From: den Otter (neosapient@geocities.com)
Date: Mon Jul 05 1999 - 13:08:48 MDT
----------
> From: Eugene Leitl <eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de>
> > Well, do you want transhumanism to remain obscure, or do you
> > want it to grow? If you want the latter, you better start using some
>
> I want it to grow, but in this early phase I'd like to recruit the
> more intelligent people. Right now we're not in danger of getting too
> many such, so we'd better watch our step.
Recruit intelligent people to do what, exactly?
> > flashy graphics. Good-looking webpages simply get (a lot) more
> > traffic and media attention, just like good-looking people get more
> > attention than ugly or plain ones.
>
> You make it sound as lots of traffic and media attention are all
> absolutely good things.
They are a good thing for those transhumanist organizations or
individuals who seek to proliferate the philosophy.
> Cryonics, for instance, has generated lots of
> media attention.
I bet that even in the most developed, media-saturated
regions at least 7 out of 10 randomly picked people couldn't
tell you what cryonics is, and the rest would probably bring
out all the old cliches (including, but by no means limited to,
frozen Disneys and overpopulation). A lot more media attention
will be needed to (at the very least) make everyone fully aware
of the option.
> Since its very beginnings, and particularly now, the IT technology is
> suffering from one big problem: inability to define standards that age
> well. The more bells & whistles you use, the shorter the readability
> window and the percentile of users you can reach.
True, and that's why one should select the bells & whistles carefully,
and use them with due restraint. Also there's the option of making
two versions, one fancy and one in plain text (the LEF used to do
this, for example).
> 'cute' graphics-only entry page won't get indexed by search engines.
I'm not in favor of "graphics only", and besides, just about any site will
get indexed if you tag it right.
> Do you think all these guys don't know anything about web design?
>
> http://xent.ics.uci.edu/
> http://www.ai.mit.edu/~shivers/
> http://photo.net/philg/
Oh, no-one is questioning their skills. Now, good taste is a different
matter, of course... ;) Seriously though, if you're not "selling" anything
(like a philosophy or way of life), it doesn't really matter how your
page looks. If you *are* selling something on the other hand, you'll
need to do better than those guys.
Btw, you don't necessarily need advanced apps to be stylish; this
year's TransVision site (http://maxm.normik.dk/tv99/index.htm)
is a good example of a fairly "professional-looking" setup. Simply
adding some classy, appropriate pictures can make a lot of
difference. A very constructive way to use transhuman art, IMO.
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