Transmission

August 21, 2001 1:23 PM

Transmission - this is the best (storming use of bog standard - works in Netscape - javascript) site I've seen in ages (via Shift via Play with the Machine) (warning: I'm no web designer, so you trendy people in black out there are free to tell me this is tired old cliche).
posted by andrew cooke (27 comments total)

Supagroovycoolyessiree!
posted by Marquis at 1:30 PM on August 21, 2001

great navigation system! It automatically figured out there was nothing I wanted to read there and tricked me into closing the wrong window and thus the entire site. Very cutting edge AI. Actually I liked the looks of it at first, but it was too complicated for my feeble brain to master.
posted by cell divide at 1:32 PM on August 21, 2001

My JS debugger popped up about 10 JS errors and then a humming sound emanated from the speakers. I then closed all of the windows and vowed to never go back. Very cutting edge indeed. Kind of like those zero population folks... make web sites that are so unusable and unnavigable that the web will soon die of disuse. Good thinking
posted by gunr at 1:36 PM on August 21, 2001

These folks have a great future...in online porn.
posted by MrBaliHai at 1:37 PM on August 21, 2001

In IE 5.5 it crashed pretty quickly for me. Might try again, but probably won't. I think you're onto something, MrB.
posted by gimli at 1:40 PM on August 21, 2001

huh, worked fine for me. In fact, I even liked it. Very innovative use of DOM manipulation, even if it was bound to cause all kinds of cross-browers problems. can't blame them for trying.
posted by Hackworth at 1:41 PM on August 21, 2001

no, hackworth. anyone whose site fails in any aspect must immediately be condemned as idiots who are ruining the web. tolerance of a so-called "trying a new thing" is not allowed. try to keep this in mind next time.
posted by chrisege at 1:46 PM on August 21, 2001

works best (fastest) in opera so far, I might add. IE is very slow, and netscape 4.x is tolerable. the nav drop-down doesn't even show up in ns6.1. FYI.
posted by Hackworth at 1:48 PM on August 21, 2001

yes, chrisege, I personally think it's witchcraft. Burn em at the stake! Then serve bbq!



mmmmmmmm...bbq
posted by Hackworth at 1:50 PM on August 21, 2001

Netscape 6.1: Looked cool, but I couldn't find the content and it closed my other browser windows. That pissed me off.
posted by mrbula at 1:54 PM on August 21, 2001

Didn't crash, but there was nothing interesting to read, and even if there was it'd be too small, the graphic design was very average to note.
posted by tiaka at 1:54 PM on August 21, 2001

An apologist would say "there's room enough on the web for everybody", but I wouldn't personally let a site like that into mine.
posted by wenham at 1:55 PM on August 21, 2001

Yaiiie, hold your fire!

"The graphic design was average" -- check out the gallery by Phuct (I think that's his name); very cool "pornograffitti". Reminded me of the Gorillaz - which may or may not be a good thing.

I found Transmission, as my expletive implied above, to be both good-looking, possessed with content, and above all, different. And while some of you may be content to maintain Praystation as your singular source for design originality in a world of Georgia, Verdana, transparencies and ooh! sentences without capital letters, I for one am willing to applaud a site that does something I haven't seen before, regardless of its [several] flaws. The Second Coming of Metafilter it ain't, but ban it from the 'Net? I mean honestly!

Thanks for the link, Andrew.
posted by Marquis at 2:06 PM on August 21, 2001

I wish it hadn't crashed me. That's the weird thing with these damn "websites", it's like opening a design magazine and having it blow up in your hand.
posted by D at 2:18 PM on August 21, 2001

this rawks. very fun (ie 5.5, win2k).
posted by o2b at 2:23 PM on August 21, 2001

The site didn't give me an idea of what was worth staying for before it began giving me reasons to leave.
posted by wenham at 2:26 PM on August 21, 2001

Resized my carefully balanced windows - check.
Generated unrequested popups - check.
Spurred a plug-in without my request/knowledge - check.
Completely bogged my system for longer than 5 secs. - check.

Boldface, all caps note warning me not to consider visiting the site ever again - check.
posted by Dreama at 2:35 PM on August 21, 2001

Despite the entertaining posts against it the site gmv. Nice link.

it's like opening a design magazine and having it blow up in your hand

If only they could make a pop-music magazine that did the very same and give it away free. Now that'd be progress. I'd bribe them to put a 10 second delay on the mechanism by taking out a first-page advert. Coming soon: Exploding TV's for anyone who watches more than an hours worth of adverts per day.
posted by Kino at 2:46 PM on August 21, 2001

I feel it worth mentioning that after this site slowed my system to a crawl, all of my new IE windows are now opening at a size of 50x50 or, leaving ALMOST enough room on them for the maximize button, and no content whatsoever.

Boo.
posted by Jairus at 2:46 PM on August 21, 2001

Problematic. Resized my windows, and in doing so, left them still later resized whenever I shift-opened windows (which I tend to do). Good art, maybe, but bad design (if you're of the mind that design ought to be usable.)

That said, I wish I had time to keep up with all these sites. I wouldn't have minded terribly browsing through this one further, but it seems every "design/portfolio/magazine/etc" site presents the user with navigational challenges, rather than aids. And while it's always an enjoyable experience to figure them out, it's fairly time-consuming.

ie. I have no patience, unfortunately.
posted by fishfucker at 2:52 PM on August 21, 2001

Ah, I see now. The menu doesn't show up in NS6.1, which destroys any chance of actually accessing the site...
posted by mrbula at 3:38 PM on August 21, 2001

This site hates me.
posted by gleemax at 3:51 PM on August 21, 2001

worked fast and okay with me (opera 5.12; cable)... a few scrolling problems.... alas, nothing of interest.
posted by lotsofno at 4:59 PM on August 21, 2001

I guess I shouldn't post a link just before going to bed if I want to reply to comments! Anyways, nice to know it was indeed different. I suppose this puts me in the "art doesn't have to be functional or useful (or universal)" camp...
posted by andrew cooke at 12:20 AM on August 22, 2001

No need to throw a fit over a web site... I mean it is an experimental e-zine, and they are, by nature, not built to the Web standards that we've known to easily grasp.

That said, I didn't like the site— not merely because it has wacky JS and DHTML, but that it is boring and didn't make an effort to hold my interest beyond playing with lots of pointless pop-ups. A personal creed of mine is to not force anyone's browser to take the form of my own visions. If what you want to present isn't flexible enough to fit in a web page, or even within a Flash document, you're in the wrong medium.

Transmission isn't a total waste, but it has far too many web hijinx than I'm willing to put up with (and I visit SurfStation regularly). It's "Flashturbation" without even using Flash. I don't expect every Web site to be a navigational dream (nice totalitarian position there, chrisege!), but when a site starts screwing with—or even disabling—people's windows and tools they use to navigate (the toolbar, cursor, key commands, etc.), they should expect a lot of irritation from their visitors.

1st time poster, BTW...
posted by Down10 at 11:30 PM on August 24, 2001

Ahem... SurfStation.
posted by Down10 at 11:33 PM on August 24, 2001