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Complete Mass Effect has 6 Reviews

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1. 

   Muse gave it on 1st Mar 2009 and said:

   Aah, nice. This is definitely a change from the usual websites I see on rev.iew.me. ^^

   I won't pretend to understand the finer points of running a wiki (I deal mostly with websites), so I will be focusing solely on the layout. I'm sure you're better equipped to take care of the content side of things than I am—my advice there wouldn't help much.

   The layout and its overall theme certainly evoke a certain atmosphere for the wiki, and it looks like a fairly well-themed wiki to match the game.

   However, white-text-on-dark-background is almost always more difficult to read than the opposite, and the white text looks blinding against the contrast of the background, making it hard to read long blocks of text.

   So, while this may sound odd—for the sake of readability, tone down the white a bit. Something not quite as bright won't be so jarring on the eye on the dark background.

   Other than that the colour scheme is fairly well-chosen.

   As for images you've used: the background image that seems to be spotlighting a wooden background is nice, but it looks clearly repetitive. I would advise making the 'spotlighted' area a bit larger and having a larger image so it won't tile as much down the page.

   Alternatively, just set up the site so it looks like a small radial gradient has been placed near the top of the site...I'm not explaining this well, but if you look here...the background of that demo looks quite nice, and it's something close to what I think you were aiming for.

   Layout-wise, I think the sidebar needs to be given a larger margin to the left; right now the navigation, search box, et cetera are right up against the side of the browser window.

   And on inner pages, the warning image that accompanies spoiler notices is rather pixelated; it detracts from what is otherwise a very neat wiki.

   That's basically it; I think it's already quite good right now, and from a quick peek at some of your pages it looks like I'll be referring to this place in the future—I have a few friends that will probably be playing this game.

   Most of the suggestions I have are mostly minor ones, but I do think making the changes will make your wiki much more polished than before.

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2. 

   Greykitty gave it on 28th Feb 2009 and said:

   Slow load...

   Layout... it's dark, very dark and the colors clash badly in your navigation column. The navigation font is tiney, smaller than the rest of your site font, you should fix this. If anything that font should be larger than your normal text font. I would also suggest bolding it so that it stands out more. That bright yellow bar at the bottom of your page is very out of place. I would suggest changing that asap. Make the background fit the rest of your site. Watch out on links that are dark as well. I see a couple already that are dark blue and blend in with the rest of the background. There's nothing that I can really say about the layout since it's a typical wikipedia design. It doesn't attract me at all since I usually find those type of sites confusing to navigate. Your links and buttons are not consistent. That is something you really should try to aim for if you want your site to look professional and keep visitors coming.

   You content is ok, nothing I couldn't probably find on another site, but for starting out it's good. Just keep adding and it would be nice if others could donate to it. Find some good moderators if the site gets large enough. It's nice to have photos of the different characters and all that too.

   Overall, you really need to fix the coding and the layout. The dark layout with bright text is not really welcoming. Granted I don't expect to see a happy little layout for such a game but adding a graphic here and there and colors that go well together is a huge plus. Up your font size, it's way too small right now. Make your links stand out more too. When I enter the site it doesn't make me want to learn more about the game, it just makes me want to leave. It's a good idea but I think you need to really rework the presentation of it.

   Sorry this is a very negative review, but since you don't have that much content I'm basing it mainly off the layout.

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3. 

   vividavenue gave it on 27th Feb 2009 and said:

   Hey :)

   First Impression: Your sites layout is a little bit confusing. When I first opened the page it was kind of like eye shock. It just didn't seem like it matched all that well.

   The Layout: The layout really makes your site look unprofessional. It's got way too many different colors and patterns going on and it makes it hard for eyes to focus on one thing in particular. The little boxes in your side bar a light colored pattern as opposed to the rest of your layout which has a darker theme to it. Honestly, I would just scrap this layout and start fresh with something more professional because you don't want to scare your first-time visitors away with something busy and insane.

   Coding: There is no need to tell you to validate your coding since several people have already told you that. Also, the coding on my own site is not validated so I'm in no position to talk. :D As far as the look of the css goes I would definitely change that to fit with a new layout. I'm not the best with coding so reviewing you in this area, for me, would be useless.

   Content: Your content seems pretty cool, something my brother and boyfriend would definitely be interested in! This is another area I have a hard time reviewing as my specialty is graphics and this is not something I'm personally interested in. It seems like you know what you're talking about with everything, though.

   Conclusion: Overall that layout needs to go. The busyness really scares me and probably scares a lot of your visitors away. I would go for a more professional look. :D

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4. 

   nikirush gave it on 26th Feb 2009 and said:

   Hey there, I'm Niki and I'll be reviewing your site on a Mac using the latest version of Firefox.

   First Impressions
   Holy crap. You need some help.

   Layout
   I don't get this dark and gloomy colour scheme at all. Your repeating background is very pixelly, and your site is VERY busy. I'm all over the place! You could have easily made the headers in your sidebar larger, capitilized, and have SOME style to them. I'm not getting your footer, either. Where did this random burst of light tan come from? It doesn't match at all. I also don't really see the point of the blue 1px borders around your content; it would look way better if they were removed. Your sidebar should have some padding, and be away from the edge of the page. I understand that you want a full-page layout, but sidebars usually look bad if they're smushed up against the side like that, with no space at all. The colours you chose for your sidebar aren't very good either, especially the wood-like (?) background. You should probably just make that into a black background, or dark blue. Same goes with your small navigation on top. Speaking of that, you should really increase the size of that teeny tiny navigation. It's a bit hard to spot on the first glance. Your coding is invalid, it found 31 errors. You also have ten errors in your CSS. A lot of the errors were this:

   Value Error : background-color none is not a color value : none

   If there is no background color, then you just don't put it there at all.
   In your sidebar, you should have the search bar box higher up on the sidebar.

   Content
   Alright, alright, your "Story" page isn't too bad. Good job on this page. I like how the contents has the "hide" option, because it does take up a lot of room.
   I like how you've added a clear warning when the information includes plot spoilers.
   You have a lot of stuff here about the game, so good job on that. You seem to know this game pretty well, which is good for a good fansite!
   Your Current Events page doesn't have anything in it? If you don't have anything, then it shouldn't be up at all.
   The "Random Page" link really is pointless. I know it's cool and all, but nobody will really use it, trust me.
   Your "What links here" page is also sort of pointless.
   Okay. Your "View Source" page is REALLY pointless. Most people know how to do that on their browsers. So you really don't need this.
   OH, also, you don't need your "Article" link and your "Mass Effect" link, since they both link to the same page. Remove one.

   Conclusion
   Alright, you definitely need some work done to this site. You want people to learn about this video game, Mass Effect, but if your layout isn't very appealing, most people will exit out right away and not take the time to read the stuff. You seem to have a pretty decent fanbase, though, hm. Change your layout, and fix some errors that I've pointed out. Good luck!

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5. 

   tinykorean gave it on 26th Feb 2009 and said:

   Okay, first of all - ow. Your color choices are hurting my eyes, quite literally. The background is too dark, the font colors create a too stark contrast, and the orange link colors seem awfully misplaced. About the layout itself, I don't really have anything to say - it's the wiki layout, only in different colors. it's simple to navigate, good setup - but it was not designed by you.

   The menu to the left leads to the content, and I was very surprised to see that there were no sub-pages beyond. At least the links I clicked - Story, Races, Gameplay, Characters and Planets - all led to a single page, with multiple in-page links. It strikes me as a little odd, as most other wikis I know has a "portal page" for each category, with separate links for each character, mission, etc.

   Not XHTML or CSS valid.

   There seems to be a decent amount of info here, but the site suffers as a whole from the poor color choices, which is unfortunate. With something as simple as a new color scheme, the site would give a vastly better first impression. Maybe something to consider?

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6. 

   shroom gave it on 25th Feb 2009 and said:

   //FIRST IMPRESSION//
   When I first entered your site, my first thought was "Eww." I'm really not trying to be rude, but that layout is horrible. It's dark, it's dull, and it certainly doesn't make me want to stay. And what on earth is the Mass Effect? On your site, you just keep talking about how your site is a fansite for the Mass Effect. I don't know what that is! Explain.

   //YOUR LAYOUT//
   After looking in a little more depth, I finally realized that you used the colors because they are the same ones as on the cover of your video game. Really, you don't have to use those colors just because the game does. I own a fansite for a TV show myself, and I certainly didn't use the logo colors in my layout. I can't exactly comment on the organization, since you used the basic Wiki setup, the same one as Wikipedia. However, what's with the weird texture behind the boxes? It's brown, and I think it's supposed to be wood. It looks so random and doesn't fit in with anything else. And the yellow background of the footer against the dark black is kid of hurting my eyes.

   //YOUR CODING//
   Your coding isn't validated. Sometimes fansites think that they don't need validated coding and that's just not true. Try to validate your coding. I know that sometimes it's not possible. Like in my case, I own a fansite and the ad code that my host requires just does not validate at all. However, I must place it there, so there is no way for me to validate my coding. But I still try. Just do as much as you can, and you'll be fine. Okay, now I'll check out your CSS. Oh, dear. This really makes me want to run and hide. You set a background image for the "background-color" value? Here's what it needs to be: background-image: url('IMAGEURL'); Also, instead of background-color: none;, it should be background: none;. That's all I could spot when I was skimming the coding. There's probably a lot more. To find all your errors and such, use CSS Validator and Clean CSS. In fact, on Clean CSS, it is saying that you can reduce the size of your stylesheet by 25%, which is huge! That greatly helps reduce the loading time of your site.

   //CONTENT//
   Okay, so after taking more time to read through your front page, I finally figured out what the Mass Effect is. That should be in your first paragraph! Some people who are having a "slow" day may not realize that the image of the XBOX game is actually what the whole site is about. Okay, now under the heading on your front page "Expanded Universe" and then under the small heading "Mass Effect Community" and then in the second bullet, It's should be Its. And then right under that, instead of "facts," write "statistics." You don't actually know for a fact that all those people actually enjoyed your site. Just put that as the number of visitors you got. I'm not going to even try to go through the rest of your site, because I may fall asleep. Don't take that personally; it's just that I don't like these kinds of video games.

   //LAST WORDS//
   I think you should allow the people who submit articles to your wiki a little credit. Even putting up there username would be nice. Maybe you already did that, but I couldn't see it. I mean, there is no way you could run this site without the people who write the articles. Your site seems popular, and it looks like it has potential. Just keep working on it! Fansites are hard to run, but it's a lot easier when you are actually passionate about your subject.

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