oipom.com

oipom.com

***** (Rated by 18 people, viewed by 510 people)

A personal blog written by Meggan, a girl who likes web development, embroidery, and bunnies. I post roughly once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Added by meggan in Personal

oipom.com has 18 Reviews

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

  1. [img: avatar]
    Jamie gave it ***** on 12th Apr 2010 and said:

    Hi, I'm Jamie from jamiesamek.tumblr.com and I'm going to be reviewing your site on a PC Using Google Crome.

    Ah, I remember way back when you had this same exact layout you have now. I was like, 9. No offence, but sometimes change is good mate! Its just getting very boring :(

    aww from what I'm glancing at I deduce that you have a little baby He is so cute! :) I have a soft side for babies! and people with them!

    I mean.. wow hes so freaking CUTE!

    Anyay off topic, :P

    You have some much Imagination its Dripping down my brain onto my feet! Your "Freebeis" are awesome! :D

    I know I should review the rest of your site but I'm lazy and Imagination is all over my new heels! Keep up the good work! :)

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    meggan's Response:

    Hi Jamie,

    I tend to keep my site designs around for a while, for two reasons: the first is because I am extremely busy. The second is because I really, really like this design and keeping a design around for a while means visitors will recognize your site when they see it. I find it confusing when sites change their designs from week to week.

    Thanks for the kind words about my baby! He is pretty awesome.

  2. robotrally gave it ****- on 11th Nov 2009 and said:

    Website Layout
    Its very simple.Your main content area looks neat and clean. I felt that the sidebar looked a little bit cluttered with the recent photos but that's just me.
    Site Name
    Its hard to remember. I tried typing your site URL into my browser, and I could never remember the spelling. I finally bookmarked your site, so I didn't have to remember the spelling.
    Content
    Freebies
    I cant see anyone using the embroidery patterns. Maybe its just because im not the type of visitor you made these for.
    Organization
    Your site freebies page isint well organized. You should move all articles that have to do with teaching something to a tutorials page. Like the tutorials "How To Easily Create Non-Destructive Grayscale Images" and "Quick Tips For Animal Crossing Players" to a tutorials page.
    Overall Summary
    Overall, you should organize your site more. It confused me as a visitor, and it must have confused others. Other than that, you have great topics that keep your visitors reading.

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    meggan's Response:

    Simple and clean, yay! Can I ask what you mean by "cluttered?" The images are all the same size and spaced evenly - I didn't just haphazardly threw them in a pile. Do you have any suggestions on what might make that area more appealing to you?

    The site name is totally weird, I completely get that. I'm not likely to change it but thanks for bookmarking me!

    Heh, I'm sorry you can't see anyone using the embroidery patterns. Personally, I totally would if I found them on someone's site which is why I'm offering them up in the first place. I don't use Photoshop brushes but I don't begrudge other people providing them on their websites.

    That said, I'm with you on the Freebies page. I don't really like it as-is, but probably for different reasons than you've given here. I'll try to brainstorm some different ways of presenting that information since I agree, it's not really ideal. The items are organized by type (patterns, tips, font, guestblocks) but there's no titles for the sections or separation so it feels kind of weird.

    I would venture to say that my site as a whole is reasonably well-organized, as I only have a few pages and they don't seem to be misplaced/miscategorized, but I will take that note into consideration about the Freebies page.

    Thanks for your input, robotrally! (And sorry I confused you!)

  3. Lana gave it ***** on 5th Nov 2009 and said:

    To be honest, I fell in love with your layout! It's soooo simple but it's really adorable. I especially like how the header text fills in white when I hover over it. I haven't seen a smooth transition like that in a while.

    Your content is a huge amount, but what you do have is pretty good. Your blogs are especially interesting. My favorite area would probably have to be the links. How unique! I've never seen links done that way before. So kudos to you.

    Overall lovely site design and presentation. I will definitely need to bookmark your site and visit often. Great job =]

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    meggan's Response:

    Thanks, Lana! I appreciate your comments. I did try to do something different with the links page, since it's hard to know what to click on if you just have a bunch of URLs or names running down the left-hand side of the page. I think what I did makes it slightly more interesting. :)

  4. [img: avatar]
    LaLaland gave it ****- on 3rd May 2009 and said:

    Hello Megan !
    I'm going to be doing a quick review .
    Using Safari on Windows Vista
    With a 1280x1024 computer screen .

    1- Website Name
    3 Stars ,
    I think it is a very creative name .
    (: I have NO idea what it means though !

    2- Coding

    XHTML - 4 Errors - But not big ones , I think it is just forgetting to end a tag

    CSS - You have valid CSS , thats GREAT ! Thats better then me .

    3 - Layout
    I really like your layout ,
    It is very cool but does not throw your attention at it ¸ that is really my style.
    It seems to be compatible with most browsers

    4 - Over All Look
    I think it is a great site ,
    and I will be sure to visit it .

    5 - Conclusion

    I really recommend this website
    (:

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    meggan's Response:

    Thanks for your review!

    1. Had you actually visited the "About the Site" page (second option in the navigation) you would have learned what the site name meant. It's the first thing I go over on that page.

    2. My site should validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict... What validator are you using?

    3. After viewing your site (before you deleted it from rev.iew.me) I can see that you like things that "throw your attention." To each his own. :)

  5. [img: avatar]
    bbenevolent gave it ****- on 28th Nov 2008 and said:

    First Impressions
    Your entire site is eye-catching and gorgeous. Is that a good start or what?

    Layout & Design
    I am very impressed by how nice your header logo is. I like the shadow you've added to your name, just to give it a little more emphasis. The hover over you've given it also adds a nice touch that I would've never thought of. I can tell that you put loads of effort into this theme: you have used images for most of your headings, not just plain formatted text.

    Your sidebar is very nicely placed. I like how the "flags" fly off of the left edge of the bar. It's nice to see little extra touches such as this in a design. Let's start from the top and work our way down. The Twitter bird is very cute and adds just a tad bit of color that is needed in this theme. I like your navigation and it's hover, but I think it would look better if you extended the horizontal bars to the edges of your sidebar. That way it wouldn't look so boxy. Your search form is needed, but I'm not sure if it is important enough to come directly after your navigation. Maybe move this to the bottom and align the textbox with the submit button and you've have yourself the perfect search form. Again, I think you've added perfect touches with Flickr photos and social networking links featured on your sidebar. Even the bullets for each website are customized. You really find every little thing to make your website look professional. The great thing about your sidebar: it's clutter-free, short, and only shows the basic necessities.

    Overall, I like the layout of your site. However, I think it may look better if your content was a little bit wider. It's only 432px wide. Try extending it to 500px or 550px and see if it looks off or not. Other than that, everything seems to be given a personal touch. Meta data, blockquotes, post navigation links. You haven't missed anything!

    Now, to your footer. I take back my previous comment, because it seems like you've forgotten all about your footer. It almost looks deserted compared to the rest of your website. I like the fact that you have WordPress's logo there. That's cool. But, add some color to this section of your website. This simply does not match anything else you've accomplished.

    Color Scheme
    When I first saw your website, and I was scrolled all the way to the top of your site, you've made a presentation that appears to be colorful. As I move farther down your content, everything becomes gray: meaning blah. The content is spicy, but the presentation is so boring and bland from all of the gray popping up everywhere. To fix this, I would maybe change some of your links' or titles' colors.

    About Meggan
    I like this. You've covered everything anybody would want to know about you. And your picture isn't huge and overwhelming people's monitors! The one thing I notice, however, is that you do not clearly define an external link from an internal link. This helps out a visitor a ton! I do see that you do not use target="_blank". That's the other big issue when it comes to links.

    About Oipom.com
    This is very nice. Your writing is intriguing and actually forces me to want to read this. It's funny, too!

    Archives
    Your archives are organized very well. Do you do this manually or with a plugin? Although, I'm not sure why they are featured so prominently in your navigation? This seems like it should be in a subnavigation somewhere because of it's unimportance. Don't get me wrong, it's handy to have (I use archives all the time.) but I don't use them often enough to be shoved in my face.

    Freebies
    Awe, this is cute! I love it.
    The embroidery patterns are my favorite. Where'd you get the idea to do this? I never picked up this knack for embroidery, but these are so adorable that I may have to now... haha.

    That's cool that you make fonts. Do you have anymore tucked away somewhere? This is great and original content. I also like that it's yours and not stolen from dafont.com or something... :D

    Links
    I clicked on this link thinking it would be the same old, same old... but I found out that you have mixed it up a bit and have written little notes to describe each author. I also like that you changed the look of these links from the links on just normal pages and posts. Making things different are liked by visitors.

    Although, again... I'm not seeing a lot of color.

    Contact Me
    This is clean and simple. The only two suggestions I would say is, 1) add a one or two pixels of padding to the form so that the words have some room to breathe, and 2) why are your Myspace and Virb profiles listed here and not on your sidebar with the rest of the places you are "Elsewhere"? I understand that the other thinks are more appealing to your visitors, but I would think that some people would be interested in these too.

    I know I know I know... "they can just go to my contact page to find them." But, it's not that easy. A visitor would be ever-so-grateful if you made their experience visiting your site as easy and smoothly as possible.

    Conclusion
    Your website is definitely on my list of "ten best designs ever." You have done a superb job on examining ever tiny detail. And, just to let you know: a visitor appreciates this touch very much.

    I like the overall look of your site, but I feel like adding more color would spice things up more. It would even ad some vibrancy and life to your otherwise gray background. The only other thing I would look out for is your footer: a visitor wants to see information here, too.

    Honestly, you are one of the best web designers I have ever seen. Keep up the great work, Meggan! Thanks for letting me review such a wonderful site.

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    meggan's Response:

    Thanks so much for your review! It's super thorough, which I appreciate.

    I agree that the footer could use some spicing up - I will brainstorm to come up with some ideas for how I can make it better without making it lame.

    I moved the archives from being a main-level nav to being a text link underneath the search. I would agree; I think it had way too much prominence before, especially now that I have more than one entry on the homepage.

    Since this review, I've tidied up my Freebies page and added a couple other items (mostly Guestblock blocks). I'll try to think of some more items to add, but I don't have any other fonts! I wish I did. :)

    Again, thanks for your thoughts!

  6. [img: avatar]
    Shadow gave it ****- on 20th Nov 2008 and said:

    I got your message requesting a review. I'm shocked because I didn't think I was that good at giving reviews. I'm a bit flattered. But anyway!

    First Impression

    The first thing I noticed was the sidebar. It's popping out at me, which is a good thing, but I'm questioning whether or not it's taking attention away from the actual blog. The layout as a whole though is nice. I love the header as well. One more thing that I'm concerned about. I viewed your site without images and I saw...hardly anything. I know that the home link is on the header because I hovered over it and the rest of the navigation, but...it's gone. I can't help but to think that some of the things you made into images (like the navigation due to its simplicity) can be created the same way through CSS.

    But otherwise, I like it.

    Blog and sidebar

    I mentioned that the sidebar is probably one of the best sidebars I've seen in a while (okay, maybe not in those words). But I'm still iffy--that's the first thing I noticed--before the blog. It's also one of the shortest sidebars I've seen. Don't worry, that's a good thing.

    The blog is well spaced with excellent padding. The font size is big enough for me to see. It's just, to me anyway, a bit overlookable. I'm not sure what you can do to fix that, but it's not unbearable.

    The other pages

    About Meggan: For a minute there, I was going to say that your images weren't loading. Then I looked at my browser and saw that I had cached images on. Oops. You have pretty eyes by the way.

    Very informative, well-written, all that good stuff. I like an about me page that can make me at least giggle. Even though it redirects, the link to your 100 things is the old "ugly" permalink. I'm assuming that you put the link there on your own. Just a heads up.

    About oipom.com: I don't think I should laugh at this, but I seriously love what your domain name means. Well-written once again, with a very indepth reason for the name. That is going to stick in my mind for a while.

    Freebies: Ah, freebies without it being graphic freebies! You have a very original set here. I downloaded your font, because I'm a font freak, and because it's pretty cute. I love the embroidery freebies. You do not see that often at all.

    Contact: I have a question--does the contact form go to the same email address you listed? If so, then I'm not sure if it needs to be listed again. If not, then...carry on.

    Coding

    I didn't see anything wonky about your code. However, you have one small error in your CSS. This is what I see in Opera's web developer's panel:

    Invalid value for property: background-color

    Line 244:
    background-color: none;

    If there isn't a background color (or any background for that matter) defined, it doesn't need to be in the CSS at all. Otherwise, you have a nicely-coded site.

    All in All...

    The only big concern I have with your site is how dependent it is on images. Chances are that if someone did view your site sans images, they'd not be able to navigate the way they should. Or heaven forbid someone still has dial-up! But when it's turned on, it's a gorgeous layout. Your about me and site info are both entertaining. And your coding skills are pretty strong, other than that small error I found. But that's easy to fix. Great job so far!

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    meggan's Response:

    Good heavens I had no idea my site looked so bad with images off. I always test it with CSS off just to make sure things still function, but I tried it out like you said, and GAH. How embarrassing. Putting that as #1 on my list of things to edit.

    I'll make sure to fix the 100 things link as well - I'm actually not sure why I would have linked it with the number instead of the pretty URL but it's an easy fix. :D

    Contact form does go to the same email address. I prefer when contact forms are included on sites, since it means that I don't have to go through the rigmarole of opening up my email program if I don't already have it open - I can still send a message. That might be personal preference, but I'm kind of fond of it so it'll stay.

    Re: that CSS error - I think I was trying to get rid of the background color or something; I'll take a look. It's so close to validating that it may as well, you know?

    Thanks so much for the review! I really appreciate it, especially since that image thing is a HUUUUGE obvious issue now that you mentioned it. That hadn't even occurred to me. It's like having someone tell you over dinner that you walked around all day with your underpants showing, haha.

  7. [img: avatar]
    tormentosa gave it ***** on 17th Nov 2008 and said:

    Layout
    Clean and simple. I like it a lot, although it looks to me more like the site of those "professional" bloggers than a more common hobby-blogger.

    I didn't read your previous reviews, but I do think you should place the main navigation over the search section of your sidebar, cause I deem it more important than the search function and it's what most people would look for, I think.

    I love the twitter feed section and that bird is extremely cute. Layout wise, I think yours is very well organized and I do like it a lot!

    When seeing at your footer, I see you have an icon/pin that links to Obama's website. Maybe because I'm against politicians of any kind, or maybe because the election is over, I don't know, but I didn't like it.

    Content

    About me page: Very informative and straight to the point. Nothing to pick here.

    About Oipom: I liked reading about the domain name's history. Everything is very well organized and informative.

    Now that I read through this, I don't think there is much point to this review except for saying that I really like your site. It's very well organized, we get to know you better and
    reading your blog entries is entertaining. What more can we ask?

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    meggan's Response:

    I switched around the Search and the Pages boxes in the sidebar since I think you're right about that, and I ditched the Obama logo. I had it up before the election to support him but now that he won, it seems fitting to remove it.

    I will say that I'm giggling at the notion that my site design is more classy than my entries. This is probably true but it makes me laugh - I mean, I suppose I am a "common hobby-blogger" but I want my site to look nice, you know?

    Thanks for your review! I think the sidebar suggestion made a lot of sense.

  8. [img: avatar]
    shroom gave it ***** on 12th Nov 2008 and said:

    I love how simple and beautiful your layout looks. It has a nice, fresh, and clean feel to it while still looking warm and welcoming. That's a really hard effect to create, and it's very rare to see it done so beautifully! In fact, the only thing I don't like about your layout is the hover effect of the blog titles. I was just innocently moving my mouse around the page, and I was not at all expecting the quiet gray to suddenly turn dark and bold when I moved my mouse over the blog title.

    I love how you put your twitter at the very top of your layout. And I adore that adorable little bird you have with it. It's so cute!

    And I have to say, I love that story about your hubby in kindergarten!

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    meggan's Response:

    Thanks, shroom! I'm working on re-doing the styles for the links (site-wide) so those should be improved soon.

    The twitter bird is an illustration from Pasquale D’Silva and he's so cute I just want to snuggle him. I'm glad you like him. :)

    That story makes me laugh every time I think of it.

  9. Alex gave it ***** on 11th Nov 2008 and said:

    Hi Meggan! This is my first review ever, so I might miss a few things, but here goes. :)

    I visited your site a few months ago, and I'm not totally sure if it had the same design, but I think it was similar if it wasn't the same design.

    Your design is very unique. I love that you have incorporated gorgeous fonts, both in images and plain text. I can't get over how amazing the sidebar header fonts look.

    The only thing I can suggest for your design is to make the container wider. Your entries look a bit squished.

    Your about pages (both about yourself and your site) are thorough, but full of information that I'd actually want to know about you or your site. (That didn't make much sense, but those pages are filled with useful info.)

    Your freebies are very good quality. I play Animal Crossing off and on, and I enjoyed that guide. :)

    Your links list is one of the best I've ever seen. I think it's awesome you've included a little thought about each person.

    One recommendation I do have for you is to check into a dynamic sidebar, as I think it would add a lot to your website.

    All in all, I really, really enjoyed your site and will definitely subscribe to the feed this time (wasn't using feeds last time I visited your site). Keep the awesome work up~

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    meggan's Response:

    Hi Alex, thanks for your nice review!

    My last layout was cream colored, with a gray gradient header and a green tabby-bookmark thing - kind of boring and not nearly as sleek as this layout, but it was still two-columns with the sidebar on the right. This one has been up for about a month? I forget.

    Would you believe I've never actually had a dynamic sidebar on my site? I'm actually not sure what I would put in there, which is probably why I haven't tried it out. I don't have a lot of subpages or info that changes in each section, but I'll keep that in mind. Thanks again!

  10. [img: avatar]
    Aisling gave it ****- on 10th Nov 2008 and said:

    Hey there! I am here to review your site! I don't know you, so I thought I would quickly say hi! I'm Ash! On first impression, your site looks very nice, but let's look at it closer...

    First thing I do is find myself wishing the header was a big bigger. The reason for this is that it is SO cute! And currently, I think your sidebar overpowers it. I love how your sidebar appears to be 3D. It may sound weird, but your site reminds me of a greeting card. I really have nothing else as far as criticism of your design goes. It's simply lovely. I love the little touches, like the Obama logo in the footer. ;)

    Your actual blog entries themselves look interesting. I enjoy your use of images and other media. I like when entries are well-contained like yours is, i.e. clear heading, clear body, clear meta.

    Your About Meggan page is very interesting and you come off as thoughtful and pleasant. My favourite books were also BSC in the first grade! Wow. :) Your links to other places are very subtle, which I do enjoy, but I also found myself skipping past them. Maybe you could make them stand out just a teensy bit more?

    Your About The Site page is pretty standard (which is very common for most sites of seen, and not necessarily a bad thing!). The way you came up with your site name is funnier and more original than most.

    Honestly, I dread freebies/goodies pages, because more often than not the quality of such giveaways leaves lots to be desired. I am pleased to find that you have some freebies that are ACTUALLY original! Wow! I've never seen someone offer embroidery patterns! How original! The fact that you have your own font is also amazing! I wish I had my own font! :P Your article on Non-Destructive Greyscale Images was also quite interesting, and I actually learned something from it. Yay!

    I adore your links page. I think having a little blurb about each person is the nicest thing. It's like introducing your visitor to the person before leaving them to have a conversation with the new person! So sweet. :)

    Your site definitely is wonderful to peruse and the effort you've put into it is evident. :) Excellent job!

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    meggan's Response:

    People keep requesting the logo be bigger, so I will reluctantly agree to mess around with it. :) I don't want it to be crazy-huge but the consensus seems to be that it looks weensy and who am I to disappoint?

    I'm currently brainstorming about the link styles. I agree, something needs to be done there. There's not enough contrast but then the hover state is really contrasty - there needs to be more of a balance.

    Thanks for the nice words about my site! I'm really proud of this layout so I'm glad it's getting good feedback and suggestions for things to change.

  11. [img: avatar]
    Berto gave it ****- on 8th Nov 2008 and said:

    I really like the colors you used. Also, the fact that I really liked the way you used the Twitter badge. Very unique. The site is so soft that I want to touch it.

    The site is really organized. The way you organized the post meta data is awesome as with the menu.

    Your header is good. The "OIPOM" word is facing out. Though as some say, I wish it was a bit bigger so that everyone will notice it.

    Your XHTML is Strict? Woah, that must be a pain. But when I checked the validator, you have 1 error both on the XHTML and the CSS. You also have 31 warnings on CSS. I suggest that you should fix that. :)

    Overall, I give it 4 stars because of the validator thingy. The site is unique and soft.

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    meggan's Response:

    Thanks, Berto! XHTML strict really isn't that bad. Jem shamed me into trying it, and then we started using that DTD at work and it all kind of came together.

    I believe I've fixed the XHTML error (I commented a WP function call out of my comments.php and I think that did it) and the CSS error. Still making my way through the warnings but thanks for the heads-up on that.

  12. [img: avatar]
    Anna_Kirstin gave it ***** on 8th Nov 2008 and said:

    I first came across Oipom with your last layout. I remember it being neat and clean. You continued that tradition onto this new layout. I have a hard time recalling my first impression, but I remember it was a good one.

    The first thing you see when you enter the site is the title. The second thing I notice is the orange-yellow of your navigation bar. It's interesting the way you have wrapped your headings around your navigation bar itself. Your headings are nice and large and easy to read.

    About Meggan: Your about page has a lot of great information on you. The only thing that I see that could even potentially be a problem is your links. Someone with very bad vision or color problems might potentially have a problem seeing the links against your background. However, they are very easy to see on hover. :)

    Your 100 things about me was a great way to offer a random look into your life.

    About Oipom.com - I am very curious as to the correct pronunciation of this word (or is it just the letters?) That might be an interesting bit of information for you to include. I probably butcher the word on my own. Everything is neatly organized.

    Freebies: I've never seen embroidery patterns offered on a site like this before. I think it's good that you offer things that interest you or that you have created and don't go into the whole crappy tutorial/image freebies you see on some sites.

    Links: I like the way you have your links organized. It leaves little blank space and a unique impression. I might suggest a little more padding on the left to align the text up with the link a little bit more.

    Overall: I enjoyed your site. I wish I could help you out more, but anything else would be repetitive with what others have already said (like the error on the site) and I'm not going to make you have to repeat yourself. :)

    Great site, Meggan!

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    meggan's Response:

    Totally agree about the links. I'm working on coming up with something different for them, so stay tuned!

    Pronunciation: oi (like people from the UK yell in movies to get people's attention) + pom (like pomegranate or Pomeranian) = OIPOM! I might have to add the pronunciation to that page, I like that idea.

    Thanks for your comments!

  13. [img: avatar]
    Clem gave it ***** on 8th Nov 2008 and said:

    I thought I would start off my reviewing experience here at rev.iew.me by reviewing a site that I'm not particularly familiar with. I have visited your site before without really browsing around, but I'm excited to be going a bit more in depth today!

    DESIGN
    Your design is simple and easy on the eyes without being boring. It's the details that make a website interesting, and you've done a good job with this, definitely better than I ever do!

    Firstly, there's colour choice. I absolutely adore the green you've chosen, and while I'm not a huge fan of the yellow used in the sidebar by itself, it does work in this instance. The greys you're using are soft and easy on the eyes - honestly, I'm getting tired of pale grey on dark grey, because it hurts my overly sensitive eyes.

    I've been having far too much fun hovering over your header image; for some reason, it's just enthralling. Anyway, entrancing factor aside (I'm sure this is just because I have a painfully short attention span and am rather easily amused), the image is simple and attractive. As I mentioned, I adore the colour (green is my favourite colour in general), and the text looks good too.

    Moving onto the sidebar, the headings are absolutely adorable. I love how they subtly wrap around the side of the sidebar (if that makes any sense whatsoever). It's nice to see that the navigation is so prominently displayed, and with a nice hover. I also love the little icons you've placed next to the links under "elsewhere" - they're absolutely adorable (as is the Twitter bird).

    There are a few problems with the sidebar, however, which mainly stem from my incessant pickiness. Firstly, the "GO" button isn't perfectly aligned with the search form. I do realise that in all likelihood most people won't notice this, but I do and it bugs me a little bit. Secondly, it would be nice if, instead of just linking the little bird to your Twitter page, you included the permalinks to each status. Lastly, it would be a nice touch if you added borders to your Flickr images that changed colour on hover. (I love hover, if you hadn't already deduced that!)

    As for the rest of the layout, I don't really have any complaints. I love Georgia for headings, the post meta data is nicely displayed, I love the link hover (of course), the icons on the footer are cute, and the rounded corners are a nice touch. The only thing I can suggest is increasing your font size just slightly - while it's readable, it's one perilous step away from being too small!

    Your home page has one validation error; I would suggest fixing it since it's so small. Your CSS also has one small error, so if you even remember such a niggly thing (I would probably forget myself), it might be nice to fix.

    CONTENT

    Firstly, I've been reading your posts (really just the more recent ones) and I have to say that I really enjoy your blog. I completely agree with your political posts, so thank you very much for writing them! (I'm now subscribed to your feed, too.)

    - About Meggan
    A very enjoyable page - concise but not too short, informational but not boring at all. This may just be due to the fact that I identify with pretty much everything you've said. I am also socially awkward, pretty shy before I warm up to people and get to know them, a book lover (BSC FTW!), an atheist, someone who is constantly correcting my teachers' spelling and grammar, not great at math (especially geometry, oh the horror), and very self-conscious when walking in front of anybody.

    -About Daniel
    Thank you for keeping this to-the-point. I hate it when people write pages about their SO that are really long. I don't mind reading pages like yours that give the important information, because it helps me get to know you and your SO better (especially if you talk about them a lot in your blog), but these pages have a tendency to become very long-winded!

    -100 Things About Me
    Most of these are actually interesting, so I applaud you for that. #69 made me giggle. Oh, and I totally agree about pennies (they are completely pointless!) and Verdana. Whereabouts in Canada have you been? I ask this because I myself am a proud Canadian, although I've been to all of... 5 cities? Although most of the don't count as cities, since they are all small towns about ~3 hours away from where I live.

    -Bands I Like
    I always find these types of pages pointless. I'm not sure, maybe it's just me, but I don't really get any sort of satisfaction out of reading this page. Maybe if you added a bit about why you like each band? (Although that could be hard/time-consuming/tedious.)

    -About Oipom.com
    I never really have anything to say about domain pages! I mean, the information is rarely interesting, but there are never any real suggestions I can give. This page is fine - you've given all the necessary information and it's well laid-out, and, of course, concise.

    -Archives
    Strange positioning on the sidebar. I think you've done this alphabetically, but it would make more sense to do it semantically - that is, what would the visitor be more likely to want to look at first? I would put Archives right at the end. Other than that, this is a well-organised page. I love that you list the titles of all the posts. I should really work on doing that myself!

    - Freebies
    I don't play Animal Crossing, but your tips should prove helpful to people who do. The greyscale tutorial is also helpful. The embroidery patterns are quite cute, not that I have any use for them. And it's always nice to see handmade fonts available for download!

    -Links
    I love, love, love how this page has been set out! It's unique and nice that you took the time to add descriptions.

    - Contact
    Not much to say about this page. In this case, no news is good news!

    SUMMARY
    Overall, I really enjoyed browsing your website. I will admit, I picked it to review because I wanted to review a website with fresh eyes, but also because it just looked nice. Luckily the quality content complements the aesthetically-pleasing layout, and in all your website shows that you are very good at paying attention to details. I am looking forward to visiting your website again!

    UPDATED 08 Nov 08:
    Hmm, I'm now on FF on my PC and the GO button is fine. Strange!

    Oh, and I would LOVE to go to Victoria. I've only been to Ontario (where I live) and Quebec. BC seems so beautiful. Anyway. Off-topic.

    Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?

    meggan's Response:

    I KNEW someone would get the input field + submit button jog problem. I was just waiting for it. I'll see what I can do to fix it, since it looks okay for me on Firefox, but it appears that you're on a Mac... hmm...

    That validation error irks me - it's a WordPress thing, and as far as I can tell, it only shows on pages that have the comments template. I want to delete whatever it is from the comments file but I'm afraid it will foul up the whole thing so I haven't messed with it. It does annoy me though so I'll look into it, I promise.

    I'm so glad you went through my content pages. I've thought about ditching the bands page - it's a holdover from this site's inception, but I'm one of those people that thinks the music you like says a lot about you so I've kept it. I figure it's not hurting anything, but I might try to spice it up a bit in the future.

    100 things page - I've been to Victoria, Nelson, and Ainsworth, as well as some other places I can't remember, since they were school band trips and I didn't have a say in where we went. :)

    I'm also glad you mentioned my archives page - I like that it lists out the post titles too, but I need to see if I can tweak it to only show the titles for the most current year, and then have links to previous years because that page is reaaaaally long. Annoyingly long. The listing of the pages in my sidebar is sort of arbitrary, but it seemed like it worked being so close to the "about the site" page since they're kind of related.

    Thank you so much for your kind words about my site. You've given me some stuff to think about and work on, which is great! I really appreciate it.

  14. [img: avatar]
    moneypenny gave it ***** on 7th Nov 2008 and said:

    Your layout shows that you put a great deal of thought and consideration into the little details. The whole thing is clean and neat with the right amount of padding, the right color choices (for the most part--see my link hover comment below), and just a pleasant order to the content. I wish there was more color to the layout, or more crazy-awesome graphics, though. :(

    I think it's so neat looking how your section headers have the appearance of ribbons poking out from the sidebar. That just tickles me. Something else that tickles me is your Twitter bird in the top right; he's cute.

    Your Pages section of the sidebar is very clean looking, with the gray hovers and the little arrow that appears, plus the font choice is so sleek.

    Yowza, I dislike how the background flips to gray when I hover on regular links, especially on post titles since the font is so large. It's just kind of jarring, and I think a subtler hover effect would better suit the site. An underline, a font color change, something like that.

    I like how your search input field is attached to your search button; it's very cohesive and slick-looking.

    You have pretty lips! Haha, just visiting your About Meggan page. :)

    Hm, I dislike that you don't capitalize "name", "nicknames", etc. on your About Meggan page. The all-lowercase looks unprofessional; it connotes (to me, at least) some 13-year-old site owner is behind this, while the rest of your site screams maturity and chicness.

    O noes, I have to meet my roommate so we can drive home together, so I must cut this review short! I'll append more later.

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    meggan's Response:

    Thanks for the review! (If I recall, you were one of the very first people to review my site probably four years ago by now, and OH MAN have I come a long way. Good grief. I should dig up that layout and email it to you, you'd get a kick out of it.)

    I think you're right about the hover being jarring. I'm considering totally retooling how I treat links, since I've been having some problems floating linked images (the background of the a tag shows off to the side of the image, and it looks tacky) so this helps a lot. I think I might use the links to inject a bit more color into the layout, because you're right. There is a LOT of gray and not a lot of color. I love gray, but I sometimes feel like I might be overdoing it, haha.

    Also, I am so glad the search button lines up for you. I always worry about that - those types of input + submit linings-up are hard to pull off.

    Dang. Perhaps I will go fix the capitalization; considering I'm ten years older than 13 and, well... I capitalize everything else, so stylistically it's totally different.

    (I'll probably append this too if you add more comments. Thanks!)

  15. [img: avatar]
    conanpro gave it ***** on 7th Nov 2008 and said:

    wow, i love your layout the css was well done! u love everything about the site its amazing no fantastic no incredible no Outstanding okay ill stop now :) i love the way you make everything easy (if ya know what i mean) ya know making it easy to browse around the site. why is that search thing there????? ah, o see why its to search post hey speeking of witch what do you use to post blogs? fanupdate? wordpress? cuewtnews? im thinking of using wordpress once i figure out how ;) but anyway your site really rocks! bye love, jamie

    Unable to detect browser/operating system | Report This?

    meggan's Response:

    Heh, this review was a bit difficult to get through but thank you for your nice comments! Search is there to search through previous posts (I've been writing for years so there are quite a few to search through). I use WordPress (it says so on my "About oipom.com" page and it's a link in the footer) and I absolutely love it. WordPress is super simple to use, you should try it!

  16. [img: avatar]
    Chien gave it ***** on 7th Nov 2008 and said:

    Oipom has a nice ring to the site name and I never knew the meaning until I finally clicked your about page. Honestly speaking, I've been to your site before but didn't really bother much because I was rushing off elsewhere at that time, and eventually forgot.

    The current design is simple but cute. The colours are soft and pleasing to the eye. The sidebar has a slightly darker shade than the content area, but does not take the attention off the content. The twitter image there fits in nicely to further enhance the cuteness of your site XD Your sidebar isn't cluttered either and that gets tons of bonus points from me XD

    As I was reading your about page, I realized that there was a coloured space before your short biography. It apparently is a link to your photo you have there, only that the photo is aligned right and that the link also stayed on the left. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be there or not though.

    There's nothing I can offer as advice, since I've nothing that I dislike. It's very visitor friendly too. Keep up the good work :D

    All in all, you've got a great design and great content. I've given you a 5-star rating :D

    Unable to detect browser/operating system | Report This?

    meggan's Response:

    Argh about that colored bit on my "About" page. I've since fixed it, but it's making me consider using a different visual treatment for my links. It's a background color on the a tag, and when I float an image, the link isn't floated so it leaves that weensy bit of link over on the side. I wish CSS had parent selectors so I could say "If a link contains an image, give the LINK no background color" but alas, this does not exist and I'm forced to put an inline style on those links. I did fix that though, so thank you!

    I'm so glad this layout is getting good feedback. :D

  17. [img: avatar]
    Mimi gave it ***** on 6th Nov 2008 and said:

    Heya Meggan! I will be reviewing with Mozilla Firefox and a screen resolution of 1440 x 900, running Windows Vista.

    Design:
    I really like the crisp colors of your design, my only suggestion would be that the title/header 'Oipom' is a little small to me. It kind of blends in with the rest and I think it would look nice if it were a bit larger, to stand out more.

    I am also a big freak of having short websites, so I think the blog entries kind of stretch out the page. It might also be because of all the pictures in that one blog post about election day. :)

    I really like that it is quite clean and consistent, something I am not very good at. I really admire that.

    Content:
    I have always loved your domain name and what it stands for. It makes me smile, sometimes when I see really short people (no offense! haha!) I think of your domain. It's true! Anyway, on your 'About Meggan' page, I noticed that the little drawn picture that links to candied-star is a broken link, I guess that domain is no longer available?

    In your freebies there aren't a lot of things but the stuff you do have is quite original. I don't think I have ever seen free embroidery patterns offered on a site that wasn't based only on embroidery. They are really adorable, too! :)

    It's also really nice to see a font that you made yourself. That is one of my favorite free-goodie type material out there. I shall be downloading this, ma'am.

    About your 'Non-Destructive Grayscale Images', is that different from pushing 'Ctrl+Shift+U' in photoshop, to desaturate? I know this method doesn't damage the integrity of the file.

    Cute little tips for Animal Crossing, that game is so much fun. X.X I get so caught up in it, though. I will lose track of time completely if I play it again, I just know it.

    -----

    Overall, your site is just one of my favorites. I have a lot of the same opinions as you do, so it is easy for me to read your blogs because I find myself nodding in agreement whilst doing so. ;) Sorry I couldn't offer much advice, maybe just the usual demand of 'MORE GOODIES!!!', maybe another font or something. I just love fonts! :)

    Unable to detect browser/operating system | Report This?

    meggan's Response:

    Haha, your first comment made me think of that "Make the logo bigger!" thing that went around the Internets a while ago.

    My last layout had one entry on the homepage, which I kind of liked at the time, but it made it so you could never tell if you missed an entry or not and people were constantly forced to page backward. I suspect this might be personal preference though, since I also really dislike the "Read the rest of this entry" jumps unless the post is freakishly long.

    I fixed that broken link, thanks! That site disappeared a while ago but I feel weird using that image without crediting it, so I put the credit in the alt text instead of linking.

    The grayscale image thing is something I learned in a Photoshop class in college - apparently it doesn't mess up whatever info the Histogram shows? I actually forget now. I think it's because you can turn off those layers and you still have your original image, instead of just ditching all the color info.

    Thanks for the lovely comments! I'm so glad you like the goodies; I'll see what else I can come up with. I'd love to do another font, but since I graduated I don't have access to the school's font programs anymore. We'll see. :)

  18. [img: avatar]
    Tracy gave it ***** on 6th Nov 2008 and said:

    I'm a big fan of your current design. The colors are so smooth and fit well together. The background color and the colors of the content give a nice contrast.

    I like that the color of your sidebar is a little different from the color of your text area, it gives the site a nice touch. I also like the sectioning of the sidebar, although I would have put the "pages" section way on top.

    Your content is nicely organized. The "about" pages are nicely structured and contain a lot of information. Your freebies are unique and cute. I like your link page and how you wrote a little something about each person on your list.

    The whole site is very neat and aligned and clean and there's nothing I don't like about it.

    Unable to detect browser/operating system | Report This?

    meggan's Response:

    Thanks for the comments! I thought a lot about which order I should put the sidebar stuff in, and I think it does make sense to put pages at the top, but they're so visually heavy that I was worried it would compete with the site title. In the end I chose the Twitter updates first as a "fluffy" bit that wasn't as heavy seeming. I might move the pages above search though... It's hard to say what people use more. I might play around with it a bit.

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