This happens to me every now and then. A caller wants their site redone to something new and "fresh" yet wants to keep all of the old 1990's functionality and flashy things. Not only that, but it's been done so wrong for so long that there is now 10 years of content that needs to be properly organized
The hardest part of these types of sites is that the owners will swear to the high heavens that all of that old functionality, old scripts and wasted space is coveted by their readers or customers that visit the site. All 20 of them. And no matter how hard you try and show them that there is a better way to do it now, they refuse to let go of it. What they really want is their existing site to stay the same...using the same images, colors, and dancing bananas... just "update it" a little.
I'd like to say that I never turn down work, but some people are totally unwilling to let go and I have to tell them that I can't help them.
Has anyone else come across this and let the work go because you knew it would be more effort than it's worth financially? Or because you just refuse to build an outdated monstrosity with every bell and whistle ever created on the web?
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