SitePoint's big mistake
Although some might consider SitePoint (sitepoint.com) a competitor for this site, I personally try to make use of as many resources online as are available to me. Well, as many as I have time for. I spend much more time here, on The Webmaster Forums, but I also check SitePoint daily for interesting articles.
Anyway, today I clicked on an article on their front page that interested me. As is often the case, I had lots of tabs open at the time, as I was going through my list of websites I check every morning. So I clicked on the link on SitePoint's main page, then moved on to another tab. Later, when I came back to the SitePoint tab, the page had loaded.
The mistake that was present on the page was the old "content above the fold" page. The idea is that you should be able to see a good chunk of content before you have to do any scrolling. Obviously, with articles, you should expect to do some scrolling to view it all, but a good amount of content should already be visible.
My browser is set to 1024 x 768, and I was only able to see the first line of the title of the article. That's it. Advertising took up so much room on the top and on the sides of the page that I had almost no clue what article I was looking at.
This is the reason that many people think that SitePoint has gotten too big for its britches. It doesn't even follow basic web design guidelines. Sure, they've got neat little tricks like their ad that floats at the bottom of the browser window. But what use are those kinds of tricks if you abandon all the basics?
Am I a perfect web designer? No, of course not. No one is. But this is one of the basics of web design that we're talking about.
For one, I will likely continue to read articles on SitePoint, but as always, will take them with a grain of salt.
Megan posted this at 13:17 — 17th May 2006.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
I've noticed that they colour all their ads yellow. Zoom out on one of the article pages and look at how much is yellow. I hope we never get to that point! If we do, somebody please tell us
We hope to someday be able to run this site with no advertising at all 
Megan
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demonhale posted this at 01:13 — 18th May 2006.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
I also visit sitepoint, and yes they have been really bad with using advertising space with their pages, although I heared on a grapevine they are on a major advertising plan also in print media...
Roo posted this at 05:42 — 18th May 2006.
She has: 840 posts
Joined: Apr 1999
SitePoint once was really, really great. But since they implemented stupid popup ads I rarely go there anymore.
Mozilla's popup blocker doesn't seem to be able to stop them.
Roo
JeevesBond posted this at 12:29 — 18th May 2006.
He has: 3,956 posts
Joined: Jun 2002
Quite right, am looking forward to the day when we can convert to a business model that doesn't require ads and can be more community driven.
We've got some good ideas, it's just a matter of getting the time to execute them. Same story as ever!
As for Sitepoint, am glad I'm not the only one to have noticed this. Went and read an article there a minute ago Tim, exactly the same result, I could only see the title because of the ads!
They are competition for us, but we do target slightly different markets. They're business-like while we're a bit silly and weird. They cater for hardened professionals where we cater for less experienced people. Our "vision" - sorry for middle-management terminology - is one of a community, sharing work and profit collectively. I couldn't comment on what Sitepoint intends, but it doesn't *seem* to have any concept of "caring" about it's visitors experience, Sitepoint just want to sell their books.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, TWF is probably not to everyone's taste either.
a Padded Cell our articles site!
Abhishek Reddy posted this at 14:40 — 18th May 2006.
He has: 3,348 posts
Joined: Jul 2001
I ran into a SitePoint article a few hours ago, and happily discovered that Google likes its print-friendly pages. No ads, and easy reading! It's a good way to read an article on that site, without distractions, especially if you're an anonymous user looking for a quick reference.
Perhaps if we locked Mark and his Stilton cheese away...
balkanboy posted this at 19:37 — 23rd May 2006.
They have: 2 posts
Joined: May 2006
I stoped visiting SitePoint just because every tread in Marketplace cost 9.95
It's ok to give limitations with number of posts to that forums but paying is not good option, at least not for users
JeevesBond posted this at 20:18 — 23rd May 2006.
He has: 3,956 posts
Joined: Jun 2002
They certainly seem to be very commercial! Perhaps their books just weren't providing enough profit, anyone ever read one of their books?
We have limitations on our Market Place, but not monetary ones. Welcome to the forums balkanboy. :wave:
LOL, we have had him locked away in the TWF server room for months now, only paying him in Californian cheese. He seems quite happy in there though.
But seriously, we don't see enough of the old people around anymore. Good to have you "back" too Abhi.
a Padded Cell our articles site!
WebMaster94 posted this at 21:18 — 23rd May 2006.
He has: 37 posts
Joined: May 2006
I used to like SitePoint! This site is better though.
JeevesBond posted this at 09:00 — 24th May 2006.
He has: 3,956 posts
Joined: Jun 2002
Why, thank you! We're trying our best, but don't always have the resources Sitepoint does.
a Padded Cell our articles site!
Azam.net posted this at 11:39 — 29th May 2006.
He has: 60 posts
Joined: Sep 2005
Yes, I'm a convert from SitePointism to Webmaster-Forumism too. And it's for the reasons given above. SP used to be wonderful but it is way too commercialised now. WF is so much better for many reasons, including the friendliness of the people here and the superior site design.
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