Theme: duh, Usagi
Ah, HTML, foe of many.
Despite having a pretty layout, I'm annoyed already. First, "usagi" is the stupidest name for a shrine I've ever seen. Your site's title SUCKS. It's horribly unoriginal. Change it immediatly. How dumb do you have to be to name an usagi shrine 'usagi'? -_-;
This splash is completely useless. all it does is take up more space and waste my time. Third, the enter button is tiny and wasted more of my time because I to look for it which made me annoyed. just link the damn big ass image! >.<
DDR is loved? geez, stop kissing ass. so what you're saying is you copied their layout because, duh, you are unoriginal. You don't need a copyright on each page. I do think this layout is very pretty and well-organized. Okay, all this contact you crap should be on the last star, I haven't seen anything about your site yet so why would I need to contact you? "Usagi is a Sailor Moon manga site devoted to its main charactor, Usagi." See? this is why your title sucks. So does your grammar. That sentence should read "This site is devoted to the main character of the manga version of "Sailor Moon"." Now wasn't that so much simpler? You have confused me even more. I thought this was the history of Usagi the girl, but it's not. NO ONE CARES about your site's history. The only time I would read this part of a site if if I really love the site and if I'm bored. Most importantly, this should NOT be the first link I encounter! ggr.
Resources-blargh, I don't care. Call this your link list and put it at the end!
About Me-Profiles don't give me any real information. They are boring. Just delete this page.
Contact-you have many ways to contact you, that's great.
Finally, some farking content. Coloured manga shouldn't open in a new window, why the heck does it look like a seperate site? These are well done, good job.
Layouts-I can count to 2, thanks. It's pretty obvious who the author is. Thumbs are necessary. It's spelled Character. These are really good looking layouts.
Tips-what the hell? your examples all lead to the site i'm staring at. That's dumb. Only an idiot wouldn't know this stuff, and an idiot wouldn't take your 'advice' anyway. just delete this page. it's nothing but you patting yourself on the back for having an nice layout. your comments on popups are..egotistical. just because YOU don't like popup layouts doesn't make them useless. how can a layout be useless anyway?! a white background is still a layout. grr. Some of the best layouts I've seen have been popup, so don't say you can't do as much with them. I bet you just don't know how to make one. blahblah high and mighty. bite me.
HTML-"here is some stuff for people who don't know any HTML but still want to look cool" riiight. A lot of people hate it when someone uses HTML they don't understand/didn't code themselves.
Now, I have to say this. I'm on the third star and so far there has been very little usagi the girl content. This is not a shrine to usagi, it's some girl's website about making websites. ugh.
Images-Finally, some Usagi. A ton of highly organized images with fast loading thumbs. great job here! If an image is in your favs, don't put it twice with the rest of your images.
Links or whatever-okay, if you have smth crossed out it doesn't exist, so DON'T LINK TO IT! god, just don't put the code there, it's so annoying.
The fifth star is just clearing the page. What the hell! Is that it?! This site has almost nothing to do with usagi the girl. It's just some girl with HTML skills telling us how to make a site. Jebus, go make a WPR like everyone else! Take all the images and make a gallery site and call it "Gallery of Usagi" that way you'll keep your stunning originality and have a site consistent to what you claim it to be. blargh, Usagi gets a frying pan to the head.
Notes: My...dear...Lord. Is this the same Usagi I reviewed Back In The Day?! Hey, remember me? It's Chaos!
Crash Count: 0
I reviewed this page, back when I worked at my last job, and dear GOD.
You can't recognize it. My original review of the site earned it a 60%. Even though we don't use percentages here, it's a MARKED improvement!
Well, okay, so it aquired a splash page in the remake. Okay, it's not a very good splash page, because of the fact that the image doesn't like to the main. But stick with me here!
The layout is a LOT better than the last one I saw. A lot. A whole lot. Sure, that image is used everywhere, and the stars aren't labeled. But, if you saw the Hallowe'en version, you wouldn't complain.
The grammar. Damn, but the grammar's better too! She uses capital letters to start sentences now! And spells things right! It's wonderful!
The site is also now actually focused on Usagi. It's undergone a complete remake since the original review, and has much, much more content.
In the About section, she admits what we knew all along: that the hallowe'en version was terrible. She gives credit for things!
Me...GRR! Stats!
"Content" doesn't seem like such a fitting title. I'd move the colored manga images to the images page and call it web help.
The colored pictures, by the way, are very well done. Especially considering that manga pictures aren't easy to color.
The layouts? Well, this girl REALLY likes blue layouts. A lot.
Back in October, I would have said that this girl wasn't anywhere near qualified to run a web help section. But, you know, she's gotten so much better it hurts. She gives some very, very good advice. Except for the fact that all her layout examples point to her main page.
The only thing I would argue with is the fact that I rather like pop-ups. They give you a lot of control over window size. But I hate chromeless.
You really need to go into more depth on the HTML help, though. I know YOU know what you're doing, but if I were new to CSS or frames, I'd have no idea whatsoever what you were talking about. Now, the galleries. Maau, so much work!
Wow. Those are some nice thumbnails. They could stand to be zoomed out more, to show a tiny bit more of the pictures, but they're clear, well-made, they all work, and they load quickly! This part of the site has progressed a long, LONG way from where it was in October.
An amazingly long way. I am incredibly impressed.
Ehh, she hasn't linked anyone who reviewed her way back when. Cover up the evidence, I can't blame you. You should specify that links with a strikeout effect aren't up yet.
Overall: I can't believe that this is the same site. I just can't. Let me say it, for old-times sake. "Chaos is impressed!" You could stand to add a bit more, but you're well on your way!
It's nice to know that you're a guest reviewer at DDR. What's even nicer is that you decided to copy their layout. At least you admit it. Opps. You said similar. Well, it's almost a carbon copy to their last one, just in case you were wondering. It's pretty though. You didn't use an overused image so that was a nice change. Why does everyone use stars for navigation now? It used to be the little squares, now stars are in. Aren't there other shapes you can use? Triangles? Hearts? Little Clouds? Guess not...
Okay, you say this is an Usagi shrine, but where is all the stuff about Usagi? You gave the about your site section more than you did the content. All the content is (what little of it their is) is pictures!! Your free layouts section consists of two bland layouts. Well, the beach babe one was pretty good.
Your rant on the iframes was a little off. Iframes do fit on almost any resolution. It's resolution, not screen. Your screen can be as big as a tv and your resoulution can only be 1024x78, like some people (just because their dad likes it to be small) and even then they will fit in. Iframes aren't as bad as you make them seem. They can be quite useful and work better than frames if you're using a tables layout and have a lot of pages so you wouldn't want to go in and change your menu on every single page when something new came along. Whew... sorry about that. Moving on
"Pop-up windows have been done by almost every site on the web and can be very distracting and down right useless. You can't do as much with a pop-up window as you can a normal frame of iframe, anyway. It's just extra HTML for an unecessary cause. " - This makes completely no sense at all. First off, no, pop-ups have not been done by almost every site on the web. Second, they are not useless. It makes things a lot easier in personal sites to use pop-ups. Third, what is a normal frame of iframe? Oh, I bet you meant or iframe, didn't you? Okay... you don't like iframes. Why in the hell did you just suggest using them? Lastly, it's not that much extra HTMl at all. Maybe if you're lazy it is. My personal opinion is that you have no business giving out HTML or site design tips at all. Stick with Sailor Moon, which your site is supposed to be about. HTML tips are usually on graphics sites or personal sites. You made your site sound like a character shrine on the main page. It obviously isn't.
On your images page, you ask for credit for all of the images. Did you make them? Did you take the time to scan them all in? All 87 of them? No, I didn't think so. So you actually have no right to ask people to link you.
On your "great SM links page", there was nothing but graphics shops. This might be a little fustrating for someone who is actually looking for some information on Usagi. (Seeing how your site doesn't have any...) Please change the description to: "links to graphics shops. By the way, these have no place on my Usagi shrine, do they?" I think that description gives a much better description.
Overall, your site needs vast improvement. Your layout is okay, don't worry about that. You desperately need content. You state that your site is about Usagi in the manga, making it a character shrine. Free graphics and HTML help have no place on a site like this. Save it for another site. Also, you need to get some information on Usagi and quick. Picture galleries alone aren't going to keep anyone interested. Count this site as one that will be going through the shredder known as my claws.
Um…interesting name NOT, though I’m certain this is an Usagi shrine from the name, don’t think your being original by using the character name for the title of the shrine. You should link the image to enter, it’s hard to find that little piece of text, I never read requirements anyway unless I’m doing a review so putting the enter text down there won’t do anything for me. The splash image is fairly unique in the way it was edited, but I’m tired of seeing that picture or Manga Eternal Sailor Moon looking up on just about every site with a blue background on almost every site as well. I’m not saying it doesn’t look nice, I’m just saying that you should experiment with different colours and pictures, though I love the main page layout, the only thing that’s missing is ALT text on the stars (grumbles about how it takes away from navigation). You do explain where each star leads on the main page, but ALT text is always necessary when it comes to image maps that use images instead of text for navigational purposes.
Intro: Where are the back buttons? Shouldn’t the stuff in this section be in the last section of your site? I didn’t come to your site to find out about you and the history of the site before I’ve even viewed any content. It’s fine and dandy that you’re being hosted by Grames.com, but frankly I don’t care because of the fact that I haven’t browsed any meat (AKA. Content) on your site yet. It is good that you give credits though :), but the about me section was boring -o- (btw, that’s me yawning). If you’re going to have an about me section than at least make it interesting, use I Review's about me section as an example (not to make us sound ideal, but we put up more than just profiles with a few meager facts).
Content: Why is this section called content? Don’t all the other sections have content as well? Mah…I’ll just get on to reviewing the various sections. The coloured manga was interesting to look at since I haven’t seen those particular pictures before with those precise shadings (because you did colour them). Layouts should have some sort of screencapture and included and a zipped up form to download. The layouts are nice…but let me count them you have 1…2, that’s it, just two layouts, you really need to work on adding to this section. In the website help section you mention blending colours for visual appeal and I like colour D1E3FD, but your current layout uses that colour as well as your two premade layouts. You’ve gotta endorse the idea of variety. Layout is NOT always what draws a person to a site, take Hitoshi Doi for example, probably the most simplistic and unpretty (yes that is a word) layout in the world, but also the most useful shoujo encyclopedia on the internet. You state this in your website help section, “Layouts need to be able to fit all screen type, and still look great and work right on all of them. Not just 800x600 or 1024x700 or whatever screen size you have.” But it states on your splash that your site is best viewed in a 800x600 resolution. That statement is then quite a bit hypocritical. The three examples of a good layout all lead to your splash page. Some of the tips about content in the webpage tips section is interesting, though I could think of a few circumstances where those elements wouldn’t necessarily attract more visitors. Yes, I hate pop-ups too, death to the pop-ups (goes crazy and tries to stab pop-up addicts with plastic kitchen knife). I agree with your opinions concerning frames and iframes, this article was very interesting though I disagreed with some of the layout aspects. If you’re going to have an HTML section, then you might as well add more, though the codes you have can be effective if use properly. (by the way, I don’t know how this section related to Usagi other than the two layouts and few Manga pictures you coloured.
Pictures: Your link page doesn’t exist. The pictures are highly organized, the policy concerning them is easy to follow (and is the standard for most sites). Images are thumbnailed and open in a new window. I was very impressed by the picture gallery except for the fact that I couldn’t find any credits for the sources of the pictures. I’m not denying that it is possible that you could have scanned every picture and bought a ton of Mangas and artbooks to do it, but I doubt it. If you’re demanding credit for taking pictures, than you must be willing to give credits to where you found the pictures. Work on getting more B&W Manga pictures, since Usagi is the protagonist, it shouldn’t be too hard. Favourite pictures with explanations are interesting.
Exiting: What can I say about the links except that I Review isn’t included: (Don’t include a dead page on your menu, start up a linking page for “Usagi” if that’s what you intend to do, otherwise take it down, dead pages are ugly).
Overall: Where are the back buttons and alt text? They were completely absent from the site. The pictures were nice, layouts were few in number, but well designed, there was a lot of stuff not relating to Usagi on the site. I expected it to be a shrine, but instead I found uh…what could best be described as a coglomation of things relating to various things including how to build a good website. Not that the advice wasn’t interesting, the site just has no information about Usagi. Why do you like her, what is Usagi’s personilty like, when and why was she introduced to the story line, who are her best friends, what makes her mad, why does she love Mamoru, ect.? I was very dissapointed with the lack of written content about Usagi.
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