Worst Websites of 2012

These links will take you to the contenders worst websites of 2008

After 18 years of writing about bad web design, you would think that people would know enough to stop. There are enough good books, templates and web design firms out there that you would think companies and organizations would have stumbled over at least one of them and fixed their site.

Nope. I guess I'm too much of an optimist <grin>.

This year's batch of sites is interesting. We have our obligatory horror story from hell at #1. Interestingly, it can only muster a #10 on our Worst Websites of 2012: Beyond the Pale.

Our #2 site is a very important example and sums up everything I've ever said. It doesn't make any difference how good you are as a company or how good your people are at what they do. If your website sucks, you'll lose credibility and customers.

1. The Afterlife – Worst Website Ever?

The Afterlife is a very bad website

WARNING: STROBE-LIKE EFFECTS COULD CAUSE SEIZURES

Yes, this site is listed as #10 in the Worst Websites of 2012: Beyond the Pale, but it's included here as a representative of the Over-The-Top-Website category that usually shows up in my annual lists.

Submitter's comments: I don't know what to say about this god-awful abomination of a website.

It has:

  • Ungodly amounts of animated GIFs.
  • It disables user scrolling and continuously scrolls upwards.
  • Has an excess of excess of angels.
  • There's a golden Jesus thing.
  • And more.

Vincent Flanders' comments: I think I've found the bottom of web design. The Web of Trust doesn't like this site at all, but for reasons of trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and child safety. I don't like it because it sucks more than any other site has ever sucked. Jesus didn't weep when he saw this site. You can't weep when you're eyes are burned out of your head.

Other comments #1: Is one allowed to say OMG! What is the point of that page? Where's the navigation? Where's the rest of the site? WTF! I didn't think it was possible to outDok Dokimos, but this one runs very close.

Other comments #2: I thought the supply of Orange Sunshine disappeared years ago…

Other comments #3: No; wait; I've got it! This is a real, insightful picture of web design hell.

Other comments #4: Why is it always the Christianity sites? Dokimos, this website, what site will come next? I don't recall part of the Ten Commandments saying "Create a website with more animated GIFS than pages on the internet and try to cause a seizure-starter within the web-page!!!" *Gulp.*

Other comments #5: There IS no navigation! There's only one <A> element in the entire page (I checked) and it doesn't have an href attribute. The Bible tells Christians to do all things for The Lord--but when it comes to websites, that doesn't mean monstrosities that make the viewer say "Oh, my God."

The Afterlife

The Afterlife

2. Don Swanson Racing School

Don Swanson Racing School is a bad website

This may be the most instructive website of all. "If you don't look like a pro, the people will go." I strongly suggest you read the commentary.

Submitter's comments: This new site for a high performance driving school makes me wonder if the techniques they teach are as out of date as their design savvy. They've managed to incorporate many of your website faux pas greatest hits: animated GIFs, centered text, (even centered bullet lists!), questionable color pallet (lime green text over mustard yellow text on black backgrounds), page dividers, contrast errors (dark blue text on background) and more. Makes me dizzy just looking at it:

Vincent Flanders' comments: When my first daughter turned 16, I wanted to send her to the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving to learn how to drive during bad weather, car chases and other extreme conditions common to Southern California (where we were living). Bob was a 1960's American Formula 1 driver—and there weren't a lot of them. I knew that his school could teach her everything she would need to know. While I knew his school was good, I discovered I couldn't afford it. Every once in a long while when I'm in a car with her during bad weather she reminds me by coyly asking, "Wasn't I supposed to go to a high-speed driving school?"

I'm sure Mr. Swanson's school can teach you what you need to know. I'm sure it's quite good. I'm also sure that I would never use his services after looking at his website.

Here's the easy way to review his site. Just compare his site with Bob Bondurant's.

Don Swanson Racing School

Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving

Which one looks like a professional organization? Which one makes you say, "Damn! I want to sign up!" As I often say, "If you don't look like a pro, the people will go."

Other comments: Hmm; it may even be a really good school. The problem is that a less than thoroughly professional image (as projected by one's website) implies to the uninformed visitor that the quality of the products and/or services may be less than thoroughly professional. 

A word about Bob Bondurant's school: My brother took training there and it is thoroughly professional; you can trust the instructors with your life and their website encourages this feeling. One thing is that you use their cars, not yours. That, however, is one of the reasons why it is so expensive.

Don Swanson Racing School

Don Swanson Racing School

3. hyperbubble

hyperbubble is a bad website

Submitter's comments: Here's a site meant to help promote the band hyperbubble.

Hyperbubble (official web site) combines Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN) and multiple pages that contain MMN to create fun, funky splash pages that guard users from ever finding their actual content. They've also never heard of text on the Internet and rely on images for gig announcements. Not that you'll ever find one.

Vincent Flanders' comments: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. It's a band site and they're allowed to be stupid. Fortunately, the music community has, in large part, stopped creating stupid websites. For example, the person who submitted U2's site back in 2000 said the following:

Although I LOVE U2! The site designer should be ASHAMED!

These guys have plenty of money to work with and the site just doesn't run properly and looks completely devoid of artistic merit… ( I know typically artists' sites are a little flashy but they also usually WORK ) In addition to the dreaded *mystery meat*… I find myself trapped, when I enlarge pictures as instructed, and when I attempt to enter the different *rooms* it hangs up and you have to click on the window to register then click exit to get out! VERY VERY POOR! Check it out!

When you go to U2's website today, it looks, for the most part, like a regular website. Especially when you get past the splash page.

You don't keep information away from your customers.

Other comments #1: This is actually worse than Mystery Meat Navigation. You can't see what the link is about until you see the URL at the bottom on your browser when you hover over it, or until you click the link.

Other comments #2: It's a shame when talented folks hide their work from their audience this way. This band has a great sense of style, which should be accessible on the front page.

Other comments #3: Oh hell no, I'm not even going to waste my time on this one. Please, two consecutive pages of nothing but symbols. Why should I go farther into this maze?

hyperbubble

hyperbubble

4. The Bombshell Manual of Style – MAY BE NSFW

The Bombshell Manual of Style is a bad website

MAY BE NSFW (Just another reminder)

Submitter's comments: This website is for Laren Stover's book, “The Bombshell Manual of Style,” and what a bomb it is. There is no navigation to speak of and you only progress forward through an incredibly annoying Flash with low-res graphics. God help you if you need to return to a previous section because you're going to need to drag all those panties off the screen and “walk” the little dog again.

Vincent Flanders' comments: I took the site's Bombshell Test and answered 9 questions correctly, which makes me a bombshell with va-va voom to spare.

Flash is as dead as Steve Jobs

The above graphic demonstrates the major flaw of this site. It's created in Flash. Flash is as dead as Steve Jobs. The graphics are poorly constructed and the site does nothing to make me want to explore further. If the site were created using HTML5 Canvas, we'd have designers wetting themselves over its brilliance. In Flash it sucks. Timing is everything.

Other comments: Everything on the site is pixelated and grainy. WHY?

MAY BE NSFW (Just a third reminder)

The Bombshell Manual of Style

MAY BE NSFW (Just a third reminder)

The Bombshell Manual of Style

5. Justine’s - NSFW And Could Cause Seizures

Justine’s is a bad website

Submitter's comments: I just saw a local TV restaurant review on this place and thought I'd check it out.  Interesting splash page, except that seems to be the whole site. Talk about Mystery Meat Navigation!

I checked out the link that says “Amazing,” and several of the patron comments about their restaurant are negative. I thought at first maybe they were toning down the background for the critic's quote page, but they didn't.  I guess I'm just not hip enough for this website.

Vincent Flanders' comments: This is a rare example of lose-lose-lose. We have Mystery Meat Navigation that isn't suitable to view at work and, if you do view it, might cause epileptic seizures. What are these people thinking? They're obviously not thinking about mobile users because I can't get past the first screen on my iPhone, which is PFS (Pretty Stupid) for a restaurant. Massive, massive FAIL.

Other comments #1: A quote from the "Amazing" page applies to the website too - "The staff was friendly, interested, and delighted - with each other". There's no thought given to the poor soul who might want to visit the place - there's no indication anywhere as to where Justine's actually IS!

Other comments #2: How completely fatuous, self-consumed and thoroughly useless can a website be? Next time think up something that doesn't make me feel like I need to clean my monitor with Lysol.

Other comments #3: I think "amazing" is supposed to be the 'tard page-- i.e., look at what these squares are saying about us. What impressed me was how much money they spent to make their website unreadable. White text with a movie playing in the background that has a lot of light skin tones and white clothes makes 'lots o' sense.

Justine's Restaurant – NSFW and possibly seizure inducing!

Justine's Restaurant – NSFW and possibly seizure inducing!

6. Feng Shui Interior Design

Feng Shui Interior Design is a bad website

Qi whiz.

Submitter's comments: This is a site of a local woman who deals in Feng Shui decorating amongst a million other things that are all listed on the same site in no particular order.  I really like the “Clear (your) Clutter” advertisement on the right column of the page.  I wish it worked.

I thought Feng Shui decorating was about proper placement of things.  It's hard to find my Qi on this site.

Vincent Flanders' comments: Qi whiz, I'm always losing my Qis.

The submenus on many/most/all the pages are impossible to read. Some pages are centered and some pages are flush left (Interior Design), we've got rainbow dividers which, thank God, are not animated.While I like color around me, there's just a little too much color on the site.

If this is what websites should look like when they're Feng Shui'd, then we're all Wang Chunged (tonight. [Sorry for the 80's musical reference.]).

Other comments #1: In-town consultations yet I have to Google your damn phone number to figure out where the F**K; you are located? EPIC FAIL.

Other comments #2: Whatever one may think of the content, I think that this is a perfect example of one's website being rather amateurish, and not doing a good job of representing one's product or service.

Feng Shui Interior Design

Feng Shui Interior Design

7. Rhode Island College Campus Store

Rhode Island College Campus Store is a bad website

Submitter's comments: Unfortunately, I am submitting the recent redesign of my college's campus store site. Every student in the college uses this site to find the necessary course material for each semester and, frankly, this site is atrocious (example: small blue links on a red background).

Hopefully, some outside opinion will make them consider another update!

Vincent Flanders' comments: I'm hoping that the garish colors used here are the school colors. Even if they are the colors, you don't have to use them on a bookstore. I don't know what the relationship is between this school and RISD (Rhode Island School of Design—a Daily Sucker ten years ago), but somebody needs to help out this campus store.

A quick look at the home page found at least one typo (“locatedon”). Did I mention that the colors suck and the text doesn't look like it's styled with CSS (text rubs up next to box borders), but there are two stylesheets. Both of them suck too.

Other comments: Without much work, this site could look pretty nice. I think the color palette is fine in itself, but is harmed by poor styling for the rest of the page elements. Really, it is the styling (or lack thereof) that is this site's downfall. 

Oddly, it seems to me that someone came up with a basic "skin" and some other(s) with less talent and/or imagination handled the styling and content.

Rhode Island College Campus Store

Rhode Island College Campus Store

8. Pacific Northwest X-Ray

Pacific Northwest X-Ray is a bad website

Submitter's comments: This one reminds me of old GeoCities sites from about 1997. It's painful to look at, thanks to the total lack of contrast (black on dark blue? yellow on greenish?), the blinking things make me want to hurt my browser and they have no clue what “anti-aliasing” could possibly mean, nor why something anti-aliased for a white background should not be put on that blue … stuff.

It's quite a large site, and every page is more hideous than the last. There are imagemaps for no good reason, graphicized text to make sure search engines can't see the navigation and things in the source code that make me cringe…empty links galore, that kind of thing. And these people are selling to multi-million-dollar clients.

Vincent Flanders' comments: Normally, I might say “Oh, nobody uses their website because they have a catalog and that's what people use. Wrong. They have a “No printed catalog is available” message at the bottom of the page. Oh, they underscore the message—which is wrong because only links should be underscored. The copyright is from 1997-2012. I think the submitter is right. The site is stuck in 1997.

This is a real company with a really bad website—one that is awfully close to being a Loon Website.

Other comments #1: Ooooh.....looks like Vincent got under someone's skin; it seems that someone got his feelings hurt. The little diatribe is thoroughly childish, yet still very entertaining in an amateurish sort of way.

Other comments #2: I know someone who buys and approves this type of product. This person now knows of the level of professionalism displayed by the people behind this site, and will be taking it into account (and informing others) when making purchasing decisions.

Other comments #3: hahahahahahahahahaha! If they had a catalog printed, and it looked as crappy as this website, they would raise holy hell with their printer. But, this site is their PERSONAL pile of poo, so nobody is allowed to complain.

If this is how they take criticism, then it makes me call into question what sort of quality control they have for their products,

Also, right now, if you Google in search of them or their products, you have about a 50% chance of getting the rant page instead of the home page. Way to impress your customers!

Vincent: The site is trying to be cute by redirecting folks who click their link on this site. If you want to see the site:

1. Copy this url – http://www.pnwx.com/index.php
2. Open a new tab or window in your browser
3. Paste in the URL
4. Hit the ENTER key

Or if you want to read the diatribe - Pacific Northwest X-ray. I haven't read it because I've heard it all before <grin>.

The site is trying to be cute by redirecting folks who click their link on this site. If you want to see the site:

1. Copy this url http://www.pnwx.com/index.php
2. Open a new tab or window in your browser
3. Paste in the URL
4. Hit the ENTER key

Or if you want to read the diatribe - Pacific Northwest X-ray. I haven't read it because I've heard it all before <grin>.

9. Who is Pennyjuice?

Who is Pennyjuice is a  bad website

Submitter's comments: This site is a rainbow-licious flavor of suckiness. Yikes! And thanks for your service to the Internet :-)

Vincent Flanders' comments: This is an internal page for a company that makes “100% blended fruit juice concentrate that is specifically designed for childcare centers, preschools, Head Starts, etc.” Since many of those in their target audience are too young to read, I don't understand the need for rainbow colors, centered text and lots of ALL CAP TEXT mixed in with regular text. I doubt the real target audience (administrators and purchasing agents) appreciates the design and layout. Well, I hope they don't appreciate it.

Fortunately, in the HTML version there doesn't seem to be any animated GIFs, but in the Flash version of the site there is at least one animation. The Flash version doesn't really need to exist. The HTML version would be sufficient—except for the reasons cited above.

Interestingly, the above page was given a 95 by Yslow (but a 78 by Page Speed). The back end seems to be in better shape than what the public sees.

As a lark, I did a quick search for [juice company] and the first result I clicked was a sucker on the high-end of the spectrum: Odwalla. It's an expensive Flash-based site that wastes your time.

I clicked on Naked Juice and the site is infinitely better than Pennyjuice or Odwalla.

Who is Pennyjuice?

Who is Pennyjuice?

10. Leoneck Hotel

Leoneck Hotel is a bad website

Submitter's comments: Needs more cowbell!

Vincent Flanders' comments: I thought the person submitting this site was joking about the cowbells. No. The site uses the late, not-so-great Flash as a design tool. They have a bare-bones —and I mean bare-bones —mobile version which is more effective because it just gives you the room rates and a reservation page. However, if you click on the hotel image, it takes you to the German language page.

The animated cow that follows your cursor on the Flash site is annoying —and amateurish. The "follow the arrows" navigation is a poor choice. Mousing over some of the links activates the cowbell sound. Seriously.

On the other hand, I really like the pastel coloring and the impressionistic look of the pages.

Other comments #1: I don't know why you don't see more sites with cow head cursors.

Other comments #2: Let's get drunk and tip over the web site!

Other comments #3: It's like a really bad video adventure game. If I want to make reservations at a hotel, I don't want to go on a quest for the clerk.

Leoneck Hotel

Leoneck Hotel

11. Oscar Bruch

Oscar Bruch is a bad website

Submitter's comments: Having attended the texass state fair, I came away with some things to look up… ride manufacturers!

I think that without a question Andernoch/Bruch/Düsseldorf comes in first. I visited their site and found an amazing number of things to be disgustingly scary.

The content area is about 90px.

On pretty much every page you view there is sort of band of grayed-out pictures. One would expect this to be a visual relief; however, it is actually MORE navigation. So, in addition to the existing navigation, there is also entire separate unlabeled navigation bar. And under this navigation bar on select pages there is another navigation bar. Holy sh*t! These guys just can't get enough navigation.

On top of the poor usability, this site is like Photoshop-land! Every single page is a veritable carpet bomb of poorly airbrushed images and badly designed logos; this site is the gift that keeps on taking. I'm sure you'll continue accidentally locating new pages in this heap of crap.

Vincent Flanders' comments: The grayed out pictures are actually Mystery Meat Navigation, a term I'm proud to have coined.

As far as I can tell, the only way to find their content is to go to the sitemap and click either “Bilder” or “Technik” under the different rides.

This German site sucks. Or as Google Translate says, “Diese Website saugt.”

Other comments: But it's so artistic! Imagine the site owner telling the underling "I designed the main page for my site now make everything fit." Years ago on Skype I met a 'webmaster' who thought the job of the webmaster was to keep the visitor looking for items on his site for as long as possible. A few short color-coded, non-link title strips with applicable links to pages under them would improve the navigation immensely.

Oscar Bruch

Oscar Bruch

12. Futuro-House

Futuro-House is a bad website

Submitter's comments: This website sucks.

Vincent Flanders' comments: Just another example of an Over-the-top Website.

Futuro-House

13. High Calling Cockers

High Calling Cockers is a  bad website

Submitter's comments: I came across this site while searching for a bad website to write a paper on for a school project.

Vincent Flanders' comments: Well you certainly found a bad website to discuss. Great timing. On Saturday I took my grandson to the Puyallup (WA) Dog Show, which was his first dog show. Show dogs love children and the Bull Mastiffs seemed to love him the most. They're a little bigger than your average cocker.

This site is a little worse than the American Spaniel Club website. OK, it's a helluva lot worse. Just because your site features American Cocker Spaniels, doesn't give you the right to stuff the American flag all over your website any more than a company with the word “Global” in its title has the right to use a globe on its logo. For God's sake, even the U.S. Marines have enough respect not to plaster flags on their site like cheap handbills.

We have the usual problems, with the exception that there aren't any animated GIFs. On the other hand, the photography is top notch. I'm sure the dogs are top notch, but it's difficult to want to click any of the links to find out. I believe every page has a different “design.” A new page does not get a new look.

Other comments #1: The only thing good about this site is the dogs (they are great); trash the rest. And no, I don't want to install some unnecessary plugin you think I need.

Other comments #2: I originally read that headline as "High Calling Hookers", and was slightly disappointed a second later to realize we are not reviewing an escort site ... ;-p

High Calling Cockers

High Calling Cockers

14. Valley Isle Aquatics

 Isle Aquatics is a bad website

Submitter's comments: I was researching website design for a project I am doing and stumbled across this website. I'm not sure where to look because my gaze keeps going from one paragraph to another trying to figure out where to look as they all seem to compete for attention.

Vincent Flanders' comments: It's your stereotypic crappy-looking website. A blind man would be offended by the color scheme. Check out the subpages, especially the “Small But Important Details” page.

I've often asked myself, “Why can't we see that our web pages suck?” I've never figured out the answer to this question. The closest I've come is an article “Why can we predict other people's behavior more accurately than our own?” To paraphrase, when we view other people's behavior we consider the context. With our own behavior, we don't.

In the world of web design, we can see other people's mistakes, but not our own, because we're too close and too familiar with our own pages. We can use our critical eye on another site, but our critical eye goes blind on our site.

As I typed the link, Satori hit me. The existence of bad web design can be explained by the following:

 Isle Aquatics is a bad website

What Vincent Flanders and visitors to Web Pages That Suck see.

A good-looking website

What the site owner sees.

 Isle Aquatics is a bad website

What visitors, customers and competitors see.

Valley Isle Aquatics is a bad website

What the designer, employees and family members of the site owner see.

Other comments #1: Basically, everyone is afraid to tell the emperor he has no clothes. And the one kid brave enough to point out the emperor is walking around with his dinger flapping in the wind? Ostracized at best, executed—or the corporate equivalent, fired—at worst.

Other comments #2: Learning to swim is a great idea, and teaching folks to do so is even better. As with scuba diving, the thing that is often overlooked is that I am entrusting my life to you in the process. 

With a site that looks this unprofessional, I am not even going to hesitate to consider trusting you with my life. I will go to the YMCA or some other similar place.

Valley Isle Aquatics

Valley Isle Aquatics

15. OCR

OCR is a bad website

Submitter's comments: OCR is one of the big exam boards in the UK and they've just launched a re-design that makes their website essentially unusable. It has random design elements, inconsistency as a theme and a bizarre sideways scrolling navigation/mangling control. I've been in the software business for 20 years and this is probably the worst combination of a bunch of awful ideas I've ever seen!

Vincent Flanders' comments: If I remember correctly, some well-known / published author / web authority is the father of this navigational monstrosity. I'm sure it's a guy who created it because no woman is this illogical.

Visitors have to work to use the navigation. If they have to work, then they have to think. PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO THINK. Doesn't anyone remember Steve Krug's web design best seller "Don't Make Me Think"?

Someone will say, "Well, it's this way for mobile users." No it's not. OCR.org doesn't have a mobile or tablet version of its website. Using the arrow navigation on a tablet or iPhone is an awful experience.

Other comments #1: Wow, I've been following WPTS for almost a decade and this has to be a top all-time sucker. I see the logic in how this was done, but it doesn't work. It is not usable.

Other comments #2: Good thing I don't have to deal with examination boards any more, so I don't have to deal with monstrosities like this.

Other comments #3: At least there are no contrast problems; it seems very easy to read. The sideways navigation is just the wrong idea; it goes too much against the grain of typical expectation. Please make your site…intuitive.

Other comments #4: I have a wide screen and this site is wider. How? Why?

OCR

OCR

16. Cardiff Contemporary

Cardiff Contemporary is a  bad website

Submitter's comments: I learned about the site in a local council publication as a ‘portal' to what's happening in Cardiff. So, I went to visit it.

This site is a complete turn-off right at the home page. It is so poor, starting with Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN), that I didn't even bother delving any deeper.

Vincent Flanders' comments: I'm surprised by the MMN. Normally, when you click one of the mystery links, you're taken to a complex page—often Flash-based. Nope. You're taken to a strictly text-based page. Huh? Why couldn't Cardiff Contemporary use a simple menu for navigation? Of images that were labeled?

Oh, a really serious mistake that's uncalled for has to do with clicking the logo on the subpages. It takes back to the Mystery Meat home page—where you have to mouse over the “X's” once again.

Other comments #1: How ironic. With reference to the following opening line from one of the pages: 

What is it about hard times that they seem to provoke a burst of creativity?

Other parts of the community may have taken part in the creative burst, but whoever built the website seems to have missed out. In my mind, "creative" has always meant taking a fresh look at a familiar circumstance or bringing out something completely new. True creativity (again, in my mind) is inherently understandable and intuitive, and is never difficult. As well it must never, ever be mistaken as simply a new opportunity for self-expression.

Other comments #2: This explains it all: "developed in partnership with Cardiff's visual art, design and architecture communities."

Cardiff Contemporary

Cardiff Contemporary

17. Military Corruption

Military Corruption is a bad website

Submitter's comments: This is a viable candidate—it's actually been mentioned many times in the national media. But the actual content is harder to read than a circa '05 MySpace page.

Vincent Flanders' comments: Many people have said “Military Intelligence” is an oxymoron. I don't think anyone ever said “Military Corruption” is an oxymoron. Then again, you can put almost any organization's name in front of the word “corruption” and it makes sense.

This is just another Over-The-Top Website where nobody in their right mind is going to believe a word that's said simply because of the site's look.

If you have an OTTW like this one, make it look like Pinterest. Their design is over-the-top, but it looks like a normal site so it's not an Over-The-Top Website. I know it sounds confusing, but it isn't.

Military Corruption

Military Corruption

18. Teacup Pigs Full Grown

Teacup Pigs Full Grown is a bad website

Submitter's comments: A nomination for the Worst Web Page EVER!!

Vincent Flanders' comments: Not sure if it's the worst web page ever, but it certainly is the worst page today.

I don't understand the light yellow text that runs throughout the page. Are they trying to stuff keywords? Are they trying to talk about their product? It's in English so you'd think I know, but I don't.

Other comments: I cannot pretend to understand what, if anything, the site is actually trying to accomplish. Still, I don't understand Polish, cannot abide such obvious keyword stuffing, and am getting a bad headache, so I will leave it at that.

Teacup Pigs Full Grown

Teacup Pigs Full Grown

19. Tie: Cloud 9 Walkers and Colorado Ranger Horse Association

Cloud 9 Walkers

Cloud 9 Walkers is a bad website

Horsesh*t isn't just what comes out of a horse's backside.

Submitter's comments: The sad thing is, these are most likely very nice people who just don't have a clue about how to organize their information and present it in an appealing way.

Vincent Flanders' comments: It's interesting. I can go from months without suggestions for two similar businesses and then…bam! A couple of days ago the Daily Sucker was Colorado Ranger Horse Association and today Cloud 9 Walkers shows up. What's interesting about horse owners / lovers is their love of beautiful horses and ugly websites. Here are a few more I've posted about: :Horse RentalsLightning Bar Equine ServicesAll-Star Horse FarmLake Glendale Stables Equestrian Center and Castlewood Stables.

I realize the simplest unit of a website is a web page, but you don't have to put everything on one page.

Other comments #1: It is amazing that the folks who love their animals and take such perfect care of them would see this site as an acceptable showcase for their beloved friends. 

Somehow, I am led to wonder if this is simply an enthusiast site that is created for the folks who are already a part of the group. That would explain the apparent lack of interest in creating a more attractive site.

Other comments #2: It is amazing that the folks who love their animals and take such perfect care of them would see this site as an acceptable showcase for their beloved friends.

Somehow, I am led to wonder if this is simply an enthusiast site that is created for the folks who are already a part of the group. That would explain the apparent lack of interest in creating a more attractive site.

Other comments #3: So…

  • Comic Sans
  • Epic vertical page stretch
  • Videos and large images on main page
  • Old-school background
  • Blinking text

The '90s all over again, though with a modern twist.

Cloud 9 Walkers

Cloud 9 Walkers

 

Colorado Ranger Horse Association

Colorado Ranger Horse Association is a bad website

Submitter's comments: This website is truly terrible. The only redeeming quality is the flashing stars in the background (not).

Vincent Flanders' comments: Horses are beautiful animals. Websites about horses often look and smell like horse droppings. I've featured other massively sucky horse websites in the past: Horse Rentals,Lightning Bar Equine ServicesAll-Star Horse FarmLake Glendale Stables Equestrian Center and Castlewood Stables. It looks like people who love beautiful horses love ugly web design.

Today's sucker is horrible. I love the History page. Can we make the text smaller in size and leading? Jeez.

Other comments #1: Is it any shock that the builder used PageMill (something even more dead than Flash and Steve Jobs)? Perhaps someone is secretly resurrecting these horrible sites from the 90's just to cause mayhem.

Other comments #2: I don't know what it is about animal lovers - rescue sites, breeding sites, they all suck! It's like they want all the love they feel to pour out of their website and grab you, suck you in, and never let you escape! Pure hell!

Other comments #3: Take a look at the History page. I love it! An abrupt change from centered text in one unreadable font, to justified text in a different unreadable font. Who could ask for anything more?

Colorado Ranger Horse Association

Colorado Ranger Horse Association