Meh-sville.

Wow. The College/Public radio station on a shoestring budget in Superior, WI has an underwhelming website? Imagine that. Lol, and all that.

I hope this post was what it seems, an ugly sweater knit around the operative phrase
"i got interviewed".

Please, PPD'ers, love yourselves. Love your soup bowl of mediocrity. Don't just pick up limp noodles and greyed, moldering chicken chunks and condemn
them! It's like eating your own arm.

Wow. That looks vintage 1996.

Looks like the webdev is http://www.perroloco.net/ - their company website proudly boasts "This site is being constantly updated as time permits."
Now that's quality - a webdesign company that doesn't work on their own page.

I kinda agree with King Burlesque. Why trash an organization that went out of their way to give you some free publicity for your event? How about offering up some free web expertise to the folks running the show at KUWS? Or better yet, find a web developer who can help them out pro bono, or at a reduced rate. I am sure they would appreciate the constructive help instead of the negativity.

woah there ben. i'm having some fun on pdd. that's all. i'm not trying to pimp myself on kuws. i was a dj there in college so it's not a big deal to me. in fact it's a bit sad because kuws was probably my favorite station when i lived in the twin ports.

i'm just having fun with bad websites. i've only got a few days left as geek king. i have to post dorky things.

I worked with a former police officer who spent most of his "work" time browsing the web; sort of a gun aficionado, kid in the marines, etc. He frequented http://www.snipercountry.com. Don't ask. I did notice, though, that most outfitters, camping gear and military retailers have web sites that are absolutely abominable. I hope their aim is better on the field.

I think Tomasz is right. I actually remember going to that site a long time ago -- maybe even in the 90s -- and it looked the same. It just hasn't been updated with the times. (Hell, even Google looked bad in the 90s.)

For bad websites, I nominate the following, mostly because I want someone to actually do something with the domains.

westduluth.com

twinports.com

twinports.net (click on "wedding" to see a vintage shot of a certain former mayor)

Thanks for the clarification, King.

Long live the King!

Or at least til Saturday....

Thanks for the tip huitz-- now I know what a Finnish sniper looks like.

re: barrett

westduluth.com: what the hell is that?

twinports.com: i despise "click to enter" pages. JUST LET ME IN THE DAMN SITE!!!

twinports.net: thank you john and marge for sharing your humble home on the information highway

The funny thing is, the guy spent his time in IT not only surfing, but also trying to track down other company "surfers". He subtly made himself in charge of the web proxy. I couldn't believe the hypocrisy.

Monkey do, no other monkey may see or do.

Not just the information highway! The "Information Super-Highway"!

WHOIS information for:
www.westduluth.com

Registration and WHOIS Service provided by directNIC.com

Intercosmos Media Group, Inc. provides the data in the directNIC.com
Registrar WHOIS database for informational purposes only. The information
may only be used to assist in obtaining information about a domain name's
registration record.

directNIC makes this information available "as is", and does not guarantee
its accuracy.

Registrant:
Jacksons Auto Parts and MW Inc
6220 Grand Ave
Duluth, MN 55807
US
218-624-5791

Domain Name: WESTDULUTH.COM

Administrative Contact:
jackson, jeff [email protected]
6220 Grand Ave
Duluth, MN 55807
US
218-624-5791

Technical Contact:
jackson, jeff [email protected]
6220 Grand Ave
Duluth, MN 55807
US
218-624-5791

Record expires on 05-08-2009
Record created on 05-07-2003

Domain servers in listed order:
NS0.DIRECTNIC.COM 69.46.233.245
NS1.DIRECTNIC.COM 69.46.234.245

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Oh my! That westduluth.com site is priceless! WTF? KDAL is also pretty bad but not perplexing like whatever "westduluth" is selling.

I’m the reporter that interviewed Neal for this story. As a struggling local news bureau, and one of the only college news stations in the state, our website is the least of our worries. I don’t deny its utter archaism and lack of care and coddling, but we’ve got serious hard news to cover, like Geek Prom, and are incredibly understaffed.
If you feel impassioned by our shitty website feel free to drop a financial donation our way. As a public radio station we’re inclined towards accepting volunteer help from tech-nerds as well.

For clarification, our website is vintage 1997, not 1996.

Neil, if you’d like to revel in your fame and glory, check out the Business North website (story goes out tonight) or call me at the station for a copy.

Oh, and I nominate the janky Boathouse website - www.boathouserestaurant.org (Best page is on the Scotts Fest which reads: “Be sure your speakers are on while you view this page!”)

We can’t all have as many talented geeks behind us as geekprom.com….

geekprom.com...

Why do people insist on using Macromedia Flash? Ugh. Must be a DBU graduate *ducks out of the way of the oncoming fists* :)

All joking aside, that's one of the few local sites that is really pleasant to look at.

But, people, you really don't need Flash except for very special use cases.

All you need for a nice looking site is:

www.blogger.com

Get your FREE blog started. You can personalize it in any way you want with the widgets provided. Note that one of them is for raw html code. You can put ANYTHING in there. Also, you can find just about any cool code hack you want via a Google search.

Then buy or transfer your domain name to that new blog. Blogger makes that step very easy. You can get a domain for a year from Google for around $10, and do that through Blogger.

You can upload pics for free to either Blogger or Flickr. You can host video for free on YouTube or Google. You can get free email from Google. Plus you can be assured that your server will NEVER go down.

Do not be afraid of the web. Almost everything is free. Don't let web designers fool you. You can do it all yourself!

zac, i think myspace has proved that while you can do it yourself, that doesn't always mean that you should.

HA! Yeah, good point there. On the other hand, I would hope that it wasn't some 12 year old emo kid who was in control of a college station's site.

I guess what I'm saying is just that people shouldn't think that a nice, working website has to be a huge undertaking. All you need is a simple shell and content to fill it. Flash and frames and whatever will just weigh you down and make it damn near impossible to update.

re: (ZB) www.blogger.com

Someone should tell DCB about that. I suggested cheap (as in free) BB software a couple times, but I guess Tony is happy getting donations and spending hundreds of dollars on a msg board that anyone with a cs degree could bang out in an hour or so....

I have to say that moderated, topic-based discussion would be a big step up for them.

i wonder if there's an information autobahn.

an information farm to market road would be interesting...wait, isn't that dialup? waiting for the connect would be like getting stuck behind a tractor.

how about an information turnpike?

okay, but wait. KUWS might be on a shoestring--in fact, i would expect that would be so in today's climate of starvation. however, there is a *university* full of students attached to this station, no? it would seem a no-brainer that there would be a constant stream of IT wanna-bes from the tech department being assigned this site as a matter of class credit.

why aren't students working on projects that actually matter to the community?

Actually, the CS students are working on projects that matter to the community. They are working with local businesses and school departments, but on slightly more advanced projects.

-former UWS CS dork.

This one's pretty bad:

www.dannydoesduluth.com

I http://www.duluthsauna.com/

Duluth FAMILY Sauna? Whoa. I didn't know that's what the place is. Thank you. Now I know.

ah. so it's beneath students at UWS to get credit for designing websites.

if no one is learning to design and maintain websites at UWS, i'm a little confused about where one learns to do these things.

i have a hard time, in fact, believing that universities across the United States pay outside agencies to do all their web-work. it would seem to me, then, that UWS is a little behind the times when it comes to seeing the utility of the web and teaching students to use it.

ah. so it's beneath students at UWS to get credit for designing websites.

if no one is learning to design and maintain websites at UWS, i'm a little confused about where one learns to do these things.

i have a hard time, in fact, believing that universities across the United States pay outside agencies to do all their web-work.

"ah. so it's beneath students at UWS to get credit for designing websites.

if no one is learning to design and maintain websites at UWS, i'm a little confused about where one learns to do these things."

Well, I am speaking from the CS point of view, where you really don't learn web design. You learn theory and math... how to solve problems in an efficient manner.

The CIS program is more project management and business...

I don't think the school offers a web design program. I could see someone getting some work-study or whatnot, but something like that site really doesn't fit into the scope of what CS students are learning.

I didn't mean to sound like an ass, but the: "why aren't students working on projects that actually matter to the community?" comment kind of struck a nerve. Almost every student works with a local business or department on a senior project.

...also, you should look at a CS student or faculty website before asking them to do web design. ;)

example: http://www.oppna.com/uws/ (department chair)

As the former server / network / computer monkey, and DJ of KUWS... I tried (oh how I tried) to get them to let me rebuild their webpage into a more modular, easy-to-edit-and-update, and modern site.... ALL FOR FREE ! Well, it would've been for practicum, but regardless... they would've had to pay NOTHING for it.

Unfortunately that PerroLoco fuck who "designs" the webpage is a good friend of the station manager. The manager is a really nice guy, but his webdesign friend is stuck in late-90s geocities hell.

To comment on the CS student idea... CS students need these boring "general electives" they have to take, practicum in radio comm is an excellent way to get an easy A and some general electives knocked off their list. I started DJing there, but once they found out I had some computer skill, they had me implement an online radio stream and webserver / mailserver.

Oh KUWS... how I miss the late nights... lights off... mountain dew in hand... speakers cranked.

*sigh*

I also tried to do their site for free, yet unfortunately they are very difficult to work with.

I figured they'd be all about student work to support their cause? But - as per usual - I was wrong...

I guess it's more about control rather than community.