I find introductions on content to be so very annoying sometimes.
One of my greatest pet peeves is the splash page on a web site, or flash intro. Why would you ever want to put an extra step between a visitor to your site and the information you are providing there?
When I taught web design I told my students that I would count off for intros of any kind. I never had to actually do it because they never attempted an intro page.
What purpose does the intro to a web site serve that the header of your website cannot serve in a more concise and less annoying manner?
I also lump in with flash intros and splash pages the instructions on how to leave a voicemail message on people’s voicemail systems. I think pretty much everyone knows how to leave a voicemail message, and if they don’t, it’s not critical if they mess it up once or twice before they get the hang of it. Phone goes beep, start talking.
There is a very popular web site called Failblog.org out there which features images and videos of people doing dumb stuff and making mistakes. It’s pretty funny. I check it from time to time.
Recently they’ve started putting a five second title screen on each of their videos and adding title info into the video with white type on a black background silent movie style. They used to just have a watermark in the corner of the video. It’s fine if you watch one or two videos at a time, but if you want to watch ten 30 second clips of people doing goofy stuff, the extra fluff is just extra fluff.
It’s like trying to have a conversation with someone who shouts their name before every sentence. Saying it a lot can be a funny gimmick (Charlie Murphy!) but to start each sentence with it would get tiresome, even for a funny guy like him.
This is a similar progression that killed myspace and is about to kill Facebook if they aren’t careful.
In stage one, People hit on an idea for a web site that is so good that people jump on board and start helping add content. In stage two, the site becomes really popular and “tips” due to the massive amount of good free content. In stage three, the site owners cash in on the good free content by crowding advertisements around it.
This is the critical stage because if too many advertisements get crowded around, people go elsewhere. That’s why everyone left MySpace for Facebook, and it doesn’t appear that Facebook has learned their lesson.
We will see, though!
