5 ms·

Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility

59 points by ccarpenterg 16y ago

drats 16y ago
How about don't use Silverlight for your video?[1] That might do something for your credibility. Nobody, absolutely nobody, would seriously choose Silverlight over the alternatives without being offered inducements from Microsoft. Edit: Also the link at the top of the page when you click on the "Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab" goes to http://www.captology.org/ http://www.captology.org/ which fails instead of http://captology.stanford.edu/ http://captology.stanford.edu/ I think they are violating some of their rules with that one. [1] http://see.stanford.edu/see/lecturelist.aspx?coll=63480b48-8819-4efd-8412-263f1a472f5a http://see.stanford.edu/see/lecturelist.aspx?coll=63480b48-8...
- ZeroGravitas 16y ago
  To be fair about the broken link, it does say at the bottom: "Updated June, 2002"
  - avar 16y ago
    http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI
  - ccarpenterg 16y ago
    To be fair the site doesn't comply with guideline number 9: Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently). But it's ok anyway.
- grinich 16y ago
  What's wrong with Silverlight? (just curious)
  - usaar333 16y ago
    The bugginess/underdevelopment of its linux plugin is one huge issue.
    - gxti 16y ago
      It would have to be pretty damn buggy and underdeveloped to lose to Flash in that department. Until just now I wasn't aware there even was a Linux plugin.
      - usaar333 16y ago
        Just try it out and you'll understand how polished it makes linux flash look. (It is provided by mono)
- kogir 16y ago
  Actually, Silverlight can play video just fine on less powerful machines where flash completely falls apart. There is a reason Netflix uses it.
notahacker 16y ago
The article is from 2002. I wonder what the percentage of modern startups don't try to meet these guidelines (particularly the ones involving showing physical addresses and details of real humans behind the site) It'd be interesting to see whether any more recent a/b testing gave any indications on whether they still make any difference...
- ugh 16y ago
  I’m always confused as to why so many websites from the US don’t provide some sort of physical address, a name, a telephone number, even only a email address. Maybe I’m spoilt because it’s actually against the law in Germany to not provide name, address, telephone number and email address on your website (you can either put it on every page or put a link to the page with this information on every page) but to me it just seems impolite, unprofessional, even scammy if you don’t.
  - Ardit20 16y ago
    Well depends If it is just a blog, then they might prefer the privacy.
    - ugh 16y ago
      I’ve seen my fair share of websites from businesses without so much as a hint as to who is behind it. It’s not as though I expect every blog to provide the address of the author.
  - wccrawford 16y ago
    I agree. I generally won't give money to a company that I can't contact. It's just asking for trouble.
shasta 16y ago
I had decided the weird indentation of bullets 5 & 7 was too small to mention - until I got to recommendation #10.
PidGin128 16y ago
Perhaps the site is trying to set a negative example, so it might be learned from? Also peculiar, if it hasn't been updated in eight years, why is it using silverlight? [And regarding http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1606292 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1606292 -- that lack of awareness could be considered a bug of silverlight's linux plugin itself.]

59 points by ccarpenterg 16y ago

drats 16y ago

How about don't use Silverlight for your video?[1] That might do something for your credibility. Nobody, absolutely nobody, would seriously choose Silverlight over the alternatives without being offered inducements from Microsoft. Edit: Also the link at the top of the page when you click on the "Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab" goes to http://www.captology.org/ http://www.captology.org/ which fails instead of http://captology.stanford.edu/ http://captology.stanford.edu/ I think they are violating some of their rules with that one. [1] http://see.stanford.edu/see/lecturelist.aspx?coll=63480b48-8819-4efd-8412-263f1a472f5a http://see.stanford.edu/see/lecturelist.aspx?coll=63480b48-8...

ZeroGravitas 16y ago
To be fair about the broken link, it does say at the bottom: "Updated June, 2002"
- avar 16y ago
  http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI
- ccarpenterg 16y ago
  To be fair the site doesn't comply with guideline number 9: Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently). But it's ok anyway.
grinich 16y ago
What's wrong with Silverlight? (just curious)
- usaar333 16y ago
  The bugginess/underdevelopment of its linux plugin is one huge issue.
  - gxti 16y ago
    It would have to be pretty damn buggy and underdeveloped to lose to Flash in that department. Until just now I wasn't aware there even was a Linux plugin.
    - usaar333 16y ago
      Just try it out and you'll understand how polished it makes linux flash look. (It is provided by mono)
kogir 16y ago
Actually, Silverlight can play video just fine on less powerful machines where flash completely falls apart. There is a reason Netflix uses it.

notahacker 16y ago

The article is from 2002. I wonder what the percentage of modern startups don't try to meet these guidelines (particularly the ones involving showing physical addresses and details of real humans behind the site) It'd be interesting to see whether any more recent a/b testing gave any indications on whether they still make any difference...

ugh 16y ago
I’m always confused as to why so many websites from the US don’t provide some sort of physical address, a name, a telephone number, even only a email address. Maybe I’m spoilt because it’s actually against the law in Germany to not provide name, address, telephone number and email address on your website (you can either put it on every page or put a link to the page with this information on every page) but to me it just seems impolite, unprofessional, even scammy if you don’t.
- Ardit20 16y ago
  Well depends If it is just a blog, then they might prefer the privacy.
  - ugh 16y ago
    I’ve seen my fair share of websites from businesses without so much as a hint as to who is behind it. It’s not as though I expect every blog to provide the address of the author.
- wccrawford 16y ago
  I agree. I generally won't give money to a company that I can't contact. It's just asking for trouble.

shasta 16y ago

I had decided the weird indentation of bullets 5 & 7 was too small to mention - until I got to recommendation #10.

PidGin128 16y ago

Perhaps the site is trying to set a negative example, so it might be learned from? Also peculiar, if it hasn't been updated in eight years, why is it using silverlight? [And regarding http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1606292 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1606292 -- that lack of awareness could be considered a bug of silverlight's linux plugin itself.]