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VintageChick has 6 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on VintageChick. Jump to review form?

1. 

   LilyAnne gave it on 13th Dec 2008 and said:

   LAYOUT IMPRESSION
   My first impression of this site is that it's a pretty good one. I definitely like the layout, the image is really beautiful (and wonderful, lol). =) Even though the layout doesn't have any "magnificent blending" like some sites try to have, I love it. It's simple, unique and really looks good. The links should look a bit different that the main headers though...they'd look a bit better if they were different. And the content on the right side of the site doesn't have any back ground for most of it. That's one part that should definitely be fixed because it's pretty noticeable.
   And like somebody else commented, it's a pretty summery layout. I personally love summery layouts, but a winter themed one would be very cool. =D

   CONTENT
   Coded Layouts; Your coded layouts are okay, you've got good previews of them, but when you click on the "Preview" the main content sectino of the layout looks a little messed up. It might just be layout preview or my computer, I'm not sure.
   HTML; The Link Effects page is interesting, my only comment on it would be to have actual "Previews" of what each thing looks like. Same with your Text Effects page and Page Transitions.
   Photography; Not a whole lot of comments for this section.
   PSP Scripts; These are very nice, I've never actually made one myself so I can't say a whole lot about them. xD I think they look good though.
   Tutorials; Your "Basic CSS" tutorial is nice, although it should be a little bit more detailed than just "copy and paste this code". You should explain what different parts of the code do, etcetera. I t would probably take a while to explain it all (lol, I know) but in the end it would be a very good tutorial. The Paintshop Pro tutorial is good, and I think it would be very helpful to many people. I've got no idea what "Twitter" is so I'll just leave that section again. x)

   DOMAIN
   You've got a nice "History" story there...it shows that anyone can learn to make a site if they really put their mind to it, and that's what you did. Your link buttons are very nice, much better than any buttons I've ever made for my site. (:

   HOSTING
   I love the idea of offering hosting for people. You've got some good rules, and I think they're fair ones.

   OWNER
   Very nice information section about you. Nice handwriting by the way. ;)

   OVERALL
   Overall VintageChick is a good site; keep up the good work Celina.
   And good luck with your site! (:

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

2. kkickball gave it on 10th Dec 2008 and said:

   I like the colors (main background and table background) but what I don't like is the text color. The text size would be great if you had just darkened the text color a little bit, but if you want to use that text color, I would really suggest that you make the font a little bigger so that people can read without having to squint their eyes to see the color. It just clashes too much on the background.

   The other thing about the design, is that if you go all the way to the bottom, the sidebar text extends past the bottom of the table box. You should either shorten your sidebar text so it all fits, or make the table color extend a little further.

   I also have a complaint about the navigation. It's all in one and was hard for me to find. I had a hard time seeing where it was, since it looked the same as the rest of the header text. I would suggest making that a little smaller and adding a symbol in between navi links so people can make out what is what.

   Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?

3. 

   flashglam gave it on 9th Dec 2008 and said:

   OMG OMG OMG! It's Celina! :)
   I'm going to review you now cause this is too exciting. . .
   Remember: I'm not a coding goddess, but I'm good with spelling, grammar and punctuation. ;)

   ~ First Impression ~
   HOLY TALITO! I love this layout. It's so pretty and feminine.
   The white links and headers are slightly hard to read against the pale green background. Perhaps a darker background or darker text would be easier on the eye balls.
   Also, the regular text needs a bit more breathing room. Add some extra line-height up in thuuur'.

   ~ Resources ~
   CODED LAYOUTS:
   Again, wow. I really love the second layout. I'm sure you know about the whole celebrity images = illegal thing, and usually I'm opposed to the use but, this layout is so pretty, it's kind of hard to think about the legal issues. I think it's the pink hair against the dark background that I love so much, but I'm not sure. He he he. Anyways, you should make some coded layouts like the current one!

   HTML:
   A good portion of these codes are mainly for Piczo sites, and quite frankly, a lot of other people have the on their site, too. I think you should delete these regurgitated codes.

   PHOTOGRAPHY:
   To be complete honest with you, the photographs are very, very, VERY mediocre. There's not much to remember. Nothing that says "OMG! I want more of this stuff."

   PSP SCRIPTS:
   These are very pretty. One problem: the celebrity previews. Use some nice pictures of flowers or something. Anything but celebrities. :D

   TUTORIALS:
   These are similar to the HTML codes in the sense that they are on EVERY other site out there. You need original content because your site is too good to have the same thing as everyone else. Try and make some unique things of Paint Shop Pro and then make some tutorials on it. Play around on different things to find something new!

   ~ Domain ~
   HISTORY
   You have a lot of errors here. I'm going to rewrite it for you. This is what you have:
   "I started off somewhen in summer 2005 on Piczo. The usual. Glittery, crappy & loaded with tons of pictures. But then I came accross to really great sites, wich I don't exactly know anymore. Anyways, I told myself "I want that too". So I got Paint Shop Pro, learned from various Tutorials about coding and layout design and improved slowly.
   But a neat site with not much visitors, isn't too good right? So I applied at different sites to be a Staff member & got accepted everywhere I applied, but I just sticked with one, with Maryam's Emma Watson Fan Site. But one day on Piczo I got a hosting offer from Melody. I was totally overwhelmed, ofcourse I willed in. Around then Maryam moved to Freewebs with the Fan Site & I got a Freewebs too, even though I had an offer.
   I didn't know how to code a Sub-Domain, but Melody was very supportive and helped me with coding and understanding everything. I actually never opened my Sub-Domain, I don't know why, maybe I was just too unsure, so I opened my Freewebs after a while, since I knew more about coding by then.
   July 2008, I got bored of Freewebs, it was always the same to me, and I didn't have enough things to do on it, so I asked my Dad if I could get a Domain. First, he was very sceptic about it, but I convinced him. Ofcourse he told me I had to pay it myself, wich I did. So on July 26 2008 I bought my Domain and 22 days later on August 17 2008 vintagechick.org opened to the whole world."

   And it needs to be changed to:

   I started off sometime in summer 2005 on Piczo. The usual: glittery, crappy and loaded with tons of pictures. But then I came accross to really great sites, wich I don't exactly know anymore. Anyways, I told myself "I want that too". So I got Paint Shop Pro, learned from various tutorials about coding and layout design and improved slowly.
   I had a neat site but not much visitors, which isn't very good right? So I applied at different sites to be a staff member and got accepted everywhere I applied, but I just stuck with one: Maryam's Emma Watson fan site. But one day on Piczo I got a hosting offer from Melody. I was totally overwhelmed, of course I willed in. Around then Maryam moved to Freewebs with the Fan Site & I got a Freewebs too, even though I had an offer.
   I didn't know how to code a sub-domain, but Melody was very supportive and helped me with coding and understanding everything. I actually never opened my sub-domain, I don't know why, maybe I was just too unsure, so I opened my Freewebs after a while, since I knew more about coding by then.
   In July 2008, I got bored of Freewebs, it was always the same to me, and I didn't have enough things to do on it, so I asked my Dad if I could get a domain. First, he was very skeptic about it, but I convinced him. Of course he told me I had to pay it myself, which I did. So, on July 26 2008 I bought my Domain and 22 days later on August 17, 2008, vintagechick.org opened to the whole world.

   A lot of little spelling and grammar errors. No biggie, really. Just needed to be fixed.

   ADVERTISING
   3rd rule: "Linking" does not need to be capitalised.
   Also, the last advertiser on the bottom of the page, the information is unaligned.

   AFFILIATES
   In the rules section, you capitalise a lot of things tht don't need to be, for example:
   domain
   sub-domain
   site
   hiatus
   Rule 3 doesn't make sense: "Link me on every site." I think you mean: "Link me on every page."

   CREDITS
   First line: "i" needs to be capitalised.

   ~ Hosting ~
   Again, lots of things in the rules that don't need to be capitalised. In order:
   adult
   content
   blogging sites
   videos
   hosts
   Rule 3: "You must not ever, have stolen or copied someones work" The comma is not needed in this sentence.
   Rule 5: "You should have good graphic skills everyone loves a neat layout right?"
   Here you need a semi-colon (;) after skills and a comma (,) after layout.
   Rule 7: "Not upload: Videos, MP3 files, Zips or your layouts/images. Therefore use Hosts like: Photobucket etc." This should be Do not upload: videos, etc.
   Rule 8: "Have MSN, if you don't make one, or give me a valid E-Mail address where I will be able to contact you." There should be a comma (,) after don't.

   ~ Owner ~
   Interesing stuff. The only things I've found on here were "i"s that need some serious capitalisation.

   ~ Last ~
   Lots of errors with the text. It's fine if your English isn't 100% but a lot of things that were capitalised and shouldn't have been and vice versa.
   I would go through your entire site and proofread everything yourself because I'm sure there are some errors I missed. :D

   Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?

4. 

   Gemma123 gave it on 4th Dec 2008 and said:

   Hello, I often go onto your site for various things, so i wanted to review you just to tell you why i go on it so much. Firstly, your css, layouts and overall site is very inspiring, the colours are lovely and match really well, and your layouts always seem to be flawless. You have a huge amount of content, which is essential for any budding web designer. Your site also reminds me of a vejc-design type site, with just everything you need. Your owner page is fantastic, and usually what i go to first on a site, you have got that just right. Your pages are constructed very well, but the one thing i must say is brushes. Im sure you would get even more visitors if you made brushes, as 3/4 of visitors go to sites for brushes, i for one do, im always trying to find new ones, and i strongly advise you start making some, as, with your talent im shure they would be fantastic!
   I dont have any tutorials on my site atm, so im hardly one to talk, but you have very few psp ones, well one in fact, i think you should have some tutorials on good layout techniques too.
   Anyway, i think:
   - brushes!
   - more tutorials

   Hope it helped a little,
   and amazing site you do have

   Gemma @ anothermelody.retroflaw.net =)

   Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?

5. Julie gave it on 4th Dec 2008 and said:

   First Impressions / Layout
   Shiny. Like in, literally shiny. It's colorful, which is a pretty good change from a lot of sites you see these days. I personally don't like pink, but I think it comes off pleasantly here, because it's a soft pink. Also, the picture in the header is nice. I like nature photography.

   I think your text could use some more contrast. The regular text is okay, but the italics are barely readable. Bold text and the navigation are a bit hard to read. I have a pretty bright LCD monitor, so it might look different on your computer.

   Additionally, the fact that you change the color of bold and italicized text makes it hard to see what's a link and what's not without hovering. Just a minor disagreement.

   Content - Resources
   I think I read somewhere that German was your main language? Remember that nouns don't take capital letters in English (like "layout"). Same for "remove". Why is "wall of shame" striked over? Beside the fact that both layouts have CSS problems in Firefox (probably due to coding mistakes, like using a .htm file to store your stylesheet), these two layouts you currently have up pose one big problem: copyright. You wrote "All celebrity images are copyrighted to their rightful owners" in your sidebar. Well, indeed, they are copyrighted to their owners. This means that they are the ones who possess the right to use these images (modify them, put them on websites, sell them to magazines, etc.). You don't. Unless you have clear permission from the owner of these photographs to use them in layouts you will then redistribute, you are infringing on their copyright. You can read more on What is Copyright?

   Your tutorial for Link Effects is listed under HTML, but it's actually a mixture of HTML and CSS.

   Using HTML comments (<!-- -->) in CSS is bad practice, as it will make the CSS ineffective in some browsers.

   'filter' is proprietary to Internet Explorer, so it won't work in other browsers.

   These bits of code to copy and paste have one big problem: they are just lying there, waiting to be copied and pasted. Sure, they will do some effect on people's sites, but people who use them will not be learning anything. They will just be caught in the world of copying and pasting, relying on other people's coding to make their site. The key is to explain how to use this code: what each part means, and how it will affect the page.

   On to...page transitions. I admit that JavaScript can have some cool effects. This is not one of them. These effects add nothing to the page, can be pretty annoying and slow loading, and can even lead to browser crashes.

   Text effects. The <u> and <s> tags have been deprecated. This means it is highly recommended to stop using them. For underlined text, you can use CSS; for s, you can use <del> instead. This is because markup is making a transition from bloated with presentation tags to a clear separation of presentation (CSS) and structure (HTML). The same goes for <font>. Overall, I think it would be good for you to read a bit on CSS, on W3Schools and Tutorialtastic.

   Content - Tutorials - CSS
   I've just found this tutorial, word for word, on here: kaaz.dk, which means one of you has copied it.

   "simular" should be "similar".

   "copy this basic CSS code into an HTML box". What is an HTML box? I assume you're talking about a program that allows one to write down code (for example, Notepad ++).

   Also, this tutorial suffers from the good ol' "copy and paste" syndrome which I mentioned before. Where do I copy this text? What's the meaning of all I see written in the box? I know but, naturally, if your visitors are looking for a CSS tutorial, they don't know. Learning by yourself is good, but you still need some sort of basic, which pre-made coding doesn't provide.

   In your Custom Headers, you say I should copy and paste "background-image:url(HEADER URL HERE);" in my header. This would mean I would find myself with something like that

   <h1 background-image:url(HEADER URL HERE);> which, naturally, wouldn't work. When you write down a tutorial, always try to make it as simple and clear as possible. A good way is to try doing exactly what you have written down, word for word, or even ask someone to try doing so and see if it works. If something goes wrong, you need to think of rewording.

   Content - Tutorials - PSP
   It would be good if you put the images for your tutorial directly on the page. It would allow visitors to see directly what is going to happen without clicking on links.

   Content - Tutorials - Twitter
   Erg... Are those really necessary? I mean, menus are pretty self-explanatory and, if people are really stuck, they will probably visit the Help section rather than go on your site.

   Content - Domain - Affiliates
   "vugular" should be "vulgar".

   Content - Domain - Credits
   Mixedxaffection is a brokenlink.

   You credit...Google. Google is a search engine. They provide links to sites about whatever you searched for. They don't own copyrights to any of the images in the Google Images site. You should credit the site that actually posts these pictures. And then again, of course, it is when you actually have the right of using these images (see whatiscopyright.org again).

   Content - Hosting
   "writting" = writing
   "someones work" = "someone's work"

   In your form, you use checkboxes for "pre-installed CuteNews". This poses a problem, as checkboxes are for when you want people to be able to check multiple choices, which obviously isn't the case in a yes/no question. Input type attribute As for CuteNews and aMAILzing, I'll talk about those later.

   Content - Owner
   Why is Switzerland striked through, like wall of shame on another page? There are a few mistakes in your About Me page, mostly typos and/or mistakes that I guess are due to English being your second language?

   havent = haven't
   Im = I'm (I think it appears multiple times)
   dont = don't
   "I", when referring to the first person singular, is always written in uppercase.
   "prejudges" = "prejudices"
   bratt = brat
   lets = let's
   strenght = strength
   Theres = there's
   were dorks = we're dorks
   accessoires = accessories

   On your iPod Surveys page, the titles of songs are unreadable without highlighting them.

   Coding
   First of all, you use HTML, so you don't have to close certain tags. <br /> should be <br>.

   Second, you use <h3> as you should be using <p> (paragraphs).

   Third, the link to your stylesheet (<link rel=stylesheet href="style.css" type="text/css">) should be between the opening and closing <head> tags.

   Fourth, you closed the html tag before closing the body tag. Your page should end with </body> </html>

   Overall, you have many small mistakes here and there that could easily be corrected. I recommend you to start looking at sites like W3Schools or tutorialtastic for good tutorials.

   Security
   Both CuteNews and aMAILzing are very insecure scripts. See:
   http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/articles/unsafe-php-scripts#amailzing
   http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/articles/unsafe-php-scripts#cutenews
   http://secunia.com/advisories/16129/
   and surely there are more...This might sound a bit like alien language, but overall it means, quite simply, that these scripts can be dangerous for your site.

   Summary
   The main focus of your site, the Resources section, needs not only additional content, but a bit of verification of the content already present on it. Keep copyright laws in mind and do some more reading on valid markup and CSS, and you should already be on a good way.

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

6. 

   muddystream gave it on 3rd Dec 2008 and said:

   Hi, when I first went on to your sight I was like Awwww...it's really cute. I think the colours work really well together - the green and the pink. However, it is quite a summery layout and I thought it might be better with a wintery look. Even still, I guess it brightens up the winter!

   As for content, I really like the two layouts that you do have. I like your designing style! I really liked your photography page too - very arty!

   The only thing I would say is - you need more content. I guess it's not too bad considering you only opened in August I guess. I love your handwriting by the way lol.

   One last thing, I didn't really get the iPod Surveys page. What's that about? I'm really interedted so get back to me on that one lol ;)

   I am also surprised at your website being in English. I presume you first language is French as you live in Switzeland so well done for that.

   Anyway, overall - I think with a bit more content your site would be great so keep up the good work and keep blogging! :D

   Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?

   vintagechick's Response:

   Thank you so much for the review.
   My first language is actually (Swiss)German, French is another lanuage I speak(:
   About the iPod survey. It's like you turn your iPod on, put it on shuffle & then fill out the "Form", like on the site..

   Thanks a lot again(:

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