I've been thinking up some thoughts on websites, particularly common bad web design practice I see around and/or Neocities culture I'm peeved by, and what I believe people should do instead. I'm wondering how I should make it into a page without coming off as mean-spirited, because it *is* genuine.
In particular: "Website is best on X" means it is bad on everything except for X. Forcing autoplay consent via a splash is bad. (Most splash pages are useless.) Absolute positioning relative to multiple points on the screen is bad; not everyone has the same resolution or scale. *Only* linking to websites if they have buttons and making pretty homepages with zero content are both common unideal habits.
It doesn't have to be perfect (just look at my site on a phone!) but forcing HTML to be completely unusable on mobile is bad. It's naturally responsive. Using % units for sizing content is almost always bad. That one layout builder that *requires JavaScript to even load the layout* is unimaginably awful. I've definitely got more but I've got to save it for the actual page!
@barndoors I'll definitely get it up on my site someday! It's just a matter of framing, I think. I don't want to look like I'm telling you what to do, for example, so I need to lay out my thoughts and then work on phrasing them nicely... LOL.
Or or or when artists don't make alternate thumbnails on their sites for pieces, so you can see the entire 3000px image along with 10 to 20 of them load at the same time. Happens with flavor images too
I had an idea 20 years ago for reviewing anime fansites based on a site that reviewed Dragonball fansites. Unfortunately the idea came about a little too late was the age of the anime fansite was dying out by then.
I'd be interested to read this! I'm in a rut sit-wise and I think a good refresh would be nice and I'd like to know some better changes I could make :)
Guilty of "button wall" (so I don't end up linking back anyone who doesn't have a button to add) and I'm also not exactly sure what my site looks like on mobile. I almost exclusively use my desktop PC for everything.
@allyratworld I wrote "almost always bad" but I'm a chronic exaggerator. It doesn't help that I miswrote the word "content" instead of "layout". It's not bad in the proper contexts, for example I used it to limit image sizes and make text smaller, but over-relying on % units for your *layout* (relative to the screen) can certainly be a bad choice depending on the page!
@allyratworld I used to have a website where all the main content was 90% width. Using this example, on a super-wide screen like a serious gamer might have, your content is going to be very wide and look sparse. On a phone, things will be annoying to navigate. A better unit to use would, for example, be em (naturally responsive!) or px (not best but good especially if graphic-reliant... & my eternal habit either way)
I think my site looks fine on small screens according to firefox's responsive design mode, but then I check it on my phone and it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen >_> I think providing solutions or better alternatives will make this page really helpful and less mean. also websites with nothing to say are ok. why police the contents of a site?
@heart143 Of course websites with nothing to say are fine; they aren't hurting anyone. I'm not policing that. Websites with nothing to say also don't get visitors after a certain point, and visitors are what many people want. Of course, everybody's metric of what makes a good website will be different, but I prioritise interesting content which obviously informs my own opinions.
@ancientcrypt you're right and I am so guilty of it. I archive/organize all the webgraphics I find on there so when I need them I can just quickly test by hotlinking then host later but I get lazy about it and forget LOL it's my worst habit
In particular: "Website is best on X" means it is bad on everything except for X. Forcing autoplay consent via a splash is bad. (Most splash pages are useless.) Absolute positioning relative to multiple points on the screen is bad; not everyone has the same resolution or scale. *Only* linking to websites if they have buttons and making pretty homepages with zero content are both common unideal habits.
It doesn't have to be perfect (just look at my site on a phone!) but forcing HTML to be completely unusable on mobile is bad. It's naturally responsive. Using % units for sizing content is almost always bad. That one layout builder that *requires JavaScript to even load the layout* is unimaginably awful. I've definitely got more but I've got to save it for the actual page!
please send me your writing(s) if you don't post! would love to read about it
@barndoors I'll definitely get it up on my site someday! It's just a matter of framing, I think. I don't want to look like I'm telling you what to do, for example, so I need to lay out my thoughts and then work on phrasing them nicely... LOL.
Don't forget about the images that block any site content because people weren't taught {pointer-events:none;}
@0ekekddddd yes! Also, Catbox and Filegarden. Full stop.
Or or or when artists don't make alternate thumbnails on their sites for pieces, so you can see the entire 3000px image along with 10 to 20 of them load at the same time. Happens with flavor images too
filegarden and catbox are stupid for filehosting on neocities but i see it so much. oh my god. and also the epidemic of websites with nothing to say
(I guess that if anyone reading this has other pet peeves they'd like me to touch on, they're free to drop it here.)
I had an idea 20 years ago for reviewing anime fansites based on a site that reviewed Dragonball fansites. Unfortunately the idea came about a little too late was the age of the anime fansite was dying out by then.
I'd be interested to read this! I'm in a rut sit-wise and I think a good refresh would be nice and I'd like to know some better changes I could make :)
Pleeeease post it, I have many small web pet peeves and I need to know I'm not alone in this world lol
Guilty of "button wall" (so I don't end up linking back anyone who doesn't have a button to add) and I'm also not exactly sure what my site looks like on mobile. I almost exclusively use my desktop PC for everything.
i... actually didn't know using % for sizing was bad :'D
@allyratworld I wrote "almost always bad" but I'm a chronic exaggerator. It doesn't help that I miswrote the word "content" instead of "layout". It's not bad in the proper contexts, for example I used it to limit image sizes and make text smaller, but over-relying on % units for your *layout* (relative to the screen) can certainly be a bad choice depending on the page!
@allyratworld I used to have a website where all the main content was 90% width. Using this example, on a super-wide screen like a serious gamer might have, your content is going to be very wide and look sparse. On a phone, things will be annoying to navigate. A better unit to use would, for example, be em (naturally responsive!) or px (not best but good especially if graphic-reliant... & my eternal habit either way)
I think it'd be worth posting. If someone finds it insulting they skip past it, those pages frankly helped me when I was starting out.
I think my site looks fine on small screens according to firefox's responsive design mode, but then I check it on my phone and it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen >_> I think providing solutions or better alternatives will make this page really helpful and less mean. also websites with nothing to say are ok. why police the contents of a site?
@heart143 Of course websites with nothing to say are fine; they aren't hurting anyone. I'm not policing that. Websites with nothing to say also don't get visitors after a certain point, and visitors are what many people want. Of course, everybody's metric of what makes a good website will be different, but I prioritise interesting content which obviously informs my own opinions.
re: alternate thumbnails: i think you can also just make it smaller and then use loading ="lazy" in your tag
@ancientcrypt you're right and I am so guilty of it. I archive/organize all the webgraphics I find on there so when I need them I can just quickly test by hotlinking then host later but I get lazy about it and forget LOL it's my worst habit