I know some sites out there love to have funny little sounds for their portal pages, but many out there really over do it. I always have my sounds off unless I need them so I have peace of mind, but what about the rest of you?

NEVER put sound on a website by force. If a user wants to enable sounds, then that's fine. And if you do decide to put a music file on there, and you have it in a 10 second loop, PLEASE have a way to disable the sounds.

Site Owners and Designers often forget that the majority of people who are visiting a site are not doing it from their home, but doing it from their work/office computers. As such, having sounds come out of a work computer will usually result in leaving the website.

Personally, I've never had a sound on any of my websites (nearly 15 years now), and I've never had a complaint from a user ASKING for music/sound to be displayed when they go to a site

See that is about how I feel on it, when I want sound I will turn the speakers on. I do not like being forced to hear something and considering I am such an oddball, most of the things out there kind of suck anyways so thats even worse. Maybe I would feel better if it was something decent but most times, that is never the case.

Absolutely,some times after watching Youtube,I leave my Volume Up and suddenly erronous sounds start to come up,after being puzzled I see a website Is making these sounds.

you should always give the visitor the option to turn off sounds.

Sounds and especially background music is one of top ten visitor banishers. Think of someone looking for a product or service on the web. He'll simply start searching on a search engine and open websites in new windows for fast previews. A website with music is generally closed before being reviewed in this case, it either distracts the attention of the visitor, the visitor is listening to his own music or simply requiring silence.

I agree with you guys. I do not have sound on my pages unless it is dictated by the client AND it's an absolute necessity. The majority of users don't care to listen to music loop and random sounds simply make the website seem infantile. When surfing in IE I simply disable "Play Sounds in webpages" but I don't think everyone knows that exists!

Does that setting also apply to actual video you want to watch, ex. on YouTube?

No, it does not work on videos - either those from YouTube or add ons like trailers on CartoonNetwork.com. It just takes away the annoying little blips and bleeps that some clients think are "cute."

G to smm.org/sound and listen with enable on and you'll hear a click, click, click which I assume is the ball bouncing. Change your settings and viola! the ball bounces soundlessly.

Only if the sound person really understands what they are doing does it sound good. I watched a movie last night and I swear if the same person that made that movie sound wise makes websites as well, we are all D00MED.