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Mischa's Cursed Webring

cursed.lol

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Re: Mischa's Cursed Webring

#41

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

geocrasher wrote: post #40

Working in web hosting, I've hosted many sites like this and had to deal with some of the people who've made them. And I have to say that while it's fun to point and laugh at the websites, there are a few of these in the ring that are borderline troubling. It is clear that their authors are suffering from some serious mental illnesses and at the very least some major delusions. I recall a case years ago where I hoste…

At what point does appreciating content produced by the mental ill become exploitation of them? Gene Ray was clearly mentally ill, but few had any qualms about enjoying the WTF quality of the Time Cube website.

Some of the classic twentieth-century art by outsider artists like Adolf Wölfli was in large part the consequence of their illness, and yet it is appreciated nevertheless, so couldn’t the same persist today for the mentally ill’s analogous creations on the internet?

Re: Mischa's Cursed Webring

#42

Post by andrewflnr »

joemi wrote: post #37
DiggyJohnson wrote: post #2

This is extremely well done. Academically, I look forward to any attempt at criticizing this project. It's a tricky thought experiment.

If 'cursed' is derogatory, then it seems unfair/mean to call sites cursed just for not keeping up with current web design trends. Shouldn't we be better than that?

Not exactly. "Cursed" in modern slang is more like something weird and unsettling in a way that's probably funny and may or may not actually be bad.

Re: Mischa's Cursed Webring

#43

Post by kid-icarus »

bpierre wrote: post #34
kid-icarus wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully disagree. I take delight in observing these artifacts, it's unfortunate you cannot.

Sorry if my comment wasn’t clear, I actually do enjoy browsing these websites. My concern is about the mocking tone I perceive from OP and the webring curator (not sure it’s the same person).

I don't know how many of the cursed sites you've visited, but in addition to rudimentary styling, some of the sites contain some rather disturbing content.

Hence the "fucked up shit," and "twisted mind," comments. I don't think they are inappropriate or disrespectful.

I don't think tone policing is appropriate or beneficial.

Re: Mischa's Cursed Webring

#45

Post by hinkley »

CDSlice wrote: post #9

I'm not really sure what's so "cursed" about this website? http://www.hytechshotz.com/default.asp The website design is pretty bad but based off of the OP saying "most of them are really deep and demonstrate some sort of twisted brain that was behind each site" I'm not really sure why this one is on the list.

Overlooking the ol' bezel trick,

High saturation text on a black background does not cancel out the overuse of high saturation colors. This looks like a flyer for Hempfest 2021.

(Why do pot smokers enjoy higher saturation than the rest of us? Has anyone studied this?)

Re: Mischa's Cursed Webring

#46

Post by hinkley »

mattnewton wrote: post #13
CDSlice wrote: post #9

I'm not really sure what's so "cursed" about this website? http://www.hytechshotz.com/default.asp The website design is pretty bad but based off of the OP saying "most of them are really deep and demonstrate some sort of twisted brain that was behind each site" I'm not really sure why this one is on the list.

Some of these sites are just dope, like this 3d graphing software site https://cursed.llolo.lol/dpgraph.com/ But have hideous design :D

I can't recall the last time I made a noise opening a web page.

This one sounded somewhere between a hiccup and vomiting. Kind of a 'Hulp!'

Re: Mischa's Cursed Webring

#47

Post by jstanley »

geocrasher wrote: post #40

Working in web hosting, I've hosted many sites like this and had to deal with some of the people who've made them. And I have to say that while it's fun to point and laugh at the websites, there are a few of these in the ring that are borderline troubling. It is clear that their authors are suffering from some serious mental illnesses and at the very least some major delusions. I recall a case years ago where I hoste…

> who viewed their stints in a mental hospital as an attack to their freedom.

In fairness, this is an attack on their freedom.

Re: Mischa's Cursed Webring

#48

Post by tempodox »

Wow, the greatest website of the ’90s that never was, it even has a Catsape browser embedded somewhere. Found that by coincidence — clicking around in this thing can have surprising results. It is also the first site that managed to get me this warning from Safari: “This webpage is using significant energy. Closing it may improve the responsiveness of your Mac”. I recommend the site for its entertainment value but make sure your battery is charged!

Re: Mischa's Cursed Webring

#49

Post by simplecto »

sidpatil wrote: post #39
beaconstudios wrote: post #25

Had to throw http://durgasoft.com/ 's hat into the ring too for the garish web design subset.

It's like the Ling's Cars [1] of Java and Python software development. [1] https://www.lingscars.com/

I heard via LinkedIn she sold the business. I hope the character remains.

Re: Mischa's Cursed Webring

#50

Post by cosmodisk »

analyte123 wrote: post #31

Doing crazy things with CSS, including animations, has never been easier or more consistent between browsers, and yet creativity in web design has gone down practically to zero these days. I blame mobile, where nobody can seem to escape from the "responsive column of blandly styled content" paradigm.

I think I had enough "creativity" from webdesign. Video backgrounds, fading,or reappearing text sections, absurd colour schemes,or overengineered SPAs. I'd happily trade all that shiny wrapping paper into something a bit more boring and consistent.
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