A very interesting layout and brilliant colour blend; it matches the unique and interesting name you chose for your site. You make good use of the image with the effects, and I like the way you have chosen to display the site title positioned around the circle. Everything looks well-organised as well. Overall, the site looks like a small but well maintained blog and personal site.
Site: I Gloe
Type: Blog
Owner: Yvonne
Reviewed By: Misao
Date Received: 01/15/06
Date Completed: 02/09/06
Preview
One of the obvious things that caught my attention is the background. Since the width of your background is 1024 pixels, for someone who uses a wider resolution (such as myself on a wide screen laptop) will see a repeating background. It doesn’t look bad though because the colour matches with your scrollbar face and track colour. Normal visitors wouldn’t even notice that your background is repeating. But if you want to eliminate this, include the following in your style sheet:
body { background: #DEAA84 URL(images/bg.jpg) repeat-y; }
This will enable your background to only repeat vertically and everything that is not covered by your background will be the specified default background colour. Since you use an external style sheet, I would make good use of it. For example:
<DIV STYLE="position: absolute; top: 135; left: 547; width: 170;text-align:justify">
would appear in your HTML as <div id=”menu”> and the following will be inserted in your style sheet.
div#menu {
position: absolute; top: 135; left: 547;
width: 170;
text-align: justify;
}
Of course you would also add whatever attributes you need such as font-family, colour, font size, etc. A reminder: specify the font type when specifying size (IE. 8pt or 10px). display: block is not a valid attribute unless you also specify the width of the block. I understand that you want a separate hover style for the links classified as menu, but it is repetitive to copy and paste all the links attributes. Here is a condensed version:
A:link, A:visited, A:active {
color: #FFFFFF;
text-decoration: none;
font-weight: none;
}
A:hover{
color: #96280F;
font-weight: bold;
cursor: help;
text-decoration: none;
}
A.menu:hover {
font-size: 12px;
font-family: Tahoma;
color: #96280F;
background-color: #FFFFFF;
}
Another reminder: text-decoration includes overline, underline, and strike-through. Font-weight includes bold and italics. You have them mixed up when classifying the attributes for your menu hover style. Eliminate <!– from the beginning of your style sheet. This isn’t significant when you have an external style sheet and has no affect if it isn’t followed by the closing tags.
You certainly have a funny way of coding your content. It would be easier and more logical to code from top to bottom, left to right, but if you’re more familiar with your style, by all means stick with it. I understand you’re probably trying to hide the horizontal scrollbar by including <body style=”overflow-x:hidden;overflow-y:scroll”> but it isn’t necessary since your site content isn’t displayed wide enough to create horizontal scrolling. You can also eliminate the from your navigation links by adding a menu div layer and specify padding.Another thing that looks out of place is your image headings (IE. xxblog.jpg and xxextra.jpg). The width of the images does not run across the full width of your content field making them look float-y. You should make them just as wide as your field of content so your content (blog) doesn't run longer than your header.
Regarding your layout graphic-wise, there is one small inconsistency. The circles overlapping above your navigation field and near your site title is inconsistent with the circles behind the navigation links. Click here for example of the modifications that I’ve pointed out in the last two paragraphs. They are circled in red. Of course, these are merely suggestions.
You should try to link ‘Drama-Panties.org’ to a new window browser so your visitors can still visit your blog and your collective at the same time. I like your Q&A. People sure do ask interesting questions. But this might be more suitable inside a section, like under VISITOR. You might want to update your link for one of your hostees (Nyaa) because she has moved. I like your WHY DONATE page. I totally understand where you are coming from. However to upgrade a personal account at PayPal to premier doesn’t cost anything. Membership is free, but you have to pay a small fee each time you receive money, and when depositing money into your bank account.
Blog - Nice formatting. Unlike some other blogs I’ve seen, you separate your entries in paragraphs for easier reading. I like your emoticons, especially the mad face used in your February 8 entry. It looks like the smiley is waving its middle finger. Make sure the link above your blog entries to ‘exPOSure’ opens in a new window so your visitors aren’t taken away from your site with a single click.
First Glance - Wow.. you even listed your measurements and bra size on your profile! Interesting… it seems that you and I are quite similar in certain areas. Since you use bold for the subheadings (IE. likes, dislikes, favourites), if you need emphasis on the content (IE. web design listed for likes), use italics or underline for easy distinction. ‘Consistant’ is misspelled where you are describing your goals to become a teacher. Under Personality, this sentence should read as “I try to be as open-minded as I can, but I am opinionated in everyway” since open-minded and opinionated are contrasts. “I’m passive-aggressive when I drive, don’t tailgate me…” need to be separated into two sentences right after the word ‘drive’. For MY LIFE, you need to rephrase this run-on sentence fragment - “When I reached the tender grade of 8, I was in the gifted math class. I was second to valedictorian. I had everything for me academically.” The original makes sense in a confusing way because there are three sentences strung into one and missing a few pronouns. You misspelled a word in each of these sentences: “There was this chinese guy who offered to buy me lunch”, “no one took me seriously”, “competed against each other with our marks”, “though you may prevent confrontation”. You should warn visitors that MY VOICE links to a media link that requires QuickTime or whichever program. Some people may not have that program. I see a baby in the photo of your night table, is that you? She’s really cute!
Creativity - I like your BLENDS, especially Sovereign. You might want to check out some of your links for “entered @”. Majority of them are broken like Vanity, Loffly, Cinema, etc. I like your POETRY as well. I understand why you won honourable mention for the one dedicated to your grandmother. But you should make a small brief note about these links opening in Microsoft Word. Some people wouldn’t download them because Word documents are easily corrupted and hold viruses.
Opinions & Interest - Interesting reads, especially about Christianity. I am not a Christian myself. I don’t really believe in the whole Jesus/God theory, but you have a really interesting and humorous theory. Under Paranormal, the words ‘hvae’ and ‘loction’ are spelt wrong. Under Sex, ‘godamn’ is spelt wrong. (Maybe only I find it funny that you spell it wrong after your theory about Jesus above.) Under Porn, Explicit/Naughty Pictures etc., I have a question for you. Regarding women embracing their sexuality and using it to make money as a talent, would you consider prostitution a talent as well if the intention of the customer were to violate and abuse? Most prostitutes are not embraced by their customers as talent nor given much respect, and most go into prostitution not by choice, but for survival. Just a curious thought. Under the same category, ‘expessially’ and ‘prefernce’ are misspelled. RAGNAROK ONLINE confuses me. From what I gather, you use two main characters? Both Rajah and Wingheart? I like the cute baby pictures of you and David.
Photo Album - You should have an asterisk or some type of warning next to the link because it leads to a subdirectory where you keep your photos. Or remind visitors to click the top banner on your album page to go back to your blog.
Graphics - I like your TEMPLATES. You need to change the one dimension for your WALLPAPERS. When people use 1280 pixel resolution, it is usually 1280×800, mainly for wide screen laptops, like the one I am using to review your site. The wallpaper would be too big in terms of height. I like your IMAGE gallery but half of your Chobits images are mislinked. I won’t list them because the list is long, but if you go through your page, you’ll find quite a few. Although it isn’t necessary, it would be easier if you had a page outlining what your terms and rules are for the graphics (IE. no direct linking, giving credit, personal usage). I find the TUTORIALS very helpful and easy to follow. The Matrix Effect is definitely a new one I have not yet come across. An easier way to do Transparent Text is to set the fill opacity of the text layer to a lower percentage. Isn’t that faster and easier? Some of your RESOURCES links are target=”new” while some are target=”_new”. Both of these are neither correct nor incorrect. The proper targeting for new window browsers is target=”_blank” and you should try to keep this consistency.
Interactive - I like how you change these on a routinely basis. I don’t know the answer to the first but I am sure the second is the character Jessica Simpson starred in that Cowboy Duke movie.
Fun - I really enjoy your FUNNY POEMS + DIRTY JOKES. Of course, younger children might not appreciate this, but it is humorous for those who understand. Wow.. what an interesting way to CHEER people up.
WWW - The Fanlistings Network and Yuumei Templates are mislinked. You might want to warn people with Angelic Network because it isn’t suitable for children under 18. I believe your LINK EXCHANGEE PetShopGirl has moved. I like your button; the glow on the ‘i’ is original and makes the button pretty. I can relate with you on SITE HISTORY, but you didn’t explain if you have always had a blog or was that a more recent event after you bought the domain or how long the domain has been up for. ‘Were’ is spelt wrong in “my Network wer my very first sites”.
Splash Stuff - Besides your newest AWARD on top, all the other ones are mislinked.
Scratch what I said above about how long your site has been up for. I see that my question is answered here. Links to HOSTING SOLUTIONS are also included in this section so technically you don’t really need the extra SERVICES link in your navigation. Plus, one of the two links provided is an external link.
I certainly did not anticipate that I would spend a large amount of time on your site (or the amount of content). But I realize that after clicking on each navigation link, there is more to click. I have learned a great deal about you, your interests, your opinions, and a little about your domain. I like your blog. You are not afraid to express your opinions and be straightforward. However, your site went down twice while I was reviewing. It might have been a glitch in the system, because it came back online after a minute or less. Besides the errors in your HTML coding and linkage, just keep at what you are doing.
Yvonne Says:
February 9th, 2006 at 12:15 pmThanks for you review! I now have a wider scope around things I must do. As for the many mislinks, there’s not much I can do if the other person’s site is down. I would still like to credit them for the awards I got etc.
Yea, my coding is really messy and that is something I have to work on. Thank you for the CSS help!
Vera Says:
February 9th, 2006 at 2:13 pm“display: block is not a valid attribute”
As a matter of fact, you’ll find that it is. And there is a difference between having it and not. For example, if her sidebar’s width is let’s say 250px, yet her link text takes up only 180px, then by specifying something like:
a{ display: block;
width: 100%;
background-color: #FFFFFF;}
you will have the background color extend along all 250px, not just strictly behind the 180px of linked text (if you hadn’t used the afomentioned attribute).
Misao Says:
February 10th, 2006 at 1:00 amYvonne - I’m glad that my review helped. I wish you all the best.
Vera - That was my bad. I had missed that. Thank you for pointing it out. I will have to remember it next time.