Can plug-ins on website ruin the website visitor experience?

[froggyboy604]

Yes, if the plug-in/widget gets in the way of the websites content, or slows down the loading time for the website.

I also dislike add-ons like background music or video players or something that is too flashy.

Plus, I think if you installed more then 10 social bookmarking plug-ins it can make you look kind of "needy for people to digg, tweet, stumble, Google buzz, FB like, tweetmeme, myspace, live" your site.

 

[thedudeman]

Re: Can plug-ins on website ruin the website visitor experie

It's OK if done right. What bugs me are the people who install them and they have NO relevance to the site, and/or they make everything look confusing.

 

[froggyboy604]

Re: Can plug-ins on website ruin the website visitor experie

It's OK if done right. What bugs me are the people who install them and they have NO relevance to the site, and/or they make everything look confusing.

What you said sort of reminds me of some Geocities sites and Myspace member pages with weird graphics, counters, autoplay music, and flash games embedded in the website I been on.

 

[thedudeman]

Re: Can plug-ins on website ruin the website visitor experie

It's OK if done right. What bugs me are the people who install them and they have NO relevance to the site, and/or they make everything look confusing.

What you said sort of reminds me of some Geocities sites and Myspace member pages with weird graphics, counters, autoplay music, and flash games embedded in the website I been on.

http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/

 

[froggyboy604]

Re: Can plug-ins on website ruin the website visitor experie

Oh wow, that is pretty bad. This reminds me. Tripod Lycos sites are also pretty bad.

 

[Dylan]

Re: Can plug-ins on website ruin the website visitor experie

This post is not an advertisment nor an endorcment

I read this article a while back and I think you will find it useful !

http://www.communityspark.com/too-many-features-can-harm-your-community/

A point the writter makes is this

Stand out from the crowd. Cut back on the features. Strip your community website down to the bare essentials. When you find yourself thinking about adding a feature, stop and ask yourself why it’s needed. Work hard to justify the addition. Don’t ask your members if they want the feature (most will just say yes). Instead, ask them if they will use the feature, how often they will use it, and why they will use it. You’ll get much better feedback that way.

I think this is very important and all admins should try to do this as thier forum will benifit.

 

[froggyboy604]

Re: Can plug-ins on website ruin the website visitor experie

I also find page rank, and alexa rank counters not really needed for most site since most users do not care about them depending on the niche/category.

I think a regular counter or no counter will be good enough.