+mrp Posted June 27, 2002 Share Posted June 27, 2002 I just visited the page for a new cache in my area(Happy Cachin'), and was greated with a loud distorted squeal and a childs voice saying something incoherent. (I think it said "I'm in", but I'm not sure.) In general, I don't like my web pages to make noise, and this noise was so loud and obnoxious that I'm hesitant to look at it again. I'm even a little wary of looking at any other cache pages right now. I tend to think that the cheesy effects like sounds and funky backgrounds tend to detract from the whole experience. Jeremy went to a lot of trouble to make a site with a very clean, consistent interface, and these pages make it look awful. I've never see an instance where all this imparted useful information. At best it sometimes makes for an interesting surprise. So, I think that the use of sounds/backgrounds should at least be strongly discouraged, and maybe banned altogether. What do you all think? -- Mitch (I've already emailed the owner of the first cache mentioned, and asked her/him to remove the sound.) Link to comment
+Jamie Z Posted June 27, 2002 Share Posted June 27, 2002 P, Mostly I'm in agreeance (is that a word?) with you. Sounds on web pages are usually annoying. I checked out the "Happy Cachin'" page, and although I, too found the sound unnecessary, and bordering on annoying, I was clearly able to understand that the child says "Happy Cachin'." Other folks (Markwell and the other site you cited) have used the sounds in a way that doesn't seem to scrape fingernails on the chalkboard. In any case, as long as the sound isn't playing some long song which I can't turn off, a second or two intro sound is acceptable in my mind. Imagine showing your small child the Happy Cachin' page. The child would probably find the sound quite amusing, and might request that you play the sound repeatedly. In some people's eyes... that's a good thing. So, to each his own. Jamie Link to comment
+Clan Ferguson Posted June 27, 2002 Share Posted June 27, 2002 I agree that if sounds are short and backgrounds not to loud in there own right I guess it would be okay. But I disagree, not everyone has a broadband connection. (sorry but I still use dial up, broadband is still too expensive for checking e-mail and caches once or twice a week.)Sounds, excessive graphics, flash annimations are the main reasons I don't do much web surfing. Cache On!! James "Big Dog" -Clan Ferguson Link to comment
+mrp Posted June 27, 2002 Author Share Posted June 27, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Clan Ferguson:..... But I disagree, not everyone has a broadband connection. (sorry but I still use dial up, broadband is still too expensive for checking e-mail and caches once or twice a week.)Sounds, excessive graphics, flash annimations are the main reasons I don't do much web surfing. I'm guilty of using a flash animation on one of my cache pages. But I just checked, and it comes in at a few bytes over 4K. I doubt I could have gotten that kind of compression with an animated GIF of similar size. Most flash is a lot larger, but they also do annoying things like sound and complicated bitmaps. I'll admit that it really doesn't add anything to my cache page either, but I did my best to make it wimsical and unobtrusive. I think that part of the reason that the sound on the Happy Cachin' page is so annoying to me, is that they use a WAV file, which I don't think it playing properly on my Mac. I've listened to it several times, and I still can't hear what the little girl (boy) is saying. -- Mitch Link to comment
+Moore9KSUcats Posted June 27, 2002 Share Posted June 27, 2002 Frankly, the sounds are annoying. It tends to slow down the load (even though we have a cable modem), and sometimes I just abort the page load. Just a funny sidenote, though... the second page that had the link to it, when my dog heard the computer barking, she started barking, and went to the window to see if there was a strange dog in the area! Link to comment
+Moore9KSUcats Posted June 27, 2002 Share Posted June 27, 2002 Frankly, the sounds are annoying. It tends to slow down the load (even though we have a cable modem), and sometimes I just abort the page load. Just a funny sidenote, though... the second page that had the link to it, when my dog heard the computer barking, she started barking, and went to the window to see if there was a strange dog in the area! Link to comment
+LarsThorwald Posted June 27, 2002 Share Posted June 27, 2002 I find them extremely annoying. You never expect them, who knows what volume your speakers are set at. WHAM. Let's lose 'em! Charlie "One should never begin a journey by heading in the wrong direction." Link to comment
+rdw Posted June 27, 2002 Share Posted June 27, 2002 I use the Proxomitron, which somebody suggested a few months ago in these forums. It can be set to kill just about any webpage audio. It will display a link to the sound if you want it to. Proxomitron can kill pop-ups, frames, tables, backgrounds, javascript, animated GIFs, flash animations, and much more. You can customize it to do almost anything. It's free too. In the end, I don't care whether webpages have sounds or not, because I'll never hear it anyways. rdw Link to comment
LazyLeopard Posted June 28, 2002 Share Posted June 28, 2002 quote:I tend to think that the cheesy effects like sounds and funky backgrounds tend to detract from the whole experience.Yep. With you on that one. At least we don't have to deal with JavaScript any more though. quote:So, I think that the use of sounds/backgrounds should at least be strongly discouraged, and maybe banned altogether.Mostly they rely on browsers doing something sensible with broken HTML, and broken HTML should definitely be discouraged because it makes it more likely that some folks won't be able to look at the page at all... Purrs... LazyLeopard http://www.lazyleopard.org.uk Link to comment
+Moosiegirl Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 I think most sounds on ANY kind of web page are annoying at best. IMHO if you want to put a sound on any kind of web page, you should be polite enough to make it OPTIONAL (ie., put a play bar in and let the user decide. I do, however, think there is an intriguing possibility for sounds on cache pages ... if you place either a real or a virtual cache in an area where endangered birds are located, wouldn't it be neat to be able to place the bird's song on it, so that people would know what to listen for if they are not birders? We have a wonderful preserve system where I live, and as we've wandered them, I've often wondered if I might be hearing the endangered birds when I hear an unfamiliar song. Happy Trails! Candy Candy (moosiegirl) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CentralTexasGeocachers/ Link to comment
+Moosiegirl Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 I think most sounds on ANY kind of web page are annoying at best. IMHO if you want to put a sound on any kind of web page, you should be polite enough to make it OPTIONAL (ie., put a play bar in and let the user decide. I do, however, think there is an intriguing possibility for sounds on cache pages ... if you place either a real or a virtual cache in an area where endangered birds are located, wouldn't it be neat to be able to place the bird's song on it, so that people would know what to listen for if they are not birders? We have a wonderful preserve system where I live, and as we've wandered them, I've often wondered if I might be hearing the endangered birds when I hear an unfamiliar song. Happy Trails! Candy Candy (moosiegirl) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CentralTexasGeocachers/ Link to comment
+mrp Posted June 30, 2002 Author Share Posted June 30, 2002 I just around to looking at the page on a windoze box, and it isn't nearly as garbled or annoying, but still doesn't add much to the experience. -- Mitch Link to comment
+st_richardson Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 Sounded like a wolf whistle followed by a child saying "Happy Caching". Volume was fine for me. If it is too loud, I suggest checking your volume settings. I also encourage the use of the mute option on your computer if you don't like unexpected sounds. Link to comment
skydiver Posted July 1, 2002 Share Posted July 1, 2002 If your running MS Internet Explorer 6.0 (this might be possible in earlier versions too), go to Tools/Internet Options/Advanced, and scroll down to Multimedia, and uncheck "Play sounds in webpages". Or not ... I just set that setting, and restarted the computer (just in case), and I still hear the annoying whistle and "Happy Caching" sound. That sucks. --------------------------------------- Friends don't let friends NOT geocache. --------------------------------------- [This message was edited by skydiver on July 01, 2002 at 01:33 PM.] Link to comment
Recommended Posts