3 ms·

I have a particular fascination for "boring" professor websites: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38619/why-are-professors-websites-so-ugly https:/

I have a particular fascination for "boring" professor websites: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38619/why-are-professors-websites-so-ugly https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38619/why-are-p... Particularly the following comment: "In some scientific fields/cultures, a stylish website could be viewed as unnecessary or even pompous. In this view, the textual content of a website is the only thing that matters, and if you "need" to make your website stylish perhaps it lacks real substance. This is the same line of thought that supports simplicity in presentation with minimal graphics. I have encountered this especially in math and theoretical CS."

turbinerneiter 7y ago
There is also the old-school bare HTML hacker website, that encourages you to bring your own css with ?css=whatever.css
sonnyblarney 7y ago
There's some reason behind this. But - and get this - this is an aesthetic in and of itself! It's part of the subtle 'self branding' of academics! Banking culture, academic culture, SV startup culture, punk culture - they all have their idioms, behaviours, signalling etc. in fact far more so than we'd ever like to admit.