Nate’s website falls short on many levels, not the least of which is in website design. For example, on the index page the viewer is greeted by:
1. background music
2. bouncing letters forming “Bible Topics”
3. left-to-right marquee letters “”
4. 2 fluttering butterflies
5. chatroom button surrounded by 2 red flashing lights
6. a spinning earth
7. 2 birds flying back and forth
8. gray puppy chasing a
9. moving black spider
10. a book that opens and shuts
11. a waving American flag
12. 3 spinning “NEW!” icons
13. 3 actively digging “Under Construction” icons
14. a rotating “tell a friend about this site” icon
15. 3 more fluttering butterflies
16. a moving green snake who tips his cap
17. all over a repeating bluebird background
In order for this not to be misconstrued as a personal attack on Nate, here the thoughts of a few computer experts on website design:
Anna McMillan
“Make sure your animation has a theme, story, or point, even if it's simply the beauty of color in motion. As you work, make sure you keep this point in mind. It will make all the difference.” (WebMonkey Experts on Web Design, http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/98/34/index1a_page4.html?tw=design)
Taylor
“Sounds used on interface elements are funny the first three times you roll over them. After that, they're just annoying.” (WebMonkey Experts on Web Design, http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/98/34/index1a_page5.html?tw=design)
Jakob Nielsen (SunSoft Engineer)
3. Scrolling Text, Marquees, and Constantly Running Animations
“Never include page elements that move incessantly. Moving images have an overpowering effect on the human peripheral vision. A web page should not emulate Times Square in New York City in its constant attack on the human senses: give your user some peace and quiet to actually read the text!
Of course, < BLINK > is simply evil. Enough said.” (Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design, http://www.itmweb.com/essay500.htm)
Chuck Musciano & Bill Kennedy
“Effective HTML documents match your target audience’s expectations, giving them a familiar environment in which to explore and gather information. Serious academicians expect a treatise on the physiology of the kumquat to appear journal-like: long on meaningful words, figures, and diagrams and short on frivolous trappings like cute bullets and font abuse. Don’t insult the reader’s eye, except when exercising artistic license to jar or attack your reader’s sensibilities….There is perhaps no more abused or abusive HTML document device than the
Visual assaults aside, a far more despicable flaw is the lack of truthfulness and accuracy of the content on Nate's website. He displays none of the rigors that one expects from true historical scholarship, and there are several examples of this.
1) Citation of secondary sources only - Nate often quotes secondary sources such as E.H. Broadbent, James McCabe, Dave Hunt, et. al., without actually taking the time to consider the original sources. He also has quoted Time Magazine and the Oregonian Newspaper, which can hardly be considered definitive. He incessantly claims that the Catholic Church's records are biased against "true Christians"; yet he contradicts himself when he quotes, almost exlusively,
extremely biased authors!
2) Lack of Attention to Detail - An obvious example is seen on the first page of the website, where there is a statement, "dedicated to those who lost their lives in New York and Washington". Nate appears to have overlooked the fact that Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania in which all members lost their lives there, also. This simple example is merely a symptom of a larger problem, namely, the omission (it is uncertain whether deliberate or accidental) of crucial details.
3) Multiple Misspellings - There are so many misspellings scattered throughout the various articles that it becomes obvious that they are not merely typos. While I don't usually comment on grammar and spelling, it is the sheer volume of errors that exposes a kind of carelessness that cannot be taken seriously.
4) Redundancy - Although there appears to be a lot of different articles, much of the time the article contains the exact same material as another article. Consider for example, this cluster of related articles:1)Jesus the Sower, 2) Parable of the Wheat/Tares, 3)Parables of Jesus Wheat/Tares/Leaven Meal, 4)Sower/Seed/New Birth/Serpent
Even more telling is the fact that Nathan repeats the same anti-Catholic diatribes about the alleged paganism of the Catholic Church or about the Waldenses/Albigenses TWENTY-FIVE TIMES, at last count:
Christ's Eternal Kingdom
The Apostles A.D. 95-1000
The Apostles A.D. 1000-1900
The Mystery of Babylon and the Mother of Harlots - Part I
The Mystery of Babylon and the Mother of Harlots - Part II
The Harlot vs. the Bride of Christ Part III
Catholics/Protestants History
Catholic/Protestants II
Catholic/Protestants III
Jesus/Apostles New Testament Ministry - Part I
Jesus/Apostles New Testament Ministry - Part II
Jesus Ministry Part I
Jesus Ministry Part II
Historical Documents 70-1700
Historical Documents II
More Historical Documents
Cost/Reward
Testimonies-Saints-Apostles
Worker Testimonies 1900-2000
Restoration of Israel, July, 1967
Old Testament Tithing
Nathan's Years in the Ministry
Nathan's Testimony 2
History of the Apostolic Christians
Doctrines of the Apostolic Christians
Even more bewildering is the animated graphic of the cute little kitty licking its paw under the "Catholics/Protestants" section....
So,when all of these factors are considered, the reliability of what is contained on the web site is questionable, at best.
UPDATE - January, 2002
Nate has taken the advice of numerous people and removed many obnoxious icons and images; the page loads much more easily (although he left those annoying music midi files). My criticism of his actual content still stands, however.....
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