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Review for Chrasy
The very first thought running through my head when your site loaded is “Did I come to the right site?” I normally don’t associate domains and blogs with plain text Wordpress templates. The site is exactly attractive or alluring, but it does have one strength: the large font size. I like the fact I don’t have to squint or roll my mouse over the text just so I could make out a word. Despite the visible clarity and simplicity of the site, the appearance is rather dull, and as a visitor, plain sites are usually a turn-off.
Information
Site: Chrasy
Type: Domain
Owner: Tracey
Reviewed By: Misao
Date Received: 11/26/06
Date Completed: 11/12/07
Preview
Presentation
As stated above, despite the visible clarity of the site, the rest is rather dull both in appearance and in colour, which is a major turn-off for visitors, especially myself. I am sure the site will benefit if you decide to play around and add a little splash of colour or a simple graphic design. The title and links are displayed neatly and easily accessible at the top of the page. The link back home from the site title is not necessary and should be removed. There is already a ‘Home’ link with the rest of the site navigation.
I certainly love the way you prepare the visitors with your site in the introductory paragraph with full links to the different pages. Blog entries are very organized with a distinctive entry title header, date and comments link at the bottom. Personally, the font size of the entry title header and date is rather large, but it coincides with the font size of the site title and links found at the top of the page.
Scrolling down the page, I notice a larger site section with blog-related links. The only problem: there is a wordpress database error in the site updates column. It is giving this error message:
WordPress database error: [Table ‘rocklove_tracey.wp_bgs_miniblog’ doesn’t exist]
SELECT * FROM wp_bgs_miniblog ORDER BY `Title` ASC LIMIT 0,5
I like the use of different font size for linking the different categories though some are considerably a lot larger than others, which makes the column a little unbalanced.
The HTML source was very organized. Most of tags were closed and each section was divided by a line break. However, there is a tab break after Chrasy in the title tag, which I believe must have been a typo. I also copied your site over for validation since the DOCTYPE was declared in the HTML. The validation site gave me two errors: line 109, column 17: document type does not allow element “div” here; and line 113, column 4: end tag for “li” omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified.
On the surface, the style sheets look very organized and accurate. I am not very fond nor familiar with using percentage for determining margin widths and what else. I work well with actual decimals but it seems to work well in your case. The layout looks well aligned. When I tried to put the site through ccs validation, it found an error: the file http://chrasy.com/wp-content/plugins/contactforms/styling/cforms.css was not found. I tried locating the file myself and I got a 404 error. The validation site also issued about 70 warnings about background colour, though it isn’t anything major.
Content
I can’t criticize too much about the main page, since it only hosts the blog entries, which are laid out neatly displaying only the two most recent entries, preventing cluster and scrolling. Comments display and form is also organized and easy to maneuver. I personally really like your smilies. They’re adorable.
Tracey
I enjoy the format for this section, the use of previous “versions” of this section. The thumbnails images are also a good compliment to your bio. I like the use of paragraph to describe who you are and what you are, though some basic stats such as your age, where you’re from, age, and education level is missing from the first page. I know those info are provided in previous pages, but keep in mind that those previous versions are out of date and possibly not even viewed. It is more efficient to have these info provided on the main page of the section with all the other updated information. A date should also be provided on the first page (similar to the previous versions) so visitors know how “recent” the page really is.
There are a couple of small errors that can be fixed easily and readily.
- Page 1: I’m a blogger, a reviewer, a fnalistings owner… - Spelling error
- Page 1: I know that my life isn’t ever as bad as I make it out to be. On the contrary, I am one of the luckiest girls in the world. - Comparitively is used incorrectly. ‘On the contrary’ is a better selection.
- Page 2: I’m a first-generation-born Chinese-Australian. My parents came here in the eighties and my brother and I were born here. - Run-on sentence. It would make more sense if you divided it into two sentences. Page 2: Sure, I like to be alone now and then, and these friends… - Only use ‘but’ when comparing two or more elements.
- Page 4: I almost murder my piano by playing it too loudly (nope, not weird), and I over use commas and parentheses (like, this, (like), yeah). - Requires ‘and’ and a comma before the last idea of the list. The comma after ‘parentheses’ is not required; only a period after the series of bracket phrases.
Writing
One of the sections I enjoy visiting in a personal site. You’ll be surprise how much you can learn about a person just by their writing style. Though I have read all your articles, I won’t be commenting on each and every one of them. I don’t think it is right for me to criticize you when you’re just trying to voice your own opinions. Before I do though, I’ll like to point out an error on the main page of this section. Underneath article, the use of ‘as such’ does not provide readers the same purpose I believe you are trying to achieve. Instead, I suggest re-wording it to “<i>the reason why I only have one here</i>.”
Multiculturalism in Australia - This article wasn’t particularly well-written where each paragraph flowed smoothly into the next (I am used to reading and writing academic papers at the University level) but I enjoy the topic as Canada is well-known as a multi-cultural country. However, based from my summer vacation in Australia the previous summer of 2006 and from the stories I have heard from my friend in Melbourne (she’s Chinese), only the bigger cities are tolerant of multiculturalism. The smaller cities and towns are not tolerant of “non-White” people even if they are tourists. I was actually expecting an article arguing the prevalent issue of visible racism in many parts of Australia, and the need to accept and move toward a more multi-cultural society. But nevertheless, I enjoyed the article.
I am not a Harry Potter fan nor a Tennis fan so I can’t really comment much on the fanfictions but I enjoy the brief author’s notes/comments that are included in some of the writings as a brief synopsis.
All is Full of Love - Not the first article I have seen in regards to internet drama, neither is it original, but it gets the point across. But you should consider the angry and frustration a person would feel if they found out their design or whatever was stolen by another person, after s/he had put so much effort into it. I don’t agree with their method of bitching and ranting, because it makes no difference in the end. But in some rare cases, there are reasons (though they may not be logical reasons) for their behaviours. Personally, I think internet drama pales to life drama.
Is It Wrong To Be Unpatriotic? - An error in the first sentence of this article irked me so much, I couldn’t ignore it. “When I went to the Australian Open early in 2006, I was literally surrounded by (not only Australian) patriots” should be reworded to “…literally surrouded by (Australian and non-Australian) patriots.” The purpose of brackets is to provide extra information to support the sentence. But make sure that whatever information provided in the brackets will still make sense incorporated into the sentence if the brackets did not exist. I also find it interesting there are numerous writings that are tennis-related when you’re not exactly the tennis fan.
There is also a grammar error in the description of Personal writings. “They’re all highly personal (Duh!). They relate to my own self identity and experiences leading me to where I am today.” The two parts are two separate ideas so each part should have its own sentence. As well, these self identity experiences are a ongoing process that you’re still enduring, so the correct tense is present tense.
Why “To-Do” Lists Don’t Work For Me - This is a cute article. I am not sure if you have noticed it but the article itself is structured in a list format (a marMARmar also made the same comment).
I am Chinese, I am, I am! - I guess this would be one of those unforgettable moments. You need to thank that waitress, because if it wasn’t for her, you might not have had the will to learn Cantonese and to use chopsticks.
You are NOT the Queen of the Bus! - Consider telling this certain person straight-to-the-face to get your point across, and to kep those younger children. Or consider writing/sending this letter to the certain person. Not be too offending, but writing an article here and expressing your feelings toward a situation won’t do any good. The situation continues to occur because you choose not to do anything about it, besides ranting on a domain. If you really care for those younger children, take some action. What is the worst that could happen (besides getting beaten up after school, something that you can prevent)?
Music
You might have to consider restructuring the layout to this section and rewriting the introduction. 1) This section does not have what is boasted in the introduction. There isn’t a number of CDs I own page nor any other useless music related stuff. The only link provided on this page is the most recent track, which is an external link. Until one looks closely at the links provided at the very bottom, next to the site disclaimer links. These links should have been provided in the main section of the page, like it was for the ‘Writing’ section. However, there still isn’t a number of CDs I own page. 2) “…and if you’re lucky, some songs that I covered.” does not make sense. How do you cover songs? With information or with reviews? Oh wait, it actually means a personal transcription and recording of the original song. Considering renaming this page as well so that it sounds less ambiguous and confusing.
I wasn’t able to listen to any of the files, because once I downloaded them to my laptop and try to open it with Winamp, my Winamp shuts down immediately due to corrupted file. The files are actually empty. Even though on the main page, the links are removed for Chemo Live and Your Cloud, the links are still active on the Missed Me page. The Aloc-aloc page could not be found.
Musicscapes is an unique idea and I like it. Though I cannot imagine how much time it would take for each composition.
Chrasy
Again, you might want to considering restructuring the layout to this page, since all the related page links are located at the very bottom with the breadcrumb trails, rather than within the main content area. Some of these links such as Contact, Notes, and Sitemap are repetitive. These links already appear on every single page under the Quick Links category.
There are a number of mistakes in this section. For starters, in the second paragraph, when going on to list the names of your previous sites, separate the first site title from the previous sentence with a colon, not a period.
I had owned three other personal websites (well four, but we’re not going into that WYSIWYG creation): Marionette (hosted at http://icecreambox.com), Electric-Ribbons (server failure) and Chrasy Vendredi (hosted at umb-rella.com when it was still up).
Besides explaining what each site was in term of success versus failure and type of layout, consider explaining what the sites were about. Domain, fanlisting, fan-related, collective, personal, etc. Yes, Internet is correctly spelt with a capital. In the last paragraph, the third sentence needs to be reworded.
However, none of my writings or music are to be copied or redistributed in
anywayany way without my permission.
Any way as two words is what you need. Anyway is more of a conjuctive, linking two contrasting ideas togethers, much like however, nevertheless, furthermore, etc.
Site Notes
3. The correct way to list time zones is the reverse of what you provided. GMT +10.00 not +10 GMT.
6. Compatible is a better choice for word. “All layouts have been designed to work be compatible in resolutions 800×600 and higher.
The last sentence to this page, “Your feedback is valuable to me.” should be its own sentence, and not connected with a comma to the previous sentence.
Reviews - I like the use of tables to organize this page. It is very neat.
Credit - This page is self-explanatory. There only thing this page requires is a routine check-up to make sure all links are working. I lied, there is one more thing. I am a nicky-picky type of person so this suggestion is based on personal preference. Consider arranging the links in alphabetical order so that it looks more organized (not that is isn’t already). List of broken links: Breadcrumb and last.fm recent tracks.
Contact - Again, this page is self-explanatory and easy enough to follow, even for new users to the Internet. Rather than send you a spam email, I am going to assume that the form works. If it doesn’t, an email address is provided at the bottom of the page for back-up. Smart thinking.
Links
I like how this page is organized into categories. It makes looking for a specific link so much easier. Make sure to check these links regularly to make sure they are still working. List of broken links: Liquid Designs, Lunacy Star (inactive since April), Retti (closed or permanent hiatus), Harlequin Girl (hiatus/moved?), Biscuitrat’s Grotto, Rory Gilmore x Jess Mariano, The Whitlams (closed), Davis Cup, Gregory House x Lisa Cuddy, Web Developer Toolbar, Vision, Aneesah’s Hideaway, Monkeyboy, and Petite Anglaise.
Quick Links
There really is only one page that was not linked elsewhere, Accessibility Statement. This page is quite informative and easy to read, and there are no spelling or grammar mistakes.
Final Statement
Overall, the site has everything a blog/personal site should have and more. Though the sites doesn’t have much to attract new visitors nor does it have anything that really stands out, it still serves its purpose. This site has many rooms for expansion, if you wish to take that route. If not, Chrasy is still a well-made site.