When Finding a Website, Where do you go First?

[dirtnap]

huh. "about me" is nearly always the very last page i visit, if at all. i only go there if i have a specific question about the author of a site and that page is likely to contain the answer.

sometimes, i'll follow internal (or external) links wherever they lead. otherwise, if there's a sidebar or similar, i'll likely be attracted to the weirdest entries.

"the baerneling chronciles" now that's interesting! what's baerneling? why do you have an entire page on your site dedicated to chronciles of it? am i going to discover a new extreme sport, a series of books first published in 1987 that it seems only this website's creator even remembers, an obscure gaelic artform, or the creator's unfinished and kinda buggy RPG maker game?

i'm likely to visit the other links afterwards, usually in the hopes of finding more interesting things.

generally my desire to explore selfmade websites is because i want to discover more baerneling chronicles.

[yungwake0]

I always go to the About Me pages - for mostly the same reasons as described by everyone else in this thread, it's cool to actually learn about people and what they're really about.

After that I either go to shrines or links (toss-up); the link pages itch my INTP urge to go down every Internet rabbit hole I can find and I like shrines for a similar reason to the about pages, with the added benefit of learning about some cool things I wouldn't have ever encountered otherwise.

Everything else is pretty much in random order, depending on the website. If the person has art/personal projects of some kind I'll make those a priority. If there's a blog I'm also sure to check that out.

Sometimes if something really off-the-wall/unique/interesting catches my attention that I haven't seen before, I'll make an exception and go there first.

[polychrome]

Shrines page usually! I love seeing other people's interests, and there's always the possibility of finding something you've never heard of or someone having the same obscure interest as you!

[BlazingCobaltX]

Ironically, the links page. My flow of browsing is that I usually gather all links I wanna check out on a day or at that moment, and then go through them properly one by one. This ends when I feel I have an exhaustive list of sites to go through for the day.

[PurpleHello98]

I always go to the about page first, as it gives me an overview of the webmaster so I can better comprehend the rest of their site. I always go to the links page last, once I've see all I want to see from a site so I can have a direction to go onto other sites! In the middle, I just go by whatever tickles my fancy.

[varve]

I pretty much always go to projects or art first, but the poll and discussion are suggesting to me that maybe I should put an 'about me' page on my website! I don't currently have one, and didn't actually have any plans to make one.

[wygolvillage]

Projects or Shrines, I like to get straight into the good stuff. If there's a page for games I'll rush there too. I like seeing what people have put most of their effort into!!

[Daryl Sun]

It looks like I'm another of the outliers I usually check a website's blog/articles/writing page first, because a quick look gives me an idea of the owner's interests and thoughts. After that is when I check the about page for more about the owner.

[petrichoran]

the homepage or about me! i like learning about people anyway, but i like having a little bit of a wider understanding of a person so that i can understand their content [such as blogs] better. i think it's a good introduction to a website. if someone doesn't have an about me, or there's not much content on it, i'll head over to whatever projects they're working on.

[larvapuppy]

I don't find about me pages really give me a good picture of who a webmaster is, funnily enough- they mostly just list "stats" about a person, like their age, pronouns, and favourite media. I find these pages boring to read unless the webmaster decided to get creative. (I'm guilty of having a very basic and boring about me page, myself...) So, once I get to a page with navigation, I usually navigate directly to either their art/projects or their blog/writings, depending on what they have. If the site has neither of these I'll visit their graphics to see if there are any I can grab for my own collection.  Then, if my interest is piqued, I'll circle back to read more about them.
But, my favourite sites don't have this typical layout and are more like art projects, where I can explore around the nooks and crannies of the site (again, my site is the basic type and not at all interesting in its format...)

[wygolvillage]

I don't find about me pages really give me a good picture of who a webmaster is, funnily enough- they mostly just list "stats" about a person, like their age, pronouns, and favourite media. I find these pages boring to read unless the webmaster decided to get creative. (I'm guilty of having a very basic and boring about me page, myself...)

Agreed, heavily! This is why I've never been fully satisfied with my own About page, to be honest... I made it more of a thesis statement-y kind of thing but I feel like people will know me best through experiencing my little passion projects.

[tertiaryapocalypse]

i don't think that about me pages give a good idea of the webmaster but more of what they perceive of themselves, if that makes sense? so like if they say that they're like, the number one fan of something, i know that that's important to them and can go from there :-) typically i check out the shrines after that, and if the projects seem like they'd interest me those too.

[ravioliandcheddar]

Most of the time I visit the project/art/gallery page first (after the home page), sometimes the about page, I'll do a little tour and bookmark the website if I like it ! Then I'll go straight to the webrings.

If there's a now page I have to go check it out.

[moonunions]

oh definitely the 'about me' section and then their blog, if they happen to have one. i love learning about the person behind the website, and to me it's always interesting to read about other folk's lives.

this may be tied to deeply missing journaling sites like livejournal, so i take whatever i can get to scratch that itch haha