House Guests

I've never understood the term "ignorance is bliss". How can a lack of awareness, to someone with any intelligence and sense of the world around them, be anything other than terrifying?!

And yet it seems every day I, in the business of web design, run into clients who are blissfully ignorant to the fact they have uninvited guests running around their stores, their homes, their business.

I am a homeowner - at least partially. My first action when parted with my deposit and exorbitant solicitors fees was take the keys, MY keys to MY home and keep them safe, secure and always within easy reach. I didn't approach the nearest stranger who's bearing suggested they knew which was the business end of a hammer, saw and chisel, hand them my keys, thinking they must know all about houses, their care, upkeep and billing requirements, then saunter off to enjoy my daily life without a care or worry about where my keys are, who can get into my home and what they may do there. After all, I've given my keys to some one who "looks like they know what they are doing".

That scenario - preposterous as it may seem, is one I encounter almost every time I meet a potential new client with an existing website. They have no idea where their keys are. That triumvirate of FTP, username and password supposed to guard their webspace; their business, went missing the very day they made the purchase. Once I eventually find my way into that business premises - with their permission of course, I've yet to fnd the previous occupants have made off with the combo TV/DVD, scrawled over the walls and left an unpleasant 'souvenir' on the fireside rug, but it's only a matter of time…