Note: This site might seem inactive… That’s because it is. Don’t worry though, I’m still coding webpages and stuff! If you’re interested, I suggest you get a translator and head over to Qiwi; or you could just check the latest site we’ve been working on: Apotheek Goethals – Debrabandere. Enjoy!
dwergs: Designing With Mess Standards
Yesterday afternoon, the following thought flew into my mind: “What’s up with mess.be?” It’s been ages since I last visited that site, and I don’t really know why. I used to visit it daily about a year ago. What happened to me?
My guess would be my interest in MSN Messenger (and thus the greatest web page dedicated to it) has been falling as I spent more and more time working on this site. You might think of that when I seem to ignore you again @ MSN—most of the time my status is set to Online, I don’t even notice all those tiny windows popping up.
…I was talking about mess, right? So, in a nostalgic mood, I gave it another visit. The site still seems to be as active and the content is still as great as it used to be; even the design didn’t change during my absence.
There is something new though: dwergs, the mess-master, finally decided to really start using his own domain. (As far as I recall, there used to be just one page with just one photo and just one link. He now set up some kind of blog on it (well, it’s more like a linkblog, really). Too bad there aren’t any permalinks available for his posts… And this little lack of site structure brings me back to the subject of dwergs’ designs; I don’t know if it’s a good thing that mess.be hasn’t changed. Have a look at the source code: invalid HTML, frames a gogo and tables all over the place. (The same goes for dwergs.com by the way.) I think it’s a shame that such a popular site takes so long to load just because it’s running a table-based layout. Moreover, thanks to frame tags and funky javascripts (a familiar combination to me, I must admit), there’s no way you can link to any page but the main index.
I think dwergs can save a lot of bandwidth (read: money) by rewriting his sites. Valid XHTML will make him get rid of redundant code, a CSS-based table-less layout will make the site load much faster, the removal of frames and the implementation of a well-structured site architectory will prevent people from having to click 73 times in order to reach the section they’re looking for.
I hope all of the above will some day be achieved. Please consider this, dwergs. I don’t think I’m the only one who feels this way about it (am I?)…
Comments (12)
Listed below are the responses for this entry.
I like the concept and pics. I alsow wonna be a “dwerg” butt i am 2 big :crymeariver:
no you’re not, I’m sure you’ll be a fine dwerg
:noddie: and you will be “SnowWhite”
Oh wow…scrolling down in the window so that you can scroll down in the page…maybe we should all redesign like that?!?! Just horrible…
I’ve visted that site a few times, and the lack of being able to link to certain pages to show people really annoys me.
Also I’m sure when I last visited if you did try and link to one of the individual pages, it would just redirect you to the main subdomain.
The site definalty has a lot of bloat, and could benifit from a makeover in XHTML.
Just looking at it now, I have to scroll bars down the side of my screen, which is really annoying, see as I have to scroll both to read all the content.
His crappy JS no-right-click doesn’t work properly either, I don’t see the point in those things, they’re just an annoyance :)
flump: Actually, that’s what I ment with . This little bastard does it all:
if (top.frames.length == 0) { document.cookie = "newURL=" + escape(document.URL) + "; path=/;" ver = parseInt(navigator.appVersion, 10); if ( ((navigator.appName == "Netscape") & (ver >= 3)) || ((navigator.appName == "Microsoft Internet Explorer") && (ver >= 4)) ) location.replace("http://www.mess.be"); else location = "http://www.mess.be"; };Not quite what I’d call user friendliness…
I’m well aware of all these shortcomings, not just because of the criticism I receive about them (in fact, one hour ago a friend told me over lunch that Mess was Chinese to him), but also from the visitor-point-of-view that I developed myself in the now 9 years of web browsing experience. However, what you must realise is that there’s also a webmaster-point-of-view to websites (maybe I don’t WANT individual sections to get linked directly?). Apart from my lack in webdesign talent, some things are what they are for a reason.
In my defense I would like to add that I consider myself more a reporter than a site coder. Gathering and presenting information about MSN Messenger was and will always be my primary goal. With limited time available, sadly, the redesign Mess.be always gets pushed back on the long lane. All I can say is “I’m working on it…”
As for dwergs.com, I’ll have to tweak the CMS a bit to add permalinks, but I honestly don’t see reason why it needs them. With 100 to 200 visitors daily, probably messers only, I’m not taking the blog “too” seriously.
Somehow constructive criticism like this always puts me in a defensive mood, instead of just replying “Yeah, you’re right!”. But you can’t imagine what many visitors start expecting from you and take for granted if you own a website. That’s why I just want to make clear: I’m not a robot. I’m a dwergs!
You don’t webdesign talent. You’re just using it the wrong way ;)
Why wouldn’t you want your visitors to be able to link to the individual sections directly?
P.S.: That might just be something to add to your list :D
I have been searching for Mess.be. it’s . . . vanished. i cant find it n e where. ive done a huge google search and i got onto chinese websites and seeing as i haven’t done chinese at skool i couldn’t understand. can n e 1 help me find mess.be. me and my m8 spam fritters want to know where its gone!! I’m sooooo pissed off. i need another ascii msn nickname!!!! u may b de only webbsite dat understands!! i cat conact the dwergs cos mess.be is the only way i know of to contact dem and its . . . . . . gone.NOW:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
hey, dam, all i no is tat i can’t get onto mess.be wen people told me about. Where s it…sum1 plez tel me!:cryl:
accessin msn and hotmail on school comp that hav them blocked ne ideas??
Try eMessenger, or use MSN’s very own Web Messenger.