Stephanie Leary

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Things that make you look like an amateur on the web, part 2: special effects

May 27, 2005 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

  • Mouse droppings. As annoying as pop-up ads — and the only way to get rid of them is to leave the site.
  • Mystery meat navigation. Your visitors should never have to guess where to click.
  • Transition effects.
  • Java plugins or applets. These things are guaranteed to crash somebody’s browser, even if they work in yours.
  • Javascript that disables basic browser functions (the right-click, the back button, etc.). Would you learn how to drive a car in a different way just go use one particular road? Why would you ask web visitors to? This includes using window.open() for links, since those links can’t be opened in tabs. This further includes Movable Type’s pop-up comments.
  • Sounds that play automatically. I’m quite happy with my internet radio; the last thing I need is some lame typewriter sound effect interrupting me.

All this crap takes lots of extra time to implement, anyway. Just say no.

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Fascism Watch

The Fascism Watch is a daily(ish) news roundup. View all the previous Fascism Watch posts »

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Content Strategy for WordPress

A short book for content strategists and managers on implementing a complete content strategy in WordPress: evaluation, analysis, content modeling, editing and workflows, and long-term planning and maintenance.

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WordPress for Web Developers (9781430258667)

This is a book for professional web designers and developers who already know HTML and CSS, and want to learn to build sites with WordPress. The book begins with a detailed tour of the administration screens and settings, then digs into server-side topics like performance and security. The second half of the book is devoted to development: learning to build WordPress themes and plugins.

This is the second, much-revised and updated edition of Beginning WordPress 3, with a more accurate title. Everything’s been updated for WordPress 3.6.

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The best WordPress features you’ve never noticed

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