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RSSHow to tell if a website sucks, a flowchart
I’ve been training a new web guy this week, helping him unlearn a lot of what he was taught in university, and pointing him at the things that the academic path ignores completely. His first task was to review our existing sites, and to spend some time really learning HTML/CSS. So I dropped by his desk the other day, and I found him reading about.com, experts-exchange, and dev-x. We’ve got some work to do.
I explained to him that there is a gargantuan difference in quality between different sites. A List Apart, for example, is gold. About.com is crap. The dev-x and similar sites are horrid too, and reading them will damage your brain. But guess what? Most young developers can’t tell the difference between sites that suck and sites that form the basis of all that is good.
So I slapped together a flowchart to help the newbs filter the suck from the non-suck. In case you’re curious, I used Inkscape and the Gimp to put it together.
November 1st, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Yep. I got here from digg.
November 1st, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Ha! That’s funny.
November 1st, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Doctorow, cool?
You lost me there.
November 1st, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Reddit comments
Voila
November 1st, 2007 at 4:09 pm
reddit. /null/dev/. lol.
November 1st, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Found ya by way of reddit.com, sorry. ;-)
November 1st, 2007 at 8:09 pm
So, if it makes your eyes bleed and your brain drip out of your ear it might be OK…as long as it doesn’t make you want to throw a chair? Sweet!
November 1st, 2007 at 8:30 pm
I found it on Reddit, but since I found you on Allen’s blog first, I’m giving you Real Deal status.
What? Of course I can award “Real Deal Status”.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:48 pm
i got here from reddit. you are doomed.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:50 pm
@pjism: it’s dev/null fyi.
end pet peeve
November 1st, 2007 at 9:02 pm
So, there is irony in the story vs. this site, yes? :)
November 1st, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Eh-hem, /dev/null/.
What kind of back-assward filesystem do you use!?
Oh, and, Reddit user here. Your image is now self-proclaimed sucky.
But as to the whole About site…It doesn’t have a whole lot of content (anymore) but it sometimes has the answer to a specific question, or simplifies a certain explanation better than other sites.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Isn’t that a gradient shift at the top of each page? FLUFF SHIAT!
November 1st, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Got here by Reddit.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:57 pm
this is simple and true. if only you can get the search engines to figure that out. it is amazing to me how the most nauseating sites get top page ranks with all the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN…..)
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:07 am
/dev/null
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:15 am
I’m glad that my personal crappy blog comes out as ‘the real deal’, although I suspect this might be just because you forgot to add a, ‘does anybody actually read the thing’ section.
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:22 am
got here from reddit. gotta say, that’s a nice gradient you have at the top. goes well with the rounded, cropped, drop-shadowed thumbnail of your chart.
and kottke, doctorow, gruber, 37s? cool? :-/
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:55 am
U r right. About dot com, dev-x, free templates & all those flashy sites are not worth it to spend hours running after something simple u can find on coOL sites like del.icio.us & all those bookmarking sites. A journey of a thousand web sites begins with a single click. Make sure u don’t get lost - use the flowchart ;)
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:55 am
go directly to dev/null. Do not pass Go.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:02 am
I got here from Reddit too! Sorry…
Liked your page, though.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:39 am
Dugg :P
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:39 am
Your site has a gradient “Web 2.0 fluff”
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:40 am
Greets from Digg. ;)
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:45 am
Nice web 2.0 fade at the top of your page! Got here from Digg…
So, what do these facts say about me ?!
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:47 am
awesome.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:48 am
A list Apart is a great website thanks for the link to it. Ohh and I got here through reddit.com.
AlienFarmer
http://www.SolarCoupons.com
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:04 am
I got here from Digg. I’ll instantly pipe you to /dev/null
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:10 am
yes, digg, but its cool, so no /dev/null for you today…….
/lol
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:17 am
Yep. /dev/null/ here.
haha.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:18 am
digg.com /dev/null is waiting for ya :)
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:19 am
Ok .. I got here from digg all right :D
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:24 am
/dev/null is so funny!
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:28 am
/dev/null
digg
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:34 am
Is it hosted on Dreamhost -> yes -> /dev/null
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:34 am
Well it made the front page of Digg what do you expect?
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:40 am
Funny.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:45 am
A website where you can’t select the text … sucks
Almost as bad as Flash … which you forgot
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:52 am
Yep, digg too :P
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:52 am
Got here from digg. /dev/null
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:35 am
digg.
/null/dev/haha.
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:50 am
Very good. That’s “fanboi,” and yes, I’m afraid I did get here from /., but don’t take it too hard.
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:54 am
I came from digg.com… /dev/null/ for you
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:57 am
Got here from Digg you asshat. Feeling like a stain now??
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:00 am
Google Reader -> Valleywag -> you. The Real Deal?
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:11 am
I’m a Digger. I’ll be seeing you in /dev/null.
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:16 am
dugg and /dev/nulled
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:22 am
mv ~/ /dev/null
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:25 am
Except that the last step, Gruber, 37signals, Kottke and Doctorow are lame asses and the epitome of half of the bad about the web.
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:30 am
ud get classified as web 2.0 fluff long before u got to the digg related node of the chart according to this - sorry, your chart your rules! also, people are taught about web stuff at university? and it counts as a degree???
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:46 am
I can’t stand Kottke, but bonus points for Gruber, I guess.
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:23 am
i got here from digg.
/null/dev/you/lol
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:30 am
811 diggs right now. Very funny stuff here! Does LOLcats count as sufficiently mutilated?
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:35 am
Too viral for your own good, to /null/dev/ you go!
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:38 am
My site could have passed if it if it wasn’t for those pesky hover preview thingies I implemented.
And darnit - got here though delicious.
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:49 am
Seems like you need a server upgrade to handle all the traffic from the uncool, unwashed masses. ;) And yes, I am from Digg. Here is your redirector: > . I trust you will do the honorable thing.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:00 am
Dose your mouse pointer disappear? yes —> annoying enough not to come back
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:07 am
Got here from digg!
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I couldn’t get the whole thing , but that was quite humorous.
November 4th, 2007 at 3:42 am
Yup, I got here from digg.
November 4th, 2007 at 4:09 am
That would have been worth my time if it ended in Doctorow causing the line to split and to point to all of the above outcomes.
November 4th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
I got here from Stumbleupon…. I don’t know if you are including that amongst the Reddit, Digg stuff as well.
November 4th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Got here from stumbleupon. But I dugg it too. Funny shit.
November 5th, 2007 at 5:09 am
Needs to be printed and put on the walls of the open-space :)
November 5th, 2007 at 6:31 am
A classic. Couldn’t help laughing (and reflecting) the whole time ;)
November 5th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Haha … nice flow-chart. I got here from StumbleUpon … I think that’s worse than Digg ;-)
November 11th, 2007 at 7:07 am
I like your gradient… even if it is Web 2.0 fluff. :)
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:22 am
Nice chart :)