Worst Websites of 2012: Beyond The Pale
These websites are so far beyond the pale, that they're hell-bound. Hell-bound? Only if we're talking about the lower reaches of web design hell.
Each year I normally have a list of what I call "Over-the-top Websites." These sites often deal with philosophy, religion, politics, end times, etc., but they're generally not mainstream. A new, more disturbing trend is nicer looking websites for fringe or unpopular movements whose names I won't mention. Unfortunately, they don't usually qualify for inclusion in this site.
This year's class is "supremely" qualified for inclusion.
1-9. Constellation 7 And Its Brothers And Sisters
It's Jesus on acid.
Submitter's comments: A gentleman filed a bug report with Mozilla stating that Mozilla 13.01 broke his legacy code, which depends on CSS and legacy JavaScript that are now becoming deprecated. Genuinely curious, I decide to check out the site that OP left in his post. It's Jesus on Acid, playing the one man band, on steroids. His post mentions 16 more domains, and with a bit of digging I found them and more. They are ALL equally bad.
Over the top winner for the year? (Some may be duplicates.) An epilepsy warning may be warranted here too.
Presented for your amusement.
Vincent Flanders' comments: Apparently there are at least 9 sites that make up a family of sites — the Manson family of web site design — that are the Worst Web Sites of 2012.
If your eyes and brain still work, forget the design horrors for a moment. There are some important lessons these sites can teach us:
- Don't use vendor specific CSS properties. If you do, expect them to eventually break.
- Put your CSS in external files.
- Put your JavaScript in external files.
Good Web Design is BI Design
I have never understood how web design like Constellation 7 exists. As I've often said:
…(it's) a classic example of Mistake #6 from Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015 — “Have you ever seen another web site? Really? Doesn't look like it.“
As I looked at the Worst Over-The-Top Websites of 2011, I saw the site for Geral W. Sosbee vs FBI. Then it hit me. If you're an FBI agent who's following someone, you're supposed to Blend In (BI). It's the same with a spy. You Blend In so that nobody notices you. Constellation 7 and almost all the sites on WPTS are like the red man in the image above—they don't blend in.
Good web design blends in. It's not noticed.
Other comments #1: Great, now my eyes are bleeding and I'm going to have nightmares for at least a week. Geral Sosbee's site seems rather tame (but is actually quite entertaining) in comparison.
This site so completely fails in every possible category that I won't bother to elaborate.
Other comments #2: Long time lurker, first time commenter.
My sister showed me that bright as heck web-page, and... oh, my GOD, I could've sworn that the THX sound found its way into my headphones or something. All I heard was a bad warp-like sound and some guy singing after that. I just sat there dumbfounded for about five minutes before I finally closed the tab. It was just awful.
Other comments #3: Homeland Security will be investigating you for posting links to all these sites, risking the collapse of the Internet from a conglomeration of suckiness. As well, think of what could happen if a child stumbled upon all these places, unprotected.
Other comments #4 from an email I received (possibly from site owner): Your website (WebPagesThatSuck) qualifies because:
- Inaccurate content.
- Garbage layout.
- Boring.
- Follows the “same old – same old” trendy sheep sites.
- Has NOTHING of any interest in its rubbish pages.
- Is self-opinionated Antichrist digital pigswill…
Vincent Flanders: I'm proud my website is self-opinionated Antichrist digital pigswill.
NOTE: ALL THESE SITES MIGHT CAUSE SEIZURES. They “work” in IE9 and Firefox 14.01. Seems like Chrome has some problems with these sites.
And here are the other members of the family - the Manson family of web site design.
Galaxion – The Final Frontier
Zion Genesis
Treasureweb Public Start Page
The Seven Thunders of the Living God
The Word of God Is Jesus Christ and His Holy Gospel
The Perfect Poverty Eradication System
PSIlink: The Memory Game of the Millennia
The Mazzaroth Mission
NOTE: ALL THESE SITES MIGHT CAUSE SEIZURES.
And here are the other members of the family - the Manson family of web site design.
Galaxion – The Final Frontier
Zion Genesis
Treasureweb Public Start Page
The Seven Thunders of the Living God
The Word of God Is Jesus Christ and His Holy Gospel
The Perfect Poverty Eradication System
PSIlink: The Memory Game of the Millennia
The Mazzaroth Mission
10. The Afterlife
Could also be the worst Website of All Time
Submitter's comments: I don't know what to say about this god-awful abomination of a website.
It has:
- Ungodly amounts of animated GIFs.
- It disables user scrolling and continuously scrolls upwards.
- Has an excess of excess of angels.
- There's a golden Jesus thing.
- And more.
Vincent Flanders' comments: I think I've found the bottom of web design. The Web of Trust doesn't like this site at all, but for reasons of trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and child safety. I don't like it because it sucks more than any other site has ever sucked. Jesus didn't weep when he saw this site. You can't weep when you're eyes are burned out of your head.
Other comments #1: Is one allowed to say OMG! What is the point of that page? Where's the navigation? Where's the rest of the site? WTF! I didn't think it was possible to outDok Dokimos, but this one runs very close.
Other comments #2: I thought the supply of Orange Sunshine disappeared years ago…
Other comments #3: No; wait; I've got it! This is a real, insightful picture of web design hell.
Other comments #4: Why is it always the Christianity sites? Dokimos, this website, what site will come next? I don't recall part of the Ten Commandments saying "Create a website with more animated GIFS than pages on the Internet and try to cause a seizure-starter within the web-page!!!" *Gulp.*
Other comments #5: There IS no navigation! There's only one <A> element in the entire page (I checked) and it doesn't have an href attribute. The Bible tells Christians to do all things for The Lord--but when it comes to websites, that doesn't mean monstrosities that make the viewer say "Oh, my God."
