← Back to context

Comment by jvanderbot

4 hours ago

IMHO: The rotating rhino, meteor impact, and animated flowchart is totally unnecessary cruft that makes it look almost satirical. If this keeps up, in time, this "AAA effects" stuff is going to look like the 90s "under construction" banner gifs.

The effects are comically bad. I see the inspiration in scrolling effects that the New York Times put together, but the NYT was never dumb enough to obscure the copy text. Form follows function, and the function of a web page is to be read, not to obscure what is to be read with some stupid effect that's supposed to remind one (I suppose) of a volcano's cloud obscuring one's vision. At least "under construction" banners didn't obtrude upon the copy text.

I say we bring back this kind of whimsy like we had with early GeoCities where things could be "bad" but fun instead of "quality" but formal.

I mostly agree, I still read and enjoyed it but part of me kept snagging on the fx and wishing it was way way turned down.

The distance between an idea and the manifestation of said idea is now nearly zero. That goes for both the good and bad varieties. That’s pretty cool, but also pretty terrible.