The HTML Hell Page

[Wizard]

People tend to think that flashy websites work well when attracting visitors. Sure I'll go with that, but a visitor of that type probably has the mindset equivalent to a bird looking for shiny objects. Websites should be based on content. Shiny things are cool, but they distract from the actual content of the website, unless of course, your website is a collection of shininess [see ebaumsworld.com].

 

With this in mind, if one wanted their visitor to focus on the content, one would (I hope) strive to make their website visually pleasing, but subdued and lacking in flashiness. The HTML Hell Page describes things that one should not do if they want to attract visitors with IQs higher than that of a chipmunk. Here it is:

http://catb.org/~esr/html-hell.html

I hope you take these items into consideration so that the Internet will not be completely filled with painful-to-navigate web pages.

 

Thanks for reading. Have a nice day.

~Wizard

[meriadoc]

I couldn't agree with you more. Content is King. I loved your analogy of the bird looking for shiny objects. The HTML Hell Page provides some great tips in a humorous way. My number one peave would be blinking text and I was not suprised that it appeared first.

 

One thing that didn't get mentioned are sites that are outdated or appear abandoned. Something along the lines of site last updated June 14, 2001. Kind of like reading an old newspaper to find out what's playing at the local theater. These sites usually come with the obligatory, "check back soon for regular updates."

 

Another one I didn't see was the old "Click here" for news about ... link. Most intelligent surfers know what a link looks like or that when their cursor changes they have just gone over a link.

 

We can go on and on about HTML hell and continue to find more annoying features.

[Wizard]

One thing that didn't get mentioned are sites that are outdated or appear abandoned. Something along the lines of site last updated June 14, 2001. Kind of like reading an old newspaper to find out what's playing at the local theater. These sites usually come with the obligatory, "check back soon for regular updates."

I always wonder if the web masters/mistresses of those sites got ran over by a truck or something...

[JcX]

http://catb.org/~esr/html-hell.html

well.... speechless when I see this...

Some of the criteria mentioned inside are real, especially "resize to...", it was indeed unnecessary instruction, only morons will do those!

But some of those, are not quite true... e.g. Guestbook.

The purpose of having a guestbook, is to let browser to leave comments, AND ALSO to let other browser to see what comments left by other browser. I feel that this is necessary. Like Download.com, if they don't allow user to leave feedback at guestbook, new user would be having a very hard time to judge whether this software is good enough to be use or not. Same to web hosting provider. IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO HAVE A GUESTBOOK.

 

By the way, I love Flash. And I know it makes page heavy, and slow. But I only do it to impress my friends and for show off ^^ :P

[Wizard]

By the way, I love Flash. And I know it makes page heavy, and slow. But I only do it to impress my friends and for show off ^^ :P

I could make the same effects through DHTML.

[JcX]

Not really... DHTML can do some of the animations like moving an image from A to B, rotate, etc.

But the movement was awful... it can't be compare with Flash.

 

I've tried DHTML once before, it can't be display on some browser though..

While Flash will be supported as long as you installed Flash Player.

[AverageJoe]

You can give support and get comments by leaving an email address which people can contact you for. The point of the page is how to make a good productive site (not a personal site). ie, when your adding documentation on-line about your software, it would be very distracting to have flash on every page (not to mention the lag).

 

Joe

[JcX]

Solely relying email is a bad idea. Nowadays people needs efficiency. In my opinion, site editor should group all the comments given by browsers, select the quality ones to let other browsers have a clear idea in mind, what's this software about in just a glance. If relying on email, most browser will lazy to do so, leaving email behind and wait for response. (This is what Asian thought)

Somemore, not most of the sites are able to provide comments within hours after browsers left their email behind. E.G. I've never met any sites that can solve my support ticket within a day.

 

Well.. the Flash thing, is still my favourite although I know it's heavy size and burden loading speed. For a productive site as describe by Joe, Flash is totally unnecessary.

[phoexer]

Ok, i think i'm guilty of a couple of those.

[PensiveSage]

Going back to the flashy websites discussion, if you look at corporate sites, say Pepsi.com, they don't focus solely on glamor and glitz, but create insightful content that incorporates some glamor and glitz into the overall product image. They use the aesthetics to draw in the user and provide a suggestion of a subculture. But these sites work to keep the look refined, and cater to their specific user base.

 

In my own experience I have worked on sites that are all business, and sites that are meant to draw in users via interactivity. I've often found a good site uses both of these aspects. If I go to an informational site the arrangement of the text, and the structuring of the content can make all the difference between whether I can find what I'm looking for or not. And though these sites have little to no need for flashy web content, they still do require some thought of aesthetics.

[JcX]

Yup, agreed with PensiveSage that the sense of aesthetics is quite essential in webs to attract users to the main point.

Promised that it won't caused distraction to other contents or caused heavy server loading flow.

 

My opinion, Flash should be included somewhere in a web, to gain attraction and interest of browsers. And the Flash should be small in size and not glittering. That should make sense and avoid those reasons stated in HTML Hell Page.

[Wizard]

Going back to the flashy websites discussion, if you look at corporate sites, say Pepsi.com, they don't focus solely on glamor and glitz, but create insightful content that incorporates some glamor and glitz into the overall product image. They use the aesthetics to draw in the user and provide a suggestion of a subculture. But these sites work to keep the look refined, and cater to their specific user base.

 

In my own experience I have worked on sites that are all business, and sites that are meant to draw in users via interactivity. I've often found a good site uses both of these aspects. If I go to an informational site the arrangement of the text, and the structuring of the content can make all the difference between whether I can find what I'm looking for or not. And though these sites have little to no need for flashy web content, they still do require some thought of aesthetics.

I like how you think. A good balance between the hacker's bare-bones black-white-blue-purple and the artist's portfolio, that only computers with +1gigs of ram + newish video card + fast 'net connection can view without lagging.

 

I am actually more on the hacker side with my website, but somehow I ended up alienating visitors with a poor layout , back to the drawing board.

[JcX]

Well, yea, you might make those poor visitors isolate your site if you get your web done too fancy look.

In the past, when I haven't get my laptop, my desktop is a lame one.

I love to browse those movie sites, like X-Men3, and it makes my whole PC lagging sh1t.

Well... that was totally in Flash. So what I'm suggesting is combining Flash, and PHP in a suitable ratio, saying PHP:Flash, 10:1