CAUGHT Home Page

Caught is the Consortium Against Unnecessary Graphics and Hypertext Tags. Here is our manifesto:

1. The ML in HTML stands for Markup Language. As such, constructions like <center> and <blink> are abominations against God and man.
2. The data are the things that matter. This should be presented cleanly and with a minimum of unnecessary adornment.
3. Time spent working on the background to a web page is wasted time that is lost to your life forever.
4. Bandwidth is precious. Don't waste it with big ugly graphics that add no content.
5. A fast loading web page is a virtuous web page.
6. The phenomenon of the so-called "World Wide Wait" is not due to any slowdown in the Internet, but due to larger, less useful graphics to download on Web pages.

Commentary

This does not mean that all graphics are bad. Sometimes they are very helpful. For example, the LA Freeway Speed Map obviously would lose most of its value without the graphic. In this case, the graphic should be as low resolution as possible without inhibiting the transfer of useful information. Also, the images are often the data we're interested in, such as JPL's planetary mission images (although they could stand to lose the lame frames crap).

Another example of a "bad" web site, is, as of July, 1997, the Wells Fargo Bank web site. It takes several minutes to load over 28.8, and there's nothing there that wouldn't be just as well served with a big <H1>Wells Fargo</H1> and the list presented at the bottom of the page. Note that in recent months this site has gotten much better.

Some sites are truly atrocious. In order to recognize truly outstanding web sites that epitomize what CAUGHT is fighting against, we award monthly the CAUGHT in the Act prize. Send in your suggestions. Note, we can't guarantee that these sites are especially bad right now, but trust me, at the time they won the award, they were truly... deserving.

One thing we hate is a hypocrite. If we hear of anyone displaying the Stupid Puce Ribbon while violating the manifesto, their site will be duly noted.

A separate award should go to unmitigated audacity. You may have come here by a link from ZD Net. You may not want to select the previous link, though, it crashed my copy of Netscape version 3.01 and looks like a completely blank page with version 4.01. I had to look at it with lynx just to see if it actually contained a reference to this page. Of course, the ZD folks are some of the very worst offenders in terms of violating the CAUGHT principles. I'm stunned that they would have the balls to do this.

What can I do?