Posted by Kai Zhao at 2/5/2001 1:44 PM EST
Student on team #686, Botler & Associates, from Linganore High School, Frederick MD and NASA/GFSC and Smiths Industries.
In Reply to: Webspeak....!
Posted by Erin on 2/5/2001 11:17 AM EST:
: I was just wondering what the masses of you think about a good webpage.
I believe the best (team) website is content based, not visual audio based. Flash websites are awefully cool but so much of your time is spent on making the animation(s) that the website content is subpar. Background music and too much graphics are extrememly annoying. The next time I enter a site with a midi music background, I will kill the author.
Website charicteristics that I believe you should add if you want heavy traffic chatrooms (IRC, of course), an information database, and media. The problem of forums and chatrooms is that if no one currently visits your site, who is going to be in the chat/board? An information database to text wouldn't be bad. (an example is
www.everything2.com) It is kind of like the "FIRST intellectual database" one had suggested. If you want a good starting ground, visit
www.everydevel.com. Please note that Linux, SQL server, and Perl knowledge is required along with a dedicated server.
But to answer your question about file size, I would reccomend small, static pictures. If needed, they could open a larger version when you click on it. A clean interface would be nice. Don't make the website load too slowly, be considerate of people on 28.8k and even broadband people (me) don't like large sites. Frames are not good unless they must be used. Try to stick with "compiler" or Server Side Includes to insert common items. I made a SSI like thing with Javascript once (but SSI is much better). But most of all make it simple and clean. No wacky javascipt code, colourful GIF images, purple backgrounds, etc. Browser specificity is always bad. And NEVER, EVER, use any component of Microsoft Office (except Frontpage) to make a web page. Most likely, a linking problem (invisible to the creator) will result.
And to wrap it up, below is a link to my team's site. It lacks content and is a little bit active. I haven't updated it since 12/31/00 or something.