Wix

Trixxster

So I have seen a lot of hate directed towards Wix. The number one reason I see people dog on it is because of it being flash.

Well a lot people don't realize that Wix now offers HTML and HTML5 layouts.It makes it extremely easy to make really awesome websites. You can still totally be minimalist as it is entirely customize-able. You can create a page from scratch with a very easy editing tool.


I was wondering if anyone had any reason to still dislike Wix at this point.

I am not defending Wix, more curious on why I should avoid it, it I should.

The website editing tool is extremely user friendly, and now that you can have HTML/mobile friendly sites... Is it really still all that bad?

Thanks for the info!

(I read over Jon Jones portfolio thread - some really awesome information in there!)

VelvetElvis

The problem is most people don't choose the minimalist templates so you end up with this flashy POS that angers your eyes when viewing it. You get a lot of crap effects, because, well they offered them to put in the website. Wix itself isn't bad, it's just their general user base putting in features for no reason than it was available to them.

Something like Carbonmade that is directly aimed at portfolios and not general websitery (ie wix) is far better to point people towards.

Trixxster

Definitely good point. I have noticed some over-the-top websites. To be fair though, I have seen some minimalist websites that ran smoothly for me.

Regardless, they do have a lot of random features.. Widgets, clocks, etc.. Those do seem kind of pointless.

adam

Not. One. Link.

Trixxster

I just found two really quickly on google search "Wix Portfolio 3D Artist"

http://nikhilpatilcg.wix.com/portfolio


http://alexandregiguere.wix.com/portfolio

Both of these run smooth. You could make them even more minimalist but they seem alright.

I could find more examples as well.



You can also pay for their hosting and it will remove the wix ads and you can use your own domain name.

Memory

That first site is balls, mainly because I can't save the images. And that second one has menu text cut off (at fullscreen 1280 x 1024.)

I dont know what wix is but im not sold yet!

edit: yep that second one is a pain too...if you click work, you can't drag save the images and it's all of a sudden a lightbox catastrophe.

ivanzu

Second one is pretty good and I can save images with no problem.

Bibendum

Neither of those are very good examples.

If your argument is that with enough work you can get something good then there's still no real point in using it over even tumblr or blogspot.

glynnsmith

Both of those linked sites are ugly, take quite a while to load (comparatively) and they've got forced "Hey! Made with Wix because this artist doesn't care enough about his portfolio to get his/her own together and hosted on their own domain!" message at the bottom.

There's a slew of better services that'll let you build your portfolio and host it on your own domain, so you don't look like a cheapo.

RexM

I use Wix for my portfolio, works great.

glynnsmith wrote: »

Both of those linked sites are ugly, take quite a while to load (comparatively) and they've got forced "Hey! Made with Wix because this artist doesn't care enough about his portfolio to get his/her own together and hosted on their own domain!" message at the bottom.

There's a slew of better services that'll let you build your portfolio and host it on your own domain, so you don't look like a cheapo.

Domains don't matter all that much, in the end it's all about the actual work being displayed. :thumbup:

Bibendum

RexM wrote: »

I use Wix for my portfolio, works great.

Looks like you're using carbonmade to me

edit: sorry didn't have signatures enabled, might want to fix your profile though, still links to http://rexmcnish.carbonmade.com/

Also your images don't enlarge

glynnsmith

RexM wrote: »

Domains don't matter all that much, in the end it's all about the actual work being displayed. :thumbup:

Which is why you're using your own domain :thumbup:

gsokol

Wix not using flash helps a lot.

Flash doesn't let you right click -> save image as. The first link you posted doesn't either. When I find out I cant save an image, I will immediately close the page and not turn back.

The second link mostly just suffers from design, but thats not the fault of wix.

slipsius

Not being able to save pics is a huge no no. and the "Free site with Wix" plastered at the bottom of the page, and the Wix button at the top is just a huge eye sore.

Honestly, the whole thing just looks unprofessional, and you might as well be using a geocities account or something. Sure, its all about the work, but how you present the work is a big part. Even if some people don't mind it, there are people that do. So sure, some will not care, but the ones that do should be enough to make think hmmmm, I should make it look more professional. You`re only hurting yourself if you use it because you flat out KNOW some people hate it. Why not choose something you KNOW everyone likes? Use it = annoys some. Make your own = annoys no one. It's really not a tough choice if you think of it that way.

RexM

Bibendum wrote: »

Looks like you're using carbonmade to me

edit: sorry didn't have signatures enabled, might want to fix your profile though, still links to http://rexmcnish.carbonmade.com/

Also your images don't enlarge

Thanks, updated.

Yeah, being able to enlarge images is something I haven't found out how to do with Wix...

glynnsmith wrote: »

Which is why you're using your own domain :thumbup:

Domains are cheap, there isn't any reason to not use one, but I still think it doesn't matter all that much in the end. I got my gig at Suckerpunch with a carbonmade site.

slipsius wrote: »

Not being able to save pics is a huge no no. and the "Free site with Wix" plastered at the bottom of the page, and the Wix button at the top is just a huge eye sore.

Honestly, the whole thing just looks unprofessional, and you might as well be using a geocities account or something. Sure, its all about the work, but how you present the work is a big part. Even if some people don't mind it, there are people that do. So sure, some will not care, but the ones that do should be enough to make think hmmmm, I should make it look more professional. You`re only hurting yourself if you use it because you flat out KNOW some people hate it. Why not choose something you KNOW everyone likes? Use it = annoys some. Make your own = annoys no one. It's really not a tough choice if you think of it that way.

Your site won't mention Wix if you pay for it. Mine doesn't mention Wix at all, which I agree is a plus. One of the big draws for using Wix is how easy it is to put something together, however I still need to figure out how I can englarge images.

Alemja

This is my problem with Wix, every time I open a Wix site I get this:


I use Firefox with noScript, and while it's a bit of a personal preferance to use script blockers, as someone who does web design on the side, I always feel at the very least your site should be able to load with the bare bones html/css. In order to view a Wix site using noScript, I have to unblock at least 4 scripts to see anything.

Again while script blockers are normally personal preference, a lot of people use them, some by choice, some because their company disables scripts in browsers. Carbonmade is a much better option if you don't want to host your own site because it will still load even with the scripts blocked.

Neox

for a german this name wix is just way tii close to the word for cum. so i don't recommend!

mazz423

Neox wrote: »

for a german this name wix is just way tii close to the word for cum. so i don't recommend!

Best reason I've ever heard for not using a service before...


I always find Wix sites way too slow to load, a pain to navigate and just annoying to look at. My main gripe, as far as I can tell there's no easy direct way to get to the original images.

They're always rescaled to match the res of the screen they're being viewed on, it's a pain to find a download one of them, it's horrible.

passerby

Really there just rubbish, either loaded up with too much scripts or are flash based, and got too many fucking links.

Also why bother, a good portfolio can be made with very minimal HTML and CSS code.

Just string some <h1>, <p>, and <img> tags together, and set a decent BG and font colour, site done!

The content is what counts, so a list of images is better than all the fancy shit you could ever toss in.

The process is so simple I could just write a script that takes a zip as input and some other info and pops out a full portfolio.