Archived Review
- Reviewer: meggan
- Review date: 24th Dec 2008
I skimmed over the other reviews, so while I know that most others have mentioned the splash page and you have valiantly defended it, I am going to add another voice to the chorus and say you should get rid of it. I know, I know, it's hard. It took me a long time to ditch mine several years ago. (Also, I am really hating your "click me" button. Totally useless.)
Essentially, I disagree with the notion that you NEED a splash. You like it, sure. It serves a purpose for you. I do not believe for one instant that it's actually necessary. Take a look at your actual layout - it could easily go in a box on the top of the right-hand sidebar with a small header that says "Caution!" The only instance in which I could concede that a splash is necessary is for large, multinational websites like ups.com or ikea.com that require you to choose a country/language so they can better serve your needs. Yours is not such a site. You are merely notifying someone that they could encounter rough language and I think your sidebar would be an appropriate place to do so.
Your actual layout is dull. It's a basic, three column layout but the columns are awkwardly distributed within the given space. I dislike that I am called a "freak" upon entering your website; I also dislike that it says "1 freaks lurking" when it should be "freak," singular. The swooshy heart counter thing is annoying, pixelated, and its purpose is not immediately clear. The center column changes appearance on every page I've clicked so far, which is jarring and irritating. Please choose one of these styles and stick with it.
In your "Coding Guide Writers" job description, you mention Java next to HTML, CSS and PHP. Perhaps you mean JavaScript? They are two totally different languages for two totally different purposes.
It seems odd to me that your site doesn't have any kind of header or site title stating where I am in the intarwebs. I only have the faint (yet aggravating!) memory of the splash page to remind me where I am.
Oddly, I am becoming more and more convinced that this is my alternate-universe-website circa 1999. That website and your own both house similar information in a similar fashion. I'd be willing to hazard a guess and say that this is your first website? If not, you've done an awfully good job convincing me that it is.
I have a ton of suggestions for your site, but I will try to condense them into small, actionable items:
1. DITCH THE SPLASH.
2. Include a header/site/title/something that indicates what website I am on.
3. Start looking at CSS design galleries to get an idea of what nicely designed websites can look like and to get a feel for what sort of design aesthetic you enjoy.
4. Start writing more of your own content. You have a lot of redistributed works (do you have the original author's permission to redistribute?) but you shouldn't have to rely on other people to create your site's content.
In sum, your site is very utilitarian. It just works. It's not fancy, but there's a lot of information and it seems reasonably well organized. This site seems like a big bucket of stuff that's interesting to you, which is how my first website started and I think a lot can come from that. I think checking out some design galleries will give you some layout ideas that amount to something other than black-on-white text with some colored bullets and links, which is...okay, but mostly boring. Have some fun! Experiment!