(Rated by 17 people, viewed by 329 people)
Paintedskies has 17 Reviews
Below are the reviews left by other members on Paintedskies. Jump to review form?
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Shadow.jpg)
Shadow gave it
on 18th Feb 2009 and said:First Impression
Ooh! Clouds! Birds! Blue! This is such a cute layout, and I love the color scheme. Blue and brown goes very well together (provided that you know how to put it well together). I would say to have a spicier footer, but the way that the layout is, it probably wouldn't work, so great job!
Blog and sidebar
The sidebar text is pretty small. But, it works. However, I would still up the size so that those with craptastical eyes like myself can read it sans glasses. Speaking of sidebar, short and sweet. Good.
The blog text is perfect. It's large enough, the line height is great, and the padding is good too. Instead of having just one entry showing on each page, try having two or three entries. In the event that the page seems to get too long, then you can use a "read more" link if you like. But if some people came to your site and didn't know any better, they'd think you only had one post up. I know better because I see the archives.
The other pages
About: You have a dual about page; displaying both your main bio and domain info. I like how you have it set up--where you have the domain subpages and the personal subpages separate. Ready for my first non-sequitur of the review? I love watching documents about animals. Pfft at being boring!
Anyway, this is well-written stuff here. Molly is adorabuh-buh! Just adorabuh-buh! I don't know what you use for your question section, but you should look into another plugin for your contact form. Easy access.
This part made me giggle.
Maybe one day I’ll bulk this website with shitty tutorials and content.
Love the sarcasm in this.
Goodies: Noooooo! It's not found! Oh, and you have a fatal error on your sidebar on this page as well (along with your ask a question page).
Fatal error: Call to undefined function twitter() in /home/*****/public_html/wp-content/themes/tweet/sidebar.php on line 75
Maybe this was for a plugin and you forgot to remove that code?
Links: Everything's normal here.
Coding
I really shouldn't touch this, because something tells me that everything is...normal, but I'll do it anyway.
It validates. Doesn't surprise me.
Nothing. I can't find anything wrong. The only thing is the fatal error and the broken goodies link, but that's easy to fix.
All in all...
I can't really find anything wrong. I love the layout. Great use of blue and brown. The only thing that I could see that can possibly be an issue is how small the sidebar text is. It doesn't have to be the same size as the blog entries, but a little bigger than what they are now would be great.
That's...it. Great job!
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![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Mimi.jpg)
Mimi gave it
on 18th Feb 2009 and said:Reviewed with:
Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6 | 1440 x 900 Resolution| Windows Vista
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ZOMG, you probably don't even remember requesting a review from me because I have been bad, naughty and quite evil in not doing it before now. You must forgive me! Anyway, now shall be the day that I complete this. :)
(PSST, change your screen cap! :P)
First Impression:
I must say that I much prefer this layout to the older one. I think the colors are just fantastic and it makes me long for Spring to come. Of course, I have been longing for Spring since Winter started but the layout makes those feelings much stronger. ;)
There are really only a couple of things I have to suggest as far as the design goes at first glance but I will get to those later. Overall it looks to be a well made layout.
In IE the header image has a gap between it and the sidebar, though, and the blue background color that is made to match the main blue background color does not match. It looks fine in Firefox and Opera, though.
Coding:
At a single glance at the source code things seem to be lean and in good order. I must take a better look though because I am a thorough reviewer. :D
Your CSS and XHTML validate which saves me time and you are also using CSS Shorthand which saves me an immensely large amount of time as well. Only one thing I can comment on is to change all three of your font-weight: normal;'s to font-weight: 400; because that is the optimized way about it. You do have 11 warnings in your CSS that would look nicer if you tidied them up, seeing as though they are quite simple things. This would make it all have a well-rounded and polished look to it all.
Design:
As I said before, the colors for this are phenomenal. I have just some little nit-picky comments that you can choose to ignore if you wish because it's nothing too major that will drastically change your layout but just minor things that I think would look a bit better. Onward!
- For some reason I do not particularly like the brown outline you have applied to the Twitter bird. I think perhaps if you needed something to make him stand out a little bit more you could perhaps apply a drop shadow? Or perhaps a different color stroke, rather than the brown. I think it's just a touch too much brown, why it bothers me that is.
- I would very much like it if the navigation links changed colors on hover. Even if you don't make the background change color at least the link color.
- The h3 style is fine but the text color is exactly the same as the rest of the text on the sidebar, so it doesn't stand out at all. It makes the layout look a bit undefined in that area. Might I suggest changing the font color to white? I believe this would look quite nice. :)
- I feel as though there is too much empty space on the right side of my screen.. It is fine that everything is aligned to the left but my suggestion to cure this would be set another background color for all of the stuff on the right that has nothing. I made an example because I am so bad at explaining these things, so click here to see the example. Of course I am not sure that the color I used is actually a good choice but I just picked a random color to show you what I meant. XP
- I think that it would also look nice if you added some sort of background color to the area where you have, "© Scott 2008-2009. [bee image]" because as it is it blends in with the rest of the content.
I suppose that is really it for the design, I think it's rather nice overall. :D
Content:[/b]
One thing that I have noticed over time is how scattered your blogs are. A lot of times I lose interest in reading them because they are so random and rarely stick to one central focused topic. Sometimes there is some internet drama on there that I tend to avoid on the net but I am not going to act like I never did it. MAN, when someone would steal my graphics or something, I would slam them so hard on my blog! I understand how that is but now that I am an old hag I have a different perspective. I just wanted to let you know that to an older viewer your blog might be a bit childish. Please don't take it the wrong way, I like you! I'm not trying to insult you or anything. XP I just wish back in the day that I had different perspectives on my bloggings.
Anyway, let's get to the rest of the content! Your about page is not really that informative, you might think about adding some more information?
When I try to go to your goodies page I get a 404 error and the entire sidebar turns into this message:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function twitter() in /home/scott/public_html/wp-content/themes/tweet/sidebar.php on line 75
.. which stinks because I was really excited about that section! To be fair though, I can't just knock down your score because I didn't actually get to review the goodies themselves so I won't take that into consideration when I do my final scoring. :)
Links are.. links. LOL I'm linked! Ok, 5 stars for you now.. *shifty eyes* Haha, just kidding! That wouldn't be fair! :P Anyway, maybe put the links into two columns? I think they would look nicer that way. Perhaps spruce up the little bullets? I always like seeing that on sites. As long as they aren't large and flashing at me constantly.. Then I just get annoyed.
Final Thoughts:[/b]
Really since I couldn't see the goodies, there isn't much to judge. Your blog is aimed towards your age group more and I think you should add a little more about yourself. I love the layouts, though, and they are well coded. MAJOR kudos for that!
Er.. I guess I am done! I suck at conclusions.. *sigh*
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![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Baohan.jpg)
Baohan gave it
on 1st Jan 2009 and said:Hello. I'm Baohan and I'm going to review your site, Scott.
First Impression: Your website is very simple yet everything works so well with each other!
Content:
ABOUT: Oh, okay, you have another layout for your about page which looks good but I prefer a layout that goes through the website. There are some bullet points on the left of your navigation and I think that if you remove it, it'll look much better.
Then I clicked home on your about page and a different index pops up. Am I missing something?
LINKS: Interesting links, I will sure check back when I want to read some blogs that I don't read very often.
Overall, I think your website's design/look is very nice and simple but I'm a little confuse about weather you are using Wordpress or Textpattern. :)
Content-wise, I think that it's quite detailed yet a little brief. Maybe you can add more when you feel like it?
Also, I think that there are some problems with the links that you provided in the sidebar so I'm gonna skip this bit.
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paintedskies's Response:
I was using TextPattern, but I decided to switch back to WordPress so everything is a mess at the moment. I need to delete TextPattern from my site then everything should work perfectly. Thanks for the review!
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/joshehsaurus.png)
joshehsaurus gave it
on 1st Jan 2009 and said:SCOTT! Hello, I'm going to be reviewing your lovely looking site.
Okay, i'll make this review as detailed as possible. One problem, the yellow, it doesn't really make me 'wow', if you get me. I think maybe a lime green or a baby blue colour should take its place. I was looking back at past reviews you've had, and I agree with 'Aisling' that instead of having a piece of text saying 'Paintedskies', a logo to brand your site should take its place.About: WHOA! New Layout time. I see your using a different CMS for your pages. I find Wordpress works very weel for pages, i'm not sure which one you're using for your pages. Well. This pages is possible one of the best about pages i've seen. It's well organized. The pages on the sidebar, very descriptive aswell. It's not a life story, but it's enough for a basic outline.
Links: Well layed out, you've forgotten me though. No worries, you'll learn from your mistakes :P
Uhm, not much else, i'm going now anyways. Happy new year Scott!
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paintedskies's Response:
Thank you for your review. :) It isn't yellow, it's beige :D
Victimizes gave it
on 30th Dec 2008 and said:Hey Scott. I will be using Mozilla Firefox and my screen resolution is 1280x800...
I love the colour combination you have used in your layout. It’s not too bright and not too dull. It a refreshing layout compared to some. Your text is actually readable too, so it’s all good. I don't like the monster of a rectangle behind your site name. I don't think it ruins the page, but it's starting to get on my nerves, you know, seeing it out of the corner of my eye and all. I'm not all that fussed on your bullets either, I don't like fancy bullets, I prefer the good old fashion ones.
About: Do you know that when I click this link it leads me to the WordPress version of your website? Anyway... I find this section is always a good read, although most claim they can't write about themselves, A.K.A. you, but I think you're not as bad as you think. And you're awesome because you chose the same subjects as me. :)
The painted skies paragraph is somewhat informative, but I don't understand why you wrote "This is the little section about the website." Isn't that a bit obvious? Considering the header is Painted Skies. What else are you going to write about? Elephants?
Articles: "Error 404 - Not Found" is what I receive. Again, this leads me to the WordPress version of your website. Fix please! I was looking forward to this page!
Links: Not much to say really. Well, apart from I should totally be on there. ;)
Other: I think this has been my shorted review yet, probably because your website has a very little amount to fix. I suggest you fix this whole WordPress thing as I know you use Textpattern. Also the Error I explained and you should be all set!
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paintedskies's Response:
I'm re-switching to WordPress because I am a CMS whore. Anyway, I transferred my posts, categories and pages from TextPattern to Wordpress, which took for ever because the import option on the WP-admin is buggy. I had to find a tutorial and edit to fix this problem. I'm going to re-make my theme into a WordPress one tonight and hopefully sort this whole problem out. Thank you for pointing this out! :) And thank you for the review!
RetroBlast gave it
on 29th Dec 2008 and said:Yay, my first reviewee that I'll be reviewing since I'm back on rev.iew.me! OK, Scott... here I go. :)
When entering your site and seeing your current layout, I let out a sigh of "Ooh," loving the way your colors blend together. I looked at the footer to see who made this awesome layout and it seems to be that you have made it... many props on that, Scott. Your color scheme is really good. Good thing the colors are good because if they weren't, I would probably be like "Ugh, please change the colors." LOL, your colors are on my good side.
So, what to say? Let me start with the sidebar.
I love the thick border used on the right of the sidebar. It does separate the content section with the sidebar. Did your recently reopen this site? I am asking that because it seems like you only have written three blogs. If so, then I can't really say anything on the lack of content. I read your wordpress review and it seems pretty good, too... maybe add more of those! Haha. Try to include some contests or something... it will bring good traffic, I'm guessing... that will be a good idea!I love the kind of arrow bullets you use. Its pretty cool. Did you make these? If not, be sure to add them to the credits! I looked at the credits as well and I was pretty like "?" when you said
Logos, headers, etc. created with Photoshop CS3because I don't see any logos or headers. Oh, that reminds me, why not make a logo for Painted Skies and put it there instead of the large text on the sidebar. It will bring forth more attention. Ah, the looks of a logo in my mind... it will look pretty rad.On the about section (on the same page as the credits), I clicked the
mailto:paintedskies@hotmail.co.ukand I was pretty mad... all because it opens Microsoft Outlook and I do not have that, nor do not know how to mess with it. What if someone wanted to contact you and thought it would forward to a contact form? If I were you, I'd add a contact form... but that's totally up to you.So, that is pretty much all I have got to say to you at the moment. Hopefully when I revisit Painted Skies, I'll be able to see more content. This site sort of reminds me of Jemja Bella, to be honest... that's not a bad thing but like with it having articles and no specific 'design' it does remind of Jemja Bella. So, um, until then! I love the site... I hope more content comes. :)
-Aaron =]
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![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Alex55.png)
Alex55 gave it
on 28th Dec 2008 and said:Hello Scott, I am Alex and I will be reviewing your site today. I hope you will take my pointers onboard and maybe even add them to your site if you see fit to.
The design overall is quite simple but that is not a bad thing, I like simple designs and therefore your design fails for me to find a fault other then your main sidebar background. Maybe you could change it so that the whole of that left strip has the same background.
Your font size is perfect for my screen and I can read it easily and without any trouble, congratulations as I usually have to alter my screen a little for most sites.
Your blogs are well written and from what I have read are well varied in topic and don't get boring.
Your comment page is also pretty much perfect except for the previous post link that seems to look a little awkward just sat there? Maybe changing it around a little might make it look
I love the bullets that you have, they stand out but aren't uneasy on the eye. Great change!
Your about page could do with some work but by the looks of it you are aware of that, but what is written is good. It is different to most about me pages and pretty much sums you up.
There is not much to review on a 'links page' they are there to be clicked and that is what you have done.
Overall your site has a lovely layout and seems to fit your site beautifully. The main focus of your site at the moment is on the blog, your posts are great to read and involve the reader and this is why I gave you four stars. If your content is as good then you are bound to hit the five star mark. Good job!
Looking forward to seeing the content you come up with. Maybe some articles and photography wouldn't go a miss?
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![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Sarah.gif)
Sarah gave it
on 26th Dec 2008 and said:First Impressions
I am a big fan of simple designs so when I first saw this layout I thought "ooh nice!". I like the large typography, I like the stripes, I like the colour scheme.Design
Overall I think the site is well presented. The stipes give the design a bit more "umph". I agree with a previous reviewer that possibly adding your blog entries in boxes would look a bit better. I feel the link hover of your site title should be a different colour than blue, dark brown to match with the title background. The entry navigation link below your comment form should be a different colour to add more contrast. The pink on the blue doesn't seem to go well. Consider having the link hover a different colour than the blue background, too.Coding
Your coding validates XHTML Strict, your stylesheet validates as CSS Level 2.1. Your coding is clean and well presented. I do not see any problem with it. Good work!Content
Your about page has a satisfactory amount of information about you for a blog site. There could be more information about the website itself. More content would be a good idea to keep your visitors around longer. How about more information about your hobbies and interests? Favourite web design resources?To wrap this up, I really like your website. It is a nice little blog, a decent design. Keep up the good work. :)
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paintedskies's Response:
I'm glad you like my blog. As I've said many times before, I will be adding tutorials, articles, etc. The web design resource thing is a good idea, thanks! :)
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/OhPanic.png)
OhPanic gave it
on 26th Dec 2008 and said:Hey Scott, I'm Vicky :) Firstly, I'd like to say thanks for the message you sent me earlier, it was really sweet of you. Even though I replied on your blog thought I'd say it again. Anyways onto the review...
I adore your layout, mainly because I love simple layouts, and this does it for me, even if it doesn't for others, but everyone has their opinion right? I love the colours you have used, they are original and easy on the eyes. Except I'm not very keen on the blue link hover over Paintedskies. I don't know why, it just doesn't go too well with the background. Other than that I love the layout!
XHTML 1.0 Strict valid and so is your CSS. Except for the 13 warnings that appeared, which I'm sure you're probably aware of, but view them here. They are very easy to fix though.
Your about page is written very well. I know a lot of people find it hard writing about themself, but you've done a good job. Happy birthday for the 30th by the way!
I'm not going to review your other pages because they are pretty self-explanatory.
I enjoy reading your blogs, I enjoyed the contact lenses blog the most, because I know how you feel! My eye sight is just as bad. 'Oh, and I now can see facial expressions.' It's annoying when I can't see facial expressions :P lol.
Overall I really do like your website, I love the simplicity of it the most. I only have a few suggestions and that would be to add tutorials or articles or something like that, because you write very well. I also think you could maybe add some website templates because the themes are very unique! Anyways keep up the good work, and I can't wait to see what you add. I'm definitely a new daily visitor hehe.
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paintedskies's Response:
Thank you, Vicky. And I'm glad you got my message from earlier. :)
I'm glad you enjoy my website, and I will be sure to add some tutorials and articles to it. The website templates are a good idea, too. Thanks for that!
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/astraldrops.png)
astraldrops gave it
on 25th Dec 2008 and said:Hi Scott, I am Salma and I will be reviewing your site. I hope you like it and maybe implement the suggestions that I gave you to improve your site even more.
I reviewed your site using Firefox on Windows XP with a 1280x1024 resolution.
Firstly, my first impression of your site were great! This was partly of the carefully constructed layout you have created with the a fresh and original colour scheme. I love how you used a simple pattern on the background rather than a block colour, and this is why it gave a layout a unique touch and made it appealing.
The way you set out your blog should deserve a thumbs up. A bold and clear colours which drew me immediately to read the title of your blog and made me more intrigued to read on. Also, you have put the link of the comment section in a clear place, not hidden from the visitor's eyes, which I really loathe with many sites, who tend to hide the comment link and end up complaining about the fact that why does no-one comment on their blogs.
Secondly, the sidebar is also very well structured, with links are big and clear for my eyes. By providing a search engine, it will help the visitor to find an article easily, which is a very clever touch.
Although, I think you should improve by adding more content on the sidebar, maybe site statistics, a small statement about you (since it's a personal blog and it's all about yo and because some visitors would rather know you summarized in a couple of sentences than read paragraphs of information, that could potentially waste their time , unless they're there for that reason ;) ) Other thing you could include, could be a visible link of your affiliates, rather than have them put in a new page. Oh, and if I want to become an affiliate with you, how do I apply? May I also add how there should be some bit where there are buttons so affiliates or anyone can use to link you rather than use a text link.
Thirdly, I had a look at your About page, and I must say it was very informative and I learnt new things.
To summarize, I can tell that your site is relatively new, but more blogs, more content and improvements, in time the site will grow in visitors and popularity.
For now, I will award it a 3 and a half star, but with those improvements that I mentioned, I would be glad to increase it to a 4 star or even a 5 star. So get cracking Scott!
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paintedskies's Response:
Thank you for this review. I'm currently writing some little articles and maybe a few tutorials.
Thank you for your positive review.
Shen gave it
on 23rd Dec 2008 and said:Firstly, I love the simplicity of your theme. I've always been a fan of minimalist websites. I never knew those colors could go well together. It's a unique, gorgeous colour scheme. In my opinion, your website stands out from the many out there. Your designs always seem to amaze me every time. I'm not quite fond of the circular bullets. Perhaps customizing it would add a great touch to the website! Overall your website is beautiful.
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paintedskies's Response:
Thank you very much for this review! I changed the round bullets as someone else has also said the same as you. They're now little arrows. :)
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Chien.jpg)
Chien gave it
on 23rd Dec 2008 and said:A clean layout featuring soothing colours, one of the few things I usually seek in most sites, and it's present in yours. The coding is valid for both CSS and XHTML strict as well. I like splash of pink in the sidebar (pink ftw!), but I'm not pleased that hovering over Paintedskies changes the colour to a sudden blue which doesn't seem to fit with the background.
The search bar lacks a submit button, or relevant instructions. I honestly thought that it was there for show earlier, until I realized that it was actually a search box. The background of the input field and the background of the site title are both the same colours and hence confuses some about their functionality. It might be there for show since it's the same colour.
I find the colour blue rather random in your layout. There's too much pink / maroon in the sidebar, and so immediately my brain registers, this is a maroon-brown layout. But then again you introduced the blues in it. The colour combination between the two is alright, but the blue should appear more often or else it seems rather out of place. Of course, it might be just me as well.
Your layout is also mostly aligned to the left, so I don't see why your footer should be centered. Unless of course your footer is supposed to stay at the bottom without scrolling. I noticed that in the Links and Archives page your footer is way at the bottom. I think you can use FooterStickAlt as an alternative to what I mentioned above.
I also realized something, that the styling of your links are a bit inconsistent. Like in your about page, hovering over some links turns the text blue, but some give an underline. Not sure if you're after that effect or not though, correct me if I'm wrong.
I know you're actually redo-ing your site, so there isn't much content yet. I've absolutely nothing much to say about your About page, except that the intro was rather boring. It didn't really give me the mood to read more, but for the sake of reviewing I read it completely.
Overall I'd give a 3.5 star rating (I saw more things I didn't like as I went on just now. yikes!). Anyways, good luck with your website and I'm looking forward to the content you'll provide in the near future! Don't make it lame please ;)
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paintedskies's Response:
Thank you for the review!
I have fixed the actual search page, but the search bar does need a lot of attention. I'm sure that can easily be fixed. Also, the different link rollovers were for effect, but I'm guessing people aren't noticing that.
Thank you for the footer suggestion. I've been having trouble making that stick to the bottom.
The content is currently being written, including the about me page. Thanks again! :)
Karyl gave it
on 22nd Dec 2008 and said:I like the colour scheme, it seems to work really well. A bit on the feminine side for my tastes, but I don't exactly expect others to share my tastes (that and I kind of have a thing for using magenta in web layouts myself). :)
The simplicity of the layout, for me, is a boon rather than a drawback. I likes it. I would like it if a lot more websites were as simple as this one, though I'm a little bit of a minimalist.
I think the comments need some massaging. Right now, when you are viewing an entry WITH comments, the comments stand out more than the entry does. So you literally see the comments before you see the text, even though they are further down the page. Tone them down, I would recommend trying one of your lighter brown tones as a background for the comments.
Also, it makes me chuckle a little that your site's name is paintedskies... After all, here is my website: http://www.paintedsky.ca
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paintedskies's Response:
Thanks for the review!
Thank you for your positive comments on the template. I'm glad you like it. I also agree that the comments stand out a little too much, so I will use a light beige colour to tone them down a bit.
Nice domain name ;)
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Muse.jpg)
Muse gave it
on 22nd Dec 2008 and said:I have to admit, I sort of want to try Textpattern now, since I'm seeing it on your blog. I'm trying to wrestle Wordpress into submission right now, but it's kinda scaring me. =(
Thankfully it's a new site and mostly blog-oriented, which means I don't have to slog through eleven pages of textures, blends, icons, and tutorials on making scanlines—I'll just be going through the general design and aesthetics, and content.
Design/Aesthetics:
It's quite nice, clean, and simple—maybe a little bit too simple.
I'm quite fond of your colour scheme, but I don't particularly like how hovering over the pink post titles changes the link to a dark tan—your background's already got those lovely pale stripes, so keeping it pink helps it pop from the cream tones.
Your comments styling seems a little bit disjointed from the rest of your colour scheme, because the comments are all in harsh white and pink. Making the background for the comments a medium tan tone might help it match better.
The comment text is quite a bit smaller than the text of your blog post and is a bit hard to read—as are your replies to comments, in blue. (And in general I prefer the author of the blog just making a new comment instead of editing the text of one, but that's more personal taste.)
Your site name in the top corner, 'Paintedskies', is a bit bland, but I'm not sure what changes to suggest. If you could find or make a simple vector image of a paint brush and put it above your site title that might be nice. I know your layout's style right now is quite reserved and not graphics-heavy, so perhaps a two-tone image that matches the background of the sidebar might be nice.
Oddly enough, the blue bar at the bottom of your site that says "Hosted by Hannah and powered by Textpattern" is scooted up about 15 pixels when I get to the search results page, instead of fitting snugly at the bottom of my browser screen. Just so you know.
Your layout is not remarkable in any sense, but it does have the rare distinction of gracefully taking a backseat to your blog, so I don't feel when reading that there's some visual element that's irritating me to distraction, or there's some large banner image that keeps on drawing my eyes away from your text.
So it's all good. Incidentally, I asked someone who happened to be hanging around my computer what she would say if she were reviewing your site, and her general opinions were thus:
> nice colour scheme,
> nice background stripes,
> looks a bit empty, particularly the sidebar.Two perspectives for the price of one review. Lucky you. ^^
Content:
I hate to be nitpicky, but re: your latest blog post—
> it's not 'deteriation', but 'deterioration',
> you have a typo in the sentence "The teacher couldn't believe I could do is automatically".On some other stuff, I don't know why your link to older posts is entitled 'Older Blogs', because my first reaction was that it was a misplaced link to your previous web experience and sites maintained.
I really wish there were a 'Search' or a 'Go!' button next to the search form, because while most of your visitors will undoubtedly be savvy enough to just hit 'Enter' or 'Return on their keyboards, it's looking conspicuously missing there.
Also, attempting to search for something gives me the message Search Results: You have searched for ephemeral.
That's wonderful, and fantastically unhelpful, because it doesn't actually say anything like "I found nothing, now go away." So I'll just be sitting there, stuck, wondering if there is a blog post with the word ephemeral that I'm not seeing, or if it just refuses to tell me the truth: that it found 0 results.
Your about page is indeterminate and uncertain and waffling in the first paragraph, which seems to be a pervasive trend on most blogs. Don't mistake humility with insipidity by opening up with saying:
I’m sure you are aware that I never manage to write a full ‘about me’ page. Not only because I’m not a very interesting person, it’s just I find it excrutiating to do so. Writing about myself isn’t something I enjoy doing, but I’ll give it a shot.
I actually don't know, because I don't know you. So right off I'm getting the uneasy feeling maybe I'm in the wrong neighborhood of the internet, where everyone knows everyone else in it.
And if you're not an interesting person, then there really is nothing else for me here, is there? Actually, I'm not quite sure that's what that sentence means. I'm puzzling over it, and I think what I'm supposed to get from it is that it's excruciating (not excrutiating) for you to write an about page, and you're not a very interesting person.
And really, there is no reason to introduce an about page with "Yeah, I suck at this, but I'm giving it a shot." 'Giving it a shot' I have a particular problem with. I clicked a link labeled 'About', and that is kind of what I'm expecting, with no prologue. Jumping into "I'm Scott" is fine, honestly.
Interesting birthdate. ;D
The rest of the about page, however (ignoring the first paragraph) is organized in order of what visitors will (probably) be interested in, although I personally think the 'elsewhere' part might go in the 'about' section as well: "You can also find me on Struck MB as Scott", or something.
And I'm thankful it's all on one page, which saves my fingers from having to click three places to learn everything else 'about'.
And I hope you get the contact form up soon, although it might (and this somewhat contradicts my previous statement) belong on a separate page. In your sidebar you could link 'Contact Me' right under 'About'. Personally I don't think contact forms belong in an informational page, as your about page is.
And I did check out your links page, but there's hardly anything to say. Perhaps preface it with a little note saying, "These are some of my favourite sites that I visit daily", or something like that?
In Summary:
Not a bad site. The focus is mainly on your blog, and the layout supports that, and it's lovely that way.
I hope you don't make good on your threat to add visitor content, that would be terrible. ;_;
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paintedskies's Response:
Thank you very much for posting this review.
I am just writing about why I love TextPattern. I was thinking of making it into a mini article and maybe doing a few 'tips' on how to use TextPattern and some decent websites for TextPattern tags, etc. Try it, it's fantastic. If you need any help, you know where I am!
The paint brush idea is a very good. I might try something like that tomorrow when I have a bit more time. Thank you for your nice comments on the colour scheme.
I'm aware the footer seems to jump around the place, and I am really trying to fix that. I've tried everything, so my last option is to... try again? :P
Thank you for correcting my idiotic spelling mistakes. *Runs pages through a spell checker* I always seem to miss my own spelling mistakes, but I'm first to notice everyone elses.
I agree that the sidebar is a bit boring, so I need someone to spruce it up a little. I might add categories there... just to bulk it out a little. As for the search bar - I added a button earlier, but it looked awful so I removed it. It does look a bit odd now you mention it, so I'll add that back asap.
The about page isn't properly written anyway, so I'll change that later on. Hopefully I will 'big' myself up a little bit this time, eh? As for the contact form, I shall add a seperate page for that, too.
As for the tutorials... I've decided I may do a few articles instead. At least I can put my opinions across in them and hopefully make my site a less boring place.
Your review has been taken on board. Thanks again for reviewing me. :)
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Aisling.jpg)
Aisling gave it
on 22nd Dec 2008 and said:Hey there. I'm going to be reviewing your site now. I review design top to bottom, and then content top to bottom.
So, we have a nice design here, with some stripes and calm colours, but nothing particularly interesting to capture my attention. I think creating some sort of logo to help brand your site, and sticking it in the sidebar instead of "Paintedskies," in text, would be more effective. I don't have much to say in regards to design this time around. It looks nice. I'm not a fan of the circular bullets, but that may be just me.
Your footer isn't creating the desired effect, I'm afraid. It doesn't stay stuck to the screen. I'm not sure what you're using here, but I'm sure what you're aiming for is the use of z-index to hold it there. I'll point out that z-index doesn't work in lower versions of IE (not that *I* am using a lower version of IE, I am using a current version of FF), so you will need to create a separate stylesheet for Hey there. I'm going to be reviewing your site now. I review design top to bottom, and then content top to bottom.
So, we have a nice design here, with some stripes and calm colours, but nothing paricularly interesting to capture my attention. I think creating some sort of logo to help brand your site, and sticking it in the sidebar instead of "Paintedskies," in text, would be more effective. I don't have much to say in regards to design this time around. It looks nice. I'm not a fan of the circular bullets, but that may be just me.
Your footer isn't creating the desired effect, I'm afraid. It doesn't stay stuck to the screen. I'm not sure what you're using here, but I'm sure what you're aiming for is the use of z-index to hold it there. I'll point out that z-index doesn't work in lower versions of IE (not that *I* am using a lower version of IE, I am using a current version of FF), so you will need to create a seperate stylesheet for lessthanIE7 in order to place the footer at the end of the page for IE users.
Oh, and you seem to have just changed it, so it sticks to the actual bottom. Er...
Anyway, this is better because now I can navigate your site properly! (I have no more comments on design. It is a lovely design, but there's not much to remark on since it is not particularly interesting)
Your About page is well written and informative. Your tone is friendly, and pleasurable to read.
Your links page is nice, organized, but the dual columns seems a little unnecessary at this point, since you don't have very many links yet.
And. Well, that's it! Sorry for this short review, I know you are just starting out, again. Hopefully you'll be able to work on getting some sort of content (whether that be blog entries, or something more) in the upcoming weeks. And perhaps work on making your design stand out a bit more, since right now it seems to be pretty much the sort of design you see all over. I see that your host is Hannah, and that's who it kind of reminds me of. It is the sort of style Hannah uses so often (which is a compliment, I love her designs).
Best of luck!
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paintedskies's Response:
Thank you for reviewing.
I keep changing my mind about the logo thing. I don't know what would make it stand out more, I know it needs a better effect to make people think "wow".
I have tried different things to keep the footer at the bottom of the page, but it just isn't working. I'll have to keep trying, but thanks!
UPDATED 22 Dec 08:
Woops, you've just finished the whole review. Well, I changed something which fixed the footer problem, but now it's changed back. I'll keep messing with it until I fix it.Thanks for your pointers, they're taken on board! :)
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Jay.jpg)
Kay gave it
on 22nd Dec 2008 and said:I visited your website a few minutes ago and I was greeted with a logo in the sidebar. Now, I see you've replaced it with hard-to-read text. The contrast is very low, and its difficult to see. If you insist on changing the logo from an image to a text, I recommend that you up the contrast -- a lot. And up the letter spacing, for that matter.
I've already stated that this design is beautiful, but I do have a few suggestions. Just small things that bother me a bit. At the bottom of the content section, the link to your old blogs is just barely touching the footer. Maybe at a bit more padding to this section -- at the bottom.
Also, in the sidebar: this search box is bothering me. As I refresh the page, I see you've changed it. But even with the changes, its still bothering me. Color wise, I don't think it stand out enough from the background color you've chosen for the sidebar. Its a bit dark, and with the soft colors you've chosen for the entire design, it just doesn't see to match. Maybe make it a lighter color than the sidebar background? And add a border. I know, I know. I'm nit-picky.
Ran your coding through a validator. 4 errors, not bad. It seems as if you've forgotten to close a few tags. Or you haven't closed them properly. Might want to double check. No errors in your CSS, congrats. Though, I ran it through Clean CSS, and it seems as if you're stylesheet could be compressed even more; by about twenty percent. I don't know you want to compress your CSS or not, but its always more conveient for me to use shorthand properties.
I skimmed through your blogs, and I quite enjoyed reading them. Since this is mainly a blog, this a good thing. Because there isn't much more for me to return to. I don't have any suggestions for content, unfortunately. But if you have strong opinions, you might want to add a few articles.
Your about me page is a little impersonal, but some people prefer not to put themselves out there like that. Not a problem. I feel like "World War 2" should use a Roman numeral; World War II.
Regarding About > Paintedskies: don't add shitty tutorials! Nooo. Lmao. I take it you were being very sarcastic.
In the links section, I see what you were talking about; adding min-height. I won't address this any further, for I see you're trying to make improvements. Adding min-height won't work unless you add height: 100%; to your body section.
In conclusion, you website is pretty simple. Tis only a blog. For what little content you do have, I'm giving you four and half stars. I couldn't find much wrong with paintedskies.org. =)
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paintedskies's Response:
Thank you very much for your review. As you probably have noticed, I'm still tweaking the CSS and the sidebar. I haven't run my site all through a validator yet becuase I'm still trying to get the look right.
And yes, I was being sarcastic about the tutorials. :P
Thank you for picking out little things I could improve on!
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Greykitty.gif)
Greykitty gave it
on 22nd Dec 2008 and said:First impression is that it looks nice, but I think you should but your content text and what not into a seperate box so it doesn't have the striped background running through it. Would make it look more complete and easier to read. I'd also suggest you lining up the blue bar at the bottom of each page to the bottom of the page because on some it comes up and the background shows.
I cannot say much on your content since you don't really have any at the moment. Your about page is very complete so that is a plus.
The design colors are nice, I like them a lot. I'll come back once you get some more of your pages put up, good luck!Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?
paintedskies's Response:
Thank you for the ideas. I'll take these into account and hopefully make my website a lot better. I'm going to be adding more pages.
I might add a min-height to my content so the footer always touches the bottom of the page whether there's enough content or not.
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