URL: gatheringclouds.net
Owner: Lauren
Splash 05/05
The splash image is beautiful. I’m happy to see that you have your requirements down too and let people know that you have popups on your site. It’s also smart that you state that you have iframes since not all browsers accept them - you get a pat on the back for having that there m’dear. *pats you on the back*
First Impression (8+12)/2=10/15
1) Like I said, the splash image is beautiful. I love it! Since I first viewed it in IE though I noticed text issues. Even though you have IE listed in your site requirements, I came here in Firefox and your text is default… Times New Roman, black. I compared it to what your splash page looks like in IE and it’s vastly different (looks much better in IE). Hovering the mouse over the image in IE to enter produces the dreaded image toolbar… I’d recommend getting rid of that. Here’s the code… put it between the and tags.
2) I was really hoping to be able to do the review in Firefox, since I loathe IE, but the text issue follows me into your site from the splash… so it looks like I’ll be finishing it in IE. Since you did warn me I’m not taking off for my initial reaction to it. The layout graphic is beautiful - I absolutely love it. The only thing I don’t like is how it sort of abrupltly ends where your content begins. More on that coming up. I’m still very happy.
Layout 06/10
Again, let me say that the image is magnificent… such a wonderful blend and I love the use of brushes/textures/color. What I’m not liking about the layout is that when you scroll down there’s nothing… I expected the image to flow on down or there to be more color but the plain white is a disappointment. The gap between the sidebar and the content area also seems a bit wide to me, I’d have made the content area widerby maybe 100 pixels. It’s all personal taste though. I do like that you sized the content area by the bar on the image. That helps in the flow a bit. I’m also not liking the completely white scrollbar… I like a little color somewhere to show me where the scrollbar’s at… though in the past I liked to make it all the same color too, only changing the color of the arrows like you did.
Navigation 03/05
Your navigation is easy to see and all, it’s just that I really don’t like numerical navigation. It looks nice and all, but I’m lazy enough to like to be able to just see what I’m getting into instead of squinting down at the status bar or just clicking to see where I end up. You have back links, though, and everything else is easy to understand.
Organization 10/15
Section I) the links to your fanlisting, livejournal, myspace profile, portfolio, and writings shouldn’t be here, at least not as content like they are.
Section II) the links to Games, Flash Files, and the Blends Challenge are out of place. Blends Challenge would be alright if you specified that it opened in a new window.
Section III) it seems weird to me to have reviews listed under the nominated section… and then the nominations link again under awards & gifts.
Graphics 10/10
I’m in love with your graphics. There’s not really anything I can think of to say about them to make them any better because they’re already so great. You’re amazing.
Content 03/10
I - The ‘me’ section.
Ehhh… I’ve come away from this section feeling like I know nothing about you… not really. Your biography isn’t a biography - it’s more like a long, random list of stuff… it looks like you took one of those surveys that’s circulating on MySpace and through emails and just filled it out. With lists like that what I end up doing is just skimming over them because there’s nothing personal there. At all. It’s odd to me that you have a Favorites section here when you also have one on the menu a page back. You really need to make this section more personal. Make it so that people really get to know you, and not from cold lists of things and images. Actually write a bio. Give opinions on things. Do something to help people see who you really are.
Since this is, in essence, a re-review, I’m gonna say that I’m more disappointed in this section than I would have been if it wasn’t, because I mentioned how bare this section is to me the last time. I did give examples on things I didn’t know, like your favorite color and such, but I think you took that a little too literally. I wanted you to take things and build on them… and surveys, lists, pages of graphics, and external links just don’t do that.
II - The ‘you’ section.
Fonts and brushes are always a good, fun thing to have, as are wallpapers (which are even better, especially when they’re as lovely as yours).
I think it’s really nice of you to offer free email addresses. Not many people would be so generous with their space, and I’d be afraid someone would sign up for it and then abuse it… but I’m guessing that you’re being pretty selective/strict about the people you give them to?
I don’t like that the blend challenge link takes me to a separate site without me knowing I’m going to one, and in the same window to boot. I’m not at all a fan of separate sites as content. The rest of the ‘fun’ section bugs me ’cause none of it is yours. I don’t think of reads as content any time, so I just glanced over the titles.
Games and Flash Files would be best placed in an “Exits” page. Interactions are good - it gives a way for people to interact (hence the name lol) and usually takes a fair amount of dedication and time to keep updated. The only thing I’d suggest is to watch for people who move and don’t update with you - it’s annoying to click on a link that goes nowhere. I didn’t check any of them though, so I’m not saying you have dead links.
As far as tutorials go (and I saved this for last as it’s pretty long), I’ve seen a lot of these elsewhere, but that’s ok. I’m not one that really gets annoyed when I see a tutorial that other people have because 1) you took the time out to try to teach someone something, 2) people might not be going to all those other sites, ya know? What counts is that they’re at yours, right? Anyway… for your ‘Pixel Borders’ tutorial I think you should specify that it’s for text.
One thing, though, that I do frown upon is when a tutorial doesn’t explain things correctly. Your tutorial for php includes… well the include part is right.
Let’s look at what you have…
and
M’dear, this is wrong in so many ways…. First, the very first part of any page should be the doctype… before . Then, after that, you don’t put the
tag there in anything - it comes between the body tags only. Plus, to be correctly coded, where
is,
should follow, if you’re getting into validated coding. Too, while includes are often used for headers and footers, they’re not limited to them. Someone who’s just starting out and isn’t familiar at all with php might not catch onto that. You should also mention, I think, that the extension of the included file doesn’t have to be php. My includes, for example, are usually .txt. Relative urls (like just “footer.php”) also only work if all the files are in the same directory.III - The ’site/www’ section.
The first thing I see on this page is your collective… why don’t you list your writing site here? It’s great to see that you give credit - way too many people skip out on that. I like that you have a section for past layouts too. The only thing I’d caution you on there is that you have song downloads… some record companies might not like that too much and some hosting companies don’t like it when they find out either. I think the link to your host should be in the credits section and open in a new window, especially since pushing the back button only refreshes their page. I like that you have a good selection of buttons for people to select from to link you.
IV - The beginning.
I like that you blog fairly often - that’s very good indeed. I’m not really liking that everything on the sidebar is centered… leading me to…
General content thoughts:
I’m not really liking that everything is centered and that everything is double spaced. Some things I didn’t mention weren’t laid out the way I’d have done it but I could see your logic behind it so I didn’t say anything - it is your site, after all, and what makes sense to me might not make any sense to you. I don’t expect everyone to do things like I would, I just want things to make sense. I mentioned what didn’t make sense to me. My main problem here is that I don’t feel like I’ve really seen any content. I know it can be hard to come up with, but reads, surveys, and external links just don’t count in my book. Sorry.
Coding 05/20
Well, at least I can say that it is viewable in IE. After just glancing at your source I was tempted to not run it through a validator - I did that last time and it doesn’t look like you listened to me then. You should at least have incorporated the doctype - I even gave you the code. I also told you about closing tags like
with
. I did run it through, though, and you have 115 errors - click here if you want to see them.I graded this more harshly because this is the second review. I’m not looking for perfect coding but I’d hoped you’d at least taken my doctype advice, especially since I told you that it was a major error, and because it’s an extremely easy fix in the grand scheme of things.
The image toolbar thing that I mentioned in the beginning goes for the rest of the pages too.
Errors 06/10
1) Double space in the “hair” line here.
2) Broken image here.
3) There’s an extra > in the Storm quiz result here.
4) Big blank spaces in the “Books” list here.
5) Missing image here.
6) MySQL error under Miscellaneous here.
Not many non-coding related errors. Good job.
Bonus 00/05
I didn’t find anything to give you a bonus on. I was looking forward to seeing how your site had grown after the last review and I don’t feel that it has really. Sorry.
Score: 58/105
Reviewers Note
Lauren, I really hate that you’ve gotten such a low score and I’m honestly not trying to be mean, even if it does seem like I am. I graded a lot harsher this time around than I did last time because after one review I feel like you should better your site, and I really don’t think that you have. The only real way anyone has of getting to know you - really getting to know you - is through your blog… and since this is a personal site it’s falling way short. You have coding issues that I addressed last time and you didn’t do anything about them. I’m not expecting everyone to be perfect or error free, but I do hope that when I point out some major things that are easy to fix that they’ll actually get fixed. I don’t like seeing external things and things you’d find in email counted as content. Actually, your score would have been much higher if you’d not included those at all or had them somewhere else. I’m really hoping that this isn’t one of those reviews, either, that’s going to cause someone to up and leave the ‘net, because I really don’t want to see that. You have a lot of promise. You’re intelligent and very gifted with graphics. I know that if you just put a little more into it, you’d have everything going great. Remember that personal sites are supposed to be personal. Please also remember that you asked me for my opinion when you submitted for this, and that’s what I’m giving. It’s nothing personal at all, you’re a very sweet person and I do like you.