What attracts you to a website most?

[cfnbryn]

what attracts you to a website the most and also what do you think is good to have on a website, also what stuff makes it better but isnt necessary, etc.

[Dave]

Depends on the type of site. If it's a site like this, I look for an active community. I'm not going to join a forum that hasn't been posted on in months. Likewise, I probably won't join a brand new community unless I'm joining in hopes of helping the admins get started (aka getting staff position). The admin are very important as well. If I come across a community with a dictator-like admin, I'm not going to join, no matter how active the site is. But if I come across a site with a great admin (like the one at Talk Budgies! just kidding) then I might join. Also, if there are multiple forum communities with the same topic, I'll usually join the medium-sized one. The small ones might not provide me with the information or anything I'm interested in, and the really big ones usually don't have a "community" feel, more like a "company" feel. The middle ones will have plenty of people to help me out, but they'll still have the community feel. That's why I think this website is in its prime right now. We're big, but not too big. Although, since I personally don't like those forums that don't make you feel at home, I'll try my best to do the same here. Finally, I don't like forums that give you rules just for the heck of it. For example, I've seen forums that say that you can never use netspeak (u, lol, omg ,etc.). I don't agree with that. Yes, it might not make the forum seem as professional, but that's just how some people are. I'm not going to discourage people from posting on my site simply because they like to type differently than me. Now, there is a fine line on where I will stop allowing that. If it gets to the point where it looks more like an IM conversation that a forum post, that I won't allow. But if people want to type u instead of you, I'm not going to get my moderators on them. Notice how I only have a couple staff members. I don't see them as police to catch every little mistake some people will make, as they seem to be used on other sites. I'm a lot more lenient, and I feel that's why members at my site are more well-behaving and friendly. When given more freedom, they won't abuse it. But when they have freedoms taken away, they'll be willing to test the authority to get that freedom back. That's my theory.

For non-forum sites, I simply look for a nice-looking website with quality information. No offense to anyone here, but I usually won't look to a free website for quality information. While that is not always true (there are some websites out there who use free resources like Geocities or Freewebs and still have quality information) for the most part, I have to say that if the webmaster can't afford even some cheap hosting, then my best guess is that they're not really dedicated to their topic and I shouldn't bother with their site. Again, this is not always the case, but usually I follow this rule.

Like I said, any site needs to have quality information. If a website doesn't have what I want, I'm not going to visit. Or, for example, if the webmaster is more interested in getting people to post in their guestbook or in their shout box than they are in getting information on their website, I'm not going to bother looking around.

Bottom line: if the webmaster isn't dedicated enough to put together a decent website, I'm not going to visit.

[cfnbryn]

kl, very very detailed there (your quite picky really arent you lol....joke)
thnx for the reply

[Dave]

Yeah, I guess I am kind of picky. :P I guess that's why I make my own websites, so they're sites I can actually enjoy visiting. ;)

You should see what other people have to say, since I guess I could be a little picky, as you said.

[Amy]

Like Dave said, a good looking, informative site, with a good topic.

[i blame history]

no background music!

i now have my speakers constantly muted because of this, and i turn them on only when i need to use them (plus, laptop speakers are nothing to brag about!)

nothing annoys me more than when i go to a website that starts blasting some god awful sound at me... apologies if anyones website has music, but yeesh! if i want to read and concentrade on a website, i do not need artificial computerized sound repeating in the background! i think it really, really takes away from a site.

[Dave]

no background music!

i now have my speakers constantly muted because of this, and i turn them on only when i need to use them (plus, laptop speakers are nothing to brag about!)

nothing annoys me more than when i go to a website that starts blasting some god awful sound at me... apologies if anyones website has music, but yeesh! if i want to read and concentrade on a website, i do not need artificial computerized sound repeating in the background! i think it really, really takes away from a site.
Agreed. Just as bad are ads that make noise. Boy do I hate them. Like those smiley ads that, when you roll your mouse over them, the smilies say something. That annoys me so much. :mad:

[bluebird]

an informative site with good knowledge of the subject matter,easy to navigate , if a site such as this ,then a friendly member base,plenty of activity on forums on vairable matters.
annoying things really the same as others, annoying background music,silly things that pop up on youre cursor.offensive material,non activity from members.

[Amy]

Cairn's site has background music!!!! It's quite nice though.

[cfnbryn]

It doesnt anymore, it was getting on my nerves and making it too slow to load if you didnt have broadband

[Amy]

Ok, good Choice.

[pal0m1n0]

I hate going to sites that won't show you anything if you don't allow scripts or accept cookies. I want to have some idea of what the site offers before I will accept cookies or allow scripts. Then there are the sites that try to set cookies ad infinitum. A few cookies, stop when they are not being accepted. A message on the page saying that cookies are required and scripts need to run in order to get the most from the site, is okay. I hate the ones that just give you a blank page.

The reason I feel this way, is that if I have just typed in a url or followed the link for the first time, I want some assurance that I am at the site I expect to be at before I will allow cookies and scripts.

I guess this is more about what turns me off than what I find attractive.

[Dave]

I hate going to sites that won't show you anything if you don't allow scripts or accept cookies. I want to have some idea of what the site offers before I will accept cookies or allow scripts. Then there are the sites that try to set cookies ad infinitum. A few cookies, stop when they are not being accepted. A message on the page saying that cookies are required and scripts need to run in order to get the most from the site, is okay. I hate the ones that just give you a blank page.

The reason I feel this way, is that if I have just typed in a url or followed the link for the first time, I want some assurance that I am at the site I expect to be at before I will allow cookies and scripts.

I guess this is more about what turns me off than what I find attractive.
Not to mention that sometimes those sites are up to no good. Sometimes those scripts/cookies are really spyware, or even viruses.

[Star]

I like a good site that's very nice looking. One with a good setup and if it has a forum has nice people. I mostly go on animal sites(dog ones.). But I usually go on others to. It also has to be about something I'm interested in and I like one with no pop-ups and links to gross ****o sites or something.

[Kelly27]

I like sites about topics that intrest me and forums that have nice people! I've been on other forums before and left because the people were kinda nasty and snappy :( . But it's cool, because i dont care!
Kelly
xXx :) ;)