The World's Worst Website Ever - Site Mistakes

Note: In April 2012, we added a few more quirks to the homepage that aren't mentioned in the original list below. Soon we'll launch a new TWWWE for your enjoyment.

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1. Header graphic is pixelated and over-optimized.
2. Transparency in header graphic is overdone.
3. Multiple font colors used in "ever"
4. Animated stars (all animated gifs are generally a bad idea)
5. Under construction graphics should never be used
6. The notice "Under Construction" should almost never be used, especially on the homepage
7. "<--" and other text-based markers/graphics are a faux pas in design
8. This page, filenamed "new_page_1.htm" indicates poor file naming and organization
9. "Main Menu" shouldn't exist; if people don't know what a main menu is, they shouldn't be on the web
10. Teenie-bopper spellings such as "kewl" should never be used on any professional website
11. I personally despise *smile* - please try to avoid it for my own sanity's sake
12. Email icons are also really annoying, especially in they are animated (unless you are using real icons along with others such as print, etc.)
13. Repeating backgrounds are almost always a bad idea
14. Backgrounds that have color almost never work
15. Beveled images, such as in the background image, are almost always unprofessional-looking
16. In the yellow table near the top, the cell width is different from the table width, creating blank space on the right side
17. Table borders can work if done properly. All borders represented on this site are examples of what NOT to do
18. Javascript cursors are a joke! Just because the technology is there to do something, it shouldn't always be done. Ask the Britons about the Cobalt Bomb, for example
19. Mouseovers for links can be done professionally and add a nice touch to a website, but text should never be resized or bolded when the cursor moves over it
20. Inconsistency in the main menu is running rampant. If you're going to have icons, have them all the links
21. The border around the icons is way too thick. I see this a lot
22. The main menu option "GOOGLE MAPS" is not fully hyperlinked
23. The link "WEATHER" doesn't work
24. Flashing "New" or "Updated" icons are generally considered cheese-ball. Avoid them!
25. Multiple fonts are used throughout the website, including some that are not web-safe
26. There are numerous misspelled words in the "What's New" section
27. Again, "1" for "one" and "u" for "you" are terrible for professional websites. Your customers will not take you seriously if they see stuff like this
28. Scrolling marquees can be effective if used non-obtrusively and rarely. But most are used wrongly so...
29. "About TWWWE" has no hyperlink
30. There are several examples of Microsoft Word Art on this site. It is almost always a bad idea to use it
31. Separator bars that are animated can be very disorienting, let alone tacky
32. Blue on red is a bad idea
33. Red on blue is a bad idea
34. Blue or red on black is a bad idea
35. There are several other "bad idea" examples in the "Fantastic Colours" section
36. I absolutely, unequivocally, hate the font "brush script", which is used in "Fantastic Colours" as well as "The" and "Ever" in the header. It is the most overused script font ever
37. If you use American English, avoid "Colours" and other misspelled words
38. There is a page counter at the bottom. 99% of the time it is a bad idea to have a public counter on your page
39. The link "Shocking Pictures" goes to the "Shocking Photos" section. Most of the time the link and the page/section title should be the same
40. There are varying table widths on this site. Consistency is key!
41. There is a table that is too long for the screen, creating a horizontal scrollbar. Horizontal scrollbars are bad, bad, bad!
42. In addition to numerous misspelled words, there is several examples of bad grammar, including "These photos are SHOCKINGLY formatted HORRIFICLY"
43. The first photo on the left is formatted wrong. It is actually a large photo resized using HTML. This is bad because photo quality is lost, but most importantly the size of the file is huge, which takes a long time to download.
44. The second photo from the left is also formatted wrong. It is beveled (which is really personal taste, not necessarily wrong) and over-optimized. Notice the bleeding colors
45. The third image might be hard to tell at first. If you look closely, the sunset colors are grainy. This is because the image was saved as a gif instead of a jpg. When working with images of brilliant colors, save them as jpgs and not gifs. This is because gifs are limited to 256 colors while jpgs are virtually limitless
46. The fourth image is what happens when you take a small photo and increase it's size. Despite what CSI: Miami does, you cannot blow up images and make them look good
47. A funny bit, at least humorous to me, is the word "Trifecta" used on the fourth photo
48. When laying out photos left to right, if possible, make sure they are the same size
49. The domain name www.theworldsworstwebsiteever.com is too long (that's why we also use www.twwwe.com)
50. I really think the four racing scrolling marquees are quite hilarious, but again, the overuse of marquees are never a good idea
51. There are broken images everywhere on this site. Watch out for these!
52. The text box that says "Could we possibly do any more, said the cat" is a triple-whammy. First, it doesn't make sense. Secondly, it has nothing to do with the site's content. And thirdly, it is a graphic when it should be plain HTML text.
53. Last updated scripts are mostly a bad idea. The only exceptions is if you update your site very often (almost daily) and probably should be used for blogs, news sites or the like
54. "Sight" being used instead of "site". I actually see this occur too often
55. MIDIs (the music playing in the background) are officially my biggest pet-peeve. They should never be used under any circumstance. Almost all embedded sounds, not just midis, are very annoying
56. The embedded midi cannot be turned off and loops forever. If you must have sound on your website, give people the QUICK option to turn it off
57. Back in the late 90s it was considered normal for webmasters to put viewing requirements/suggestions in the footer of their site (i.e. "Best viewed with Internet Explorer"). I almost never see this on professional websites with the exception of some Flash-based sites
58. Page transitions were neat in 1996, but not today
59. Justified text, as seen in the "What's New" box, is usually not a good idea. It looks good on newspapers, but for some reason doesn't work for the web
60. Another pet-peeve is text and images that butt-up against the table's border. To fix this, add cell or table padding
61. I'm sure there other mistakes on this site or ones made not represented here, but for now, that's all

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