Do you have your own website?

[AntonyF]

Do you have your own website, or blog?

What's your favorite website online?

What drives you made when visiting websites!

Let's talk about what's good and bad on the web.

Anyone can post in this thread and vote in the poll, even if you're not registered. But registering is recommended.

[MarciaB]

I actually don't have my own website because I wouldn't know what to put on it, but I created the one for my partner http://www.jplangkamp.nl and some for my friends.
I have no favorite sites on the web but I don't like the super-business-like ones though, because they are always designed for making money obviously and thus are a little bit all the same and boring... The same tricks all over and over... Neither I like too much flikker and glitter for the same reasons. I do love animations for the fun of it (and sometimes for making something more clear) and nice colour combinations. Also important to me is that you can easily find everything and that the whole of the site-structure is logical and compact.
Another thing that's annoying is the long loading time of some sites. I have a nice quick connection but I think it's a bit asocial towards people with a dial up... But maybe the creators of these websites don't know how to reduce the size?

By the way, good idea this poll!

[Availor]

I don't have a website because of my "mental" problem. When I get to building a website I constantly see something I could do better so I am always not happy with the result. I 've been planning to build a website about 3 months ago. I am still deciding whether to make it pure Flash (with HTML mapping for the search engines), plain HTML with pictures and CSS layout (and should I put the menues to the right, on the top or to the left) or maybe I should use tabs, or anything else? Anyway... I am having serious decision problems

[Grafixman]

My favorite is Drawn! (www.drawn.ca)
I'm a graphics geek, after all...
I had a website and a blog, but they're both in terrible shape. I don't even dare visit them myself....

[Intbel]

The worst:

The current fashion for 8pt text. Grrrrr! Why do they use it? Grrrr.
Slow-loading flash sites. Grrrr.
Bad navigation. Grrrr.
Text on a black background. Grrrr.

The best are easy to read, easy to navigate and quick to load with no superfluous images, animations and stuff.

I think any graphics used should be used for a reason, not just 'cos they might look cool. If you want to show off your graphics then have pages dedicated for this.

Images should be related to the text and should enhance it, not detract from it.

That said, pages full of nothing but text can usefully be broken up with appropriate images.

These days anyone can knock up a website so "I have my own website" is not exactly a major achievement. Having a well-designed, regularly visited site which folks bookmark is an achievement - this I have yet to accomplish. Grrrr.

My own sites:

Current graphics sitewhich needs a major overhaul to come across as more professional.

Anti-establishment site which has been around for a few years now in various forms. Mostly for my own amusement though there is some useful and possibly entertaining stuff in there.

Political site to which I don't pay as much attention as I should, I really ought to update it weekly.

Nothing actually wrong with any of 'em just that they could all be better.
Unless you think otherwise?

This site goes against my my "keep it simple" but what the hell ... i have got some good feedback so I guess 'tis okay.

[Soquili]

I have web space, but haven't really created a site. Like Availor I have a mental problem about what to put on it and then I decide to change it, so it's never 'ready for public viewing'

My Favorite website is Talkgraphics. I spend about 90% of my online time here, and the other 10% on XaraXone.com
What can I say, I'm a Xara junkie
It's an addiction I can really live with.

[The Alien]

I have my own blog, but if I give the URL I inevitably also give away my full name and other details, which I don't want to share online.
Not cause I think you people will stalk me , but simply cause it'll be "findable" for anyone (from sane people to total psychos).

My fav website?
Let's see...there's TG, Wikipedia, bloglines..........................many more.
Those are amongst the sites I visit the most (along with my university related sites), not the sites I find have the best design though.

What makes a bad website?
- Using marquees and using gif images for no reason (like Intbel said).
- Using sound, any sound, on a site (unless it's a video or flash application, but NOT in flash nav buttons or so)
- Using other bloated apps, like java and I'm sorry to say also the modules in xaraonline.com
- Too many images or flash apps on 1 page like those news sites for gamers.
- Too many colors in the layout instead of sticking with 1 or 2 color schemes
- Times new roman.
- Colors that blind your eyes

What makes a good site?
- Uniform layout. 'nuff said
- K.I.S.S. (along the same lines as the item above)
- CSS for styling.
- DHTML for navigation, if required.
- Good fonts (Verdana, Arial) for "serious" sites; and enjoyable but still well readable fonts (Garamond, Trebuchet MS) in personal sites (blogs e.g.) if the user really doesn't want Verdana or Arial.
- Good color scheme. You don't want to read loads of black text on a white background unless you wanna go blind. Reverse the said colors (i.e. white on black) and the user will get farther in reading the text. Font color and background color should not contrast too much (black text/white bg, red/blue, red/green).
- Think about users on IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari and IE on Mac. Users on Linux, although I've never heard what they browse with.
- Forget users on NN!
j/k

There's probably more, but this is what I came up with so far

[Seagull]

Morning "H less" Antony

Got an very old site at around 8 years old, for the business http://www.harrops.com harrops.com and / or harrops.ca. I am spending about 90% of the time either on the forum or xaraxone like Bill. After 10 years on the net, the whole thing bores me pretty well, but I prefer simple, clean, tasteful sites that are fast loading and easy to navigate and informative.....that's why I'm there.....for information afterall.

Personally my site is basic html with lots of images (eat dead fish Intbel), but I am trying to sell our rooms and one image is worth a 1000 words so they say; but I have no problems with sites that use flash tastefully, such as in menus like Anus has, but the cute animation wore off years ago. My computer gets opened at 7:00 each morning and shuts down around 23:00 at night, but this is for email purposes, which I check 10 to 15 times a day, but without xara I would very rarely be on the next........now for my 15 year old daughter, that is another question and a totally different answer, which is why I had to get high speed basic and then upgrade again when she kept going over the bandwidth.....the little rat..........frank

[-=Drifter=-]

Frank, your site is perfect - and your house/home is GORGEOUS!!! I personally would LOVE to run a b&b like that.

[craigy1012000]

Hello All
No i dont have my own Website,i wouldnt know where to start
Im a bit Thick
craigy1012000