Okay, I think I have just had THE most annoying website experience ever.
Because I don’t know the website-in-question’s owner, I will not disclose his name or the URL. The purpose of this post is not to bash anyone.
Besides, I want to save you from the pain I just experienced.
And it’s not so much the website itself — it’s a decent looking site on its own.
What was so unbelievably rude, self-centered, and “all about the owner” was what happens when you arrive on this website.
What happens is, VERY loud, VERY pompous music automatically starts to play. I’m talking the kind of music that might be part of the soundtrack for a Russell Crowe film when the hero is returning home after fighting a battle almost to the death.
Can you picture the scene?
It opens with a long shot of the moors in some remote part of England. Naturally, there’s a castle. Slowly, gradually, the camera zooms in on our bruised and bloodied hero as he limps along victorious, his battle buddies also limping close behind him.
This is the very first impression I get of this guy and it’s not a good one. What’s even worse is, nowhere on the site was there a button for me to click that would turn the music OFF.
Did it ever occur to him that perhaps there would be visitors to his site that like a silent experience?
Oh wait. That would imply he was thinking about his visitors first, rather than himself.
Never mind that I clicked on his website in the first place because there was content I wanted to read.
The second that music blasted my ear drums, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough! And now I will always remember this guy as an arrogant, self-centered, thoughtless ass rather than the decent person he very well could be.
But his website gave me no chance to form the latter opinion. And it will take A LOT for him to turn my thought process around.
Bad website practices are fairly common, but this one takes the cake. So, let this be a very good lesson to anyone reading this post: leave the soundtrack where it belongs — in Hollywood.
Let us consume your content in peace.
