Thursday, December 29, 2005

The Invasion of the Website SLOBS

I am sick and tired of poorly designed websites that have too much junk on them, take too long to load, are too cumbersome to navigate and frankly look like some amateur created them.

So, how do you spot them? They have the "look what I can do" factor in them. Lots of fancy smancy flashing things, lots of downloaded junk that does nothing except take time.

I use a dialup ISP. It’s 52.000 bps. If your website takes longer than 30 seconds to load, I’ll never see it. It’s not worth the wait.

The home page of the ISP I use, C-Faith.com takes over a minute and a half to load. I’ll never enjoy all the benefits of it. It used to take 30 seconds.

The other day a friend of mine asked me to look at his website. He had a “Professional” design it. That professional is an slob. He built a bloated website with so much gobbledygook on it they are impossible to see.

When I finally consented to look at it I waited nearly 3 (Three) minutes for this “work of art to load”. And what was it? Basically a brochure which was not made better by all the downloads.

So, if anyone anywhere who is reading this has anything at all to do with web design, do all of us a huge favor. Dial up once, see how long it takes to load with nothing in the cache. If it’s more than 30 seconds it’s TOO DARN BIG!

3 comments:

NodakJack said...

Uh...get high speed internet access...You're still using dial-up? Do you still wash clothes on the rocks in the river? Do you still tie your horse up at the hitching post? Do you still use a crank on that phone?
Huh? Do ya'?

Gene said...

I don’t live in subsidized North Dakota where Bill Clinton bought votes by promising to wire the whole works. I live in the digital ghetto. St. Charles IL. Because the folks around here are wealthy the DSL and Comcast and wireless providers charge, OH, let’s see $40-80 per month. There are teaser rates. But once they have you in their evil grasp your rates go out of sight. Next to Wal-Mart, Clear Channel, and the Department of Education I hate Ameritech, SBC, AT&T most of all. They keep changing their name because they don’t have one except that of the evil empire. This evil conglomerate monopoly does the worst job of serving their customers of any on the planet. And I’m their potential victim. I would rather be angry than become one of their pawns. So, I protest by using a kerosene driven modem.

We are controlled. There is no promise of relief.

So enjoy your cheapy broadband (at my subsidy expense). OR, send me about half my DSL bill per year. God, I sound like a liberal here.

An interesting sidelight. The USA has the highest broadband access rates in the civilized world. And because it’s so high where we are the lowest penetration in wealthy suburbs. So, you have po folks zipping along on the internet like there’s nobody’s business and folks who make money doing so at, let’s see, right now, 40,000 bps.

AND, I’m not a big time radio star with a rock star salary. HEH

But, website developers are slobs. I’d fire them if I had a chance.

Check out SI.COM on your high speed. Like it so far? Give these idiots an inch and they take a mile. Look at Microsoft. I used to be in software. That’s the sloppiest stuff I’ve ever seen. That’s why I don’t use it anymore.

Take a peek at Eric’s site for more http://www.ericsiegmund.com/fireant/archivesmt/002534.html

NodakJack said...

By the way NG, I agree on the issue of over-produced websites. As to the rock star thing...yeah-right.