English 651: Writing Hypertext

Keller's Journal
September 22, 1998

World Wide Warning Signs

• Broken links

• Non-working counter

• Old date on counter

• Last published item dated more than 6 months old

• Second generation web design

• More than two frames

• Intense backgrounds that overwhelm or obscure text

• Use of the word "babe," " honey," or "sweetie."

• Little or now info to establish identity/credentials

• Site address ends in .com

• Site is a citizen page on geocities, tripod, or other free servers--this is not to say that you can't find interesting material here, just as you might meet a really interesting self-published and self-proclaimed town poet in a community you visit, but you are more likely to find what you are looking for in areas where individuals or texts have gone through some sort of review or selection process.   This is the same reason why I'll purchase The Southern Review rather than pick up a free xeroxed zine at a local coffee shop.

• also ask yourself, for the purpose of the annotations--is your chosen text "hypertextual," in a sense beyond the framing of flat text in an html environment or using citation or definition links inside a flat text?