Mirageneo has 13 Reviews
Below are the reviews left by other members on Mirageneo. Jump to review form?
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/flashglam.jpg)
flashglam gave it
on 20th Dec 2008 and said:For your site, I'm going to look right through the fact that you are breaking the law by using unlawfully obtained images from Neopets. Unless you've e-mailed Neopets
and asked them if you can use THEIR images - which even if you did, I know they would be like "Uh, we made those for OUR site, not YOURS" - you can't use them.
Anyways, my name is Britne and I'm going to be reviewing your site today. I'm hoping that we'll both be able to get something out of this.
Let's get the show on the road, shall we?~ First Impressions ~
Wow. All I see is clutter and chaos. It's kind of making me claustrophobic, to be honest.
There is so much going on on this . . . this . . . splash page? Eeeek!
You've used 1000 different fonts and it is way too busy. You definitely need to clean things up - majorly.
*clicking into the site*
A layout aligned to the left side. That's not good. I can't even lie and say it's fine, because it's not. You're totally oblivious to the fact that viewers with other screen resolutions will not be able to view your site properly.
*checks on Firefox and Safari*
Looks fine on different browsers, so lets get started, shall we?~ The Site ~
Oh brother! Flashing bullets with a background that isn't even transparent nor do they match the layout.
I think you need to make your own bullets or something so that they WILL match your layout and they'll be transparent and hopefully not so hard on the eye balls.STAFF
Hmm. You have a lot of staff. Kudos to you, I guess.AWARDS
Good page to have so you can keep all the gifts and stuff your affiliates have given you however there are a few of those ugly Photobucket pictures.
You should upload all photos to your site so that this doesn't happen.LINK BACK
You have some pretty cute buttons here. :PAPPLY TO BE STAFF
"all you have to do is read about the positions and apply! simple riiiight? "
No capitals? And to be completely honest with you, I thought the use of multiple letters - especially on a website where you should be trying to put out a professional vibe - was out and no one did it. That's one thing I never want to see come back as if it were EVER in.
I suggest spelling things how they are in the dictionary. Seriously . . .AFFILIATES
You need to learn to capitalise things, my friend. As well as use your punctuation. Examples:
I instead of i
I'm instead of im
MirageNeo instead of mirageneo
Because honestly, it's annoying me to great extremes.HISTORY
I won't even get started on here but I will say that you need to:
a) CAPITALISE!!!
b) Use your punctuation where needed (ie. commas (,))
c) Type out the full world. You are not five and you are not texting. (ie. your/you're instead of ur)CREDITS
Provide the links to these sites.WALL OF SHAME
As far as I'm concerned, these pages should be banned from the web. Because quite frankly, if I had one your site would be on it (no offense - don't take it personally).
Especially in the little description on the "Site" page, it says "Code-Stealers" or whatever, you didn't make the codes from scratch anyways!~ Graphics ~
ADOPTABLES:
You have these hosted on Photobucket which isn't always the most reliable source. You should upload all files to your own server so you don't get any of those bandwidthANIMATIONS
They are okay, I mean, I seriously doubt anyone would use them but that doesn't matter. . .
For the Acara one (Yes, I'm a Neopets nerd~~~) you should make the background transparent.ICONS
Oh my gawd! You put your site name on ICONS? Seriously, no one does that because it makes them look tacky. Tacky. Tacky. TACKY! People probably don't even use them because of this.BLINKIES
To me, these look like they should be on the "Animations" page.BLOGS
Hmph. I hate these. It's not just you - don't take it personally - it's all of them; on every site. I think they're pointless, to be honest.CURSORS
These are cute. If I was into the whole custom cursor thing, I might slightly consider using one.COLOR CHANGERS
Again, these are like "Animations".GUILD LAYOUTS
I won't even look at these due to the fact that I know nothing about Guilds. I was never the Guild-type-of-gal.GLITTERS
You even said in the little description: "animated glitters". ANIMATED! Tell us something? Oh yes, they should be with the "Animations". Even if you have sub-titles. It will make everything a lot more organised.MOOD INDICATORS
Wow. These are honestly really, really cool. Very unique, if you ask me. I've never seen anything like them before.PET LOOK-UPS
You might want to add "Layouts" to the title because I thought it was a big database-type-thing with all the different Neopets. Misleading. Disappointing. Another thing you might want to change about the title: use the right one. It's not one big word, it's "Pet Look-ups".USER LOOK-UPS
Same problem as the "Pet Look-Ups" title. . .
And same problem with the misleading. . .WELCOME BANNERS
Too big for your . . . I-Frame (tries not to vomit). You might want to fix this little problem. This is an issue with a lot of your graphics, so . . .PET PAGES
Again with the title. Not one big word. Two words. Pet. . . . Pages!!! Say it with me: "Pet Pages" - "Two words."
You have a lot - and I mean A LOT!!! - of issues with improper capitalisation, grammar and use of punctuation. But use of punctuation, I mean you don't use it at all! It makes me furious. If you're going to own a site, type correctly! SERIOUSLY!!!~ Neopets Guides ~
All of these should be capitalised. (All of the titles, I mean.) Honestly, all of your un-capitalised titles, headers and other words that REQUIRE capitalisation is pissing me off.Anyways. . .
DAILIES/FREEBIES
I think you should ditch the pictures and just add a regular text link.
PS: How many other Neopets sites have these exact links? ~I actually want this answered, please.~40K A DAY
Different CSS than the rest of the site.
Luckily for you, I won't be reading this page.FAIRIE QUESTS
A little fishy: all of a sudden you use your capitals? *suspicious*~~ I just noticed that your I-Frames do not scroll unless there is text there. Big problem. May not seem like it, but it is. ~~
NEOBOARDS FONTS
Wow. No comment.NEOHOMES
How is this helping people? I'm sure they already know what kinds of homes your can get on Neopets.~ Interactive ~
PLUGBOARD
Cool thing to have.SOTM
I guess it's good for visitor interaction.PIXELBOX
Cool.AD SPACE
Change the title - it's two words.FORUMS
External site? What's wrong with adding a forum to your site?FREE RICE
I had rice for dinner. This is a nice link to have. Good job.~ Final Comments ~
Your site pisses me off. The bad grammar and capitalisation.
If you're trying to be professional, it's not working. If you go to a site like www.jemjabella.com or www.ohpanic.co.uk , you will see that they are all nicely capitalised and such. I think you need to go through your entire site and fix all of these errors. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks this.
If I could give you "no stars" I probably would.UPDATED 20 Dec 08:
Because you posted your site to get it reviewed so I thought I would be generous and lend you my opinion. :)Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?
mirageneo's Response:
Well, if my site pisses you off so much, why'd you review it in the first place? ;)
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Pocci.png)
Pocci gave it
on 20th Dec 2008 and said:Hi there (: Im Pocci and I'll be reviewing your site today. Before I start, I'm using Firefox with a 1024x768 resolution. Also, this is my opinion and I will give some suggestions. Sorry If I'm a bit harsh or 'mean'.
1. First impressions:
When I first saw your site, the layouts cute, the colour scheme is nice, very good on the eyes. But I think the background is a bit distracting.
2. The name:
I'm a bit put off with 'neo' being in your site name since it is so common but Mirage isn't so 'MirageNeo' is a pretty good name for a neopets site.
3. Site Section:
The main page, with all the links, is not in caps. Its kinda sloppy. You also should capitalise the Awards page, Apply for Affiliation page, History page (add punctuation as well), Credits (you should make the sites clickable) and the Contact page.
For the 'staff' bit, the 'want to be seen here? why not apply?' gets annoying after every staff member. Maybe have it at the top or bottom.
In the 'Awards' section, resize the awards so the frames don't stretch and remove some of the broken links.
In my opinion, i don't know why you have a Wall of Shame if no ones there. Its kinda useless.
Also, why isn't the 'contact' page in a table cell like the others? I didn't realise it was there until I was nearly finished reviewing the site section.
4. Graphics
On the main page, the flashing 'new' is kinda annoying in my opinion. Maybe you should bold 'new', its just as noticable as the flashy new. Also, use capitals..again xD
To be honest, I don't get the point of 'Adoptables', 'Animations', 'Blinkies' or 'Colour Changers'. To me, there kinda random graphics you have on your page without much reason.
For your icons, some of them are icon bases whilst some are actual icons/avatars. Maybe you should separate them?
The blogs should be resized or have thumbnails. It stretches the frames and its very annoying. It takes a while to load for me. Also, add some textures or brushes to your blogs, make them look a lot more interesting.
Your cursors should be transparent, but overall I think your cursor page is organised and some of them are pretty cute! :)
Your guild layouts should ALL have previews, not just a couple of them. I really like the hissi one, its simple yet pretty. But I think some pictures are overused. Also, use textures or something. Change the colour, don't be afraid to experiment :p
Your glitters should all be transparent. But other than that, they aren't totally glittery or full of 'noise', its pretty balanced :]
The mood indicators are pretty cute, but on that page, use capitalisation please.
For your pet lookups, have the theme above the preview? But other than that, they all look pretty good.
For the userlookups, have a picture preview. Not a link. Some of us are very lazy and can't really be bothered clicking for a preview.
First thing I noticed about the welcome banners is that they stretch the frames. Use thumbnails, its getting annoying to have to stretch across to see the whole thing but other than that, the banners are pretty nice, no effects overused. Maybe try some new sizes?
Petpages : nothing much to say execpt for use thumbnails instead on 'click the link' preview. Overall, they're pretty good :]
5. Neopet Guides
Capitalise your stuff..lol.
I think neoboard fonts should have its own section, since it isn't exactly a 'guide'.
40k day should be in the frame, like the other guides. I don't get why its in a new window.
I found most of your guides helpful though even you probably needs some more :]
6. Tutorials
Capitalise & use punctuation.
Thats all I have to say for all of them.
7. Website Goodies
First, why are they all on one page? Its a tad unorganised. Second, use capitalisation..lols.
The arrow flashes should be transparent but overall, the 'goodies' are pretty good, especially the blank buttons :]
Overall, I give your site a 3 and a half. Its pretty good but it needs some improvements to make it alot better. Good luck with your site!Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/sensei.png)
sensei gave it
on 18th Dec 2008 and said:Hello! :D Eta from Neo-Mystery is here to review!
Layout
It's an interesting layout, definately unique. I like the effects you used on the banner, it's very cool. The color scheme goes well together, that's good. I'm not sure about the sudden blue background though. It just looks a bit out of place to me. Otherwise, the layout is great! Good job!Site page
You have an interesting way of presenting the links. I like how they are in little boxes and are neatly bordered and the same size. It's quite creative in my opinion. The headers on the staff page are really cute. The awards page is nice. I'd get rid of all the links that aren't working, though. The link back page is a little messy. You should make the text size the same throughout the page, it gets big and I'm assuming because it must be in a table. The buttons are good, but I'm only fond of the first two. Maybe you should make some more. The apply for staff and affiliation pages are good too, nice and organized. I enjoyed visiting your history page. I like how you provided old banners so people can see how much you improved. Excellent job. The credits page is organized, and so is the wall of shame page. Nice job.Stuff For You page
Graphics
Adoptables - They are alright, sort of pointless in my opinion though. You should make more if you really want to keep that page.
Animations - Another okay page. I wouldn't really use any of them. I suggest you take that page down as well, But they are cool in their own way I guess.
Icons - Nice job! These are very well done! My favorite one is the 'Be Very Afraid' one! You did a good job balancing font with effects.
Blinkies - They are pretty nice. I think you should add some more to that page.
Blogs - They are great. I see you have the same scrollbar colors for each one, I think you should change that. Also play around with font type and color. It would be nice to see some more blogs, you do a good job at making them.
Cursors - Haha, very cool. I rarely see sites offering cursors, so I'm glad you did. They look good!
Color Changers - This page took a while to load on my comp. They are fun to watch but again, I wouldn't really use them. I mean, they are nice decorations and all, but not really that amazing.
Guild Layouts - Very creative! I like the way you made the layout, with the notebook and such. Those are very cute! I like them. :)
Glitters - Oooh, sparkly. *-* Some of them I notice are transparent and others are not, maybe you should make them all transparent.
Mood Indicators - These are very nice. They are not like any mood indicators I have seen which is good for a change. XD The background you selected is really nice.
Petlookups - Very well done, I enjoyed looking at these!
Userlookups - You didn't supply a screenshot unlike the petlookups page, maybe you should consider one or the other. (i.e. Links to previews or screenshots) The Vira lookup didn't have a matching scrollbar, maybe you should change that. The layouts are interesting, but could use a little work on headers and font styles. It's good that you have a nice selection to browse through. :D
Welcome Signs - Marvelous! They are very nice! Keep up the good work on this page!
Petpages - Very pretty. You should definately make some more of these!Neopet Guides
I just browsed through these pages. I like that you tried making neoboard fonts. They are pretty good, nice job! I liked the neohomes guide, very helpful. :DTutorials
Scribble Tutorial - Wow. Those are the neatest scribbles I have ever seen. Nice!
MS Paint Tutorial - Interesting. I have never used that technique before. XD I think you should rename it though, to something else, it's a little vague.
Color Changer Tutorial - Good. I don't see many tutorials for this, so you get points for orginality. XD
Uploading Tutorial - Easy to follow. Good.
Paint.net Tutorial - Wow! That banner you made is really cute! Good job! XD
Neopets Coding Filters - Cool.Website Goodies
This page was fun. I liked the way you laid things out. The blank buttons are very nice! I might use one. :PInteractive page
Everything looks good except the contact link is outside of a box. (Not sure if that is intended or not) I adore your pixelbox section! That's my favorite! :DOverall!
Mirageneo is definately a site worth seeing. There's a lot of potential in that site! It's working it's way to the top, with only a few problems here and there. I say good job to the owner and please, continue your site!Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/squigglybee.gif)
squigglybee gave it
on 13th Dec 2008 and said:Before I begin my review, I just want to let you know that I can appreciate the fact that you are so young and yet you have created a website by yourself. My first website wasn't very great looking back on it. The more you stick to it, your design abilities will grow. What people are syaing to you right now may not matter that much to you, but in the long run, if you really listen to what people say when they review you, you might make some great improvements to your site.
With that said...
First impression:
______________________________________________
I am looking at your site in IE with a 1280x768 screen resolution. You do know that your site will display differently in different browsers, correct? The first thing I notice is that your site is left aligned, which isn't necessarily a bad thing if you can pull it off, but I don't feel you pulled it off in this case. I don't like left aligned sites like that, but that is just a personal opinion.Your twitter tweet looks kind of out of place next to the link buttons, especially with the black bullet there.
The headers in your navigation are so light that they are a little hard to read. A darker font would be much easier on the eyes.
I noticed you say the images from Neopets are used with permission. Did you contact them and ask them personally to use their images for your website?? If Neopets states specifically somewhere on their site that they allow you to use their graphics (and I honestly don't know if they do) then you should link to that page to clarify your "permission."
The Site:
______________________________________________
Awards: Congratulations on the awards, but a lot of them are Photobucket images that have been removed so they show up as a broken image. You need to fix those. Also, a lot of your awards so big that they do not fit in your content area. You either need to make that area bigger, or perhaps you could post a thumbnail of the awards and make them so that to see the whole image you have to click on them and have them pop up or something.Credits: I appreciate you listing credits, so many people don't. However, don't you think Neopets should be listed on your credits page since you are using so many of their graphics??
Apply for Staff: Again, the content area is too small. I have to scroll to read the entire form to apply for staff. It doesn't look very nice. Also, the font on the form is much larger than the other font on the page. It doesn't look like it all goes together.
Wall of Shame: I agree with whoever said why need a wall of shame if you have no names to put on it? I think this is unnecessary. I get the point of it, and I realize that many sites created by people your age have walls of shame, but really it's kind of pointless. How many people do you think actually go to that page?
Stuff for You:
______________________________________________
Graphics:
I'm just going to say again that some of your graphics are so large, you have to scroll to see the whole thing. I don't think you really have any "original" graphics. I've seen Neopets glitters very much like yours all over the place. I think you'd be better off to try and some up with something unique and original to attract people to your site. Did Neopets give you permission to turn all of their images into glittery flashing graphics?Dailies:
I think your images here are too large. They do not need to be that big. Also, if you really want people to visit your site, you need to try to accommodate as many people as you can. Making it for "IE only" so they can hover is not going to work for everyone and if it doesn't work for them, they may get irritated and leave your site.Faerie Quest Help:
It seems like I have read those questions and answers somewhere else before which makes me wonder if you copied and pasted them...Neoboard Fonts:
This page is MEGA hard to read. Fonts are either too tiny or in such light colors I can barely read anything. Maybe use a white background?Neohomes v2 Guide/Suggest?:
Again - images too large, I have to scroll, etc.I am just going to stop reviewing pages with graphics or tutorials because I will just keep repeating myself. The content area div is too small for what you are trying to show there.
I guess I'd just like to say that you obviously feel strongly about your site. You do have to realize though, that there is a whole other website world out there that doesn't use glittery, flashy Neopets graphics. You can't expect "serious" webdesigners who have had years of experience and courses in the field to give your site rave reviews. I am not going to "back" your site, because while I do think websites need to have certain standards, everyone has to start somewhere. Most of these people who reviewed you did not make a wonderful website when they first started either. I would suggest that you look beyond the world of Neopets related websites to get some inspiration for yourself. To me, all Neopets related websites look pretty much the same. Why not try to be unique and original and come up with something that isn't as common? If you want a bunch of reviews telling you have wonderful your site is, then I would stick to Neoboards and the Neopets website for getting reviews. I think you are very brave for submitting your site to a site like this one. A lot of people here may not even take the time to review your website. I hope you will continue to learn new things about webdesign and not just limit yourself to the world of Neopets related things.
And yes, Cutenews is not a good idea. I used to before, and it totally malfunctioned and died and all of my postings were gone. Now I use WordPress.
I wish you the best of luck! Learning about HTML and CSS and design is not the easiest thing to do, but if you just stick with it, you'll get better and create better websites.
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Olivia gave it
on 12th Dec 2008 and said:Hi, I'm Olivia. :)
I'm just going to give you a quick review, more of a comment really, which I hope helps you.
When I was 13 I didn't even have a website. In fact, I'd only just gotten the internet! The fact you actually know HTML despite being a beginner is very good.
My advice is to bear in mind the ages and type of people who visit your site, and please them. Of course, one must bear in mind things like copyright which are very serious. Try not to add things to your site that you subconciously think; 'every site has this - I must have this too!'
With things like tutorials too, you can only teach what you know. If you believe yourself to be a beginner at web design, you can only teach those who are even newer at it than you. :)
I was also a Neopets girl! The first website I would have created would have been a neopets styl-ee site too. You must remember with this your site will only ever appeal to, and be successful with, Neopets fans.
I hope I''m making sense...
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mirageneo's Response:
Thank You for your response :]
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Unloadeed.jpg)
Unloadeed gave it
on 11th Dec 2008 and said:Hello Mirageneo! This is Amanda. Now while reviewing your site, this is my opinion and just some things I think will make your site better.
When I come in
So When i enter I love the layout. I love the pink and purple and the designs you have. I'm not totally fond of the neopet image. Maybe if it was a fairy image or something that would match better. I love the starry background and I love how the layout is off to the side. =] I'm not a fan of scrolling everything down in that little box, and it seems to make it look a bit cluttered. For the most part I like the CSS. Some of the headers are hard to read but mostly it looks good.Content
I like how you have the little boxes with a description under the link. This is helpful to everyone if they don't know completely what they are getting.
Graphics/Website Goodies
Your adoptables are nice but a bit plain. And your animations are a big low quality and boring. The icons located at the bottom of the page are very nice, I like how the have words and are not plain. Your blinkies are cute but kind of hard to read. Your cursors are nice, but low quality and I'm sure no one will want that white block behind it. Glitter changes, I don't thing I have ever seen them. yay for originality. Your newest guild layout looks awesome. The past ones seem low quality and like they were made in paint. I'm going to stop there with looks at the graphics. I suggest maybe getting some new graphics and doing a graphics sweep. I do like the website goodies section. I think people will use them, and they look very nice. I suggest getting more.
Tutorials/Guides
You only have a few tutorials and I think you should have more. I didn't completely read them but I looked them all over and I like how you have pictures and you seem to be explaining pretty well.Random
so wondering around the site just a few things. Why have a Wall of Shame if you have no one on it? I just don't see why sites do that. I like how on the history page you show the old banners. It's like the evolution of the site. I understand sites like to show what they have accomplished by showing off awards but things like "Thanks for helping" I dont really see those as awards. Half the images on your awards page are broken and it makes it look bad. Pixel box was a neat idea with a few flaws. Number 1, you don't seem to be keeping up with it and there isn't much there right now. Also the name pixelbox was on old neopets fan/graphics site. When you said pixel box every thought you were talking about the site, so it showed kind of broken hopes. I would defiantly think of a new name. The fourms seem very longly and unactive. Whats the point of having them if no one used it.So I give you 4 1/2 stars. I think your site is overall good and just needs a few fixes.
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mirageneo's Response:
^_^ Thank you for the review :P
go_jags1 gave it
on 11th Dec 2008 and said:website layout: i think it is absolutly stunning, you can tell you took alot of time on your website. the pic has alot detail.
content: i really think that your garaphics have originallity. you never see good graphics like yours around. and most websites dont have color changers.
Guides: they really helped me alot ^^
website goodies:they are nice, but i think instead of having link back butten templates, you show have makers :p
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KidsKnowBest gave it
on 10th Dec 2008 and said:Hey Meagan! Well here's my review about your site ^^
First Impressions: Well when I first looked at it the splash page was the first thing I saw.. it was cute and all but.. the weird vegetable neopets ruined it. I mean pink/purple with green? EW. What were you thinking?
Rating: 2/5
Layout: I guess the layout was cute excluding the green. Could have been more christmas-y though.. The CSS was pretty good.
Rating: 3/5
Content: The content's pretty cute, but some of them are really plain. Also the blinkies; please take them off.. they're giving me a headache. We don't want anybody getting seizures.
Rating: 3.5/5
Overall: Well overall; You're site is really cute~ Just change a few things and you're site will be great~
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sweetsugar gave it
on 10th Dec 2008 and said:Hey! It's Sugar! [: I will start right off the bat. In critiquing, or whatever you want to call it. Reviewing!
Layout: I really like it. I love the stars and cute little symbols! I also like how on the sidebar, you made it swirly-behind the chatbox. Everything is well-organized! The asparagus and pea and tomato do not fit that great with the layout, but that's okay. The layout still looks cool!
Sitely Links: The blinking arrows are a nice touch, but you can really see the white background behind it-so it clashes a little. You could put some non-moving arrow instead?! Ooooh, and I like your first set of link back buttons-the most, at least. It looks cool and I love the blue and green. On the pages where you apply for things, you might want to make them a little shorter. Sometimes people, like me ;D, get lazy and don't want to read all that. But then again, that might make you not want them. But whatever. Just my opinoin. And on your credits page, I think you should make a link where you put the site names. And I would clear out the awards that say that 'This image has been deleted or removed from Photobucket' because there's no point in seeing that. It's not an award anymore!
Graphics: All the blinking and flashing of 'New!' and the arrows can get a bit annoying. Oh, and I really like all of your neopets stuff-like petpage layouts. It is very useful-in my opinoin. I really like your glitters. They work fairly nicely. Cool color changers! That stinks that you cannot make them anymore, but they're still cool. I like the cursors, but you might want to make them transparent and make them all the same size. And for the mood changers-I like how you make a matching background that matches the color of the pet. It's a good idea! You also have very well done backgrounds! You are a good graphics maker :D
Neopets Guides: I like how the dailies have pictures that you can just click on. But under the pictures, you might want to add a little text specifying what it is. And for some reason, your 40k a day page pops out instead of staying in the box. But that is a good guide. Good neoboard fonts! I don't do faerie quests, so im skipping that :D Nor do I do the new neohomes.
Tutorials: I like your scribble tutorial and examples of the scribbles. They were nicely scribbled, if that makes sense :D The MS Paint tutorial is good, but obvious. But don't worry-I have a few tutorials like that too. hehe! I like your paint.net tutorial. I have heard about your great color changer tutorial, but I don't just yet want to try the trial. Maybe later. You might want to change the neopets filter tutorial in the neopets guides. It makes a little more sense for it to go there.
Website Goodies: Very useful. I would add a little more to the page, thought [;
Interactive: There is a lot of ways to contact you, and I think that's great. There's a lot of good things there.
I am done reviewing MirageNeo! This took me a loooong time to type. Please read this carefully and use my advice. Hope you enjoy it!
xoxo, Sugar []: I will start right off the bat. In critiquing, or whatever you want to call it. Reviewing!
Layout: I really like it. I love the stars and cute little symbols! I also like how on the sidebar, you made it swirly-behind the chatbox. Everything is well-organized! The asparagus and pea and tomato do not fit that great with the layout, but that's okay. The layout still looks cool!
Sitely Links: The blinking arrows are a nice touch, but you can really see the white background behind it-so it clashes a little. You could put some non-moving arrow instead?! Ooooh, and I like your first set of link back buttons-the most, at least. It looks cool and I love the blue and green. On the pages where you apply for things, you might want to make them a little shorter. Sometimes people, like me ;D, get lazy and don't want to read all that. But then again, that might make you not want them. But whatever. Just my opinoin. And on your credits page, I think you should make a link where you put the site names. And I would clear out the awards that say that 'This image has been deleted or removed from Photobucket' because there's no point in seeing that. It's not an award anymore!
Graphics: All the blinking and flashing of 'New!' and the arrows can get a bit annoying. Oh, and I really like all of your neopets stuff-like petpage layouts. It is very useful-in my opinoin. I really like your glitters. They work fairly nicely. Cool color changers! That stinks that you cannot make them anymore, but they're still cool. I like the cursors, but you might want to make them transparent and make them all the same size. And for the mood changers-I like how you make a matching background that matches the color of the pet. It's a good idea! You also have very well done backgrounds! You are a good graphics maker :D
Neopets Guides: I like how the dailies have pictures that you can just click on. But under the pictures, you might want to add a little text specifying what it is. And for some reason, your 40k a day page pops out instead of staying in the box. But that is a good guide. Good neoboard fonts! I don't do faerie quests, so im skipping that :D Nor do I do the new neohomes.
Tutorials: I like your scribble tutorial and examples of the scribbles. They were nicely scribbled, if that makes sense :D The MS Paint tutorial is good, but obvious. But don't worry-I have a few tutorials like that too. hehe! I like your paint.net tutorial. I have heard about your great color changer tutorial, but I don't just yet want to try the trial. Maybe later. You might want to change the neopets filter tutorial in the neopets guides. It makes a little more sense for it to go there.
Website Goodies: Very useful. I would add a little more to the page, thought [;
Interactive: There is a lot of ways to contact you, and I think that's great. There's a lot of good things there.
I am done reviewing MirageNeo! This took me a loooong time to type. Please read this carefully and use my advice. Hope you enjoy it!
xoxo, Sugar [];
Interactive: There is a lot of ways to contact you, and I think that's great. There's a lot of good things there.
I am done reviewing MirageNeo! This took me a loooong time to type. Please read this carefully and use my advice. Hope you enjoy it!
xoxo, Sugar []:Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Riseykins.jpg)
Riseykins gave it
on 10th Dec 2008 and said:First Impressions: Well, copyright infringement is bad, and you are doing this! It is illegal to use images from http://neopets.com/ without giving the proper credit required by the site! Splash pages are inconvenient and pointless. When people come to your site, it would be helpful if they could see what they really need to see. I would imagine that this would also be better for your Page Ranks. I took a look at your forum and noticed that it's completely inactive. I also don't really see a purpose for the forum, either. I see that you use Cutenews. Cutenews is very unsafe and is very easily hackable (though I see the Cutenews is hosted on somebody else's server, which means that they will be screwed over if anything happens, not you). I see inline frames. These are bad because they aren't too search engine friendly, and make it hard for people to bookmark individual pages of your site. I see that you also have a chat box on your site. I would recommend that you use either a chat box or a blogging system (and not both) because chat boxes tend to get spammed. However, if it's the only way someone can contact you, then it makes it easier for visitors.
Content: You don't have much content on your site. What conent you do have is very bad quality, most of which are just simple modifications made on copyrighted images. The titles of your tutorials aren't specific, so I didn't really know what to expect when clicking on them. I also dislike your home link saying "clear" because it's unclear as to where that goes. I know that many sites use this style for their navigation, but some people may not have seen that before. Your content area is tiny, meaning that some graphics don't fit within it, and I have to scroll on the x axis to see everything properly. I also have to scroll on the y axis a lot anyway because the content box is not only thin, but short. You don't have any content that sets you above other sites, meaning that visitors won't really have much of a reason to return. You have broken images in places on your site. Lastly, you should always make an effort to use proper English (that includes both grammar and spelling). It might seem irritating, but it is a lot easier to read something that has been written in proper English.
Overall: Overall, I didn't find anything I liked on this site. I see that effort has been made, but just not in the right direction. The site is very similar to many other Neopets fansites/helpsites out there.
Suggestions: In order to have a successful site, you need to make sure that you are adding things that other sites don't have, and if you add graphics, you need to make sure that they are high quality! If you don't do this, then people will simply not bother using your graphics, and go to another site to find things that are better quality. You should get rid of your inline frames and use PHP includes. This will make things easier for you and visitors. It would help you a lot if you were to use a tracker such as Analytics to track what your visitors are doing in depth. It will allow you to see which pages people visit a lot, which they don't. It will also show your "bounce rate" for each page, which is the percentage of people that leave your website on a certain page. I would also suggest that you take down things that aren't really needed (such as the forum), and I would definitely stop using Cutenews! FanUpdate and WordPress are a lot better.
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mirageneo's Response:
Thank You for the suggestions :)
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Shadow.jpg)
Shadow gave it
on 10th Dec 2008 and said:First Impression
*shudders* Splash page. It's not really needed. The less you make your visitors click, the more they'll love you for it.
I admit that it's cute. That shade of purple is my favorite color. But that's where it ends unfortunately. This layout would work better centered, but even so, you'd have to have a dropshadow on the left side as well. It's better to just redo that layout. The star background doesn't go well with the purple. But other than that, I give you props for trying to keep the scheme together.
Blog and sidebar
It's highly recommended to step away from Cutenews, unless you want your site to be hacked. No one wants that, no? So a great alternative would be FanUpdate. As you grow, I would suggest WordPress and TextPattern as well.
*shudders* Iframes. I'll spare you the gritty details, but I really suggest that you read "Moving Away From Iframes". Once you transition away from it, you'll wonder why in the world did you use them in the first place.
I'd be very careful with that striped background in the frames. In the main frame it's not as obvious because of the solid background for the entries, but in the chatbox, there isn't a solid background, which makes the text there pretty hard to read. The font is small, which makes it worse. Upping the font a couple of pixels will help. But you also need some extra line-height as well. The padding looks fine, or at least it does on this end.
The other pages
Before I start on this section, I will say that the navigation links are seriously distracting. I hate that the text switch spots when you hover over them. They can stay in its original spot, and work on a better hover technique--one that doesn't involve that star background.
Site: Oh dear. The biggest gripe I have about pages like this is that some people have a page with only links and nothing more. I will give you props, however. At least there's a small description there. But I think it can do without that extra page.
I didn't know people still had wall of shames! Just because this is up doesn't mean that it's going to stop people. Wall of shame or not, if people are naturally kleptomaniacs, they're disregarding it. They might even laugh at it.
In your "apply for staff" section, I found this.
what im looking for
im looking for people that will work hard and be good at what they do. remember quality is always better than quality ;)I believe that second "quality" is supposed to be "quantity". The lack of capitalization is killing me here. Capitalization! It shows that you have a decent grasp of English (and you do; just capitalization, or the lack thereof, is the problem here).
Yeah, you really need line height here. Your site history page is very painful to look at. You also need padding here. It's more evident on this page than anywhere else.
Stuff for you
Those blinking bullets, by the way, are very distracting as well. They don't have to blink! Keep it simple! More blinking stuff when I go into "website goodies"! I'm going to have dreams about blinkies now, lol!
Remember, the more the visitor has to click, the shorter their visit may be. I guess it's because I hate those pages with only links on it though.
The icons are pretty cute. You have a lot of cute things. They're also not low quality either, so you get brownie points. But those blinkies--they gotta go. We don't want to induce a seizure in your visitors.
Interactive: The freerice.com thing actually sounds pretty cool. I might check it out later. Your forum is...dead. It never even lifted off the ground. Forums need extra publicity, so if you want to keep it open, I suggest you plug it like crazy.
These all look like external links, so I think it would be easier to change the name to reflect.
Oh, and the word "clear" for a link back to the main section--not telling us much. "Home", "Blog", "Main"...those work. "Clear" doesn't.
Coding
I've already touched on the Iframes. Divs can be styled to do the same thing, so keep that in mind. You need a DOCTYPE so that your site validates properly. It may never validate properly with the frames though. <b> tags are discouraged, along with <i> tags. Underlining regular text is bad, m'kay? Even the smartest person can get confused.
You also need to open up a clean file, place all of your styling in it, and name it style.css. When you do that, place this code between your <head> tags:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" />But you don't even have <head> tags. Or even <html> tags. In fact, you have your styling duplicated quite a few times. I suggest that you scrap it all and work from scratch. w3schools will help you along the way.
All in all...
You have cute things, although they're not my kind of graphics. Your layout is cute, but the problem lies in the backgrounds (both the striped and star) and the fact that you're still using Iframes. It's better if you do step away from it. One more thing before I forget--those link buttons in that rounded box up top--those stick out like a sore thumb. Capitalization of words is very important.
Your coding needs a lot of help. The website I gave you up there will help you build a site with a DOCTYPE, and all of the tags that you need in order to build a proper website. You're in the process of revamping this site--I'd rethink and recheck the next layout before you release it.
You have a promising site. You just need to be steered in the right direction. Don't let the low score discourage you--that's what reviews are for; to put you on the right track. Good luck!
PS: Get rid of Cutenews.
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mirageneo's Response:
Thank You for the review :) I really appreciate you taking time to try to help me make my site better.
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/bubblez.png)
bubblez gave it
on 10th Dec 2008 and said:Hi Mirageneo. I am Bubblez. In some areas, i may be a bit harsh/honest. But I hope my review of your site will help you improve on your site^^ While I am reviewing, I am using Firefox 2.
000. Splash Page:
I am not fond of this page. I am sorry. Splash pages are just annoying since you have to click link before going
onto your main page. However, it was nicely done. It was related to your layout in someway.001. Layout & Components:
Colors: Full of colors.
CSS: Not fond of some effects..
Image: it's okay I guess. But none of these images were really Christmas-y or winter-y related.
Overall: It is an okay layout I guess. It can be coded better. Your content box is kinda swished in my opinion. Make it a bit bigger.002. Site Name Originality:
I must say the "Mirage" part is original^^ The Neo part is just kinda common. But on the other hand,
it's okay since your site is neo-related and it is also easy-to-type and remember. Good Job on that.003. HTML/CSS VALIDATION:
Having these checked will affect the look and how fast your site can load for other computers. Some errors are not that important but most of them are important. The results....
HTML: 11 Errors. You have no DOCTYPE! That is majorly important.
CSS: Congratz, your CSS has no errors. Well done for here.004. Sitely Content:
Main page: Wow. o_O Your sitely content pages organization reminds me of Usukicon. ^^
Credits: Interesting.
Staff: Interesting as well.
Link Buttons: These can be made in higher-quality
Awards: Cool Awards. =) Some images are broken-link images. I think it is better to remove those images that are
broken images. You also spelt recieved wrong this page. it is received.
Staff Application: First of all if you are going to hire staff (eg: graphic artist), they
should have another program besides Paint since Paint is really basic. neopets need to be
capitalized.
History: Interesting. Kinda boring though.
Affiliation: Your rules are easy to understand. Your form however is quite weird since you have
to give the name of your site and your name. But that is just me. If you are trying to make
sure they won't spam your inbox, it is best to do it with one question only instead of two. But
once again, this is just me. :) It is fine though^^
Wall of shame: Yay, no one is here. =)005. Content for visitors:
Due to a large amount of content, I won't review all pages. Just most of your tutorials and
graphics.
Color Changers: The background of these need to be transparent! That way, the images won't
destory their background (if they have one).
Glitters, Mood Indicators: Nicely done.
Pet lookups: Nice screenshots.
Welcome signs: These need to be resized a bit since your content box is so small or just
take your image url and resize it through ImageShack Image Hosting.
Petpages: They are nicely coded but the background isn't the greatest.
User lookups: the Content area is too small. You shouldn't need to scroll down just to see the
details.
Backgrounds: I am sure they are great=)
Tutorials: they are easy to understand. However, some images (eg: how to scribble tutorial results) should be
transparent. xD
Interactive: Original.007. Overall/Conclusion
Okay, I am impressed by your site. However there are a few things you need to fix.
Also since you have cutenews, you could remove your chatbox since that will give you more room. I would also
recommend you to make your layout width and length a bit bigger. =) I like how you organized your affiliates.
You are on a great start and good luck with your site.Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/rainbowpool.gif)
rainbowpool gave it
on 10th Dec 2008 and said:First Impression:
Meagan your site always has awesome layouts and always makes rainbowpool- outstanding layouts too! They are beautiful!I also liked how you made a tool bar for your viewers. That is a great way to get more people and its easier so that right when people open up a interenet they can click on your button and it takes them to your site, rather than them having to go to their favorites and find your sites link and clicking on your name.
I love the opening page of your site...beautiful...I also like the homepage of your site too! I think it is the best on yet that you have made! The graphics are AMAZING but the animations are soo...soo... i don't understand why you have them :/ compared to your other graphics they aren't the best quailty. But they are ok! Also you might want to add credit on them.
But I LOVE your userlookies! I am always seeing tons of people around neopia using them! Expecally your jelly fish and cupcake one..those are the two i see the most of.I love all of your welcome banners! But the last two are so so. They could use a few textures or something.
Petpages again are great! You should consider adding more!
The glitters are outstanding
Guild layouts...perfect!
I also love how you have a little discription at the bottom...like if someone didn't know what something is they can just go and read that. I really liked how you did that. And I love how all of your graphics are high quiality!
Your tutorials are great! (I have used many of them in the past when first learning HTML and CSS) They are easy to follow and you really should consider making more!
I also love the website goodies! They are very cool! I acually have used them on rainbowpool- in the past. You should make more too! Like maybe a 'Updated' one or something or a 'Revamped' blinkie or 'Coming soon' one!
The neopets guides are also great! Easy to follow..very help ful.
I like the neoboard fonts! Some I say have a little to much on them. Like I don't like how some of them have things like {and then your text here} I don't know why its just I am not very fond of that but otherwise they are cool.Sometimes your site can use a little more updating and posting on the cutenews. But you are getting better at it! So otherwise I think you have a awesome site! And i am going to give you a rating of 4 1/2 stars!
CONGRATS !
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mirageneo's Response:
lol thank you for reviewing my site ;]
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