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Rainbowpool- has 15 Reviews

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

1. 

   wiwaneko gave it on 5th May 2009 and said:

   Hello, my name's Trish and I'll be reviewing your site. I have a 1440x900 screen resolution and I'll be using FireFox.

   First Impression/Layout
   Hmm...it's positioned a little awkward; you should try centering your layouts. Here's a tutorial for that. I also see i-frames and marquees...takes me back. I suggest trying to make a layout using divs so that the sidebar and content don't look so messy. Here's a tutorial for that, too. I do like the colors because they don't burn my eyes or anything. :D Because I'm not great at coding, I won't check the validation of your site, though I'm sure it's not great.
   3/5

   The Site Section
   Credits - Good job for giving credit, but you should probably link to the sites instead of visitors having to copy and paste (some people are just lazy...like me).
   Wall of Shame - I never really saw the point in these, but whatever floats your boat.
   4/5

   Content Section
   Graphics - Hm, the graphics are okay, I guess. I personally wouldn't use any of them because 1) I don't use Neopets and 2) I don't think they're that great. Your non-neopet related graphics are okay, also. You do know you can't use copyrighted images? (Twilight for example.) It's actually illegal, so I suggest you remove them. If you want to read more about copyright, go here.
   Guides - The HTML code for images you provided is actually wrong and invalid. You must have an "alt" tag in the code. Go here. Other than that, your guides would be helpful to people just starting out with websites.
   Tutorials - Meh.
   Resources - Pretty cool, though I have no interest for them.
   2/5

   Interactive Section
   It's great that you have a section to entertain your visitors. I especially like the drawing contest.
   5/5

   Conclusion
   Overall, your site is okay. The thing you should work on is coding. Get rid of the i-frames and copyrighted images, center your layouts for easier viewing, and maybe get rid of the marquees. I suggest getting FireFox, or at least a spellchecker. :D Your graphics are alright, but I'm sure you could do better. You seem to think that most of the people who review your site are being mean, when they're really not. You won't always hear what you want to hear - get used to it. If you think I'm being "rude", well, you'll get over it. Good luck with everything and please take my tips into consideration!
   Site rating: 3/5 (that's being nice)

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2. 

   INSUBHAZE gave it on 18th Jan 2009 and said:

   First impression:
   Oh my gosh!!! Bright colors and rainbows I hate it!! Okay I’m just joking but, seriously if it wasn’t for the soft blue background I would've just closed out of your site. I like your header image. Pretty simple. This site looks like I should be centered though don’t you think so??. I think you should definitely center it. I’m still stuck on where did the green in the cutenews come from though?? Wherever it came from it needs to go back. Okay the sidebar is pretty organized. I like your buttons and your cutenews icon.

   Okay moving on..."the site"
   I didn’t quite expect the links that are there to be there. I expected links like Site info, site history or something like that and then for the rest of those link to be there.

   Content:
   Whoa there's a lot of stuff here. Umm where do I start??
   Cute backgrounds. I don’t really use neopets or banners so I won’t comment on those. The blinkers are cute but they should have transparent backgrounds. Okay um can anybody tell me what a guild is. I keep seeing that word but I don’t use neopets so I’m stuck on stupid when it comes to neopets terms. Cute snow globes. I like the idea. I haven’t seen this before so you get point by me for the creativity.

   You know what at this point I’m going to wrap up this review because I’m tired of looking at happy bubbly creatures right about now so...

   Overall:
   The site has lots of content. Work on the front page layout a bit and the css. I’m still so bothered by the scrolling marquee at the top and the pixelated headers. I can’t really stand pixelated things. I hope I didn’t sound too harsh it’s just my opinion so you can better your site because you have potential and lots of content but I just think that the overall look of your site can be improved and you will definitely have more visitors. I know I’m not a pro and believe me I’ve had reviews like this as well but I just reedit my site and know that there’s still room for improvement for me as well

   -insubordinate haze

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3. 

   Vanesa gave it on 18th Jan 2009 and said:

   Hello, I'm Vanesa and I'm obviously going to review your site.

   I use Opera on Windows XP with a screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels. I don't mean to be mean or anything, but I try to suggest stuff too.

   First Impression
   Wow... marquee's, Cutenews, crosshair, and bright colours. Looks very... generic. I've seen a lot of this on Neopets sites before. The colours a bit too light, maybe you should darken them? And change the crosshair, please. It's very annoying and it's better to just leave the cursor as it is.

   Layout
   The navigation looks too small. In my opinion, a visitor should tell how to navigate a site within three seconds. Maybe you should make the navigation links a bit bigger? So it stands out.

   There's too much going on. You don't need the "6/6" underneath your partners, really. The "link to us" and "stats" aren't needed, either. Visitors can easily find the "link to us" page (if you have one), and you should know people don't care if they're the 6th or 172543rd visitor. If you must have a counter, have a tracker. I'm assuming since you're linking to sitemeter, sitemeter is your tracker, so you should already know how many visitors have visited. And most people have the time already on their desktop, people don't care how many people are online, and if people wanted to know when the site started, you can easily have it on an "about" or "history" page.

   The avatar and post info in the cutenews template is in the middle, and you can easily fix that by adding valign="top" to the td that contains that info.

   There are only two buttons in the other section and you still have it scrolling? Don't. Scrolling is annoying. The 9th x, when you hover over it in affiliates, has a broken Photobucket image.

   Your layout isn't so good, but I've seen worse.

   Content
   And after spending three hours on the home page, I finally start on the content. ^_^

   The Site - Huh, a wall of shame. You know, these aren't needed anymore. There's only one entry in there, anyway, and as far as I know, you could've made the whole thing up. If you must have one, include screenshots. It's more believable. (sp?) I don't get the paragraph on top of the Wall of Shame, so here is my version:

   It's sad I have to make this. Not sad as in "teary-eyed" sad, but sad as in "stupid"! You guys should be able to control yourselves. Unfortunately, the people listed below couldn't.

   Content - Technically, everything on a site is content. So I'd prefer it if this is called "For You" or "Goodies" or something.

   Graphics: Mostly stuff I can find on any other site, although the scribbles look wonderful except for the first one, which looks a little low-quality. I can see a lot of links, but I doubt half of them are useful to me.
   Guides: Again, I can find this on other sites, and not only that, I can find better written ones on more popular sites. The HTML guide is kind of not needed, since (a) it's confusing and doesn't exactly explain the code (b) it's those "copy-and-paste in textarea" guides and (c) I have seen guides simlar to this on many other sites.
   Tutorials: These are actually pretty good, and the best I've seen on a Neopets graphics/guide site. Good job here!
   Resources: PNGs and an avatar maker. Been there, done that.

   Interactive - The guestbook is the Freewebs one and only has three signatures. I guess it's not needed, but you don't have to take it down.

   Conclusion
   You have a lot of "generic" content with a "generic" layout. What really stood out to me was your tutorials. You should make more. :) If you become a bit more original too, you can have a nice site. For me, a "3" is average, and I'd say you're kind of below average, so 2 and a half stars.

   Can't wait to see what new stuff you'd have in the future! =D

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4. 

   Pocci gave it on 27th Dec 2008 and said:

   Hai there, I'm Pocci and I shall be reviewing your site (: I use Firefox and my screen resolution is 1024x768. Sorry if my opinion offends you or is too harsh or whatever, but you asked for a review, so here it is. (:

   As soon I as I saw your site, I thought it was pretty simple and plain. Looks a bit like those sites that use Paint a lot. The CSS is okay, the colours are okay. The sidebar is too small, make it around 150px-200px? As for the navigation, the '~' is getting annoying after every word. The clock kind of froze, isn't it supposed to keep ticking or whatever?
   Layout wise, its premade. I don't like premade layouts. I think you should've made your own layout and cutenews template. Also, your using frames and I think frames are tacky, learn PHP and move to freehostia or something.

   Anywys, moving onto your site section, I noticed an error on the main page, its 'apply to be AN affiliate', not 'apply to be A affiliate'. I was looking through the rules in apply to be an affiliate and I didn't exactly get this:
   *Your Site must be over 1 week.
   Over a week what? I think you should explain what you mean by that. And this..
   *You must be able to see our button on every page as we will do for you
   Don't you mean..
   *You must display our button on every page as we will do the same for you.
   For your apply for staff page, I don't really get why you need a tutorial writer for neopets. I've played before, and the only tutorials people might really need is for coding lookups and stuff. I think you should have guide/tutorial writers, not one of each cos they are the same, in a way.
   I was looking through your awards page and was like, FINALLY, someone who has frames & an award page that doesn't stretch! No broken links too, good job =D
   I don't think your 'Adspace' page led me to anywhere, so theres a broken link you can fix.
   I think you should update some of the links in your credits page and make them clickable for visitors, just in case they wanted to visit whatever site.
   The contact form stretches the frame, which is annoying because I have to scroll across.
   For your staff page, I think you should add links for the staff members user page, it'd be alot more convenient..(sp?)

   Onto your content, I found it was one of those ones where you have to click 'graphics' and you get redirected to another page to select another thing. Honestly, I think its a waste of space and its frustrating for me, as a visitor. Cos I would just like to get to the content quicker.
   Well anyway onto your adoptables, I don't think a Kadotie (sp?) is a type of fruit and why are the first to textarea boxes centered, and the rest are aligned to the left? It looks a bit scattered.
   On your background page, apologise is spelt 'appoligize'. I think you should change that. Your backgrounds look as if you didn't really put much effort into them, just open paint up, paste some item pictures on and make some squares or something.
   Your banners are pretty good, compared to your backgrounds. They actually show you bothered to add some brushes, effects and colouring. But don't try and overdo it so that the image completely fades.
   Before I review your blinkies, I find them pretty pointless. I don't get why you would put someone elses blinkie on your page, it seems a bit like redistributing without permission to me =/ Your blinkies are alright, the font bothers me though.
   Your blogs are taking a long time to load..but I did see one. Don't have the text space on the main part of the image..its kinda of ruining the blog a bit.
   Your cursors are cute! But I don't get the border around a few of them..
   For the colour changers, how about have them all on a page, not on separate?
   Your glitters, petpages, outlines, userlookups (btw, its userlookups, not userlook-ups), welcome signs and goal counters are nice.
   I think you would need actual picture previews for your guild layouts, not links. Cause I can't really be bothered clicking them xD but I did, and I don't get how exactly they are 'splat layouts' don't you mean full page?
   Your hiatus signs are good, but I think you overtextured the chomby one.
   Your icons are cute, but I don't get the black stuff on the top bit of your slorg and cliffhanger one.
   Your scribbles are okay, even though I don't get the point of them.
   For the 10k in minutes guide, doesn't that apply monthly? Since the freebies are monthly, not daily? (i might be wrong, I haven't played neopets in a very long time)
   Check your spelling and capitalisation in some of your guides, for example:
   'orginized' is spelt organised.
   'neopian' is capitalised.
   'may be' is one word.
   When I saw your tutorials, I was so suprised to find a tutorial on outlining for MS Paint. I thought it was only possible in PSP and PS. I'm not going to review all your tutorials, but they sound pretty interesting, different from the 'how to make a blend' tutorials, which are utterly boring, of course.
   I think the review bit of your site should just be reviews in a section by itself, so then you can divide it into pages and the page would be less cluttered.
   You have 'request' on the 'Other' and 'Content' section of your site, I think it should be in one, not two. Make up your mind, lol.
   For your SOTM, I don't think you should let the people who enter their sites to be able to vote for themselves. It seems kind of unfair, in a way.
   Overall, gave your site two and a half stars, since I found your tutorial topics interesting and some of your graphics pretty well done. Your site has a lot of room for improvement, good luck with rainbowpool!

   UPDATED 27 Dec 08:
   Oh, right. I thought you meant a neopets tutorial writer, my bad. Lol.

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   rainbowpool's Response:

   No, a tutorial writer for HTML not neopets....?

   UPDATED 26 Dec 08:
   Also thanks for reviewing my site!

   I will consider all of those things for improving rainbowpool-.

   And I am trying to get a co.nr domain just to acually get rainbowpool- out there. but alot of people are telling me I shouldn't

   UPDATED 26 Dec 08:
   Also...(sorry I forgot to add this)

   I really don't have the right to limit people to NOT vote for themselves. Most likely if I say 'Don't vote for yourself' people will care less about what I say...so I just said 'Try not voting for yourself unless you really think you are the best site'

5. 

   Greykitty gave it on 15th Dec 2008 and said:

   1280 x 1024 resolution

   First impression, it looks like a geocities pagebuilder site. Evyerthing is just kinda floating around with no specific place to go. All your links are default color and teeny tiny. You should put navigation on ALL your pages not just the main one, even if your site is down for a revamp, which makes me wonder why you want it reviewed when the viewer cannot see any of your content.

   Centering everything is a very nice thing to do too, all your pages are off the left and just against a bland white background. I'm not sure if they were supposed to open in that iframe or not but they don't. You should put images and affiliates inside the 'layout' rather than just letting them float around to the left. It makes it look like you didn't take the time to plan what you wanted to do with the layout and site.

   No content, no real layout, not much else to say.

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   rainbowpool's Response:

   We are on a Hiatus!!!

   What do you really think 'Revamp' means not a hiatus?

   And wow...no real content? Well its because we are on a 'Closed revamp'

   Please don't judge my site so cruely unless you are going to really look at everything

6. 

   Shadow gave it on 14th Dec 2008 and said:

   First Impression

   Whoa, bright. It is cute if you're into that kind of thing, or if you're under the age of 12. But it's all over the place. The site name is placed in a very odd position. There are way too many colors as well, but I guess this was your way of trying to match it up with the header image. It's best to pick a color scheme and stick to it. You have a whole mess of boxes here. Needless to say, I'm confused.

   Blog, sidebar, and all the other boxes you have

   Way too many boxes. You have 5...and a half. I can knock off two right now--the one that has your revamp status in it, and the one that has your affiliates in it. That half-box has no business being there at al.

   Your navigation is ridiculously hard to find. I looked to the left and found it, but it's very hard to find amongst the riff-raff you have there. If your visitors can't find it, they'll leave, so make sure that it's big and bold.

   Speaking of big and bold, your font isn't big enough. You need some line height as well. Along with some padding. I see a few fatal errors on your site, but I'll bring that up later in the coding section.

   The other pages

   Us: *nose twitches* No. Pages. With. Only. Links. In. Them!! That's a huge pet peeve of mine. If there is a description to them, then I won't mind as much. But there needs to be more than that.

   You have huge awards. They'd benefit from being in thumbnail form. As it is, you have your site in an Iframe (*shudders*), so it scrolls down and across. Not cool.

   Your header titles are white, and they're kinda hard to read on the colorful background they're under. That background shouldn't even be there--it doesn't go with anything on your site.

   You should not have your Cutenews login area linked here. I'll spare you the grisly details of Cutenews being hacked, but you just made it much easier for a hacker to do it to your site. With that being said--you should look into another blogging platform.

   You: The key here is less clicks. But since this is a graphics page I'm looking at, I understand now.

   Speaking of, you have a lot of cute things. However, the backgrounds should be scrapped altogether. If someone were to use those on their site, it would be very distracting. Speaking of distracting, the blinkies can be let go as well. If you don't need it, let it go.

   Same goes for the cursors. Yes, the default one is ugly, but some people won't be able to see it anyway.

   Your color changer pages don't exist, get rid of the link leading to them.

   Oh, glitters that aren't very distracting. I commend you on that.

   Guild layout pages don't exist.

   Is that chocolate chip cookie dough on one of your goal counter paintbrushes? Okay anyway, I guess this is fine if you have a use for it. How many people do though?

   You don't need hiatus signs. People can make their own, and they won't have your site name plastered on it.

   The scribbles are cute.

   Your user lookups are...meh. They're not the best at all.

   You don't need welcome signs for the same reason that I said for the hiatus signs.

   You have a few glitters here, and unlike a lot that are floating around, the glitter fills are very subtle. Subtle is good. Your scribbles are cute, but everything else is either meh, or they don't even need to be there.

   You spelled "minutes" wrong in your Neopet Guides page. You also have a few pages here that don't exist. Scour your site for broken links please.

   Other: You only have two links here. This page can be renamed as reviews and eliminate the middle page.

   Coding

   All right, remember when I said that you have a few fatal errors in your coding? The most obvious of all is the use of Iframes. You will hear "Nooo!" from a lot of people. I will spare you the long list as to why you should ditch Iframes and use divs instead and give you this article to read instead.

   Your coding is all over the place. You need to make an external stylesheet file and put all of that in there. But not before you clean it up. Scrollbar styles don't show up on all browsers. Why subject some of your visitors to that "perk", and not the others? Treat them all equally--kill them with boring, but not outdated, scrollbars. Century Gothic is best used in headers rather than full text (I didn't even know you were using them, because it doesn't show on my browser (although I have it installed). I would take that into consideration--not everyone has certain fonts.

   You only need to define body once in your styling.

   I noticed possibly the biggest fatal error of all--using tables in your layout. Tables are not only so 2003, but they weren't even created for that purpose in the first place. Divs work the same way and even better--your site would be a step closer to web standards-compliant.

   Marquees, tables, iframes...I was taken back to the past! When it comes to coding, all should be scrapped, this should be read, and practice all over again.

   All in all...

   Yes, you have cute stuff for a demographic of 2-12-year-olds (no, that wasn't a typo by the way). I did this test myself--I showed my 8-year-old niece this and she liked it. :) For those who are viewing your site and they're older than that, they'll not enjoy this site at all. Maybe that is your target; the younger children. The 5.5 boxes was a bit much. Only a few people can pull off a three-column layout, let alone 5 boxes.

   For what it's worth though, it's not all bad. The glitter graphics, while not the best, isn't overly distracting.

   Your coding needs an overhaul. When I say "overhaul", I mean wipe the slate clean, get rid of anything that reminds people of the early 2000's, and start it again. If this sounds harsh, I'm really sorry. A lot of us has gone through this before, and was told the same thing. It'll make you a better hobbyist website owner in the long run. Good luck!

   UPDATED 13 Dec 08:
   There's nothing wrong with my computer. Your site is poorly coded with outdated code and Iframes. View your website in browsers other than IE and you will see exactly what I mean.

   UPDATED 14 Dec 08:
   I've seen rainbow-themed sites that are pulled off a helluva lot better than that. Rainbow doesn't mean that it has to be atrocious. I can think of at least one in particular with a great rainbow theme, but it's not overpowering. That's the secret of pulling off the perfect rainbow theme--you don't have to use all 7 colors in your text. You may like it, but if I were to show this to a few other people, some of whom may be your age, they'd hate it.

   Now, I don't review sites on website owner attitude, but your little attitude here leaves a lot to be desired. I'm just saying.

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   rainbowpool's Response:

   All the things that you said don't work do work...there must be something wrong with your computer...

   UPDATED 13 Dec 08:
   Whoa, bright. It is cute if you're into that kind of thing, or if you're under the age of 12. But it's all over the place. The site name is placed in a very odd position. There are way too many colors as well, but I guess this was your way of trying to match it up with the header image. It's best to pick a color scheme and stick to it. You have a whole mess of boxes here. Needless to say, I'm confused.

   -x-

   Can I explain something to you????

   Its called a 'Rainbow' Themed site? M-kay?

7. merey61 gave it on 13th Dec 2008 and said:

   Hi

   Layout: Nice range of colours it suits the websites name, however I reckon that the website's name doesn't standout on the layout because of the red balloon behind it. The layout is very 'boxy' and confusing to find where the content actually is. It took me a few minutes to find where the "home|us|you|other" was. I thought I was meant to click on the partners to get to the content at first.

   I didn't like the idea of having to click you, then graphics then the next page instead of just pressing back or just go to the next page I wanted without one click. I've never really liked the idea of "home|us|you|other" because it means another click or so.

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   rainbowpool's Response:

   Please note that I did not make this layout...

   And I don't understand why everyone hates it...
   I really like it and so do a TON of other people

8. jessica_p gave it on 13th Dec 2008 and said:

   Howdy! I am Jessica & I am fine with rainbows. :D I must say though I know rainbow paintbrushes are expensive but my faeire neopets are much prettier then the rainbow ones. I wish neopets would make the rainbow pets prettier... Anyhow....

   I know you like rainbows but Neopets absolutley (sp?) hate people using their images. Except when they let you use the neopets badge thingys they have. I haven't played in over a year so I dunno what they are doing now with that. However I do know you can accomplish a rainbow site without using copyrighted images. Just check out this site.

   You should try out making a css/div layout. takes away the nasty iframes & no side to side scrolling! CSS & Divs are nifty inventions. It will make for easier load time as well as more traffic (possibly).

   Not much help I know. However if you do think about using CSS/divs to make your site nicer I suggest you start at tutorialtastic.

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   rainbowpool's Response:

   Thanks for reviewing my site nicely! ^^

9. 

   Unloadeed gave it on 12th Dec 2008 and said:

   Hello Rainbowpool. This is Amanda and I will be reviewing you right now. Now before I start I want to let you know that what I say in my review is my opinion and just suggestions to try to help you make your site better. Okay now lets start.

   When I enter
   Your layout has a cute image.I do think it is over used but that is beside the point right now. And since you did not make the layout I will completely skip that part. Now even though you did not make the layout, it looks clustered. You put way to much stuff in the side bars. I think the ways new part is pointless since usually people post what is new in the cutenews or blogging system. I find it pointless to have both. The advertisement on the right, looks like it just lays there with nothing. You should place it above the chat box and make it free advertising. Your navigation is pretty hard to find. It blends in too much with the rest of the text. Maybe you should make the block navigation that is so in. Your cutenews layout doesn't really match either. Plus it is too big for the iframe you have it in so it doesnt work quite well.

   Content
   Graphics. Your adoptables are cute. I am the type of person who doesn;t like scrolls down like a mile to see things and thats how your pages are. But thats no big deal. Yours backgrounds are pretty common around neopets fan/graphics sites. Your graphics have seem to improved and I think it's time for a graphics sweep. 6 broken links on 1 page. Color changes. All the links are broken. Guild layouts live preview? links are also broken. All but like 2 links on your user lookups page are broken. The rest of the graphics are all fine.
   Neopets Guides and Help. 4/3 broken links.
   Tutorials. Your tutorials look good. I would say add more more unique ones.

   Everything else looks good and I hope you keep up with the good work. I'm guessing the links used to work and you maybe moved them and never changed it since thats how freewebs is. But fix then and maybe unclutter your site and everything will be looks good.

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   rainbowpool's Response:

   Thanks! And thank you for reviewing my site Nicely...unlike some people. xD

10. 

    soapybubble gave it on 11th Dec 2008 and said:

    Hi, Ashley!! This is Soapeh. =) (If this helps in any way, I'm using Internet Explorer.) I rated Rainbowpool 3/5 stars overall, which is okay, but you can still improve. Here is the breakdown of my review: First Impression, layout, activeness, and content.

    First Impression:
    Your site is really colorful, and it fits, your site name, but I think that the site's organization is kind of confusing. At first, I couldn't find your site navigation. I think that you should move the YOU, SITE, ME / etc links to a separate DIV above your content iframe. Also, the links in marquees are hard to click, so you might want to change it to a mouse-over marquee so that it stops moving when your mouse is over it. (You can get the code here.)

    Layout:
    I think that you should try using different fonts and making it more simple. It looks crowded and bunched in the middle. I think that you should make the content space (iframe) a bit wider, so that there won't be scrolls on the top and bottom.

    Activeness:
    Your last update was yesterday, so your site is active!! ^^ It's great that you offer advertising services, too.

    Content:
    You have a wide variety of graphics to offer, which is really neat. I like how you have cursors, since not a lot of sites have them.

    ALSO, I have just one more suggestion: I liked your banners. I think that if you added some of the filters/effect that you used on those to your layout, it will look really neat. :D

    Okay, well, hoped this helped!!~~

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    rainbowpool's Response:

    Thanks Soapy!

    And thanks for reviewing us nicely!

    I will consider fixing all those things!

11. 

    Muse gave it on 11th Dec 2008 and said:

    Hullo there. ;D I really want to make a Neopets graphics and help site now; I used to be so into the site, and I always wanted to do one. But I was, erm, lazy.

    Anyways, the layout is made by your friend, and I'm not sure if you're planning on tweaking it for your own purposes, so unless there's something particularly egregiously wrong with it I'll be focusing mainly on your content. (Egregiously wrong here means 'I can't read your writing because it's white" or something like that.)

    Your review will necessarily be a bit short, so I apologize. (Although to be strictly honest, I'm not a huge fan of the layout, and if you're offering graphics for visitors to use I don't quite understand why you aren't showcasing your skill in making your own layout as well.)

    I'll just go hop over to your site, then…

    So I am, actually, lost. I decided to find a sort of 'About Me' page or 'About this Site' or something first, and I'm looking in vain all over the place for your main navigation.

    While I'm looking at it, the following comes to my attention:
    > the box for your CuteNews posts is stretched and must be scrolled to the side, because of the over-wide image you've posted in one of your newest blogs. For your next layout, perhaps consider giving your CuteNews posts more room so you won't have this issue? Side-scrolling is quite annoying.
    > I should also mention Cutenews is quite insecure and has been for ages; from my experiences with Neopets sites, I seem to remember that Cutenews is what's usually used these days (with lots of people offering 'Cutenews hosting', or something like that). It might, therefore, be a bit difficult for you, but consider switching to FanUpdate and finding a host that allows PHP. FanUpdate's more secure, and even has something to help you import all your Cutenews posts into it, so you really have no excuse. And if you can use PHP, that means you can get rid of the very user-unfriendly frames and use PHP includes instead.

    Oh, I found your content links. They're those teensy tiny links in your affiliates buttons section, that I originally skipped over because it didn't seem like what I was looking for.

    This is a problem. There's a common phenomenon called 'ad blindness' where frequent internet users start ignoring big colourful things in certain places where ad banners usually go, and don't notice what's there. I have a mild mutation of it called 'affiliate banner blindness', where I usually ignore the general area around affiliate buttons.

    I strongly suspect a few other people may have a hard time finding the 'home | us | you | other' links, so please consider making them larger and more differentiated from normal text. It would be even better if you could move it to a different area of your layout.

    The 'Us' Section:

    There is no page that says anything about your site, the history of it, and its purpose. Most sites usually include this, and I consider it one of the most important pages your site can have. Presumably you want to let your visitors know what your site is all about? Yes, I know they can guess, but it's an important thing to have.

    I originally thought you had no page about your staff members, but it turns out it's at the very bottom of your 'Site Info' section. I think your priorities need to be reordered. It is called 'Site Info, so the first two links I should see ought to be 'About the Site' and 'About the Staff', not 'Apply to be an affiliate'. That's kind of jumping the gun; if I'm a new visitor, I want first and foremost to learn about your site, not apply to be an affiliate.

    And all of your subpages require sidescrolling. I know it isn't your layout, but as you're using it you really should consider if it works for visitors. This sidescrolling thing is probably the most significant problem with the layout you have right now (along with the difficulty of finding links to your content pages).

    Your 'Apply to be an Affiliate' (by the way, 'Site' is not a proper noun and needn't be capitalised) page lists several requirements…but you're not marking it up properly as a list in your HTML. Why fake the appearance of a list with asterisks and br tags when you can just use the real thing? ul for unordered lists, please. This seems to be a rather common epidemic in Neopets sites. I would be so impressed if I came across one that did this properly. ^^

    The 'Ad Space' page has several glaring errors. "What we do ask is that you make a ad that is 150x100 Which could look like these two" sounds better as "We do ask that you make an ad (150x100 pixels), which could look like these two:". And you have one typo: "If you sumbit any other sizes", which should be 'submit'.

    Credits page—a lot is two works, not one; your disclaimer at the bottom, which reads "Rainbowpool-.webs.com is not responsible for anything that you see on photobucket or that happens while using this website or others" ought to say "Rainbowpool-.webs.com is not responsible for…or what happens while using this website". I have no idea what 'others' refers to.

    And for a Neopets website, you're remarkably remiss in giving credit. You only say "Neopets.com" for adoptable images. I quote, from their terms:

    Using Neopets Artwork Off The Site.
    You can display our pictures on your own personal web pages for your personal noncommercial use ONLY as long as you write "Copyright 2000-2008 Neopets, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission" or "(c) 2000-2008 Neopets, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission" on EVERY page with our pictures and/or text and you link directly to us.

    Emphasis, of course, mine. So basically, this means—add a footer on your layout with either one of those copyright notices, otherwise you're violating the Neopets.com terms of use.

    Contact the owner—considering you have 'Apply for Affiliates' and 'Apply for Staff' pages already (with contact forms), it isn't necessary to have those two underneath 'Why are you contacting?'. And, of course, the side-scrolling div strikes again. -.-

    The 'You' Section:

    Graphics:

    I'm not going over all the pages, but your graphics aren't particularly impressive, and your style doesn't seem to vary too much. Quite a few of the fonts you've used don't seem to match the image and aren't well-integrated. A few of your graphics look a bit pixelated as well.

    The adoptables are essentially nothing more than freely available images from Neopets with a few lines of code underneath them. Cute, but quite useless; if I were going to find a nice adoptable for myself, I'd choose something with more original art. easydamsel's e-yeggs, for instance. (She's also a really sweet person as well, although she doesn't go on anymore.)

    The scribbles, however, are lovely. If you made adoptables like these I wouldn't have too much to complain about.

    Your colour changers—the links to different categories of colour changes are broken. Preview links for your guild layouts are broken as well.

    It's spelled either "User Lookups" or "Userlookups", not "Userlook-up's". (That apostrophe aggrieves me.) They take a ridiculously long time to load, and rely too much on a pretty graphic to look good. A few links there are broken as well.

    I do, however, like the idea of individual pages for holiday-themed graphics.

    Neopets Guides & Help:

    Every single link except the '10k in mintutes' (typo!) and 'Request' are broken. Another typo: on the request page, "Please note that this is a neo-realated site."

    Your 10k in minutes guide is passable, but to be honest, there are many others that go much more indepth or take a different angle to it. This doesn't look like there was much thought put in it, and isn't particularly helpful. It'd be better to link to the many petpages on Neopets that have thorough guides to neopoints-earning. I know there's quite a few (something like pheophiliusicorn or something like that was one of the most popular several months back). You can break it up into sections: guides for playing the stock market, restocking, games, sponsor games, et cetera.

    Tutorials:

    Not the best, but they're very thorough and explanatory, with many images in between steps to explain further.

    Seriously, though—under 'Tutorials That use MORE than one Program' you also say '**NoteThese tutorials use more than one program'. (And why do you say it twice, anyway? Maybe because the text in the fancy rainbowy box is fairly impossible to read?) Anyway, if you're going to be helpful enough to tell me this, at least tell me what programs it requires before I click on the link.

    Instead of 'No-Program Using Tutorials', what about you just call it 'Coding Tutorials' or something, mm? And please make a note that these scrollbars only work in Internet Explorer.

    The 'Other' Section:

    The link to your 'Sensei Graphics' review is broken. Also, I'm not sure why exactly you have two pages for pretty much the same thing. The first says 'Get our site reviewed!' and the other says 'Request?', and both have contact forms. Instead, have one page that gives some information about reviewing, rules, a contact form, and have another page that lists the completed reviews. That'd make much more sense. Alternatively, have each review on a separate page.

    In conclusion:

    I realize I've been mostly sniping for small flaws, but I do hope that you'll find this review useful. ^^ Cheers.

    Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?

12. sweetsugar gave it on 10th Dec 2008 and said:

    Hey! It's Sugar [: Hmmmm, where should I start?! There's a lot to review! Okay, I'll start at the layout. And btw, im going to be about completely honest with you, k ;D
    Layout: I like it. It's maybe a bit too colorful-but i do approve of it. I like how on the left and right sidebars you used a-what's it called again?! transparent gradient?! well, I like how it just fades like that. I think that you should've made the font that says 'Rainbowpool" on the banner have a border or make it a different color so it would be a bit easier to read. Also, you probably could've edited the neopets picture a little more.
    News: I like the choice of colors! All I would do is make the width a little smaller so that you do not have to scroll to see the whole thing :D Oh, and i like the avatars!
    Sitely Pages: I love the fact that you use web forms. It makes it a lot easier for people to contact you. I personally hate having to log in to email and send it from there. Thumbs up! And this part is big on opinoin, but I wouldn't put so much text/rules on applying for affiliates or staff. And I like your link back buttons!
    Graphics: I really enjoy your color changers! I sometimes even just stare at them until I realize that I have a life and that I exist :D Also, I like your cursors. Sorry for saying this, I want to be honest, but your glitters are kind of messed up. You should take out the color saturation out of the glitter part completely and animate it more. It seems to just be moving back and forth, but barley. And your icons are a bit random and the quality is not very great :/ eek, sorry. I think your banners are cool, though :P And I find your petpages and userlookies very good and useful!
    Neopets Guides: 3 of your guides don't work, and the only one should have more dailies. You might want to fix the broken links!
    Tutorials: I like the blog tutorial in Paint.net, but there is a little simpley way to make it. But I like how you have it! I really wish I could try your color changer tutorial, but I don't have animation shop 3. But that's not your problem. I find your cursor tutorial very well written! And as for the scrollbar tutorial, it's pretty good, but you could make the graph a little easier/better. But good!
    Other: Personally, for some reason, I like how the page looks. It looks very good and organized to me!
    And that would be the end of my reviewing! I hope you take the time to read this and really think about what I said, because this took me a long time to do. I hope you enjoy it! Overall you have a great site that could use a few improvements but is really great and friendly! Good job!
    xoxo, Sugar []: Hmmmm, where should I start?! There's a lot to review! Okay, I'll start at the layout. And btw, im going to be about completely honest with you, k ;D
    Layout: I like it. It's maybe a bit too colorful-but i do approve of it. I like how on the left and right sidebars you used a-what's it called again?! transparent gradient?! well, I like how it just fades like that. I think that you should've made the font that says 'Rainbowpool" on the banner have a border or make it a different color so it would be a bit easier to read. Also, you probably could've edited the neopets picture a little more.
    News: I like the choice of colors! All I would do is make the width a little smaller so that you do not have to scroll to see the whole thing :D Oh, and i like the avatars!
    Sitely Pages: I love the fact that you use web forms. It makes it a lot easier for people to contact you. I personally hate having to log in to email and send it from there. Thumbs up! And this part is big on opinoin, but I wouldn't put so much text/rules on applying for affiliates or staff. And I like your link back buttons!
    Graphics: I really enjoy your color changers! I sometimes even just stare at them until I realize that I have a life and that I exist :D Also, I like your cursors. Sorry for saying this, I want to be honest, but your glitters are kind of messed up. You should take out the color saturation out of the glitter part completely and animate it more. It seems to just be moving back and forth, but barley. And your icons are a bit random and the quality is not very great :/ eek, sorry. I think your banners are cool, though :P And I find your petpages and userlookies very good and useful!
    Neopets Guides: 3 of your guides don't work, and the only one should have more dailies. You might want to fix the broken links!
    Tutorials: I like the blog tutorial in Paint.net, but there is a little simpley way to make it. But I like how you have it! I really wish I could try your color changer tutorial, but I don't have animation shop 3. But that's not your problem. I find your cursor tutorial very well written! And as for the scrollbar tutorial, it's pretty good, but you could make the graph a little easier/better. But good!
    Other: Personally, for some reason, I like how the page looks. It looks very good and organized to me!
    And that would be the end of my reviewing! I hope you take the time to read this and really think about what I said, because this took me a long time to do. I hope you enjoy it! Overall you have a great site that could use a few improvements but is really great and friendly! Good job!
    xoxo, Sugar []:

    Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?

13. 

    meggan gave it on 10th Dec 2008 and said:

    Disclaimer: I don't play Neopets and never have, so I'm coming into this as someone totally unfamiliar with the game.

    First impression: Wow - it's hard to know what to look at - everything is grabbing my attention and my eye doesn't know where to rest. There are black outlines, fuzzy red titles, moving elements, colorful rainbow characters, and no hierarchy.

    Sitting down and really thinking about what your users need and what you want them to be able to focus on will help a lot. Write stuff down. What's most important here? Updates? Resources? Make sure your users can find what they need quickly and easily. It took me a while to find the navigation (eek!) and it's not even clear what I might find in this site. Instead of naming your resources "you," perhaps consider breaking that apart into a few sections so users know what to expect - "graphics" "tutorials" etc.

    Your update content doesn't fit in the box set up for it. Why? Horizontal scrollbars are a no-no because they make reading content really obnoxious. Not only do you have to scroll up and down, but also left-to-right to see all your content. You don't want your users getting frustrated, so make the update box fit within the black borders set up for it.

    You need a title tag! All that shows in my tab is a truncated version of your URL. The title tag is what shows up in Google results and what shows up in the tab in my browser so I know what site I'm on. Right now, I see: http://w...ebs.com/ which... doesn't really help me or tell me anything about what the site is. It could say something like, "Rainbowpool - Your online resource for Neopets graphics, tutorials, and much more!" which is MUCH more descriptive and even if my tab was small, it'd still show "Rainbowpool" as the site I'm looking at instead of part of a URL.

    The sidebar is really, really distracting from your content. There is SO MUCH going on in this site already and I'm never sure what I should be paying attention to and all the blinkies are flashing at me and there's so much contrast everywhere that my eye doesn't have a chance to settle on anything. If I were you, I'd move the navigation up to the top of the sidebar, display it vertically (like a list, instead of next to one another) and make it more noticeable. Even making the font size a bit larger would help, and add some blank space underneath it so it doesn't feel so crowded - maybe 15px-20px. This will make it much easier for your users to find the things you're offering!

    Something that might also help your site is learning to ditch iframes and use divs and PHP includes instead. It accomplishes the same things (being able to have one header/footer file with changing inner content) but without all the drawbacks. If someone were to link to a page on your site, all they'd get is a full-width page with no navigation or the rest of your layout. Eeek! What if someone liked a tutorial and wanted to send it to a friend? That friend would be stuck on that page with nowhere else to go. I'm not sure if your host allows PHP (now that I think about it, it might not since it's free) but it's something worth considering if you do get hosted eventually.

    Overall, this looks like a beginner's website. Don't feel bad about this, as we all have to start somewhere (my old sites were baaaad) but there are some things you could easily do right now to make your site cleaner and easier to use.

    1. Pump up your navigation
    2. Adjust your site title so it's more easily readable
    3. Add a title tag
    4. Get rid of the horizontal scrollbar (usually a width/padding issue with the content inside your iframe).

    I think even making these small edits will go a long way to bringing your site to the next level. It's pretty confusing as-is so anything to clarify information will improve your site.

    Don't be afraid of white (negative) space or using white/gray instead of a bright color. They can help tone down a layout since they're calming and give your eye somewhere to rest. I'd also re-work the image you're using for your site title - the very fuzzy red halo doesn't match the chunky, bold look of the rest of the layout. I'd make the title a dark gray (#333) and fade out that hot-air balloon all the way to the light blue - make it disappear! It'll give you room for your site title and make everything look much less cluttered.

    Code: Your code is atrocious. Upon viewing your source, you are missing:
    - a doctype (to tell the browser how to render your site)
    - an HTML tag (!)
    - a HEAD tag
    - a BODY tag
    ...all of which are essential to an HTML page. I'd encourage you to check out Tutorialtastic's article on creating your first webpage and perusing W3schools.org to read up on proper HTML coding. I'd also encourage you to learn how to create an external stylesheet, which will cut down on load times for your site and make updates a bit easier since all your styles will be consolidated into one place.

    Essentially, I think you have a good start, but you also have a lot of learning to do. Taking the time to think about your site, the information it contains, and how you want to present it will go a long way. You might also consider sketching your layouts out on paper before hitting Photoshop (or Paint.net or whatever you or your designer uses). Most professional designers do this and it's a great way to figure out if a layout flows well and is organized before you even begin creating it digitally. It's much easier to scribble out a section or erase a mark on paper than it is once you've got the layout nearly done digitally.

    Good luck! Feel free to message me for answers or clarification if you need to. :)

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

14. innocense gave it on 10th Dec 2008 and said:

    Hi, my name is Zoe and this will be the very first review i do here... lucky you.

    First Impression: I honestly didn't know what to look at first. So many colours, squares and animated buttons and the marquee. It looks very unorganised and complicated, if i wasnt conducting a review i would have moved on to the next site.

    Layout: Very colourful, now that's not to say that is a bad thing but with all you have going on as mentioned above its a bit overwhelming for your visitors in my opinion. Maybe you should try something simple next time.

    To me it doesn't look like there is much editing to the neopets background. It's just feathered (poorly) around the image and blurred a bit with some thrown on text. Not very interesting or original I'm afaid. I am not even sure you made it as it states another site as credit for the layout. If you need someone else to make you a layout maybe you should rethink who you get to make it for you.

    CSS: Rather boring sorry. Its just all black! It took me a good minute and a half to actually find the links around your site, they look like any other text thats on your site, the links are very important. Add some colour and/or make them bigger so they stand out, otherwise people might just give up trying to find what they are looking for an leave. I really like the headers.

    Graphics: In my opinion they are awfully plain. What happened to the brushes? The textures? Anything other than just an image with some font. You seem to think your guild layouts are splat layouts? No, they are not.

    For the previews the links are broken, i think a picture link instead of a text link to the preview would be more benificial. Icons are generally 100px by 100px. I like the goal counters, cursers and the glitters seem nicely done :)

    Tutorials: There aren't many there but i am impressed with the curser tutorial i havent actually seen that one done before. The blog tutorial on the other hand is sort of pointless and boring but i guess it may help those who have no idea.

    Misc: What is the difference between "partners" and "affies" and do you really need the partners buttons that dont match your layout and draw attention away from your site on the side bar?

    Your blog/content section has a bottom scrollbar which is highly annoying.

    I am pleased you use webforms :)

    I dont think you need the "other" link as there are only 2 links in there so its a waste of space. I suggest you change "us" to "site" and add the 2 links in that categorie instead.

    Conclusion: I think I have covered the basic stuff. If you need me to elaborate on anything I have said let me know. I do apoligize if I seem harsh in my rating, there is alway room for improvement, you are on the right track.

    Cheers, I hope this helped :)

    Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?

    rainbowpool's Response:

    Acually it is very orginized...I don't see why 'Colorful' is so wrong with everyone...The name is 'Rainbowpool-' which means it should be rainbowy

15. Nawal gave it on 10th Dec 2008 and said:

    HI!I'm Nawal and I'm viewing your website with Mozilla firefox 2 and have windows xp.I'm not a pro or something.I started webdesigning a few months ago.But here goes:
    First of all I would say that your layout is indeed nice and colorful but to me the colors were a little strong,especially because of the blurred image. And your title rainbowpool is written in red on a blurry red image so it don't look that cool.And your content area is very small in width,I mean overflow:auto is ok but I don't like to scroll horizontally.As for your navigation I think it should have a separate column or something.I didn't notice it when I opened the website until when I was viewing your partners.The navigation should have a header so it would be more noticeable .And the chatbox I think it should have to be a little big.And as for your credit at the advertising section at the bottom I think it would look more clean when you'll put that in the credits page.And it would be nice if there would be less scrolling on the sidebar.

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

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