks can be useful for copyright-ing things (like in stock photo galleries), etc.

I didn't say to avoid watermarks. I said to avoid placing text on top of complex items (including other text) if the text is to be read.

I am going to add some more rules, based on some experiences I had with students this week:

11. Don't open a browser window with the browser controls removed, and don't disable the back button.

Disabled users (and other users) depend on the BACK button to get back to where they were before

12. Make sure your code is browser-independent.

If you design for only one browser, someone using another browser gets a mess. This is especially true if the code uses nonstandard extensions.

13. Don't change the size of the browser window.

Often disabled people use helper aids in certain parts of the screen. Changing the window size often hides these tools.