The time I saw a local band's website go from Geocities to a blank white page

Back in '97, my friend's punk band in Austin had this amazing Geocities site. It had a black background, a scrolling MIDI file of their one song, and a visitor counter that said 'You are number 1,234 to get destroyed!!!' I checked it again in 2002 after they got a 'real' web designer. The new site was just a white page with their name in a plain font and a tiny email link. The designer told them the old site was 'unprofessional' and 'hurt their brand.' All the personality was gone. It felt like they traded their ripped jeans for a boring suit. Has anyone else seen a cool old site get 'cleaned up' into something totally bland?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix_fox1mo ago

Tell them to keep the fun old site as a hidden page, that's what we did lol.

nathan_thompson621mo ago

Did that with our forum redesign last year. Put the old version at /classic with a tiny link in the footer. The hardcore users still go there and it stopped most of the complaints.