Re: Random templating

<rant>
I realize I am not helping you with the actual question you have posted, but I feel it is necessary to point out that multiple templates for one website is one of the most horrid things you can do to a user. I login to perlmonks expecting everything to look the way it did the last time I visited. You may think both templates are worthwhile, but having your pages look different on each separate visit to the site is a Bad Thing™. You will manage to do nothing more than confuse, frustrate, and irritate your users. Today's lesson: one website, one template.
</rant>

Comment on Re: Random templating

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Re^2: Random templating by inman (Curate) on Oct 08, 2004 at 11:06 UTC
Don't be too quick to judge multiple templates as 'A bad thing'. Templates that respond to the user agent (IE, Mozilla, ...) or the method of access WAP, text only etc. are common place. After all, one of the main drivers for using templates is the separation of content from presentation. As with anything, this seperation can be abused. I concede that poor use of templating is going to hack the users off. I guess that this is just an example of poor design.	[reply]
Re^3: Random templating by saskaqueer (Friar) on Oct 14, 2004 at 03:35 UTC
Sorry, perhaps I should have specifically stated that multiple visual templates are horrible. Obviously, permitting different templates for uses such as WAP, text-only, etc. are a good thing. My concern is website designers who take it upon themselves to alternate their pages' templates for visual browsers (IE, Netscape, Opera, etc.).	[reply]
Re^2: Random templating by sulfericacid (Deacon) on Oct 08, 2004 at 05:39 UTC
You cannot say it would be a bad thing in every situation. The people I am marketing to aren't new to the internet and they're not too young or terrible aged in a sense that they won't understand. Having two sites would be creatively different. Not just two pages that look similar, but two complete opposite sites. Then maybe give them the opportunity to store a permanent cookie so they'll always see the one they prefer. "Age is nothing more than an inaccurate number bestowed upon us at birth as just another means for others to judge and classify us" sulfericacid	[reply]
Re^3: Random templating by DrHyde (Prior) on Oct 08, 2004 at 09:18 UTC
If the Monastery were to randomly change templates on me, I'd stop using it. Your users will do the same, unless they are design schoool wankers. Sure, it might not be a bad thing in every situation, but it's sufficiently silly that I'll still assume it's a bad idea in any particular situation until you can prove otherwise. Your users' experience level is irrelevant. Your users' age is irrelevant. It wouldn't be creatively different, it would be stupid.	[reply]


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