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Blissful.nu has 4 Reviews

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

esthetique gave it on 12th Feb 2009 and said:
Hey, I'm Amy, and I'm using Firefox Version 2 on Windows XP Home Edition.

First Impression/Layout;
The layout is super cute! The tree is really detailed, and the birds are very sweet. On a first impression, I think the layout ties in with the site name, which I haven't heard before by the way. Nothing strikes me as particularly garish or ugly, and it all looks very neat and tidy. I'd like to see the themes changer thing working :D

CSS/HTML;
I'm not that brilliant at coding knowledge etc, so I'm imploring the help of validator.w3.org. I know you said you were working towards validating your coding etc, but I'm quite nosy. :) The first major thing is that you don't have a doc-type, I don't really understand these either, so I'm just going to link you to the tutorial, here, hopefully you don't mind, but apparently doc-types are very important, otherwise different systems don't know how to read them etc. or something like that. The rest of the warnings etc are probably because you don't have a doc-type so I will just skip them, especially because you said you were working towards getting validated. Your CSS is pretty good, and it all looks nice, which is a definite bonus :] I only really have two suggestion, which is to get it all validated, and you could perhaps integrate some of the yellow of the sun into your CSS.

Spelling & Grammar;
Out of the four random pages I checked, Domain, Beowulf Film Review, Happy New Year Blog and Owner, the mistakes I found were:
On Beowulf review, third paragraph, it says "breath taking back grounds that will leave the viewer in awe." However, it should actually be "breathtaking backgrounds that will leave the viewer in awe. " However, this one wouldn't have been picked up by a computer spellchecker, so I will let you off.
Also, on the last paragraph, "Overrall" should be â€œoverall.â€
In The Happy New Year Blog, you only had two tiny mistakes, in the second paragraph, "taking art classes which means" should be "taking art classes, which means". Also, after the picture of Yoshi, "There was also a few others " should be "There were also a few others."
Although I'm being really picky, you actually have very good spelling and grammar, I'm sure my site is riddled with poor spelling and grammar, so well done! :D

Visitor Content;
I'm liking the light textures, just tested some of them out, and they look really cool. You've got 93 of them, which is good, and you've spread them over a few pages. I just saw the old man & woman at the bottom of the page, how adorable ^.^ Anyway, I like your textures, they look really good, tested them as well :p You could add a few more of those, but if you're making them from scratch they are probably quite time consuming. You're reviews are well written, but not really long, so you don't get bored. You're review of the golden compass really makes me want to see the film! I'll have to try and borrow it off someone now... Plug boards are always a good thing to have, I might have to add mine later haha. Your smilies are cute, and I think it's really useful that you have them in different size, I always make mine really big by accident haha. I like the pink ones best. Perhaps you could try doing like themed ones or something, like harry potter. That would be super cool. Although probably difficult to make.
Overall, you've got some great visitor content, but you could expand it a little. Maybe with tutorials or something? Or you could add more reviews for books etc.

Originality;
I think your site is original through both the content and the layout. You haven't just followed the crowd, and I haven't seen similar layouts elsewhere. You haven't used Celeb images, and on previous themes, you haven't overused them either. When you do use them, you pick ones that are again, not seen on every single site. I'd definitely come back to your site.

Conclusion;
In conclusion, I think you have a very good website. The only main things that you can improve on is expanding content, and checking over pages for typos etc, and getting your coding validated. For a breakdown of your score I gave you:
First Impression/Layout: 9/10
CSS/HTML: 6/10
Spelling and Grammar: 8/10
Visitor Content: 8/10
Originality: 9/10
Total: 40/50, which equates to a brilliant 4 stars, well done!

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Naco's Response:
Thanks for the review :) I had tutorials but took them down because they were the basic "everyone has these" type of things, well most of them anyways. I am hoping to add more original ones though, thanks :) If you watch Golden Compass you should also check out the book, I saw the movie first which made me want to read the book which is even better!

Ah thanks for telling me about those spelling errors, didn't even notice :) Picky but still they exist haha. I've been wanting to validate my coding so thanks for the links :)
squigglybee gave it on 17th Dec 2008 and said:
First Impression: I think your header image is really cute. The footer image is sweet! Your layout seems very well organized and put together. However... since I am viewing your site in lovely IE :P it isn't quite working for me. Your content area background isn't white as it should be (according to your screenshot). It is instead the color of the background. Your site displays perfectly in Firefox, so I am assuming this is a weird IE issue.

I like your little tulip divider. Tulips are my favorite flower. :) However, I think it might look a little better if you had more space below it so that it isn't so close to the title of the blog post below it.

Navigation: I think the font size is a little small in your sidebar. Your navigation box looks a little awkward since it is so big and empty compared to the links. Also, I think you could stand to have a little more padding so that the links themselves are not so close to the edge of the box. Your link color is a little too close to the background color of the boxes for my eyes. I think something slightly darker would stand out more.

Owner: The first thing that jumps out at me is your picture. You're lovely, of course, but what bothers me is how right under your chin it says blissful.nu It'd look a little better if you moved that down a bit more toward the bottom of your picture. I found your page easy to read and entertaining. I love Target! (Can you get me a discount?!) And how weird you met someone with your exact name! I enjoyed reading these things. :)

Visitor: Both of the images on your movie reviews are missing. You have some nice smilies. I'm glad you offer them in different colors. Your textures are kind of neat. You have so many of them!

Domain: I like how you keep everything short and sweet. I need to make my own domain page a bit "less." Yours is put together very nicely.

Overall, I think your site is very nice. Your layout is really sweet and simple. I used to visit your site more often (a sort of lurker I guess). I'd like to become more of a regular visitor (expecially since you are a Quilting Bee member!). I enjoy reading your blog entries. :)

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Naco's Response:
Thanks for the review :) I didn't know it looked so wonky in internet explorer, I'll look into it :D Thank you for letting me know! My discount isn't that great, mainly just takes of the tax on the item :P I moved stuffed around in my photobucket account which is why the images aren't loading, I'll be sure to fix that. Thanks again :D
donna gave it on 16th Dec 2008 and said:
FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I quite like this theme. Definitely adorable. I love bright, cheerful layouts and this is no exception. I also love dark, nefarious themes as well, so I suppose I may just be a pushover when it comes to the tone of a design.

I suppose now would be a good time to mention I'm using Firefox 3.0.3 (because I can't be bothered to upgrade to the latest version) on Mac OS X 10.5.5 (but I apparently can be bothered to upgrade to the latest version of my OS).

LAYOUT

As stated, I like this theme, but do have a few other comments.

Background Colour: Something about the background colour seems off to me. It comes off as very dreary in comparison to the rest of the layout. Perhaps a different shade?

Other Colours: I really like your link colour, but the hover link colour seems too light to me. The colours used in headers (both the periwinkle-ish colour and the pink used for dates) don't seem to mesh quite right with the background colour of the headers.

Headers: The bit where your subject line is placed oddly. The date is centered well so the subject line seems off when it's so much lower.

Separators: I really like your break images between entries. I'd recommend adding a space between it and the next entry though.

Text: I'd like to see a bigger font for the content and especially for the navigation. Then again, I practically rely on echolocation to find my way about these days so anything under 12 pt font seems too small to me.

Sidebar: While I understand keeping text smaller in the sidebar, I'd make the navigation more prominent. You've also linked despair.nu three times in the sidebar which seems a bit distracting but not necessarily in the way you'd want to catch my attention. I'd also add a link to your RSS feed in the sidebar under 'Other' or something, but that's just me.

Header Image: Is there a way you'd be willing to turn your header image into a link to the main page or provide a larger link in the sidebar? I found that I kept floundering for the link during my visit.

Themes: When I try to change themes, nothing happens. It just stays on the current layout, Love Birds. I successfully switched themes at several other sites within the last two hours so I'm betting it's not a problem on my end. The previews lead me to believe they are very cute. I'd definitely like to use the penguin one at some point in time. (As a side note, I tried both changing the theme in the sidebar and going to the preview page and clicking.) You might also want to add 'Love Birds' into the drop-down menu in the sidebar so people can switch back without going to the previews page. With the panda theme autoselected in the sidebar, it would make it very difficult to switch to said theme (if that feature was working) from the sidebar without switching to penguin first and then switching to pandas.

Blog Entries: I love that you have a large text box. I hate the pitiful ones so many sites seem to have now. Your entries are also interesting. (As a side note, as someone who also works at Target, I had to be there at 4:45 AM on Black Friday because I was working in Food Ave that dayâ€”you wouldn't have thought people would need chicken tenders and hot dogs at 6 AM, but they totally ran for them. We sold more hot dogs than coffee. o.O)

Footer: I just discovered my favourite bit of your layout. The couple on the bench at the bottom stole my heart. And again, I love your usage of the flowers (tulips?). I really like the green you used for the grass and, personally, would consider pulling it out for the hover link colour or some other tie-in colour.

OWNER

I'm a fellow Target 'team member' and Buffy/Veronica Mars fan so yay, I like you already. :D WoW is so addictive. You're making me want to go restart my subscription when I've just promised myself to focus on school work! (Which, you know, I promptly ignored and hence why I'm reviewing sites instead.)

I like that you include information on where your nickname came from and don't completely ignore it like many others do.

I love your dog! He has the pathetically adorable I've-just-been-bathed-and-I'm-not-thrilled look about him. I know that look well. ;)

I now have the urge to know what the circumstances were surrounding your nearly missed high school graduation.

VISITOR

100x100 Textures: You've made quite a lot of interesting textures. Perhaps some info about from what they were made? Photos you took yourself? Stock images?

Textures: Again, many nice textures.

Reviews: I love your reviews, but your images have been deleted from Photobucket. I'd also put a warning about spoilers near the reviews label before people actually click on them.

Plug Board: I'm glad to see no spammers have gone unattended like is the case on many other plug boards.

Smilies: Your emoticons are adorable. I may have to snag some (with credit, of course) for my blog later. The first and last smilies are definitely my favourite. Too cute.

DOMAIN

Behind the Name: I love when people put why they named their site the way they did. I always feel in the dark when an explanation isn't given.

Site Buttons: The penguins are definitely cute. It's a bit hard to read your site name though.

Hosting: You linked to 'heorin.blissful.nu' instead of 'heroin.blissful.nu'.

History: I always find the site history interesting, mainly because I've had such a long history with so many websites that I couldn't possibly remember all of the places I've been hosted and sites I've had. I wish I'd kept better records.

LINKS

Other: Linking to San Diego Dentist and Quick Loan seems so incredibly random and very paid-ads-y in the middle of an otherwise normal page. Perhaps an explanation if this isn't the case?

Resources & Credits: I would be expecting to see this under 'Domain' rather than 'Links'. Perhaps move the section or provide a link to it from the 'Domain' section?

OTHER

Q&A: Your Q&A page is all wonky. The background is missing, the sidebar is on the left and all the Q&A content is below it, as well as other random issues.

OVERALL

I really love your sites. Cute, interesting, and loads of extra personal information that I love to see. I really love that you included info on your dog. I do the same thing with mine.

Most of the things I mentioned were pretty minor. I'll definitely be returning to your blog. :)

Wow, this was quite a long-winded review.

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Naco's Response:
Thanks for your review =D A fellow Target team member, Wower, Buffy lover, AND Veronica Mars lover ... now that is just awesome haha! I'll definitely fix a lot of the things you suggested, thanks :) As for the theme switcher when I upgraded wordpress to the latest version the plugin stopped working, I am trying to find a more updated one though.
Dayna gave it on 16th Dec 2008 and said:
Reviewed using Firefox 3.0.4, Windows Vista, Resolution 1440x 900

Layout

It is really cute and I like the 2 love birds at the top. The header image looks slightly pixel-ly on my screen, maybe you could try increasing the quality of the image when saving it in Photoshop (if you happen to be using that). The colour combinations of the layout is good too, it looks cheery and bright. The title of your blog post should increased a few pixels so that it is centred like the date (remove the 4px padding top from .blogtitle a). It looks better being at the centre and it aligns with the date this way. The categories text would look better aligning with the title background too (add padding-left: 6px; to .cat)

Sidebar

Under "the girl", the text are too close to your photo. I would suggest adding a padding-right: 5px; to the image so that the text do not "stick" to the image. I understand that the theme switcher is currently not working hence I feel that it is better to remove that from the sidebar as not everyone is aware of that. The link to Jonno website (http://www.daily-muggle.com/) is a broken link. The text on the "Other" category is too close to the border of the background as well.

Content

- Owner: Same comment as the above regarding the photo. The text is too close to the image and I think it looks better to have a spacing above your photo so that it is not sticking to the title as well. There is lots of information about yourself and that is great. I was quite surprised to see that comments are opened for this page, usually people tend to close it. But that is a good idea, like minds people can comment and share their views etc. :)

- Visitors: Under your 100x100 light textures page, some of the textures on page 1 are actually slightly bigger than that. You might wish to resize the textures to 100x100 for all of them. The inconsistency in the sizing also mess up the alignment of the images. It is thoughtful of you to separate them into pages to speed up loading time.

In my opinion, I feel that the "Again, if you use these you must credit me." on the rest of the pages are quite redundant as the terms of usage are already written on page 1.

I realised that there is no sidebar content on all the texture pages except page 1. I see that you are using WordPress for the rest of your website, hence I would suggest converting those pages to WordPress pages as well.

- Movie Reviews: For "I am BEOWULF!", the image in photobucket cannot be viewed.

- Links: It would look neater if the links are in a list (with the bullets).

Coding & CSS

I read that you are working on getting the site validated. Hence, here are some of my comments (I did not go through all the coding, just some):

- There is actually no doctype in your header, you might wish to start by adding one.
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_doctype.asp

- There are 2 head tags.

- I think this part of the coding is unnecessary (the additional head tag).

<head>
<title>Your Website Title</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" media="screen" />
</head>

CSS

There is also some CSS problems in one of your plugins CSS files.
http://blissful.nu/wp-content/plugins/hotDates/hotDates.css

.dateblock { padding:px 0 0 0;}

If padding is 0,

.dateblock { padding: 0;}

- In http://blissful.nu/wp-content/themes/lovebirds/style.css

#footer .fl { float: center; }

For float value, it is either left, right or none. http://www.w3schools.com/css/pr_class_float.asp

line-spacing: 3px;

you can actually use line-height instead of line-spacing http://www.w3schools.com/css/tryit.asp?filename=trycss_line-height

text-align:none; (for #sidebar and .sidebox)

the values for text-align are only left, right, center and justify. You might wish to change this to left.

.sidetitle { padding: 5px -10px 10px 10px; }

No negative padding are allowed, margin can be negative though.
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_margin.asp
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_padding.asp

Fix the above CSS and I think it would validate for CSS 2.1

Conclusion

The layout is neat and clean, the design is nice too, just that there are some areas which need minor tweaking to make it look even neater (yes I am a neat freak). There are some good contents. I hope my review would have helped in some way. Wish you all the best in your website. :)

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Naco's Response:
Thanks for the review! I never noticed some textures were larger than 100x100, must have forgotten to crop them :) Thanks for the coding tips as well, I will definitely look into it. I greatly appreciate this review, it's very helpful :)