When I first got enough Internet access to take an in-depth view of Buffy websites, it was four years ago and I was a college freshman. These websites looked pretty much the same, with a black background, okay graphics and the kind of yummy content that I spent hours looking at. Somewhere along the line this changed. It started when some sites got, for the lack of a better word, prettier. This was very nice change, and easy on the eyes, but now I'm a senior and this style has completely overwhelmed the Internet. It seems as if the basis for praise of a site is no longer "Wow, that got me to see Buffy in a whole new light" but rather, "Well isn't that pretty!"

I suppose this wouldn't be so annoying if it weren't so egocentric at the same time. Let me explain. The first sites I visited regularly were The Buffy Cross and Stake and Domain of the Slain. These sites weren't beautiful, but they were for the fans. They helped us catch up on episodes that we missed, the spoilers we love to hate, and generally sustained us through rerun hell with things like fanfic and quizzes. They gave us something to sing about, as it were.

But now, sites are all about style. They take forever to load, and if you don't have the right browser or graphics card, forget it. However, the worst part is that it is almost selfish. These format-driven websites force surfers to wait forever for the sites to load, they have to conform their browsers to the webmaster's specifications (instead of the other way around), and for what? So that the viewer can admire the webmaster's skill with graphics.

Furthermore, format-oriented sites often change their format. Now, this doesn't seem all that important until you see the big picture. Changing a site format takes a long time. There are programs to make it easier, but it's still an arduous task. This is, of course, time these webmasters are taking away from making actual updates to the content of their websites, so that they look like something more than empty shells with pretty pictures.

What this spells out is that these sites aren't worthwhile without loads of content. So, if you are planning to be a webmaster (or are one already), please take this into consideration. It's time to go back to when it was fun to go to websites, instead of surfing in the intellectual wasteland that seems to be encroaching on Buffy sites.