Archived Review
- Reviewer: Anna_Kirstin
- Review date: 23rd Nov 2008
---- First Impression -----
Anytime any one is discovered to be using a pre-made template, the first thing I check is the credits. I was unable to find the link to the creator or location from which you downloaded it on your site, so I followed the link provided below by Sean.
According to Padd IT Solutions the Wordpress Theme Masinop (which you are very obviously using) is licensed as below:
These free Wordpress themes are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-
Share Alike 3.0 License.
This means that you are free to use and modify them for any purpose, but you must leave the footer link intact.
I checked the theme on their website. Their theme has a footer that states:
Copyright © 2008 Padd Solutions. Theme by WordPress Coders & Padd Solutions.
In collaboration with Dog Boarding, US Area Codes & Florida Lottery.
This footer (which was not to be removed) does not appear on your website. Frankly this means to me, that you are using a theme that someone else took the time and effort to create and trying to pass it off as your own even though it is both against the designing company's terms of use and a blatant break in copy-right law.
You did not edit the footer, you removed it completely. This means if I check the coding on your site it will not validate at all because you have no ending tags for your body or your html.
---- Coding -----
Not surprising! You have 5 errors.
Line 332, Column 6: end tag for "div" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified.
Line 332, Column 6: end tag for "div" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified.
Line 332, Column 6: end tag for "div" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified.
Line 332, Column 6: end tag for "body" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified.
Line 332, Column 6: end tag for "html" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified.
Any idea why you have these specific errors? Might have to do with removing the footer you weren't supposed to...
----- I'm not going to review the over-all layout because it ISN'T YOURS. You didn't design it and should not be receiving credit for it.
----- About -----
There are also a small team of tutorial writers and other designers who help build Webitect. Credit is given to those on their specified content pages.
Why not go ahead and give the names of this so called "team" a quick mention here? Especially since you apparently don't have a credits section else where. It would be nice if you could put all your credits in one place so I don't have to search the world over trying to find them.
"I'm currently working towards a double major in Computer Science and a bachelors degree in Fine Arts in Web Development."
Then, umm...maybe you should know better than to completely remove a footer that contains copy-right information in it....? o.O
----- Jobs ------
"oppurtunities" should be "opportunities"
"Work is done all online." should be "All work is done online."
"Web layout designer"
To be honest I don't see the point in selling wordpress themes online. In fact, I think the developers of wordpress would be insulted at this. The CMS is open-source. That means it is there for free use and open development. I find profiting off of someone else's generosity counter-productive, but as we've already seen - you apparently don't. I don't think you should attempt this. I don't think that it will do well at selling at all because there are so many free themes out there for use. You should already be aware of this too... seeing as you're using one.
..."professional personality." No offense, but anyone with a professional personality would run from being involved in a site that doesn't give proper credit where credit is due.
---- Contest -----
To apply, send an email to kayla@webitect.net with the contents of the web layout in a zip folder, and your name, website (if available), and with the subject 'Contest Entry'.
How do I know you won't attempt to pass my layout off as your own? Look up about the story of the little boy who cried wolf. Pretty soon no one trusted him and when the wolf really did come he was eaten alive. Round about way of saying - don't destroy your credibility.
Exits:
"Links Out" should be "Ways to Link Webitect"
Links out are links that leave your site all together. These are buttons that link no where so they don't even classify as links. I'm glad to see you at least gave some credit to ego-box for the button templates. I personally would go into which button templates so if someone wanted to use them themselves they would know where to go to download them.
You include the credits for the tutorials on some random exits page? You really need to create a credits section and credit in plain and unmistakable site everyone who helped you build this site. It really looks unprofessional and bad for you to not properly credit your resources on a resource and tutorial site.
I went through several of your articles. You list a lot of good information but you don't use resources to back this information up. You mention words like "web standards", "SEO", etc. but you don't link to any of the sources where you got your information. Even if it's a text book from one of your classes it should be linked and credited as a resource. You can't build a resource site and not have reliable resources to lend credibility to what you are trying to say. I honestly doubt that you by yourself know all of the things that your site is trying to teach or be a "resource" for. You can't pass off things that others have written or summarize their work and pass if off as your own. It's called....
PLAGIARISM defined by dictionary.com as "the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work."
----- Over-all ------
Your use of a web-template that you aren't crediting and are trying to pass of as your own really doesn't help with the credibility it takes to run a resource / tutorial site. If you can't get your own site to validate, why should I trust anything you have to say about web-standards that will help mine?
Not only that but there is a lack of any obvious credit to any resources you used in the creation of your materials offered.
As a college student you should know better than to plagiarize someone else's work.
