island reptiles(bad buisness skills)

[Kevin Kaley]

Caps button people.

 

[Sasheena]

To the person who started this thread. You say

I have been taking classes in web design and it has made me more aware of the things that might make a site difficult to use.

You say this as if your email was full of constructive criticism. Did you just get an assignment back with this sort of response. I have been designing websites for several years myself (since 1998). If Larry had ASKED ME, I might have given him some of the criticism you gave him, but it would have been worded differently. If he had come into a forum I regularly browsed and said "Hey everyone, I have my own website now!" I would have felt able to critique it.

I looked at the website in question and some of your complaints I find odd... Your first one is the most galling... and if you were to expect Larry to feel you were giving him constructive friendly advice you negated it with your opening line:

1. your welcome page is unattractive and uninformative

Nowhere do you mention that you are in a class and are practicing your brand new skills of understanding good web design, and even if you had, this opening statement is full of opinion and is not worth an "opening shot" ....

2. after you start navigating the site the scrolling bar turns a solid black color (which may fit with the color scheme of the site but also makes it impossible to use affectively)

Now I don't care for the black scroll bar. If I'd been asked I would have suggested that the actual scroll bar might be better utilized with a yellow scroll bar on a black background, to keep with teh color scheme. Not only do I explain WHY I dislike it, but I give a suggestion on a positive change. When I first came to this site (BOI) I didn't like the green scroll bars. I love em now though, and wouldn't change em for anything. It's more a matter of taste than of "BAD DESIGN".

3. when you go from page to page the "black hole effect" gets EXTREMELY annoying and really slows down navigation.

Again, criticism, no constructive pointers, and your "black hole effect" doesn't come over well. When I went to the site I didn't first realize I needed to scroll, but once I figured it out, I was not at all slowed down. I just learned the navigation of the site. The emphasis on "Extremely" is probably well placed however, as that is about how your email would have been viewed at this time.

4. when you click a picture of an animal it opens the picture up in a size so large that you have to use the scroll bars to look at it. that makes looking at the snake very difficult, and most people will click the back button before the pic even starts loading when they see that it is going to be so large.

I guess I'm priveleged to have a cable modem. It DOES take a while to load, and if I was ASKED, I would have suggested a slightly smaller photo no more than 600 pixels across, with some better cropping, but I would have also had to applaud him on such excellent photos with very fine details. It's NOT easy to get such good photos of snakes, I know I've tried it. I don't blame him for posting the high level of detail in the larger photograph. Your analysis of "most people hitting the back button" is perhaps just what YOU would do and what anyone might do who is still using a very slow method of internet access. But again, this is not something that I would point out until/unless I was ASKED.

5. whatever that picture is that has been put beside all the links is unattractive and should be removed

Wow, a pure opinion, and a demand for removal of something you don't like. I personally think that while it is a funky graphic, it isn't poorly placed, sets off the link, and is in keeping with the theme of the webpage.

6. on your price list page the table that names all the snakes you have and thier prices is horrible. it may look different on different computers but on mine you have to scroll over to look at the prices, which is just bad design.the table needs to be fixed so that it takes up the same amount of screen space on all computers.

Once again you use a variety of extreme words thus not getting any sort of constructive message across. If I was asked, I probably would have said "Hey, ask your web designer to change the table tag to 100% instead of a fixed width, that way all different screen resolutiosn will see the prices." I wouldn't say it is HORRIBLE however. Slightly awkward. IF I was on the site to find out information about a snake I would check out everything, even if it was slightly more cumbersome than another webpage. I wouldn't be going there to fullfill my desire for aesthetic fulfillment.

there are a few other little things that should be fixed but the ones I have listed are the ones that need to be fixed the most. oh and on the welcome page what I mean when I say unattractive and uninformative is that all you have are the words welcome. There needs to be information about you, and some small pictures and such; just some things that will keep people interested in your site when they first enter. if it is boring they will leave.
I hope that you will be able to fix these flaws, if you do you website will be much more affective.

When I first got into herps, I went to every single herp web page listed on kingsnake.com's homepage. A lot of them are mediocre at best, but the vast majority of them do an excellent job... they show off and sell the snakes. They aren't a Dot-Com business where billions are riding on their front page. I would suggest that giving unsolicited negativity as you did is most likely to bring out the result you acheived. Posting about it on here only serves to show you up as someone to avoid.

 

[JMelissaMc]

Neither Person Looks Good Here

First of all, Jonathan, you must be an only child! Did your parents sit around all day and just fawn over everything that you did so that you think the "world revolves around you"? That we are all waiting with baited breath for your next brilliant statement? That everyone is entitled to your opinion? Please allow me to enlighten you - these statements are NOT true. How incredibly pompous and self-serving of you to just voice your two bit opinion where it is not requested or warranted. I know that YOU think that you are the greatest, but I am sure that no one else does. Get over yourself!

While Jonathan looks incredibly selfish and full of himself, Larry is not looking too good either. Sharon stated in her reply that she had blocked all future email from Jonathan. Yet, Larry is insisting that Jonathan "keeps emailing threats" and "that he just won't let up". Then someone asks for proof of these threatening emails and of course, Larry can't produce them, he has "deleted all of them". Larry, could you be fabricating some of this story? You don't make sense.

J. Melissa McQuaid

 

[sychoram]

Question??

Does everyone in Florida forget to drop the "e" when adding "ing" to their words?? We all look for patterns in posts and patterns usually don't match for different posters.

I do agree that the email was a "Bashy". It's called tact (sp) try some.

 

[sychoram]

Sorry, I forgot to ask one other question. Johnathan, in your inbox and sent box you have copies of all the correspondences. Although, you may not be able to gain any ground here, you may prevent yourself from loosing any more than you already have. Since the others were "deleted" can you post what you have??



Please note I DO NOT KNOW ANY OF THE INVOLVED PARTIES, but this site has taught me that what appears the truth (without proof) may not always be the truth.


As for his opinion, does that make him a bad person to the herp community?? Nope maybe an upset for the website building community. I don't remember him bashing your animals, just your web design. Had Jon gotten a civil response he may well have been a customer for life, but now he's lost to you as a customer. Maybe you can afford to lose a potential customer(s).

 

[W.Wedeking]

I have to agree

with Melissa. Neither person is comming out a shining star here.

First we have Jonathan who seems to be suffering from "Freshmanitis". He has taken a "class" and now owns the world and is able to tell everyone else what they are doing wrong and how to do it right....and does spontaineously.

Jonathan, your email was just plain RUDE. Hopefully you will take more classes and find out that, in comparison to all there is to know out there, you know nothing. Some humility would do you good.

And don't think that is has gone unnoticed that you have not posted since people have let you know that you were out of line.

Then we have Larry, who reacted without thinking and said some rather unprofessional things, albeit, not without due provocation. I think most people would have at least wanted to give the sender of that email a piece of their mind. However, the proper course would have been to just delete it an move on. Or, you can just move it to a special folder like I have called "Jerkoffs and @$$holes". (luckily it isn't very full)

Larry, you are the owner of a company, there are plenty of "Jonathans" out there. Don't let them drag you into the muck. If they were so smart, you would be their client, not the recipient of their unwanted criticism. Just delete them, and move on to more important issues.