Why paintball websites suck

I know that it’s not very appropriate for a paintball website to write about and harshly criticize other paintball websites, but I will go ahead. Since when did propriety stop me? I even have some words for our staff here. Watch out!
Is it just me or do most paintball websites look ridiculously childish and unprofessional? Poor design, poor conceptual work, poor interface, and gruesome pictures. Yuck!

First of all let me start by saying that I have only been with The Splatter Times for a short period of time and would like to keep my new job. So I am going out on a limb here.

I am really bothered by the fact that most paintball websites that turn up in search engines are really poorly designed at best, and in some cases really suck. Some are even criminal. But why? Why do most paintball websites suck? Do they all suck? Or are there some nice ones?

For me, paintball websites fall into a few different categories. What are these categories?

Personal:
The first type is your basic personal website hosted on a free server. These are usually the worst type of paintball sites when it comes to promoting positive messages and information about paintball. There are thousands of these and a new one sprouts up every few minutes. Usually the designers are very poor with html and design concepts. In fact, most paintball websites start like this.

One-man-show:
This type of website usually has it’s own domain name and has a paid-for server, but is usually run by one person. Yet, it tries to give the impression that numerous individuals are running the site. There are a few hundred of these, but usually look better than the personal type sites. The designer usually has learned a few more html tricks.

Too many toys:
This type of website is not personal and usually has tons of new internet toys and eye candy. Flying objects, drooping menus, java applets, sound effects, animations, and tons of other useless stuff. These are more of a distraction than they are really useful. Little information, but tons of toys. These usually turn readers away quickly. These are fewer in number, due to the complexity and learning curve that is needed to create such site, but always seem to turn up higher in search engines. I remember when the Splatter Times website was one of these crazy concoctions. Bells, whistles, and all sorts of dynamic effects. But they did have some articles. Thank God they changed.

No information:
These websites look good, work well, have a great user interface, easy to navigate, but have only one or two articles. Sometimes they are on a paid-for server with a nice domain name.

Ads bonanza:
I understand that websites need to make money, but that does not mean that you have to bombard your readers with pop-up ads, forcing interactivity. Or how about the “please-vote-for-us-in-the-top-this-or-that” banners that keep coming up? Annoying. It’s ok to have a few promotions, but don’t make them obtrusive.

Nice name:
We’ve all seen them. They have a nice domain name, paid-for sever, but have nothing to offer. What do we do? I wish we could just combine them all. Maybe we could get at least one good website out of them all.

Nice start:
Some websites are really nice, well-maintained, and upkept when they first start out. But a few months down the road, they are still announcing a contest that ended in 1997. What happened? The owners were all excited and ready to go, but then got busy with life. These sites are quickly forgotten. How many times will you go to a website with the same contest from 1997 on the front page?

Expired:
These sites use yesterday’s technology today. Or worse yet, yester year’s technology today. Slow, bulky html files and antiquated font tags make it very difficult to load and render. Furthermore, they use frames, or Times font, or strange wacky blinking text. We now have things called style sheets. Hello? Wake up guys. Plenty of these to go around.

Professional and well done:
These are the nicest, most well thought out, well organized, and professional looking sites. They usually have a larger or more committed staff. They usually have professional programmers or hire an outside firm to do the work. These are few and far in between. There are about 5 or 6 of these. Unfortunately, they don’t always turn up the highest on search engines.

Why do I care? Because the paintball community needs to realize, that a website is not enough. You need it to look nice, work well, and be proficient. Anyone can put up a useless unorganized website, but a professional one, with a great staff is hard to find.

Is The Splatter Times’ site any good? You be the judge.