Clem’s Review

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First Impressions

Okay, Abby—I just want you to know that I really enjoy reading your blogs and I think you’re awesome. Unfortunately there are parts of this review that you’re not going to find pleasant, but I can’t censor things out just because you’re an online friend. So, on with the review!

Oh! No, I totally understand if you have to destroy my site! Wow. That sounded weird. But anyway, that’s why we get reviewed right? To improve our sites. So, yes! On with the review!

Chastisement time: I spent ages writing up a review of your old old layout, and then a fair amount of time writing one on your pink layout. I really am NOT in the mood to rewrite it, but you’re going to make me, aren’t you? If you’re at the top of a queue, you just don’t change the layout. Yes, this is making me mad. I spent a lot of time picking apart your old layout, and now I have to do it with this one?

Oh wait… it changed back… well, whatever happens now, too bad, I’m reviewing the pink one. Which is a little TOO pink.

Ha…. yea. I kind of forgot you were reviewing me, but I changed it back!

Enter

n/a

Layout

So, as I had expressed earlier, I see far too much pink. Now, I like pink as much as the next person, but it’s the only colour present, bar the text which is black. And this particular type of pink, a sort of salmony colour, makes me want to throw up. I think that just changing the colour of the layout would make it a million times better.

Yea, I kind of agree with the “too much pink” comment, but this is a premade layout. Sorry if I never told you that! But anyway, that makes it really hard to change everything. But I’ll be sure to have a layout with color variety when I change my layout (which will be soon!)

I like those fading lines that drip down from the top of the screen—it’s a neat effect. I also like some aspects of the header: the octopus, the ink blot on the far right, etc. But all of it at once is very overwhelming.

A bunch of the header drips down into the very pink content area, including a tab that says “haha”. What is the point of this tab? Your background has pale pink swirls on it, which makes it hard to read the text without feeling dizzy.

Yeah, I never really got that tab….

Any reason why your header says “sweet touch”? I’m really not big on headers that say random things: the site name is fine, yes it is.

Premade

CENTER IT, PLEASE! It looks so funny like this, almost as if it wants to be in the middle but can’t quite work up the guts to do it.

Your navigation isn’t very prominent. With all of those links down the sidebar, it’s not so easy to immediately identify it as the navigation. There’s a rumour that I loves me a block navigation (and I gots the good grammars), and it just might be true. Also, linking the Index page on the navigation is a good plan.

Next time will be a block navigation for sure! Oh, and the link to the homepage is at the VERY top of the sidebar. Yes, I know. Bad place right? WordPress wouldn’t let me move it… who knows why.

Lastly, your layout has nothing at the bottom. A footer would be good, and if not then a continuation of the darker pink border would be nice. It just fades off into nothingness the way you’ve got it now.

I know I originally commented about how it was very pretty, and I stand by that. You’ve got some really interesting things happening here, but saving some of it for the next layout instead of lumping it all together would be smart.

Content

Site

And we would want to learn about your site before “Fun Stuff” and “Writing” because…?

Changing that now…

About the Webmaster—Do you realise that so far I’ve looked at the homepage and this page and there’s no indication that your name is Abby? Naming this page “About Abby”, or, better yet, putting a little blurb on the sidebar=good idea. I also have a problem with this page being in your Site section. You have nothing to do with the Site, and you’re important enough to deserve your own section. This is a PERSONAL site, is it not? So, once I get past that, I find a fairly long and rather generic page of info. Firstly, you don’t need the whole, “Okay, here’s the basic info.” It cuts the flow of the text off. Notice how on most About pages, they don’t go, “Okay, here’s my about page. We’ll start with my basic info and then move onto my likes and dislikes…” No. It sounds stupid. In the paragraph about your pets, there’s no need for the hyphens separating each pet. Commas were invented for a reason—creativity is good, but not so much when it comes to grammar. Really the thing I hate about semi-long About pages, such as yours, is no humour. You crack a few sort of jokes here and there, but having a funny page really adds to it. I don’t find it interesting to read paragraph after paragraph about someone if the format is “Hi I’m ___. I’m ___ years old and I like ____, ____, and ___. Some things that really annoy me are ____ and ___. I am good at ___. I am _’_”.” Can you say BOOOOOOOORING? Take a look at your host Rachael’s About page. It’s interesting, funny, and informative at the same time. I would suggest making yours more like hers. (Although obviously you’ll have the common sense not to copy too closely.)

Wow, I guess I never did mention my name…. I don’t know why. I’m going to humorize (is that a word?) this section and the About Snow Daze section tonight.

About Snow Daze—While the spelling and grammar is impeccable, this page is also somewhat boring. Long pages are okay, but only if you don’t ramble/speak with no humour.

Snow Daze Newsletter—Newsletters used to be a fad but aren’t really anymore; however, that having been said, I’m a subscriber to your newsletter and it’s better than most.

Site Credits—Ahh, the ever-important credits! This was fine, as credit pages generally are.

Fun Stuff

“Stuff” in the name alert! This makes it sound unprofessional—you could rename this to “Visitor”, “Goodies”, “Fun”, “Interact”, etc.

Let’s Rock ‘N Roll!—I must say I’m not a fan of this page, mostly because all the music on it SUCKS. The Plain White T’s are discluded, of course, except that whoever submitted it has almost certainly only ever heard the overrated, overplayed, and pretty darn bad Hey There Delilah. I urge you to listen to their album “All That We Needed”, especially the first three tracks, for some REAL PWT. Yes, I’m still completely angry over the sudden commercialisation of PWT and Hey There Delilah. NOW EVERYONE THINKS I’M ONE OF THOSE GENERIC FANGIRLS! BUT I’M NOT! I LOVED THE PLAIN WHITE T’S BEFORE YOU’D EVEN HEARD OF THEM! ROAAAAAAAAAAAR! Minor grammar mistake: it’s not “began again”, it’s “begin again”.

I was actually going to get rid of this page a while ago but I didn’t want to mess up your review. No one was contributing or voting, so *poof*. It will be gone soon.

Contests—This contest is outdated; furthermore, there’s only one on the page, so why is it called “Contests”? Contests are always a good idea, but promoting them more and keeping all the info up-to-date is an even better idea.

I’ll also change it soon!

Quizzes—I was pretty into this kind of thing back in the day, but not so much anymore. However, your “What Color Are You?” quiz is creative, and they’re both well-organised, if a little confusing to calculate. They would be better if the visitor didn’t have to write everything down on paper and add the numbers up; some people, like myself, don’t want to take that time or even think about math in their free time.

When you use WordPress, you have to download a special “plugin” to use forms, and I was going to make it an actually quiz with buttons and everything, but I can’t figure out how to do that when using the plugin.

Fun Sites—Can’t this go under Linkage?

Writing

My Thoughts—There’s only one article here, but I thought that it was mature and well-written. I agree with you, especially when you say, “For me, it’s not about how many friends I have, it’s about who my friends are. If you think of friendship that way, you’ll be as popular as you need to be.” Honestly, that’s an awesome outlook. I think to some degree, everyone wants to be popular and to fit in—but in the end, twenty years from now, you’ll be more likely to remember your awesome friends than your popularity. (This isn’t to say that you can’t have both at once.)

Thank you! I’m glad we share the same perspectives. I’m rewriting my other opinions because I didn’t think that they provided enough information and argument/reasons, which I know you’d appreciate.

Poetry—As you probably know, I’m not one for poems, but I think that the one you’ve got here has good imagery. I especially like the ending—and yep, I understood it, so I’m apparently metaphoric.

Contact

This should be the last thing on the menu. Other than that, not much to say. Which is good.

Linkage

Well-organised, as are most linkage pages. Honestly, if you want to take the ugly button from me down, my feelings will not be hurt. In fact, please do. It’s embarrassing…

Summary

Your content is a bit wishy-washy; the Fun Stuff section isn’t so much my style, and the Site section could use a bit of a rehaul. However, I really enjoyed the Writing section, but was a bit disappointed by the fact that there isn’t much there. Your layout is fairly well-done, although it could use some tweaks, as outlined above. Since I’ve known you online for a while, I know that you’re a positive person who’s always willing to learn, and so I think that your site could grow to something wonderful. I wish you only the best, Abby—and I think you can achieve it.

Aw, those last two sentences made me get all emotional! I really appreciate your review, and I can tell you put a lot of time and effort into it. It might seem like I’m just agreeing with everything you say because I don’t feel like  or I’m sucking up, but I really do actually agree with everything you’ve said. Your comments have made me realize things are wrong with my site that I’ve never even noticed before, and if you notice them, the rest of the world does too. So, thanks SO much! <3