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akinodorama.org has 8 Reviews

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

paintedskies gave it on 22nd Dec 2008 and said:
I absolutely love this layout! It's so cute. The background and CSS are so lovely, I'm really jealous! I love the rollovers on the sidebar when the little snowflake appears; little details like that really make for an awesome website. The colours all fit together lovely, but maybe darken the red on the unlinked sidebar titles. It looks a little out-of-place. Also, try adding a little more space between each part on the sidebar, ATM I feel they're a bit squashed. But that's me, I always like things spread out a lot.

All the pages are set out wonderfully, but I have one problem. I don't like the bullet point next to "Blogroll" and "Communities Joined". I don't see a reason for them to be there. Anyway, I love the hosting page set-up. The way you have the little pagination thing at the bottom rocks! It also makes it look well organized.

All in all your site is lovely. It's well set up and well written. I will definitely be re-visiting!

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Leila gave it on 16th Dec 2008 and said:
(Google Chrome, Vista, 1280x768)

I wanted my first review to be (a) positive and (b) about a site I've never seen before. It looks like yours will suffice!

First impression: clean, beautiful layout. There are a few padding issues here and there (specifically, the search icon could be smaller or use some space and the "&v4: christmas dreams" could be positioned a couple pixels lower) and the different colors of the sidebar seem a little silly (I know it's the link styling, but it it makes your tweet the darkest and thus most important-seeming thing despite being near the bottom), but those are picky little things. For some reason your comment bubbles don't line up like they should, and I find it odd that your default gravatar has your name in it (for a second, I was wondering why you left two comments on your own post), but all in all, tight design. The snowflakes that show up when you hover over links in the sidebar betray an attention to detail, so I commend you for that.

One thing I don't understand: What does the number after the [month day] in your blog posts mean (e.g., "posted on dec 16, 31")?

I think I'd have to be friends with you in a greater context in order to get into your blog, but at least you have a grasp on the English language -- and a couple others, I see! Agh, I'm so jealous of polyglots. So, although I'm not exactly enraptured by your content, I'm rarely enraptured by anybody's. What you do have is coherent and catered towards an audience that probably has the privilege of knowing you outside of your site, and I don't think I can dock you for doing what people normally do on a personal blog: journal.

The links with the hosting pages could be clearer -- rather than being "1 2 3 4," the links could say "Step 1: Blah Blah Blah." I'm also confused by this:

Sites I would never host if it included:
Racist sites, explicit material, political advocacy, etc allowed.
You must be at least 14 years old, and/or is mature enough; but not too mature that is.

First off, "[ s]ites I would never host if it included" is a bit of broken English, and would be better reworded with something as simple as "I will not host." Secondly, I generally don't lump "political advocacy" with "racist sites" and "explicit material" -- does this mean that if I wanted to blog about why I dislike Politician X for certain reasons and support Politician Y for others, you wouldn't allow it? What is "explicit material" -- porn? Graphic images of violence? Swearing? What does the "etc" mean? What does the "allowed" at the end mean?!

Finally, it should say "be mature" rather than "is mature," but...what kind of vague guideline is "too mature"? Are you defining an age range (be under 30!), or making sure you don't get immature people posturing as mature people ("more mature than thou" syndrome)?

And that's it. All in all, a good personal site with a few kinks to be ironed out, but the effort you put into it shows.

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Chien's Response:
Thanks for your review! (:

In response to your questions:
One thing I don't understand: What does the number after the [month day] in your blog posts mean (e.g., "posted on dec 16, 31")?
I realized I did a glitch in the WP Admin settings panel. Instead of setting the date to "M j, Y", I set it to "M j, t". Careless, I know. Thanks for pointing it out.

The links with the hosting pages could be clearer -- rather than being "1 2 3 4," the links could say "Step 1: Blah Blah Blah."
Since I'm using WordPress' auto pagination function, tags, I didn't really bother to edit it.

First off, "[ s]ites I would never host if it included" is a bit of broken English, and would be better reworded with something as simple as "I will not host."
I've reworded my hosting page also, since you did point out that some were rather confusing (I need to re-review what I write).

Secondly, I generally don't lump "political advocacy" with "racist sites" and "explicit material" -- does this mean that if I wanted to blog about why I dislike Politician X for certain reasons and support Politician Y for others, you wouldn't allow it?
In this case, I allow them for saying that they prefer X to Y, but I do not allow them to condemn any political parties as there are some laws regarding those.

What is "explicit material" -- porn? Graphic images of violence? Swearing? What does the "etc" mean? What does the "allowed" at the end mean?!
Explicit material as in nudity, graphical violence, all those PG18 stuff. I prefer my site audience to be comfortable with the content including in those of my hostee's, as I myself am uncomfortable with certain issues. The allowed part was an undeleted text from the previous rules

Finally, it should say "be mature" rather than "is mature," but...what kind of vague guideline is "too mature"? Are you defining an age range (be under 30!), or making sure you don't get immature people posturing as mature people ("more mature than thou" syndrome)?
Since you've mentioned that too, I've reworded it and stated the age group I intended to host.

OVERALL, THANKS FOR THE REVIEW! (:
medli gave it on 12th Dec 2008 and said:
First Reaction: Wow. Your site is very pretty. I love the simplicity of the layout. You done good with the colors so they do not hurt the viewer's eyes. I like the background, especially. The stars add a neat little addition to your site, especially when stars sometimes small ones reminds you of snowflakes.

I also like the simplicity of your site. Not all sites have to have a bunch of stuff to show visitors. Yours has what all journals I have run across show: content, links, categories, and a little about section. Most of it is in the sidebar, but I still love how you did it.

Content: You certainly have a bunch of content for people to read. That is one thing good about your site. Each link has another link that people can visit and read more information about. I know some sites where the links lead only to one page with no more information. ~~*coughminecough*~~ However, your site has enough information to keep a visitor excited.

Navigation & Design: I know I talked about it in my first reaction part, but I thought I would actually say some more here. I love your theme. It is perfect for Christmas, especially with the season being during winter. The colors are nice. I can actually picture a snowy afternoon with a clear blue sky. That is what I like about your layout. Very good choices in colors.

Coding: I am not one to be too picky about coding, especially if you are using Wordpress for your blogging needs. Another reason, I won't go picky on coding is because I am not the best coder and I usually need a long time to review over a page of coding. Let's just leave it at that you know what you are doing, and that is one thing all web designers need to know.

Overall: Overall, I enjoyed visiting your site. You did a good job with the design. You also did a good job with all the information that your provided. Anyone who visits your site will be satisfied.

Keep up the good work!

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Muse gave it on 10th Dec 2008 and said:
See, I was planning to be evil and curmudgeonly and rip into all the glaring flaws of your websiteâ€¦

BUT THERE AREN'T ANY. Blocked! I guess I will have to be nice, thenâ€¦

General design/aesthetics/first impression/superficial sort of observations:

The favicon is so cute. I have your site in a tab so I'm looking at it right now as I type, and it fulfills all the general requirements for a favicon (memorable, distinctive, clear-cut and easily discernable) and some informal ones for me as well (colourful & cute). I think I have a soft spot for typewriter-y fonts, and little hearts (which remind me of COLOURlovers and weheartit, undoubtedly two of the greatest sites in the world).

Things I love:
> navigation, header image, background, general layout. It's cute. It's Christmassy. Even for evil curmudgeonly reviewers like me. ;D
> the subtle and lovely snowflake image residing peacefully behind your post titles and meta information.
> cute snowflake background that appears when hovering over links in the sidebar.
> your h2s in the sidebar.
> colour scheme. It's lovely.

Things I would love to be fixed:
> it seems as if the search field is a teensy tad bit too close to the bottom of the navigational bar, and needs a smidgen of padding there.
> to me, it seems as if the sidebar and blog area need a tad bit more space between them.
> meta information for each post, with my browser/screen size/default font size, puts the word 'comments' on a little lonely line on its own. Since the text is centred, it looks much better for the whole line of meta information (date posted, category, etc.) to be all on one line, or breaking up the meta info into two lines. I prefer the latter; forcing it to squish into one line of text might be tricky, and wouldn't work if the user changed his font size.
> at the bottom: the 'Older Entries' link is too close to the footer. More padding there?
> the text '&v4 : christmas dreams' in the header seems slightly out of place (perhaps because it is a bit too close to the top navigational bar?
> just above the 'Welcome' h2, your header image seems a bit pixelated at the curve.

The layout and design in general is just uncomplicated, refreshing, and really, really cute. I'm actually feeling rather hopeful for the winter holidays now (although I have a chem test to study for, so that's one obstacle I have to clear first).

Some other observations on the inner pages of your site:
> I'd prefer the bulletpoints on the links page to be integrated with the rest of your designâ€”little snowflakes or snowmen or something, because the normal black circles are a bit jarring.
> the little speechbubble things for comments on blog posts are lovely.

Content and other text littered about:

akinodorama.org is decorated by Aki and depends on WordPress, the reindeer.

That is so cute. ^^ Anywaysâ€”

Disclaimerâ€”really doesn't fit my typical idea of a disclaimer, because they're usually used to say stuff like "Opinions expressed are that of myself, not my employer" and that sort of thing, aren't they? It seems to be more a request for people who know you and how they should treat your blogâ€¦with the last one being more relevant to visitors in general.

About pageâ€”made me feel ignorant. I actually don't know where Brunei Darussalem is, but now I do. Whew. Why is geography not a required subject? Your general summary about you and longer bit was quite interesting, neverthelessâ€”I'm rather impressed at your linguistical skills. (I love languages, but it's a bit embarrassing when I can't speak my native one fluently. DD:) I loved your mini-stories on the 'About Aki' page. I can relate to the part about being afraid that offline life and online life would collide unexpectedly and rather alarmingly someday, because I've never actually used my real name. =P I think I have, erm, five pseudonyms.

(Also: SIMS! I love the building. I used to want to be an architectâ€”I'm not too sure about this anymore, but I'm still in love with the field.)

The hosting section is organized and very clear. It isn't overkill at all, because although it's a bit more information than is usually provided, they're all things a hostee hopeful might like (or need) to know.

Links pageâ€”gasp! You have Plurk! Orâ€¦not, because either the URL is wrong or you've shut down your account? I am very, very sad. But besides thatâ€”somehow, I feel a bit of text is necessary at the top of the 'Links' page, otherwise it's just a long list of links.

Conclusion:

This review was quite a bit shorter than I wanted it to be, mostly because:

a) there really wasn't much to nitpick at;
b) your site's more of a personal blog than anything else and doesn't have a lot of other pages, and I generally don't go through blog posts and review them (it always seemed a bit silly to me).

I loved your site, though. ^^ And I'm still in love with your favicon. <3

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Chien's Response:
Thanks for your review!

I've fixed several issues you've mentioned, but left others alone since I know that I'm too lazy plus I would change the theme according to seasons. Thanks again! :D
kkickball gave it on 10th Dec 2008 and said:
I seriously love your layout. The blue is such a beautiful color and the way everything is stylized looks awesome. I'm in love with your site. *bookmarks*

I can't really review your content since there really isn't any, but since it looks like you do wordpress themes, there should be a place where your readers can download some wordpress layouts that you have offered.

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Chien's Response:
At the moment I've only released one, but then I plan to have a demo site or something where I only concentrate on producing themes.
Shadow gave it on 10th Dec 2008 and said:
Hi thar. I was wondering when you were going to put your site up for slaughter--erm, I mean review.

First Impression

This is a very soothing winter/Christmas theme. At first though, I was like "whoa, where did that red come from?" But it's not as random as it seems. It works well. I was wondering why the titles on the sidebar was darker than the My Latest Tweet one, but then I hovered over it. Either way, I likey.

Blog and Sidebar

The font is nice and big! Great job on that one. Ooh! Bullshit, I love that card game! Oops, my bad. Back on track. But yeah, the line height is nice and large in the blog, but it seems a bit smushed on the sidebar. It could just be me though.

The other pages

About: I enjoyed your about me page. I loved the first line, and that's what kept me reading on. Aki is an interesting name. Japanese names keep my attention.

Your site about is interesting as well. The opposite sex makes you do some crazy things, no? But at least you said "forget about him" and kept the site name!

Hosting: You were very well-versed in what you were looking for, and what you'll host and not host. There should be no problems there--it's all easy to understand.

Links: You have a few links here. I think the only thing that bugs me about this page is the default list style type. But that's just me.

Coding

You passed, but doesn't surprise me. :)

All in all...

Before I forget, I do like the theme you have up for download. I hope you make more.

I enjoy your site. It makes me giggle a bit, and the Bullshit card game mention in one of your entries brought back so many memories. Great job so far!

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muddystream gave it on 9th Dec 2008 and said:
Ok, hi! I'm Steph and I am reviewing your site. Sorry if there are any typos because it is quite late where I am but I will do my best to review your site!

Firstly, I will look at your layout because obviously, it is what catches my eye straight away. The first thing I noticed was the Christmas theme. I like sites that take on seasonal layouts. I'm not too sure about the red link for the site title in the header. I think it would be better to just have it as text in the hover colours that you have for it. That darkey grey blue colour really compliments the lighter blue colour. The only other thing I would mention about the layout is that there isn't much colour. It;s Christmas! It is a happy and colourful time! Perhaps you could just introduce more into the background if you don't want it too flashy for the main section.

Ok next...the links. It took me a while to realise the navigation was at the top but that's probably just me lol. I think the snowflake hover on the right navigation looks great! It is little things like that that really make a site special!

I will move on to the content now. When I saw your about page I thought "surely she can't fit everything on here?!" lol but then I realised you'd developed the pages elsewher which I thought was a nice way of leading into it. I though the page about you was very detailed and interesting - it must have taken you some time! I also enjoyed reading the page about your site.

Your contact form is simple, but I think that's what best really. Visitors don't like hassle when they want to contact the owner do they lol.

I've read a few of your blog entries too and it seems you're quite the expert on blogging - I noticed you have been blogging for four years too! That is quite an achievement in itself!

I've decided not to comment on the coding. The main reason being because it's not my forte but also, I'm guessing you're using a wordpress code but you've used your own header and background? Sorry if I'm wrong.

Overall:
Perhaps a bit more colour in the design of the layout but otherwise I think the positioning and sizes are great. I was expecting more content - I guess I'm not used to 100% blog sites.

I was originally going to give you 3 1/2 stars because of the lack of content but I guess it is an all blogging site so logically, you wouldn't have other content. Therefore, i think it deserves 4 stars for the great layout format, the blogging and writing style.

Again, I'm sorry for any typos!

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Chien's Response:
Thank you for reviewing my site! (:

I've experimented with very bright and vibrant colours for the theme, but I realised that it was just not my style, so I stuck with blue and red (one of my favourite colours).

And yes, I used a WordPress theme (Kubrick) mainly as the base of my design as I did this in a hassle. Of course, I did major alterations to the code to suit the theme and such.

Thanks again!
flashglam gave it on 9th Dec 2008 and said:
Hello there, I'm Britney. I will be nice to your "baby", but I can't promise I will be easy. He he.
Let's get the show on the road. . .

~ First Impression ~
You have a very cute layout. I love the darker red colour because it's not too bright but still noticeable.
I also fancy everthing about the layout!

~ About ~
Line 2: 1.65cm that's very short. I think you mean 165cm because that's more like a height. He he he!
Line 3: "althourh" needs to be changed to although.

~ About Aki ~
Wow. The first part seems kind of like a story - it's really interesting, really.
Interesting! :)

~ About Akinodorama ~
Mediocre. Nothing that is worth remembering. . .

~ Contact ~
I'm so very proud of you! I love seeing forms for the lazy people. I don't mind e-mailing people to contact them however, I feel some people are not as motivated to do so. Kuuuudos :D !

~ Hosting ~
Cool plans. Are they all free or are some for sale? Because, it didn't exactly specify . . . Either way, cool beanz.

~ Last ~
You have a very tidy site. I only noticed a couple of spelling errors (which I have pointed out to you) and you have a very tasteful layout.
Keep up the phenomenal work.
:D :D :D

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Chien's Response:
Yikes, it's that cm and m typo errors again :P Thanks for pointing out my spelling errors :) I did specify in the hosting page that it was for free. I shall quote it: I can afford to provide free hosting to you people.

Thanks for your review.