stepherz.org has 7 Reviews
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![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Vera.jpg)
Vera gave it
on 20th Jul 2009 and said:I honestly have no idea, why I've been putting off reviewing you... but it appears that I did. So I guess it's high time I compensated.
= First Impression =
--------------------------------------
When I think of you, I think of your pink layout with the dog (a puddle, I think?). Your current one is so much better. I really love the header image. You're still rather reluctant on padding issues, I see.= Presentation =
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First thing I see, is the header image, which is indeed gorgeous. I love the color combination, as well as the way they fade into one another. It's a bit on the largish side, for me, but seeing as my resolution is 1280x1024, it's not THAT much of an issue.Now, this might be an intensely personal preference, but when I think about how to design a header image, I basically think of a banner for my site. So it's not so important that people see a tree/dog/4-headed alien/etc but rather that they'd associate my site with said imagery. Now, your previous design accomplished this aspect much better. First of all, use a bolder font style, such as Georgia for example. Your site title, is barely visible. I think, I only noticed it, after my third inspection of your layout.
I really really suck at suggesting suitable typography, so you should probably check out Smashing magazine for a more helpful suggestion. :PYour main background, is wholly unsuitable. It doesn't match with anything in the header image. Its only purpose seems to be diverting attention from the main content. , I'd suggest maybe using some shade of that reddish hue, and possibly have a horizontally repeating gradient stripe on the bottom of the layout.
Moving on, your navigation is not emphasized enough. Most of the time, my eyes simply slide past it. First of all, I'd make the horizontal stripe larger height-wise. Second, I'd use a larger font size than that of the regular text. In addition some sort of mark for the current link would also be a nice touch. I'm quite fond of the rounded rectangle Jem's layout uses. Your layout could pull off a "normal" rectangle as background for the current page.
Oh I just noticed, your layout's footer is really lovely. Why don't you try and repeat its edges on the main background too. The style of it that you have now is exactly what I was suggesting, only trying to repeat it along the entire width of the screen.
All in all, your layout is not bad. There are just a few details which need to be fixed, for it to be more accessible.
= Content =
--------------------------------------Despite the fact that I visited you often, I never really browsed your content. So this part will be completely new for me.
- Blog -
Your blog's nicely indented and aligned. Text is easily read, your writing style is rather funny... if sometimes containing a bit of TMI. You latest blog entry (Top 5 wasteful things) left me quite a bit surprised. You... erm... might want to rethink some of your descriptions, before you post them.Your sidebar seems to be the same on all pages. Rather boring, not to mention unnecessary. This isn't really information that the visitor might need to know on every page. So how about giving Melissa's dynamic sidebar tutorial a go?
- About Me -
Your self description cracks me up. Especially the part about your goal for going to university and writing down the day you've started going out :) You might know that I hate poetry, so don't take it personally that I'm not reading yours. I hate it indiscriminately, really. Well assuming there's such a thing as "indiscriminate hatred". :POh wow, your prose starts out promising. In the interest of protecting younger readers, you might want to put some emphasis on the warning. How about a differently colored background and larger/bold text?
While I do like the story, I can't help but mention a few inconsistencies. Well, this IS a review after all.
She looked up at them with bright blue eyes but felt she couldn't speak.
Why plural? You only mention ONE single man opening the door. Shouldn't it be him? Or did you mean that Erin looked into the man's eyes? In that case you should actually mention it like that, as the eyes haven't been mentioned in the previous phrase/sentence.
She stumbled and fell upon her knees on his doorstep.
I'm not 100% sure here, but I believe that "on" should have been used instead of "upon". According to the explanation on wikipedia, the meaning would come out as she fell on her knees which just so happened to be lying there... as opposed to, you know, being part of her body in the first place. Yes, I know, I love depicting nice imagery like this.
He proceeded to take of her torn jeans and pink panties.
Of should be off, here. Though, I'm sure this is just an accident, considering that your grammar and spelling is for the most part impeccable. :)
Michael than unclasped the dainty pink bra
Than should be then.
The ending seemed a bit abrupt (Michael's I mean), but on the whole it really fit the story. I liked this a lot and hope you write more. Not that I'm encouraging you to use such dark themes... but I like your writing style :)
- Visitor -
The faery icons are really great, and I quite like the eyes too. The hearts I dislike on principle though :PThe stock photography is rather mediocre quality. The colors look quite washed out. Aside that, instead of directing the links to the actual image, why not use a gallery script which will open individual images in their own page, where you could add a brief description. I'm told Zen photo is easily integrated with wordpress.
Your article on a cutter's mind really impressed me. I've seen my cousin have some horrible scars, but just watched horrified. Never really stopped to think what might have driven him to do such a thing. :
Hehe, your list for trendy site made me LOL, but I'd like to mention that some people can really pull off picture signatures. For example Vixx of http://furious-angel.com, I'm quite fond of her style.
Your comics are indeed sporting a different kind of humor. I don't dislike it, only sometimes it's a bit scary, like the first one.
- Links and Domain -
You know, I'm quite amazed that you only have that many reviews. According to your footer, our sites have been up approximately the same amount of time. Then again, maybe I'm more obsessed :POooh you have a review from Timebomb. *cue manic laughter* And sure enough, they don't disappoint.
Also, I just checked your source code, and you don't have any h1, h2, h3 headers. They make your site look awesome.
They sure do! Make sure to include this in the trendy site tutorial :P
= Coding =
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I'm not too bothered about a few errors, so no validation from me. I do however check for semantic coding.Your HTML is nicely indented and spaced out. Good job. I see there's a line break (br) after your header image. Why not use padding or margin with CSS?
I think you're using a bit too many h1 tags. I'd personally have just one per page, which should be the most prominent title. If you use so many h1 tags, you'll "confuse" search engines, which are trying to index your pages. I'd use h2 tags for the sidebar headings, at any rate. Article titles are more important than the different headings on the sidebar.
Your CSS seems fine, if a bit inconsistent as far as aligning and indenting goes.
Try not to repeat attributes whenever possible. For example, instead of having:
A:link{color:#904b30; text-decoration:underline;}
A:visited{color:#807622;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:normal}
A:hover{color:#807622;text-decoration:underline;}
use:
a{color:#904b30; text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, a:hover {color:#807622;}
I took out the font weight, since the value is default, and nowhere else do you seem to specify a different one. I'd suggest you also take this out from the body's attribute declaration.
Use the contracted CSS form, whenever possible. For example:
body
{background-image:url(http://stepherz.org/pinkswirlbackground);
background-attachment:scroll;
background-color:#352839; }
Could be written as
body{
background: # 352839 url('image.gif') scroll;
}
Incidentally, you forgot the image file's extension in the body's declaration. So the image won't show up that way.
On the whole your CSS seems rather messy and unorganized. Do look through it, and check for inconsistencies and unnecessarily repeating values. The font family for example. You can specify it once for the body tag, and then everything else will inherit those values.
Score: 3/5
Your site's interesting and I can definitely see myself coming back. Now normally, I'd give these sorts of sites at least 4 stars, however your CSS needs some brushing up, and there's also some layout issues to fix. All in all, keep going! You're doing a very good job. :)
UPDATED 20 Jul 09:
a puddle, I think
Poodle, poodle sorry. I make the most astounding mistakes >.
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![[img: avatar]](/avatars/inadream.jpg)
inadream gave it
on 26th Jan 2009 and said:FIRST IMPRESSION:
To be honest, I don't really like the layout. There is just too much of that one symbol. I'm thinking it would look better either with a different header or a different background. I like the symbol thing but it's just a little distracting to have it all over the page.However, I love the colors. The purple is very pretty. I just feel like maybe there is too much white. The only thing that really seperates your sidebar/content from the background is a black line. Maybe make those div's an off-white or maybe a dark purple or something really different. Doesn't really matter as long as it looks good and right now it just doesn't seem to have enough definition because everything is white.
Everything is easy to find, from what I can tell, so far, which is good. I would suggest maybe adding more padding to your sidebar and content div's because the text runs pretty much right into the borders and it would look better with a little bit of space between the text and the borders.
Overall- The first impression isn't horrible, but it could use some work. I think you have a good start, but perhaps if you play around with colors and sizes you can make it look even better.
BLOG:
Your entries are entertaining and it looks like you get a lot of traffic at your website. That makes me excited to see what else your site has to offer because people are obviously interested!ABOUT ME:
I like your writing style and enjoyed reading the two paragraphs you provided in this section. I would suggest adding more about yourself. Your blog does say a lot about you, but a lot of people like to go right to the About Me section to find everything you want to know. They see the blog as more of an outlet or an update on how you are doing. I would love to know more about your life, school, and your job on this page. You really can do something unique and creative with this seciton.I read your poems and your story but I don't critique others writing because it's too personal. In "Emotional Scars" on the first line of the second stanza "quite stranger" should be "quIET stranger."
I did really like "Sweet Symphony" -- it was very tender and beautiful. The others were a little dark for my taste, but I'm sure they appeal to a good amount of people. I have some dark poetry of my own that I don't really like to read because I'm in a really good place in my life right now -- could be why yours didn't appeal to me as much. I hope you don't take offence to that because I'm not saying they're bad at all, just not what I'm into right at this moment.
Overall- I would love to see more information about you in this section, since it is a personal site.
VISITOR:
To be honest, I feel like I have seen all of these things before. I mean, it's fine to put up little graphics and things for people to use, but I always wonder if anyone actually uses them. Since your site is listed as a personal site, most people probably aren't visiting to download brushes or images. It's fine to have them up, but I wish you would have as much stuff on your About Me page (or more) than you do on your Visitor page.I noticed on your article, "Inside A Cutter's Mind" that it was updated in 2005. It made me wonder if all your content is that old. If it is, I would definitely suggest adding more and sorting through the old to make it better and make it match what you want your site to display in 2009.
As for the comics, I would have read them but the font is so small that it strains my eyes. If you can, please make the fonts bigger on the comics because no one wants to have to squint in order to read what they say. Sorry for not reading them and commenting on them.
Overall: I wasn't very impressed with this section. It contains mostly cookie-cutter basic things that many other websites have. The only thing that interested me was the article, but it had not been updated for years. Also, the comics interested me, but the font is just way too small and I can't adjust it because it's on an image. I think it would be a good idea to really think about what you want the purpose of your website to be and then organize and sort through everything accordingly. After seeing this section, I don't think you really consider you site to be a personal site because there is hardly any personal information and your visitor section has more stuff, but is less unique.
LINKS AND DOMAIN:
I thought it was strange that you started writing in third person in your Name>Stepherz section. It just didn't flow because the rest of the page is in first person. The link you gave in the second paragraph about validating your site (http://validator.w3.org/validate) leads to a 404.On your Awards page in the first sentence it should say "won" instead of "one."
Overall: This site fulfills it's purpose and there really isn't much for me to say about it.
LAST IMPRESSION:
I would love to tell you how impressed I was with your website, because I truly thought I would be after seeing how many people follow your blog. I really did not feel like I knew that much about you, and personally your Visitor section would probably lead me to the exit if I were visiting just for fun because it is very typical. However, if you would add more to your About Me section to kind of counterbalance your Visitor section, it wouldn't be so noticeable.I think your site has a lot of potential, but it just needs some TLC. It seems to be dated and not very unique at this point in time. I really would love to see what you could do with it to make it stand out from the crowd. I wish you the best of luck, and I'm sorry if I cam off as harsh, but I really feel like you could do something great with your website and I hate seeing wasted potential. Have a nice day!
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![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Floatii.png)
Floatii gave it
on 25th Jan 2009 and said:hi :D it's flora here! i'll be reviewing your site today with Firefox.
First impression:
The header needs improvement, I'll be honest with you. The swirls are messy, the random grey is..random. And the font's not the best choice in my opinion. As for the background, perhaps you could change it because since you already have swirls in the header, adding more in the background will push it to swirl overload.Content's nicely organized, however, that empty space you see on the Navigation area as you go down the site is very distracting in a way. Maybe you can put all your links on the left to fill the space, instead of at the top.
Blog:
I can read the font! Yay :D And I absolutely love black font on white. Hehe. Link colors match the header color, which is good. It sucks when you have non-matching colors.Navigation:
Easy to spot, organized.About Me:
Nothing much to say about it because it all looks fine to me. :) But a suggestion is that maybe you can move your poems and other writings under a category called "portfolio"? It seems random under your introduction about yourself.Visitor:
We all love to feel bad about ourselves, but if you want your visitor to click on your works, don't say that they're sucky! You can of course say that you wish you can be more creative under your about me section or something. But when it comes to resources and such, no no no!!Favicons:
As for the hearts, the colors are too blinding. The faeries and eyes are creative, but be careful of the colors!I love that frog scribble :)
Stocks:
I love thumbnails, yay :D
What I suggest is that don't resize too much, because we graphic designers prefer to work with bigger graphics so even when we re-size, we won't lose the quality. The flowers are very pretty. =]Brushes:
The pixel brushes are cute! But the others I've seen around a lot, so maybe make something a little more unique?Inside A Cutter's Mind:
This is very deep and very personal, I don't really know what is the appropriate thing to say. But I wish that you will be able to find contentedness in this life, because sometimes searching for happiness is just too tiring a journey.How to have a trendy site:
When I started to read the first sentence, I knew something was WRONG. I hope you were actually being sarcastic. ;D
i found it funny, I'm not sure if others did.Same with the emo one.
I don't know what to say about the comics O.O
but for the first one, get rid of the pixel fontttt, i had to lean soo close the to screen to read it. x_xSite info:
Hmmm, not much to say. Simple, straight-foward.Buttons:
NO NO NOO.
Ten buttons with the sameee background? Perhaps you could provide your affies some choices?
And you can use better fonts for your buttons as well.Overall:
Your site is not bad, but it's not the best either. I'm sure you'll attract more visitors by improving on your layout making (graphic wise) and adding some more unique site content! :DI hope I helped!
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stepherz's Response:
Thanks for the review! :)
It's weird... when I was making the layout, it was actually supposed to be purple on the header, not black. But it turned out that way, so blah. And I'm not that fond of the background image either, I just didn't know what else to do, white seemed to plain, and pink seemed... well too pink!
I'll also work on making some of the other changes you suggested as well. Thanks again! :)
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Bri.jpg)
Bri gave it
on 27th Nov 2008 and said:While the design/layout isn't anything to write home about, it's not terrible either. It's easy to read, the navigation makes sense, and the colors go together. I'd like to see the header redone using a better quality camera or photos, as they look a bit pixelated currently.
Anyway, the reason I enjoyed your site is the content. You've got a great writing style, so I'd love to see more frequent blog posts. If you posted at least once a week, I'd probably bookmark your site. Your comics are very original, and while I may not fully understand the humor, I did enjoy checking them out. I think your scribbles are pretty cute, and funny, so good job there.
Overall, I'd say my biggest disappointment is that I couldn't figure out if you have an RSS feed available. I didn't see one, but maybe I just missed it. Well, that, and the infrequency of your blog posts, but I said that earlier. :)
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stepherz's Response:
Thanks for reviewing my site! :)
I'm going to add an RSS feed soon, I just need to figure out how I want to display it. :) :)
lawlzz gave it
on 24th Nov 2008 and said:The first thing I'm going to critique is the first impression I get when I visit your site. The header image is, in my opinion, poorly made. The idea was good, I guess, but it just wasn't executed correctly. The images you used aren't of good quality, and I think that's the main reason I'm not loving it. But at least you didn't use copyrighted celebrity images. The font is also bugging me, but that can be very easily fixed.
The CSS is pretty basic. You should experiment around with the headers and colors a little bit more to find something a little more exciting. But overall, it's decent looking.
I read your first two blogs, and they weren't boring to read at all. I usually don't like blog sites because well...other people's lives don't really interest me, but yours definitely is worth reading. I'm sorry about your car accident too. I'm sure that was really scary.
Moving on to your "About Me" page. It's not too short, not too long, includes a lot of basic information about you. I'm not going to review the poetry you've written because I'm not a poem expert or anything like that.
Your FavIcons are nicely made, as are the pixels. You could add a lot more of them. The scribbles are decent; I've seen a LOT worse. Stock photos are just stock photos. They can be used for a lot of things, so it's hard to judge what's good and what's bad. The only brush set that I really like are the pixel ones. You really seem to have a knack for pixelling!
Okay, the "Inside a Cutter's Mind" article is a little too personal for me to review. Honestly, I'm sick of all these teenagers sharing their little "cutting" stories and expecting people to feel....sorry for them I guess? I haven't had that experience, fortunately, so...yeah. You use good grammar. That makes a big difference xDDDDLOLOLOLOL at the "How-To's"!!!! Wow. But the scary part is that I see that stuff every day. O.O
The comics are actually a little disturbing, but whatever. =P
Next is the "Links & Domain" section. I really like how you wrote a paragraph about your host, instead of just doing a list thing like everyone else. It shows your personality a little more and it makes me want to go buy a hosting plan from them xD Your whole Links & Domain page is well laid out.
In conclusion, your site serves its purpose as a blog site. Your blogs are interesting and enjoyable to read, but I think your layout could use a little more work. You have a good sense of humor, too, which makes your whole site more unique and original. Keep up the good work!
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stepherz's Response:
Thanks for the review. Yeah, I always knew my header was kind of crappy, I just never got around to making a new one.
I'll take everything you said into consideration. :) :)
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Annen.jpg)
Annen gave it
on 22nd Nov 2008 and said:i'll be reviewing in IE 7.0 with the screen solution 1280px x 800px.
First impression
Something's not right. Your header image is not my style. The font is a bit too "funky" for me, I don't understand the image and the white area from the menu + content shows between the menu and the content itself. That's not going to help my star-rating at all. Sorry, but luckily, it should be quite easy to fix by moving the divs up a little higher (: There's no problem with the screen solution - Things are nicly centered (centered is absolute my favorite) :bLayout
As I've already said, it's not really for me. The background is cute, but I'm not so sure it'd have went with that one myself, if I had had your header image.Content
About me: Cute, informative and has everything you need - nothing extra though. I like how you've put up some of your poems. Nice detail that you added the dates of them (:
I noticed this, though: "I have a boyfriend named Michael since September 16, 2007." - I think you could put this in better English, really. Maybe something like: "I have a boyfriend named Michael, and we've been going out since Septemeber 16th, 2007".. Just a suggestion, because I think you mess up time in your sentence ;)Visitor: Headline in the submenu says Vistor xD Maybe you could add an i ;b Ditch the pixel and make more scribbles :) You have some nice brushes. I use PS, though, so I can't use them. Shame.. I think the grungy one is really cool (:
Links and domain: There's not really any need to say anything. You've got what people would be interested in, and that's nice (:
Final words
I think your content is what really takes this site anywhere (: I think you should learn a bit more about graphics and what makes an interesting header iamge, because adding something more interesting at the top is like adding a star on top of a beautiful Christmas tree :b Your writing is really good, and I'm sure your site has a lot of returning visitors.Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?
stepherz's Response:
Thanks for the review! I can't believe I misspelled visitor. And after rereading my about me page, I fixed it to more sense. :) I need to redo more of my visitor content too, so I'll keep your suggestions in mind when I do. Thanks! :D
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Jasmine.png)
Jasmine gave it
on 22nd Nov 2008 and said:I love the photos you've used for the header image but it looks a little blurry. I like the background image you've used as well. The navigation links look a bit weird where they are though. They might look better directly underneath the header, outside of the sidebar and blog boxes. The text for the navigation could also use being a bit bigger, to make it stand out a little more. Your blog entries need some padding between the date and the title. There's also a random white rectangle with pink spots underneath your footer that probably shouldn't be there.
I like your About Me page. It's very nicely written. I saw one spelling mistake- hampsters should be hamsters. Also there needs to be some padding around your photo.
I love your doughnut pixels :D Please don't call them crap! I found the How To's very entertaining and the favicons are great. I think that your visitor section has some excellent stuff. Links & Domain is well written and funny.
Overall I like your site. Your content is well written and interesting and your pixels are great.
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stepherz's Response:
Thanks for the review! I added some padding and fixed my spelling errors! :) I'm going to work on my blog entries later. :)
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