33 replies to this topic

[Avalon]

Mich, on Feb 13 2006, 08:33 AM, said:

Hey, I really like the font you used. What is it? That is cool. I am not familiar with imageshack. Will take a visit over there and look around. Meanwhile, Thanks for the sample. Will probably use it, if you don't mind, to start with.

The font is called Vivaldi, you can download it from the link below.
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[Goosestaf]

ok, i'm going to give my honest opinion as always
before i review it, remeber this is my own personal opinion . . . ok

First Impressions:
i opened your site and could hear some horrible thign in the background of my music. paused it, to find your site playing it . . . . its horrible (the music), that type of thing is a pet hate, but tis even worse if you don't have the ability to turn it off. . . . the style of the page was somewhat old too. you don't see many sites with this style anymore. . . .

Graphics
Not my cup of tea really. i agree what has been said about the site having a "homely" feel to it, but i would associate that home with a grandparents house. The graphic textures are also not my type of thing, as are the borders. The graphics are at a good resolution and the signature is a nice image. Tiled backgrounds of the style on your page also make it look old-fashioned, as do the frame graphics.

Layout/formatting
. . .sorry again . . .the layout is quite ancient too the block top to bottom site format is not very user friendly as you lack a common navagation at the top or side, and thats very important for useability. The Home button at the bottom of alot of pages takes you to a completely differernt site, which confused the hell outta me.

Content
Alot of content, which is always good for a website! even if i don't quite like the content your giving out.

Improvements
Now, while i ahve criticised the graphics alot, i will not advise anything on them ,as i'm sure their jsut your personal preference.
BUT the layout and design could be thought about better to make the site more useable.
for example common navagation at the top of the page, or the left would be a great idea.
That would be my main way to improve your site, with out changign your style, which would be wrong.

theres my opinion/review.
you say your an amteur and i believe you, but for an amteur you've done a hell of alot of work, and its all done very well with no problems in my browsers. i mean, you've got a ton of rewards from some sources so obviosuly some people do liek your website (altho rewards don't always mean much). You look like you've got skill, so why not try and advance your ability and learn more about what makes a website good or bad. . . . . sure you could make some more modern looking graphics too

good luck with it all in the future, defintly keep it up!

[Mich]

BOAW, on Feb 12 2006, 06:02 PM, said:

...some of thhe links or pages dont work..i guess becuase your still workin on them...

If you could tell me which ones it would help a lot since I could spend hours looking for them. Thanks.

Goosestaf, on Feb 14 2006, 02:25 PM, said:

First Impressions:
i opened your site and could hear some horrible thing in the background of my music. paused it, to find your site playing it . . . . its horrible (the music), that type of thing is a pet hate, but tis even worse if you don't have the ability to turn it off. . . .

There is a place to turn it off beyond the center, but it only plays on the first table of contents anyway. Just put the music up, since most people seem not to like it, I will remove it.

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the style of the page was somewhat old too. you don't see many sites with this style anymore. . . .
Graphics
Not my cup of tea really. i agree what has been said about the site having a

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"homely" I hope this is a typo.

feel to it, but i would associate that home with a grandparents house.The graphic textures are also not my type of thing, as are the borders. The graphics are at a good resolution and the signature is a nice image. Tiled backgrounds of the style on your page also make it look old-fashioned, as do the frame graphics.

Maybe that is because I am a grandmotherly person &8^)

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Layout/formattingThe Home button at the bottom of alot of pages takes you to a completely differernt site, which confused the hell outta me.

Point well taken.

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good luck with it all in the future, defintly keep it up!

Thanks for the encouragement. I will try to modernize, but it will be hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

Edited by Mich, 15 February 2006 - 12:29 AM.

[Albus Dumbledore]

i really like the design, the border around the page concerns me a bit, for those who have a smaller screen will it automaticly resize to it or will it stay as wide as it is?

i cant really read the text down at the bottom of the page, but that could just be me or maybe the color of the font against the green background i would suggest making it a little bigger.

i dont see any broken links, spelling looks fine ( i check those just for the heck of it) i also like some of the images you have on there! good job if you made them which i hope ya did :-D 1-10 i would give it an 8

[Mich]

Albus Dumbledore, on Feb 14 2006, 09:48 PM, said:

i really like the design, the border around the page concerns me a bit, for those who have a smaller screen will it automaticly resize to it or will it stay as wide as it is?

Yes, it is configured by percentage, so it will resize down to 640 with if necessary.

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i cant really read the text down at the bottom of the page, but that could just be me or maybe the color of the font against the green background i would suggest making it a little bigger.

I assume you mean in the index at the bottom. I have played with it for a while and decided this fits the best. If you are having trouble reading it you can go to the top of IE where it says View, scroll down to Text Size, and pick a larger size. You will see what I mean about the fit. Putting a new index on every page will take some time and I am busy right now trying to get the site completely up. Will deal with some of the suggestions people have made when I get that done.

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i dont see any broken links, spelling looks fine ( i check those just for the heck of it) i also like some of the images you have on there! good job if you made them which i hope ya did :-D 1-10 i would give it an 8

Thanks for the rating. Others have been harsher.

[Albus Dumbledore]

Mich, on Feb 14 2006, 09:02 PM, said:

Yes, it is configured by percentage, so it will resize down to 640 with if necessary.
I assume you mean in the index at the bottom. I have played with it for a while and decided this fits the best. If you are having trouble reading it you can go to the top of IE where it says View, scroll down to Text Size, and pick a larger size. You will see what I mean about the fit. Putting a new index on every page will take some time and I am busy right now trying to get the site completely up. Will deal with some of the suggestions people have made when I get that done.Thanks for the rating. Others have been harsher.

Match the colors
Thats a smart ideal! Good Job :-D not many would have thought about that!

Yeah i ment all of the links at the bottom all of the pink ones..i raised the font to read it :-D..and thats right i just now noticed your not using PHP..maybe sometime you could switch over to php i have seen a great few php tutorials on here i think maybe it was somewhere else.if not i will post one and post a link here.

Harsher? lol how could they be harsher it is a good site, its prolly better than mine (which i havent even finished yet) but there is some excelent graphics on there, i might use a few sometime, i bookmarked it!

ok, and now somthing that i have found with one of the pages on this page HERE on the top under tha banner it says FREE WEB SETS FOR YOUR SITE but it cant be seen >_< jsut thought id let ya know, and now ive been lookng through allot of them and it is the same on all of them...like i said earlyer i would highly advise switching to a php site, all you have to do is edit one file and ALL of your pages that have the indicated script will put the updated stuff in...lol neways its still an excelent site!

[Avalon]

Albus Dumbledore, on Feb 15 2006, 06:35 PM, said:

ok, and now somthing that i have found with one of the pages on this page HERE on the top under tha banner it says FREE WEB SETS FOR YOUR SITE but it cant be seen >_< jsut thought id let ya know, and now ive been lookng through allot of them and it is the same on all of them...like i said earlyer i would highly advise switching to a php site, all you have to do is edit one file and ALL of your pages that have the indicated script will put the updated stuff in...lol neways its still an excelent site!

Hmm... this almost looks like it was done on purpose, given the font size and color. Perhaps done to help bots easily find relevant content to raise page rankings? If so, it's a very clever idea, something I might investgate myself.

[Goosestaf]

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Maybe that is because I am a grandmotherly person &8^)

well that explains it then lol

and also do you code in notepad or use a program like Micro$oft Frontpage?

Edited by Goosestaf, 15 February 2006 - 10:18 AM.

[Mich]

Avalon, on Feb 15 2006, 04:52 AM, said:

Albus Dumbledore, on Feb 15 2006, 02:35 AM, said:

ok, and now somthing that i have found with one of the pages on this page HERE on the top under tha banner it says FREE WEB SETS FOR YOUR SITE but it cant be seen >_< jsut thought id let ya know, and now ive been lookng through allot of them and it is the same on all of them...like i said earlyer i would highly advise switching to a php site, all you have to do is edit one file and ALL of your pages that have the indicated script will put the updated stuff in...lol neways its still an excelent site!

Hmm... this almost looks like it was done on purpose, given the font size and color. Perhaps done to help bots easily find relevant content to raise page rankings? If so, it's a very clever idea, something I might investgate myself.

Right on Avalon, that is exactly why I did it. Take note Albus. Hey, I came up with an idea before you did, Avalon.

Goosestaf, on Feb 15 2006, 05:18 AM, said:

well that explains it then

Seems I am some years older than you There are a few of us on the internet that are over 20 you know.

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and also do you code in notepad or use a program like Micro$oft Frontpage?

I use Cute HTML, CSE Html Validator and to do quick edits I use notepad.

Edited by Mich, 27 February 2006 - 12:05 AM.