Bunk websites

[Sam]

Something I've observed, but never really taken much time to think of, is the proliferation of crackpot websites out there full of all sorts of crazy stuff which seems to be taking the mickey out of science and spirituality alike.  While I won't post any examples here, which would be unfair to the webmasters under scrutiny, here is a list of some of the things I have found define crackpot sites...

Mand of the websites go for shock value, characterised by the following:
Large text OFTEN IN CAPSLOCKS at INAPPROPRIATE moments
Italics used to emphasize every second word, so that you can almost hear the amount of stress that was put into writing it.
100 pages of text, all on the front page, in no kind of logical order.
Bright colored text on black or white backgrounds.  Yellow on white seems to be a favorite combination, perhaps it is to test the dedication of the reader who, after scrolling down 100 pages, must surely have sore eyes.
Flashing red text, often entire paragraphs composed of some

absolutely vital piece of information

that only stupid people could miss the importance of.
Every paragraph has a different font, font size and color.
Almost every second word contains a link to another page exhibiting similar charateristics.  Sometimes half a page of text if not more could be a link.
Disjointed quotes used as ABSOLUTE PROOF that whatever bs the site is promoting is undoubtedly true, i.e. "George W Bush said today.... that.... the.... fathers and sons in iraq....  are.... the axis of evil" IT MUST BE TRUE!!!

Sites exhibiting the above characteristics are often but not always the work of a crackpot.  Some genuine people just have no idea how to organise a document.  

On the other side of the coin, just because a website looks all polished and schmick, does not mean it is any more credible.  These type of sites are much more devious, as their guestbooks and forums have a following which is worrying.  There are a few things to look out for:
Long quotes from books that are a MUST READ, and if you visit the forums its all anyone ever talks about anyway.
Links to online resellers of holy relics, lucid dragon (8x, 14x, etc), astral projection tapes, etc.  Note that the sites linked to may be genuine, but be aware that the nefarious site doing the linking is merely trying to piggy back off the success of the others, and may even go so far as to take credit for the achievements of others...
...Which brings me to an important point...  NO original content on the site.  The site is all pretty and stuff but every single word is lifted from elsewhere, or a very close approximation.
Finally the crux of the whole matter, what makes these types of sites so evil, is that they then ask people to donate to their cause, a cause which is little more than quoting other people's work, selling other peoples stuff, and letting you hang out in their lobby talking about it.  They may even reward donaters with a special signature line so they can wear it proudly around their forums thus inspiring others to give up some of their earthly cash.  The usual excuse for having a donate button is generally that bandwidth and web space is expensive.  That is a lie, don't believe it.  Maybe for big sites like this one, but for smaller crackpot sites a small server is all that is needed.

Has anyone else made similar observations or would like to dispute some of mine?  This could become the definitive guide, if one doesn't already exist somewhere.

[Logic]

www.crystalinks.com, crackpot!

[SpectralDragon]

yeah, a good amount of those sites are trying to sell something.

[neutrino]

I've come across a few too. One of the worst things about them is that they give genuine sites (ie those addressing similar topics, but in a serious way) a bad name. So many people are so hostile to anything vaguely occult or mystical anyway, and I must admit their scepticism is kind of understandable when confronted with these frauds!

[Sam]

Thats the whole reason I brought up the topic...  A paranoid person such as my self could almost come to think that they are doing it on purpose especially to give sites such as this one a bad name, by association.