By: Ako Uranus
Does anyone remember a time when guestbooks were ways of
complimenting people and/or telling them what they could do
to improve their page? Probably not. That time has long
since past and now guestbooks have no real substance in the
entries. They've become more like link pages and flame
collections and you know what? It's downright annoying.
Guestbook hopping, as many have dubbed it, is a real pain
in the HTML neck for website owners. I should know, as
I've had *plenty* personal experience. This new trend is
especially bad in the Sailormoon Web Community. Now, truth
be known, I'm guilty of doing this (then again, so is 85%
of the SM Web and don't even try to deny it), but I have
since seen the error in my ways. So, before I ramble on
anymore, let's take a look at the different methods of
guestbook hopping, shall we?
"I really liked your page! It had good info and pictures!
Come to my page! [Huge 300x500 banner here]" is probably
what you'll see at virtually every site you go to. Oh
sure, it varies in the wording, but the same message is
sent. And most of the time this is what the one person
signs in every guestbook they encounter. What makes this
terriblly funny is that they'll put this on a site that
doesn't have anything but "My favorite is Mercury" and not
think twice. If they think it will give them hits, then
they'll do it. And the sad part is that they'll probably
get what they're hoping for.
In the same way, just a banner and "Visit my site" are
just as, if not more, frustrating. Not only is it a
pathetic attempt to publicize one's site, it makes the
signer look really bad as well. But would you really care
how much of an idiot you looked like if your counter was
skyrocketing? Survey says..no!
Finally, we come to my personal favorite: guestbook
flaming a.k.a the most annoying and the biggest entry waste
of all. "Your site is the most awful I've ever been to and
you need to print it out and burn it before I do it for
you, you ugly reject!!! And don't forget to visit my
homepage!" Yes, as scary as it may seem, that does happen
on a regular basis. And then there's a guestbook war,
where the owner yells at the offender, so they go get a ton
of people to flame the guestbook, and the owner retaliates,
and it goes on, and on, and on...
Now I'm sure you're wondering why the guestbook owners
don't just delete the entries. It's quite simple; these
things make up 3/4 of their book, and it would look bad for
their reputation if they only had 4 entries rather than 16.
It would also look like they rigged their counter because
the number of entries wouldn't match the number of hits.
So until the Sailormoon comunnity cleans up its act,
Guestworld, Dreambook, and every other provider should
probably use the concept of having a link exchange and and
guestbook all in one as a new advertising campaign.
Comments on this article can be sent to: AkoUranus.
