1. As the "King of Sucky Design" and someone who has had two books published on the topic, I'd have to say the web sites in your pictures are definitely not "high quality" and could easily make my "The Daily Sucker" column http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/dailysucker/ or my next book.

It also bothers me that Blogger and MSN Spaces offer ugly, horrible templates to people.

To rework an old phrase of mine, "don't confuse six minutes of entertainment with web design."

Vincent Flanders

Posted at 4:22PM on Jun 16th 2005 by Vincent Flanders

2. I like the designs! Thing is, Vincent, your web design skills suck. How can you critic websites when your own site is horrible by any design standard? Another, how can you judge small screen shots of web pages without seeing the actual page?

Posted at 4:22PM on Jun 16th 2005 by ryan

3. Ryan:

You missed the point -- see http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/whyitsucks.html -- which includes an example of my work that isn't "challenged."

Unfortunately, I can spot bad design a mile away; however, it's possible that "Denny's Bar" is an example they were using of bad design -- five colors of text is a bit much. Then again, "Bob's Blues" isn't a work of art.

BTW, this post and my previous post were written using Firefox -- and my first post didn't wrap and if this entry is run together, then there is a problem using Firefox.

Kind regards,

Posted at 4:22PM on Jun 16th 2005 by Vincent Flanders

4. Great presentation. Crap product and business.

Homesites churns out mediocre websites for people who don't know any better. As people become more experienced with the internet, this market will evaporate.

And BTW, this is not an innovation. How is this a venture opportunity? Am I naive, or is this concept a bit old to be at DEMO?

Perhaps the most important questions to ask are: 1) How long has Homestead been doing this? 2) Aren't they making money by now? 3) Why do they need more VC funding? 4) How many times will VC's fall for this concept?

Answers 1) Too long, 2) I guess not, 3) To lose more money, 4) Too often.

Posted at 4:22PM on Jun 16th 2005 by george

5. This irritates me so much! As a professional web developer, i'm tired of talking to people and when i tell them what i do, they say "oh i've made a web page". UGH! Everyone and their mom has made a crappy web page. These products are the bane of my existance. people should concentrate on doing what they do, and let us web developers make the sites for them.

Posted at 4:22PM on Jun 16th 2005 by jason

6. Vincent you are just talking whole lot of S... if you know what I mean. I have been doing design for a lot less time then you and I can get your head spinning with my eyes closed. Homestead offers template that are EASY TO USE for people that don't know much about programing and making top of the line web site alone. Some of the templates are great some or not so great, but then again people have different likes and dislikes. As for you my friend Vincent you should concentrated more ON YOUR SUCKY WORK then trying to make someone alse look bad.

Posted at 4:22PM on Jun 16th 2005 by Designer