Slashdot's Vastu

nanopolitan writes "Wired has a story on harmonious website design according to Vastu, 'the Indian counterpart of feng shui'. The graphic accompanying the story has an analysis of Slashdot's design by Dr. Smita Narang. Her verdict? This site is 'in desperate need of balance'." From the article: "Thirty-year-old Smita Narang is rapidly becoming one of India's hottest Web designers. Her method: applying vastu shastra, the Indian counterpart of feng shui, to the online realm. The process entails mapping page attributes - HTML, colors, graphics - to elements like fire, water, and air. 'Any disturbance of these established elements can cause an imbalance in the site that directly affects its business,' Narang says."

Comments

And like feng shui, IT'S BULLSHIT!

[Chas]

Seriously, all crap like this is, is a way to justify stupid expenditures based on some self-riteous asshole's personal opinions.

Only people with double-digit IQ or a severe case of money poisoning actually listen to these jackasses.

Re:And like feng shui, IT'S BULLSHIT!

[deathshadow60]

ANYONE who does web coding should see right through this bullshit - a simple examination of the jokers website http://www.webvastu.com/ Should send up warning signs to ANY but the greenest of nubes. The 'three piece' image (WHY the hell do people do this?!?) isn't compatable with Opera or Safari... the three 'section boxes' to the right of the image have some of the ugliest formatting I've seen (It's called side padding - use it! At the same time cut back on the top/bottom, that looks like crap)... The site renders as a crappy little stripe justified left (Much like wired, it's not bad enough having a shitbox amatuer fixed width layout, but for crying out loud center the damned thing)... fixed px sized fonts that are too small to be useful to 'large font' users... (anything LESS than 12px needs a brick upside the head, and I'm hesitant to go below 'EGA fonts' - 14px) and the validator chokes on the doctype... Seriously whiskey tango foxtrot is this nonsense: Wow, I wish I'd thought of finding some whack-job eastern art form to use as justification for a lack of knowing how to design a website... My BULLSHIT alarm hasn't gone off this hardcore since I first heard of "Web 2.0" ... and much like Web 2.0, Penn and Teller could easily devote 30 minutes to this one.

Page length

[Anonymous Coward]

Wtf .. she called it a negative .. I like a long page length .. seriously who the heck wants to click through multiple pages??

People who advocate short page lengths probably don't use the web for information.

And yes I think google should default to 100 results .. why not?

Re:Page length

[anagama]

You've got my vote as well. It seems to me that the shorter the page, the more devoid it is of content. Scrolling down works incredibly well with monitors -- it might be a hassle with actual paper but the web doesn't always have to be a metaphor for the physical world.

Re:Penn and Teller

[Anonymous Coward]

Being something of a sinophile, and the owner of a modest library on feng shui, let me digest what it really says.

Don't live so close to water that it washes your house away. Don't live so far away from water that it's an inordinate pain in the ass to get. Don't live close to the edges of cliffs which might collapse, or which you might fall off of. Do live in a location where your dwelling has as much protection from the elements as possible. But putting it directly in the path of the tree that looks kind of rotted and is about to fall it probably a bad idea too. Don't shit where you eat or are likely to drink. The sun is bright and hot, avoid suffering it unnecessarily. But the sun is also helpful, make sure you've got enough of it.

All it is are a set of building codes set to a spiritual narrative that's supposed to make it easy to remember. A smart person with good aesthetic sensibilities is required to make it work. Well compensated professionals in Asia, they get paid because they have some measure of the later, and more than some skill blending Confusian sensibilities with modern needs and tastes. The people on Bullshit! that's not what they're doing. They're banking on the ignorance of others.

The real tenents, with the mysticism striped away, they make a lot of sense to me. Except for the living underneath a rotting tree thing. Look, you buy the home you can afford.

Feng Shui is correct

[macadamia_harold]

And like feng shui, IT'S BULLSHIT!

While the explanations claiming "energies" for Feng Shui may not be correct, the human psychology behind it is. Those same principles may or may not be applicable with regards to web design, but don't discount entirely that which you clearly do not understand.

Re:Feng Shui is correct

[Chas]

"While the explanations claiming "energies" for Feng Shui may not be correct, the human psychology behind it is."

Yeah. There's a sucker born every minute.

"Those same principles may or may not be applicable with regards to web design, but don't discount entirely that which you clearly do not understand."

Yeah. And my cash-mishandling invisible man in the sky who is going to sentence me to eternity of fire and brimstone and suffering...but loves me can beat up yours too!

The problem is, I DO understand it. This is why I call it like I see it. Bullshit. First to last.

Re:Feng Shui is correct

[gomoX]

What you CLEARLY don't understand is that anything based on a false premise is not correct, and is not a science. (...) What are you doing on Slashdot if you don't understand basic scientific principles like this?

I think it's you who doesn't understand "basic scientific principles". The 1st sentence you posted is, well, wrong. It's a well-known fallacy. You can conclude many true things based on the fact that the sky is red. All you need is a consistent set of "rules" for such deductions to be made.

If you are going to pretend you are some science advocate at least get it right, and keep an open mind. Just because there are some things you don't understand, it doesn't mean they are wrong. It just means you don't understand them. Oriental cultures have been around for a while. Don't underestimate what centuries of observation of human behaviour can produce. There are some things you can know wihtout knowing how they work. I for one am not a feng-shui fan but don't discredit a thousand year old discipline just because some guy is making money out of it.

Whenever in doubt, remember Godel. There are always some loose ends.