Rants on web design

[Destructionator XV]

I am no fan of web designers. Most of them are grossly incompetent both technically and artistically. Here, I am going to rant about some of the things they do that piss me off. More as it comes to mind.


To get started: disabling right clicks is BULLSHIT!


The kind of scripts to disable right click are one of the things I hate most about many websites.

Before you put one of these fucking things on your website, you should ask yourself "for whom am I writing this website?". Think about that for a minute, are you writing it for yourself, or for your visitors.

If you are writing it for yourself, why even put it on the Internet? Just write it and never publish it.

If you are writing it for your visitors, why the fuck would you want to make using your site harder on them? That is exactly what these scripts do: make using your site hard, for no benefit whatsoever. None.

That's right: there is never a good reason to try to disable your user's right click. I'm the kind of person who can usually find at least one legitimate use for even the most obscure tool, but there are no legitimate uses whatsoever for disabling (or rather, attempting to disable) the right click. It is always a bad idea.

"But!", you say, "what if I want to protect my intellectual property?" I again ask you: for whom are you writing this website? But even if you feel that limiting the utility of your website and the freedom of your users is perfectly acceptable, there is still one major problem: it just doesn't work, and more than that, it isn't even possible.

Bypassing these annoying scripts is a trivial task. You can use the menus up top, you can use a different browser, or you can just disable Javascript and click away. Javascript is never reliable. All you've succeeded in doing when using these scripts is treating your legitimate users like criminals: punishing them for something they never wanted to do in the first place.

Possibly the easiest way to make your website into a failure is to mistreat your users. Abusing Javascript to limit their legitimate freedoms is most certainly an abuse, and is not going to be helping you one bit in making a successful website.

To all you who want to disable right clicks still: Fuck you.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

I also hate Back Button Breakers. WHY DO ASSHOLES DO THIS!?

As for right-click disablers, I say 'download away!'

[Narsil]

Along with right-click disablers; Middle-click disablers! What the fuck is up with disabling a fucking scrolling tool or a tool made to open a window in another tab, fucking idiots designers.

Another thing... background images. I'm not opposed to background images in general, but why do people feel the need to put bloody eyesore background images up which make a webpage completely unreadable without highlighting the fucking text?!

[Ace Pace]

The worst thing for me, is fucking flash devs.

No offense to makers of kickass flash games, movies, or my former co-workers, but jesus H. Christ, making a commercial webpage in flash, with no backup, is criminal. What if I just ordered something and want to quickly verify a detail? nope, can't.

[Destructionator XV]

I also hate Back Button Breakers. WHY DO ASSHOLES DO THIS!?

Frames, AJAX, broken redirects or Flash are hard to use without fucking up the back button (which is one reason why they are shitty technologies). The idiots sat there thinking, "gee, I can add these buzzwords to my site and it will be so 1337!"

In short, two words: extreme incompetence.

why do people feel the need to put bloody eyesore background images up which make a webpage completely unreadable without highlighting the fucking text?!

Look at me! I'm an artist! Dreamweaver and Photoshop are the 31337!

In short, two words: extreme incompetence.

The worst thing for me, is fucking flash devs.

A-fucking-men. My web design plan: if it can be done in lowest common denominator HTML, it damn well should be. If it can't be, maybe you should rethink your design strategy.

I hate Flash. If it were not for homestarrunner.com which uses it well, I would eradicate the fucking thing from my hard drive once and for all.

making a commercial webpage in flash, with no backup, is criminal.

It literally is in some countries, and for government websites in the United States because it is inaccessible to the blind.

Of course, what do these shitwads care about professional topics like accessibility. They need to use their fancy toys!

In short, two words: extreme incompetence.

[Cynical Cat]

I have a very good friend who works in web design. What is one of his biggest headaches? Working with or trying to improve a site designed by incompetents.

[Hedgecore]

Splash pages.

I don't need you to tell me i've reached "yourshittywebsite.com" and i should 'come on in': i already know, i clicked the link, i entered the url, just show me your damn content.

[Stofsk]

Autoplay midis pwn everything everyone just said.

[Destructionator XV]

Splash pages.

Indeed. It is a waste of bandwidth on both ends, for nothing at all. Even worse are Flash splash pages.

Autoplay midis pwn everything everyone just said.

Let me do one better: autoplay mp3 or wav files. Not only are they annoying autoplay (autoplay in itself is Bad), but now they eat bandwidth and slow everything down as they are processed.


Now, I dislike ALL embedded media; the way I see it video, sound, etc should always be offered as a separate download and not embedded in the browser at all so I can open it my my preferred specialized player. But noooo.

[Faqa]

Frames, AJAX, broken redirects or Flash are hard to use without fucking up the back button (which is one reason why they are shitty technologies). The idiots sat there thinking, "gee, I can add these buzzwords to my site and it will be so 1337!"

AJAX is far too helpful for lazy developement. Or at least Atlas, MS's tools on top of it, is. Writing server-side code that looks as smooth as JS is just awesome. And if you plan the site right, you don't NEED a back button.

Flash is pretty. If you want to DO something on the bloody site, best look elsewhere