RSS Feed

The Joel on Software Discussion Group (CLOSED)

I wrote a new essay titled "Create a Great Personal Homesite":

http://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/web/create-a-great-personal-homesite/

It includes:

1. Why should you have a personal home-site?

2. What are the elements of a good personal home-site?

3. How to build a personal homesite.

4. Critique of some popular homesites.

You are welcome to read it and comment. I'll also be happy if you'd like to volunteer to translate it to other languages. (But co-ordinate it with me first to encourage co-operative effort).

My comment is Great Personal Homesites don't have ads, don't beg for donations, and don't put everything on one long page!

I agree that a great homepage should be built on great content. But I think a website ignores the basic principles of graphic design at its own peril.

Shlomi, your website ignores the basic principles of graphic design.

I only read a few paragraphs. A more well-designed site might have kept me around for longer.

Your website kind of looks like it fell out of 1997. 

You bulleted list is way too long for the home page of it.  And, the Internet created something... a second page, or third and even a forth!  I didn't even make it to the first paragraph, and that was even after a scrolling for longer than it held my interest. 

You page reminds me of this: "talk about the pot calling the kettle black."

My comment is: WTF is a "Personal Homesite"?  It's sounds like a web site for a home, i.e. for a family in their house. 
I didn't read enough to be sure if you meant just a personal web site.

"Your website kind of looks like it fell out of 1997."

All that's missing is the autoplay loop=true MIDI rendition of "Wind Beneath My Wings"...

If you're going to give advice as to how to develop a web site, perhaps your web site should be an example of what a good web site looks like? Well, it isn't. It looks like something I used to see in 1995.

And the ads make it even more cheesy.

I especially like the lecture on what browser not to use. How  very "10 years ago".

If we're not supposed to use IE because it's insecure, when are you updating the site to remove FireFox and Safari from the list because they've had security flaws turn up recently too.

Rob Moir: you wrote:

<<<
I especially like the lecture on what browser not to use. How  very "10 years ago".
 
 If we're not supposed to use IE because it's insecure, when are you updating the site to remove FireFox and Safari from the list because they've had security flaws turn up recently too.
>>>

The "Stop using Internet Explorer" web page ( http://www.shlomifish.org/no-ie/ ) is a feature of my entire site ( http://www.shlomifish.org/ ) and is not particularly related to the essay at hand. One of the reasons I recommend people to stop using Internet Explorer is because it's insecure but there are others mentioned there:

1. It is not as standards-compliant as other browsers are.

2. It lags behind other browsers in usability features.

3. It is not available for Linux, Mac OS X, or older versions of Windows.

4. It is not open-source so I, and the developers' community, cannot remedy these problems on my own.

Now, regarding security - yes other browsers had security problems, but they were lesser than MSIE's, less severe and were promptly fixed. Internet Explorer, on the other hand had only 7 days in 2004 when it didn't have an unpatched security bug. ( http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/202 ).

At the moment MSIE is suffering from a major security  vulnerability ( http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/23/180255 )
that is still unpatched by Microsoft (but has two unofficial patches by 3rd parties). It is already exploited on the web. Furthermore, anything below Windows XP SP 2 is by definition exploitable as Microsoft did not update MSIE there.

So, if you're still using MSIE, it's been nice knowing you. I promise I'll come to your funeral.

I have a great homepage: it's fast, it has (maybe a little bit too) happy colours, a clear structure ("articles" listed on main page, "categories" on the left), a readable font, my name in big letters on top of it, and ads that aren't annoying. Also, it's made with CityDesk :)

Hmmm, actually it's just like every other blog you see these days, never mind.

(Apart from the standard playing jukebox maybe, that's a bit evil, but hey)

What I really like is this line:

"Here is a list of items you can put on your web-site in its early incarnations if you don't have any good ideas of your own:"

If you don't have any ideas of your own, wouldn't it be a good idea to forget about the website altogether?