What does everyone think of a guestbook on a website?
What if it means using a third party web guestbook service like bravenet?
Have you ever really signed a guestbook - other than on a friend’s site?
On a personal site: sure. On a team site: I would lean away from one. On a professional/corporate site: no.
I sign them sometimes. I don’t go looking for them but if I’m on a site that really interests me and I stumble upon a guestbook I sometimes sign it.
For instance, there’s several sites hosted by people restoring cars and a few of them Mustangs. Some of the sites have guest books and I’ve signed them. I don’t use my full name. I feel it’s worth it to give them some encouragement for what they are doing especially since a restoration can get old and lose interest real fast. It also lets them know that others out there appreciate thier time and effort to document it on a site for others like me to see and get ideas and learn from.
I’m not one to sign, but I think it really depends on your content. I generally lean against the idea of guestbooks. But if you decide to make one, make it spamproof; if you decide to get some free hosted service, expect trash.
i only sign firends guestbooks…they are alright…
We have one. Used to use Bravenet which is OK if you don’t mind popups.
Now it says it’s through GMAces (our new sister team and our computer guru’s co-team). I like leaving encouraging messages for other teams in their guestbook. Every little bit of encouragement goes a long way on FIRST. Even if you can’t offer much in the way of science and tech knowledge a little encouragement can go a long way as well.
I think they are a bit unprofessional on websites other than personal ones, especially in cases involving a third party to supply the guestbook. I suppose if you program your own and integrate it into the website nice and smoothly, it’s alright, but I’d much prefer a little CGI e-mailer to the webmaster or something.
What does everyone think of a guestbook on a website?
- Guestbook on a website is cool… depends on what kind of website is it… for example, personal website having a guestbook or not will depend on the person, a FIRST website, teams may want to put it there in order to get feedback about the website.
What if it means using a third party web guestbook service like bravenet?
- Depends on the person who is making the website or his/her preferences…
Have you ever really signed a guestbook - other than on a friend’s site?
- Yes i have and if i am not mistaking, it was one of the FIRST team websites.
this is all started because we have a new kick @$$ site for the '05 season we are making a few minor adjustments and there is an arguement to get rid of the guestbook because we have a forum but you need to register to use the forums and you shouldnt have to make people sign up to leave a comment…i rest my case
I agree with Joel 100%, take his advice.
Personally, I have noticed with team sites that forums aren’t very useful. ChiefDelphi is a nice center for all teams to join, but usually within a team having a forum is pretty useless (unless your team is absolutly humongous and hard to get all the members in one place… i.e. MOE)
Guestbooks make a professional site look very very very unprofessional in my opinion, especially third-party ones… because the templates are different, pop-ups are annoying, etc.
If you want people to comment on things dealing with the site (for example… a news post) I’d suggest having a little thing where they can comment on that particular thing. That keeps things organized, and can be used professionally. For example, a news article talking about the design process during build could be commented on with different people’s views on where to proceed and other people could read those and get different users’ opinions.
However, using a guestbook is just “HI!! OMFG your site is rulz0r 1337!” or something, and it just doesn’t add anything to the site that’s useful, and nobody’s gonna read it anyhow unless they’re bored… so it looks bad, ya know what I mean?
Just my view though, I always steer clear of guestbooks.
I think guestbooks are good if they are used right. They’re basically a watered-down message board in my opinion.
But, as someone said before, have them comment on a certain section (ala a comment board). Message boards are nice, but for any team that doesn’t get much traffic on their site, it will mainly be used for the team to discuss things (I think…dont’ quote me on that).
we get plenty of hits…i think we got somewhere around 5,000 hits last year… but dont quote me on that…i think we may get rid of it or put one on there that runs on the site and doesnt go to a 3rd party to host.
I personally think they are a great idea, because then anyone can get feedback on their website, and even gain ideas to make it better. All in all, I really find them useful. I love having mine, I just hate when no one signs it. =(
I don’t understand this question…
Yes I have, actually. Teams I didn’t know, but were going to the same regional as our team, I welcomed them to Annapolis if they hadn’t been there before, and I told them to come by our pit and say hello. Just being friendly, and also giving them feedback on the site. =) I love signing guestbooks! Fun stuff.
–Dori
That would be my vote.
I don’t particularly like them. If you want feedback then use email links.
I agree. Email links are much better (or a feedback form so you don’t get your email address spammed). Guestbooks are fine for personal sites, but I’ve always viewed FIRST teams as mini corporations and think their websites should reflect that. I don’t think guestbooks (ESPECIALLY third party guestbooks) look professional at all.
This brings up a few good points in web design.
First, “In web design, there is an exception to every rule!” This is an important thing to remember. A guestbook is generally asociated with personal websites. HOWEVER, they may work very well on other types of sites, such as a team’s site, if used correctly.
Second, every website markets something, whether you know it or not. It might not always be tangible. A personal site may market its creator. A team’s site markets the team. All content on a site should help the audience that you are marketing for. For example, most people going to cnn.com are quickly looking for news. The site of a guestbook or similar in-the-way features will only lower their opinion of your site.
I tend to go on and on about web design ideas. Sorry.
I’m not really fond of Guestbooks. I think I might add a Guestbook section to our message board that unregistered users can post to but a whole page dedicated to a guestbook I think is a little unprofessional.