My personal favourite hates about websites that I visit, leave quickly and avoid like the plague afterwards are those with irritating java applets that do nothing more than make text wiggle, make irritating things follow the mouse or just generally screw around with the page. Following that is music, it is incredibly annoying sitting looking at a page waiting for it to finish downloading only to be hit with some bloody irritating plinky freaking midi file that the author thinks is cool and wants to use to terrify their visitors. Then there's flash. When it's done well, it's brilliant (for instance the SLOW but beautiful preview for Dark Angel that was up for a while on the company site). The annoying thing about Flash is that it is rarely done well and can take forever to download. I've seen it used for buttons that never appear on screen regardless of how long the site is left to it's own devices because of poor scripting. Finally. MASSIVE not at all optimised or reduced images. Plain sites are fine, they're quick, they're steady, they're, erm... boring. Images are fine, but in moderation. Pages heavily laden with hundreds of images and text spread around between the images look untidy and can be confusing to navigate. Counters mean nothing to me, they are there to stroke the ego of the site owner in my opinion. I could care less whether 2 people or 2 million people have visited the site, provided it has something to hold my attention. Hit counts on the front page of sites that have half a dozen webring memberships, have stuffed themselves into a bunch of "rating" sites are totally meaningless. Great, 250,000 people have visited the site... erm, no, 250,000 hit the front page and probably moved on. There are better, more subtle ways to monitor how many people hit the site and how many dig around inside it. I very rarely use webrings, only when I'm bored and have a few hours to waste will I nose around one. I agree with nfredman in this respect. One of my sites has been a member of an RPG webring for several years. There's a text link to the ring navigation stuff on the front page, but I categorically will not stick their banner on the front page - even though I designed it, it clutters the screen, especially if there's more than one ring affiliate. Other site affiliations are fine, but they are probably best relegated to a links section. As for whether you or anyone else are in the top 25 of Poser sites... well, is it really that important? I personally could care less whether a site is top 25 or bottom of 5K provided three little criteria are met. 1:) The site is pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate. 2:) Content, content, content. An empty site with 300 downloadable files and a thousand pics in the gallery is just as boring as a site with 1 download and 1 pic in the gallery. Or basically, something to keep my interest other than "New pic in the gallery, new download for you... One of the most important things on a website, in my opinion is to talk to the visitors as though they are the only person there. I enjoy sites that chat to me, where the author has more to say than. "Cool downloads" "Cool pics in the gallery" oh yeah, "Cool links" and the infamous "Sign my guestbook"... 3:) Content Oh wait, I said that already. OK, two criteria. :) In my opinion, some of the most popular sites are ones where the author spends a little time talking to the visitors, giving them something to read along with the free downloads (ubiquitous store) or gallery. It's nice sometimes to read how the author does some things, made something or where inspiration comes from for certain images. It's nice to find out a little more about the site author and this can be done through simple intro pages to sections where you "chat" to people about what's ahead. I guess it all comes down in the end, for me anyway, to the personal touch rather than the "I sell things therefore I must be corporate about it all." nonsense that strikes a few places. Oh well, you've got my opinion on this, and it is just that. MY opinion, not everyone's. :)