Modern Revolutions

Modern Revolutions

***-- (Rated by 7 people, viewed by 182 people)

Modern Revolutions offers a wide variety of things from, blends, to movie reviews, and even high resolution celebrity pics. All of the content is made by me! I created it as a hobby and to provide other Photoshop users with tutorials, and brushes. I also offer blends that could be used by other site owners for layouts and things like that. According to browsershots.org it looks well in almost all other browsers. However, I view it and make it with Mozilla Firefox 3.

Added by mrevolutions in Graphics

Modern Revolutions has 7 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on Modern Revolutions. Jump to review form?

  1. [img: avatar]
    vividavenue gave it ***** on 18th Jan 2011 and said:

    Hey Josh! I don't need to introduce myself or anything because you already know me. :D

    First Impression: Well, I've had many first impressions of your site haha, but here goes. The layout is awesome. The bright colors and playful photos of Kate Hudson are very welcoming, it's almost as if they're saying "Come on in, this site is fun!".

    Layout: I love the layout, as I said before. The only thing that I don't like about it so much is the pinkish color you used to write 'Revolutions'. It's an awkward shade of pink and sort of strays away from the cool/soft color motif you have going already. Same thing with the pink links that match that.

    I love your navigation links and hovers up at the top of the page. They're really fun and I love hovering over all them over and over again. :)
    The top affiliates idea with the image links is very cute and different, nice job!
    I would probably change the bold and underlined texts so different shades of darker blue. The bright blue and pink are kind of...eye popping lol. :D Also, the font on the whole page seems kind of boxy. This is probably just because I'm a big fan of arial at 11px and I just love the way it looks. The font isn't a big deal it's still easy to read, it's your preference.
    The search bar is a cool idea and will be really neat when it's done! (Psst...give me the code when you get it LOL) <3 Anyway ahah ONWARD!

    Content: I like that you have those cute little descriptions under each of the content areas, nice job! AH! The high resolutions pictures are a FANTASTIC idea, very original!
    Your psd's are very good, I would just consider making more of them. :)
    You don't really need the tutorials under the content section since you already have them in your top navigation. It's not really a big deal whether they stay or go, though. And nice job on those photoshop actions!

    I like your Myspace layout overall. I would add more of them and possibly take a look at what types of layouts people are looking for right now to help guide what you will make and bring more visitors to your site. Those Myspacers are CONSTANTLY looking for new layouts, it's the biggest content material they look for haha. :D
    I would also make more comment boxes, right now you only have one, and people love those things. :D Overall I would add more content though, more of a variety of things to attract different 'types' of customers and appeal to different people's interests.

    Tutorials: You have some very original tutorials and some that are found everywhere. I would definitely add more though. Possibly some on other programs and categories. People like to find scripts for things they have been looking for, such as banner rotations, textareas, etc. Things you don't find on every other site basically. :D

    Blogs: You have a bubbly personality and it really shows through in your blogs. That's a good thing because people like to read when it's upbeat and happy, it catches their attention. I would, however, focus more on direct topics. Such as providing factual information and writing about your opinion of it. Your opinion will encourage disagreement, conversations, and other opinions and that is always a good thing. It keeps people coming back. Another good thing to do is to use topics that relate to the age group of most of your visitors. For example on a site the other day I saw a blog post about tv shows from the 90's and for it really hit home because I used to watch those types of shows constantly. Aha, my point being that you should write more about direct topics. And now I'm being redundant. lol.

    Overall: Your site is very original. It has so many cute little perks to it that make it preferable over other sites. I love your little facts and the word in the blog. It's nice and very informative. So basically you just have some minor improvements that can be fixed quite easily and great job! Keep pushing to make your site the best that it can be!
    :)

    UPDATED 18 Jan 11:
    First Impression: When I first got to your site I just went "Aww" because it is so adorable looking. Usually when I see a site like this I automatically think it is going to stink but yours is actually cute. Right off the bat I noticed a couple of things I would change, but I kind of like that little rainbow background. I only laugh because I normally I'm not a fan of all of the colors. It looks like you have the right ideas in mind with colors but you may overdoing the patterns just a little bit. Also, I thought your site name was Visible Boundary, but it is actually Self Expression. That whole thing was a little bit confusing to be honest, haha.

    Organization I feel like in this category you need a tiny bit of work. I feel like there is a lot going on on your site and it is kind of hard to find something you're looking for (only because there is so much going on). Your site is really "busy".

    I will start with your navigation bar at the top of the page. Right off the bat, I would change the first link that says "Secret Diary" only because at first I didn't know what that was when I was trying to get back to the home page. Perhaps just "Blog" or "Home" would suffice; but if you want to be creative try something else as long as people know it is the home page.

    The same goes for the next link "Teenage Girl". Right off the bat, I did not know this was a page about you (the owner) and that is misleading. I think people like to know what the link they're clicking on is going to take them to. I would recommend renaming that to "Owner" and even "About Me". That way people know more clearly what it is.

    I think "Affiliates" should be the last link on your navigation bar. The most important link is "You" because that is for your visitors. So, basically everything should come before Affiliates. You should rearrange your links all together because they should go in order or important and relevance. I would recommend possibly moving them to something like this:

    Secret Diary (Blog) | Teenage Girl (Owner) | You | Review(s) | The Site | Blogskins | Affiliates

    I have no idea what "Blogskins" is or means haha. Even when I clicked the link I was like "What is this?" so unless it is incredibly important I would move it to somewhere other than your navigation bar.

    Also I think the navigation link "Review" should be "Reviews". Notes about this link: I was a bit confused/startled when I brought to another site. If you're going to navigate your visitors to another site for this link, I would move it out of the navigation bar. The navigation bar is navigate around YOUR site. I'm assuming that is a separate blog you keep to do your reviews. Perhaps this would be better in a content or extras section where you can put a little blurb underneath the link explaining what it is and that it is a separate site; because I was really confused when I was brought to that page. I didn't know you had a separate site for your reviews. Also, it is good to add a small symbol to external links that navigate away from your site to another site. People get very angry sometimes (not all people) when they click a link and they are navigated away from the previous site they were on without being notified. If you notice on my site, I have a small little diamond symbol next to any external links that cause you to leave my site; it's a warning really. It might be worth your while to add.

    Moving on to your "You" page. I automatically noticed the fact that you have a small tutorials section in here. Because you do not have a vast amount of tutorials I am not going to recommend you making this a separate page or anything; I will simply say that I think you should move it to the bottom of the list, below Contests and Challenges. Also, it is no a good idea to simply put a link to your tutorials there. It creates this effect of "too many links". I do not want to go to your content page and then have to click another link to get to the tutorials page, and then another link to get to the tutorial I want to see. Do you understand what I mean here haha? I would maybe either move those 3 tutorials out onto your content page and under "Step by Step" list them there or even make your tutorials section entirely separate and add more to expand the section and make it worth while.

    Also on this page, I think your "Services" should be moved to under the "The Site" tab on your navigation bar. I would move these links to that page instead. They fit better in the "Site" category than they do into the link meant for visitor content.

    Your affiliates page. I like the idea you have going here to list all of your affiliates, but I would just make it line up better. It looks like some things are moved one space over from their designated letter and it is a bit noticeable. Basically, it doesn't look aligned correctly. Either that or change this completely (how you are displaying your links). Also, I think you should move the contact form to be above the already affiliated people. I think it is more important that is easy to apply for affiliation.

    Your "Teenage Girl" page. I strongly recommend everything EXCEPT listing facts like that. I would love to see a nice paragraph about yourself because you do seem like an interesting person. Let your visitors get to know you. You can still keep your list of facts, but create a paragraph or two to introduce yourself at the beginning. You clearly can write so show it off a little bit here. I don't feel like people get to understand you through a list of facts; those are simply extras to go below the paragraphs. In addition, centering your text makes it look strange to me. You may prefer this and that it completely fine, but I think it would look more professional if it were aligned properly and not centered. I just feel like there is no need for the centering here and it confuses my eyes a little bit.

    Your "The Site" page. I personally dislike when people make a long list of links. I don't like clicking on a link, to be brought to more links, and then I have to click another link to get to something. I would reorganize this page massively. I think you need to add a little paragraph about your site before all of these links if you're going to keep them like that. I think it would be beneficial for you to say (on this page at the top right there) a little paragraph explaining what your site is and what your goal is. You know like, Self Expression is a personal blog and resource site that started in ___year. Something to introduce the page more. When I click a page and see all links I get angry. :(

    Your site's history page. I think the two sections for past URLs and past names are unnecessary. If you want to keep something like that, write a nice paragraph-formatted history about your site where you go through those different URLs, starting at the first one and how you ended up where you are now. I think this would make much more sense and look much better than a bunch of lists.

    I think the section "Review History" could be its own page and not be here. It doesn't really go with the flow and it seems out of place. I feel the same way about layout history. It needs its own page or section.

    I don't know why but I can't click the back button on my browser from any of your pages? I don't know why but this is something worth looking into on your part.

    I would change the joined contests page to maybe just "Awards" or something. Just the title of it.

    I think the little blockquote type thing you have at the bottom with what your listening to and reading is cute but I would change a few things. I would take out eating and listening to, because this isn't a blog page. This page doesn't get updated as much as the blog and it is necessary. I don't think information like that is overly interesting, but I do like that you have what you are reading, that is a cute idea. I would also get rid of "Watching". If you want to add what you're eating, watching, and listening to, I would do it on your blog. For all we know this page was last updated a year ago and that information is now irrelevant. Reading actually could also go on your blog. Maybe this whole idea would be better on your blog posts somewhere, I would recommend that.

    I will now move on to your sidebar. I think this also needs to be rearranged a bit, once again, by importance. I don't know how important having that calendar there is, but if you like it that is entirely up to you. It's cute I just don't know if it is important or needed.

    Two of the buttons on your advertising section have a border and it makes those 4 buttons in a square shape look misaligned.

    I personally don't like having a c box in your sidebar but a lot of people I know actually do. This is up to you but if your visitors have the ability to comment on your blog, I don't think this needs to be here. It looks kind of sloppy and cut off as well. And the rules above seem unnecessary as well. They're just taking up space.

    Your featured blog of the month is a good idea. :)

    Also, you have the current people reviewing you under the same tab as "Calendar" and that seems confusing. Maybe to make your sidebar more interesting, this could be its own little section with its own header.

    There is just something confusing about your sidebar to me. The only two spots I see relevant are the advertising and the featured site. I would recommend reworking it. It feels like most of the things on it are useless and don't need to be there or are just taking up space.

    Your advertising page. This is definitely a little out of order. The application is all the way at the bottom which is kind of annoying. I like your little image with the different plans on it, that is very unique and cute! Kudos there!

    I don't think you need to separate "People who are advertising my blog" and "currently advertised". It is just making the page too long and it doesn't need to. Merge those together. Also, I do not recommend listing them downward like that. Once again, it makes the page unnecessarily long. Notice on my advertising page if you look, they are in a table format and it makes it look more neat and organized. Also, you have a couple of little rules or guidelines at the top of this page and I think they should be closer to the form. In fact, I think the form needs to be moved up top underneath your little image of different plans you can choose from. That way, the rules are relevant to the form. Basically, the form should take more importance over who is already advertised. Bump that up above all of your advertisers.

    Also, I don't think you need to list the person's link underneath their button, seeing that their button is already a link to the same page.

    Credits page: again with the centering. If you like it, keep it but I don't think it looks neat or organized. I also think it is a bit rude, when crediting people, to not actually say what they're site is and to create an "x" for each one. I would actually list these sites names out. It would also make this page look more organized if you did this. Also:

    Special Thanks : Blogger Photobucket Google Friend Connect

    This looks like one giant super link because there are no separations between any of those. I recommend putting something between them or listing them in a vertical (downward) motion to be less confusing.

    Content: You don't have a huge amount of content, but I can make a couple of comments.

    Your tutorials do not seem very useful. I think you could come up with significantly more useful tutorials than these. I don't think these will help anybody. I know that you have some growing room as far as HTML and coding goes, but please post some tutorials that don't use generators. This will both eep your visitors happy as well as enhance your own coding skills.

    Your button bases are OKAY. I think you can be a bit more creative than these. I know this because your site layout is so creative. Also, try to avoid listing things in a downward motion, it makes the page look...ugly.

    On your blog: your "Comments" are "Cookies" and it confused me at first. I know you want to use something unique, but try using something less confusing than "Cookies". I know you can think of something professional as well as creative.

    Overall, I'd say you need some more content. I know if you put some effort into this you can do it. Your site is cute but you need visitor content to keep people coming back. Nice games/contests though. Things like that keep people coming back.

    Layout: Your layout is cute but at the same time it seems overly busy. For example, I actually like the rainbow background you are using on your background; however, because this is such a busy pattern, putting any other pattern on your site makes it overkill. For example, your headers with the little polka dots. The polka dots are clashing IMMENSELY with the background and it is overkill. I think you should try a solid color for your headers and it would truly make your page POP with color and it would stand out.

    The same thing goes for your little blockquotes with the stars inside them. There are WAY too many patterns on your site. It is important to use one pattern and then some solid colors to even it out. I would recommend making those a solid color. Also, that soft blue colored border around it does not match..

    That shade of blue you are using for your navigation bar and also at the bottom of page (your footer) does not match, unfortunately. Those links stick out annoyingly with that color. Perhaps using the well chosen color in the word "Self" at the top of the page would be a good color to choose. It doesn't collide with the rainbow of colors in the background and actually looks nice. I really, really hate that blue with the other colors haha, sorry.

    Also, I feel like your layout needs a background image that fits to the entire screen, rather than in that one area around your content. Maybe a subtle color or something other than white would work well here.

    Your cursor was adorable at first, but now it is driving me INSANE. XD Sometime little details like that create overkill and I would recommend getting rid of that. Maybe you could change simply the cursor to a little hand or something creative like that; this would not get in the way and would be unique.

    Your contact forms! Ahh! So many patterns! Please do yourself a favor and make that input box a solid color. It will honestly look so much better!

    "Best viewed in Firefox" is something I dislike seeing. Your site should look correct in every browser. Just personally, if I were a visitor I would not want to switch browsers to see your site look its best. It should look its best all the time.

    Coding For whatever reason, I cannot check your site out on Browser Shots, it says it is blocked. I checked it with a couple of the browsers I have on my computer and it seemed to be pretty normal and without error. Still, I cannot see the other browsers to determine if there is anything to be fixed.

    I checked your site in the validator and found quite a few errors. You have 365 to be exact: click here to view .

    I simply cannot go through every single one of these errors, that is something you must do. I will tell you, though, that a lot of them are simple things to fix, common mistakes. If you cannot solve these problems I recommend you paste some of the error messages into Google because they are common and a lot of people have them. It is important to fix these errors so that everything on your site displays correctly.

    Grammar Not too many grammatical errors. This is probably because you don't actually write anything out, though. You seem to be a good writer so it makes me sad. :(

    A credit is needed under my name; if you use anything from my website. should be A credit is needed under my name if you use anything from my website. (No semi colon necessary)

    I advertise any blogs free from any inappropriate contents. should be I advertise any blogs free from inappropriate content.

    You can re-apply once your plan expires and all advertising is free. should be This needs to be broken up into two lines because it is two clauses that make no sense with one another.

    All names are my creation. More to come. Tag me on my tagboard if you would like to use it, so that I can cancel it off my list. should be All names are my creations. The list is updated regularly so there are always more to come. Comment on the tag board in the sidebar if you would like to use one so that I may remove it from the list.

    I can sponsor the following; for free. should be No semi colon needed here. I can sponsor the following for free:

    One of my friend should be One of my friends

    So here is how it is done... should be no dot dot dot here.

    To the one's who are using ready made blogger template; there is already the follower gadget. should be For the people who are using a ready-made Blogger template: there is already a follower gadget.

    But for those who are using classic template; this is what you have to do. should be For those who are using the Classic Template, below is what you have to do.

    Blogger, when in reference to the website, should always be capitalized.

    Look at the top of my blog-you can see some letters moving randomly. should be Look at the top of blog. You may notice some letters moving around randomly.

    SOTM means site of the month should be This just needs a period at the end of the sentence.

    When a new month arrives; you can start nominating your blog. should be When a new month arrives you can start nominating your blog.

    Check my side-bar to know the winner. should be Check my side bar to view the winner.

    Winner will be featured at my sidebar as the "Featured blog of the month" should be The winner be featured on my side bar as the "Featured blog of the month".

    Winner will get a banner and a button too. should be The winner will receive a banner and button.

    You can use any kind of programme or editing to make this 100 x 100 icon. should be You can use any kind of program or editing software to make this 100 X 100 icon.

    Winner is based on voting system. should be The winner will be chosen through a voting system.

    Winner will be chosen by me and my friend. should be The winner will be chosen by both myself and a friend.

    When you find it; click it! should be When you have found it, click it!

    I chose blogger because I feel it is very user-friendly. should be I chose Blogger because I feel that it is very user-friendly.

    Overall: Overall, I'd say your site needs a lot of work. Honestly, I think you need to move on from Blogger. Every good site starts out where you are now and gets better. The one thing that will make grow is getting hosted by an actual person and become a sub domain. It is generally free and usually your host will help you out quite a bit. A lot of my affiliates and people I advertise with offer this so you should definitely look into it. It is the next step in your growing process.

    I noticed very much a longing for uniqueness in your site, and you are trying. I think you need to pick and choose which parts of your site deserve this uniqueness because it appears as if you are trying to hard for it and I don't think that is what you want. There is a fine line between professional and disaster.

    I can clearly see you have a passion for web design/web site development, I see myself in you. I too started out this way. I think you need add more visitor content, clean up your layout a bit, and you should be just fine. I think your site has a massive potential that is being pushed down but your need to be unique. I think, given time, that you will find exactly what it is you need to make yourself stand out and be professional at the same time.

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

  2. [img: avatar]
    michelle_et gave it ***-- on 18th Dec 2009 and said:

    First impression:
    I've seen your website before (I actually don't remember your content), but they had much better layouts then what you have right now. Your layout gives me the impressions that your visitor content have lots of layouts! You seem to know what your doing.

    Layout:
    You used colors that go well with each other, but I would tone it down just a bit because they are a little too bright, or maybe make a gray background instead so everything blends well together. Honestly I'm not a big fan of this layout. If I were you, I would use textures to spice it up! On your background there are words that say "N avakian". You should make the text turn gray instead of white because here we have too much contrasts and it doesn't make me look at what's important on the layout.

    On Firefox, there is a space between the start of the layout and the start of the page if you look on that. Maybe you should remove it:

    Go to your CSS file and remove the italic part.

    .site {
    background: url('http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/layout/bell/kbell.png');
    width: 693px;
    height: 483px;
    margin-bottom: 5px;
    margin: 0 auto 0 auto;
    border: 0px solid #c5c5c3;
    margin-top:10px;
    }

    CSS:
    Your CSS actually looks nice! The navigation seems perfect! But, I noticed some of your text is white, when you cross it or when you hover over it. It's too much contrast. Other then that, it seems good!

    Validation:
    I see that at the end of the page you have "valid XHTML". But your site is not valid, it has 67 errors which is quite a lot. I will tell you how to fix your errors, but if after the changes you still have errors, drop me a message at http://emotionaltears.rettro.info and I will help you out.

    <link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/favicon.ico">

    turns into this:

    <link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/favicon.ico" />

    In XHTML, self closing tags need a space and a slash at the end, before the "greater then" character.

    On your "updates" section, you have it all wrong with "br". As I said before, a self closing tag needs a space and a slash at the end. So I will show you one example and you can do the rest.

    <em>Dec. 7th</em> Added <a href="http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/contents/downloads/photoshop-downloads/brushes/">brushes</a>.<br>

    Turns into:

    <em>Dec. 7th</em> Added <a href="http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/contents/downloads/photoshop-downloads/brushes/">brushes</a>.<br />

    You can't use </p> without opening it. It is not a self closing tag. For example, you have it here, at the end:

    December 3rd, 2009<br />
    Posted in <a href="http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/category/nonsense/" title="View all posts in Nonsense" rel="category tag">Nonsense</a>, <a href="http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/category/onlinelife/" title="View all posts in Online Life" rel="category tag">Online Life</a>, <a href="http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/category/personallife/" title="View all posts in Personal Life" rel="category tag">Personal Life</a>, <a href="http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/category/site-updates/" title="View all posts in Site Updates" rel="category tag">Site Updates</a><br />

    <a href="http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/2009/12/03/secret-updates/#comments" title="Comment on Secret Updates :)">2 Comments &raquo;</a><br />

    </p>

    This error will most likely be on your "Index.php" page in your theme. You should just remove it.

    Unfortunately, youtube videos are not valid in XHTML. I don't know how to fix the code though, I'm sorry.

    On your post from October 30th, you have inserted an image on the right side with this code:

    <p style="text-align: left;"><img class="alignleft" src="http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/kbell1.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="100" /&gt

    turn it into this:

    <p><img class="alignleft" src="http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/kbell1.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="100" />

    Then you have the same thing but with nothing beside it. You should just remove those because they don't work.

    <p style="text-align: left;">
    <p style="text-align: left;">Okay, so onto more important stuff, like this Wordpress, huh huh HOW ABOUT IT?? Pretty fancy, I KNOW! The truth is&#8230;I&#8217;m writing this post and not even sure I just indented this paragraph right&#8230;.that is how confused I am right now. However, I clearly figured the stylesheet and layout thingy right. Nice technical terms huh? &#8220;Thingy&#8221; Gotta love those web-designers <img src='http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/wordpress/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> Which brings me to the title of this post &lt;i&gt;I&#8217;ve got more style than a fashion designer who knows CSS&lt;/I&gt;. I LOVE that saying and I got it from the website <a href="http://www.wowhead.com">WoWhead.com</a>, its a thing that people that play WoW (World of Warcraft) use, its kinda like a guide for the game. Well, every time you refresh the page the title changes and that is one of them and when I saw it I laughed VERY VERY HARD!</p>

    <p style="text-align: left;">
    <p style="text-align: left;">Last, but MOST IMPORTANTLY are the top navigation links, THEY DON&#8217;T WORK! I just started this site up again and need to make new pages and content and stuff like that so all of the links lead right back here, I know joyous right? Reading this OVER and OVER again&#8230;.random realization, I used caps ALOT in this post (lol). I promise that I won&#8217;t use as much in the next post. Well, its 3:58am and I have to get some shut-eye, so I will end this post and then change the links to make them all lead here because I didn&#8217;t do that yet, OH and I&#8217;ll let you know how indenting the paragraphs went <img src='http://modernrevolutions.vivid-avenue.net/wordpress/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>

    Remove the first "p" and remove the style from the second one. Then remove the "p" and remove the style from the fourth one. Remember to close your tags.

    At the end of each post, you have

    </div>
    <div>

    I don't understand why you are starting a div with no information. add a slash before "div" at the end of each post because I just think your forgot since you don't close any of this:

    <div class="post" id="post-11">

    Again, your forgot to close your "br" tag correctly.

    <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width: 0pt;" src="http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.png"></a>

    Turns into:

    <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width: 0pt;" src="http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.png" /></a>

    For your creative commons license, you use "rel". I don't know if that's what makes the error since I don't use it in links.

    Here:

    </div></div></div></div></body></html>

    You end div codes way too many times. You only need to add what is necessary.

    Yay! Your CSS is valid!

    Owner
    Corrections

    My site’s old name include Studio 30, Illustrious Lyts and many many more

    Should be...

    Some of my previous websites have had names such as "Studio 30", "Illustrious Lyts" and many more.

    After thinking for a very long time and and my friend Joe from Revoler lyts (at the time) came up with Modern Revolutions

    Should be...

    After thinking for a very long time, my friend Joe (who used to own Revolver lyts) came up with Modern Revolution.

    One thing that offends me is:

    Pet Peeves: Unprofessional companies, putting a “Z” instead of a “S”, people that “tAlK liiK DiS”, people that type like the British when they are not British (for example: colour instead of color)

    It offends me because I am Canadian and our language is similar to it.

    There's not much else to say.

    Tutorials
    Whoop! Your divider is too bright :S Tone it down a bit.

    I like how you explained how to use your Photoshop scripts. I hope you linked this tutorial on your Photoshop scripts page. But I must say, it can be a disadvantage not to make your script the same way. But, very well explained. I don't have Photoshop but if I did I would know what to do.

    For your second tutorial, you should give credit to the website that took this image because if your visitor wants to display the results on their site, they shouldn't have to search for the credits very long. The rest is good.

    Content
    Ouch. your blockquote seems a bit messy when the text is aligned in the middle.

    You shouldn't put images on every pages of the content. You should only use them on the content page, resources and downloads. And I just saw that your footer is way too close to your content.

    I like the actions.

    Your PSD page does not work. I suggest your remove it since it's illegal to use celebrity images.

    Your blockquote is too close to the title and your forgot to put a title in it on the brush page. The brushes are good though.

    Again, the icon bases page has the same problem as the brush page. And I don't think this page is necessary because people can cut out their own bases. Why ask for credit for it though? You didn't take the pictures. You only cropped them.

    Your textures are nice. You should put a title to your blockquote, "uncenter" it and add a space between the title and the blockquote.

    For your icons, you need to "uncenter" the text in the blockquote and add a space between the title and the blockquote. Icons should go under a "graphics" page. You should organize your icons in sections like "celebs",
    "movies"... I don't like the third icon, because of the borders. I don't like the icon 10 because the colors don't go well together.

    MATM
    What's MATM? It just returns me to the index page. You should delete that because you already have a link that goes there.

    Site
    The credit page is perfect. You have correctly credited the websites and I really like "some info about my work".

    There's no need in putting a link to the owner page since you already have one in your navigation.

    Other
    You should include an "index" link on your footer instead of your visitors having to scroll all the way up.

    Overall
    Your website isn't that bad. I like it! Just remember to fix your blockquotes, and your footer (add some spaces between the content and the footer), tone down the white, and fix those broken pages. If you ever need help (again) drop me a message at emotionaltears.rettro.info

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

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

    The moment the site loaded I was very disappointed. The text is extremely hard to read. Dark gray on black = NO NO. You need to take into consideration other people's monitor settings. Just because your monitor may display sites extra bright, doesn't mean everyone else's are going to do that. Now my monitor is set to default so it's difficult to read your text unless I highlight it. The header also took quite some time to load.

    It took me some time to find your navigation! It pretty much blends into the background LOL.

    You don't have much content. And what you do have (such as the ps actions tutorial) can be found pretty much by doing a simple google search. I suggest expanding on your content and offering some unique things for your visitor.

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

  4. sarah1990 gave it ***-- on 22nd Mar 2009 and said:

    first impressions:
    i really love the name you have chosen for the site. im not too keen on the layout, i like the colours used but the banner is abit boring and doesnt show off your talents as a designer although i do like the effect on the picture on the left which is pink. the navigation is very forward and easy to follow. the layout in total doesnt do you any favours as i think, for a design site, it is too simplistic and not high quality enough. when i use to go to design sites for layouts the first thing i would look at is the layout, if the layout wasnt what i was looking for i would move onto the next site without even really looking at the other pages.

    contents:
    matm - great pages, it shows that you not only design you also offer you visitors more than just designs which is what the site is about, i havent seen that on many sites. great pages!

    goodies - good, set out well and very easily navigated.

    resources - again well set out easily navigated and plenty of content
    Brushes, you have lots of good, original brushes. instead of putting a link to your older brushes try just putting them on the same page, but thats just a personal preference of wanting everything i would be looking for in one page, if that makes sence.
    free fonts, great fonts lots to choose from, same again with the link to the old stuff, i would just put it on the same page so its all in one place rather than clicking on one thing then clickin on another to see some more etc.
    high resolutions pictures, great page i havent seen this anywhere! theres lots of different celebs and many pictures, love this!
    ps actions, great you have lots of chose and great graphics there,
    psd's, again great lots of content, brilliant

    premade content - lots to look at, a great page.
    animation, good not much there compared to the rest of your work but what is there i like
    blends, i love this, really shows how good you are at graphics, plenty of content that is at a high standard.
    bullets, good not much there and nothing that would particulary catch my eye enough to use them. i would try adding more and try make them more original.
    download buttons, great love this page, you might want to again try making some more that are different to what you have and original to other design sites.
    icons, really good, i would again add more and maybe add some more difficult effects to them that maybe beginners wont be able to do, these are quite simplistic but they are nice.
    affiliate buttons, great i like this page, love the top ones.

    myspace layouts: i cant really comment on how good these are or anything as i dont know much about myspace layouts but from what i can see you have plenty to choose from and they all look really good.

    tutorials:
    graphic - great you have lots of different tutorials that are very informative. i would try adding some that include how to make a full icon or layout for beginners.
    coding - not so good you only have one tutorial, a very good one but it only tell you how to do something that you wont really need until you know how to code news and a general website. i would try adding some more tutorials that are more geared towards beginner coders than ones that can do the bulk just need bits of help.

    site: great very informative, behind the name is great, i love to see how the website came to have the name they do and how they got to where they are. brilliant pages.

    plugboard: good idea, but when i went on it didnt work, i would try to fix that.

    overall:

    good site with lots of potential, i would try to show your talents more in the site layout as that is what sells your work. also make sure everything on your site is working properly and add more content to some of the pages

    Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?

  5. [img: avatar]
    Greykitty gave it **--- on 3rd Mar 2009 and said:

    First thing I noticed was that flashy fav icon you are using. I would get rid of it, it's nothing but a distraction.
    I didn't see your navigation at first since it's smashed up at the top of your page... why is that? That bright blue on the darker blue looks bad. It would have looked a lot nicer if you had at least made it tabbed and put it closer to your content... Shrink that blue bar down to maybe 80px high and put the navigation under your header image. I would change how your navigation is laid out as well. Home, MatM, Content (would rename it to goodies or something since that's not where ALL your content is), Tutorials, Site, Plugboard. Most important to least, or most interesting to least interesting.

    Your side column is where I first thought the navigation was, since I automatically go there to look for navigation on any site. I do not like that pink you use in the layout, it doesn't go well with the blue and against the grey I just find it hard to read your text. Using a slightly darker grey for your fonts is ok but I would darken it more because it's too light right now, I have issues reading it and contrasted against your blue font it doesn't stand out as much.

    I would suggest making your links stand out more, right now they just kind of settle into the background and the things that do stand out the most are the texts I don't care about, like bolded or italicized text.
    You should give more attention to the links.

    Your header image is ok but it's pretty much just cut and paste celebs. I'm not real big on these, but that's not why I don't like your layout.
    You have a validation thing on your side column for just the CSS, but you forgot the most important one... your html, which is FAR from being valid. You should really look into getting this fixed. 51 Errors, 29 warning(s) By validating all your coding you have more chance that more people will be able to see your site in different browsers and the load times are usually better.

    You have so many links in your side column it's distracting. Technically you could get rid of this and I think it would improve your site design by 50%. I would put the search next to your navigation in a snazzy little graphic type design to spice it up a little or just do away with it completely. Your affiliates should all go on a links page. You don't want people to leave your site upon first entering.

    Recent updates are redundant, you don't need that since it's all on the front page. Site info can go on an about page, it's unneeded. If you have a hit counter or page tracker put it at the bottom of your page in a footer bar. As for disclaimer, make a small one in the footer then on a separate about page put the longer version. You could even link to it from the footer copyright info.

    I find your content column could use more padding for the text. The dividers are fine, but the text is too close to the edge of the grey, in my opinion. I do like the divider bars, though I think they could be thinner and the font you used could be a better face. Garamond if you wanted to stick with a more fancy type font or just go for a more popular Verdana, Tahoma, or Arial.

    The graphics in your layout, or I should just say header, I think could really shine because you do seem to have some skill with photo editing. To make your site really stand out I would suggest dropping celeb layouts like this one and try going for stock photos or making some vectors or use some fancy brushes on things. As it is now there is nothing about your layout that makes me want to stay and actually look through the content of your site.

    Now I'm looking at your code and you have forgotten some VERY important things, html, head, body and meta tags. You NEED this in every html document you create. You have a lot of small javascript stuff at the top of your page. I would try to avoid using much javascript. It cause delays in load time and sometimes it gives your site security loopholes. Not sure what the jse_form.js is...for your blogging tool? The bookmark thing isn't really needed as most people know the shortcut or will just manually go up and add your site. The javascript back and forwards links are really a waste of space since they only act like the browsers back and forward buttons and run off the browser recent history. I would also remove these.

    Ok I think I have torn apart the layout and code enough. I'll move onto your content now.

    Site - I'm tempted to say drop all these links or make the paragraph about your site and other info for it and then have sublinks to the other pages like, want to know more about the owner? Visit this page etc, but at least have some kind of content on that page to begin with and if they are really curious about more they will find those links and head to them. As it is now it's not at all interesting, if I were just browsing your site I wouldn't have clicked any of those links but moved on.

    You have a fair amount of info in this section though, credits are laid out well enough, nice to see past layouts too. I don't see any actual about the site on this page, I Was expecting that. Give some info as to why you made the site, what your goal with it is and why it's called Modern Revolutions.

    Content - Again it's always nice to have something on the page besides just labeled links, give a short summary or something of what can be found here. Maybe make some snazzy thumbnail like images that people can click on rather than just links. This will just make it a little more appealing to the visitor.

    Everything about this site is celebs so I would say rather than just a 'graphics site' you should add a 'celeb graphic site' since you cater mainly to that. Just like a Harry Potter graphic site would announce it's for HP and is a fan site rather than just graphics in general. Anyways...

    Your graphics skills are ok, they are appealing enough. So far though nothing stands out to me. Nothing is really THAT original and I have seen most of this content on other graphic sites. If you really want your site to stand out try to come up with some new styles, try to branch off from just celebrity blends and icons. Think outside the box when you come up with new design ideas. Like for your buttons rather than just sticking with the regular perfect rectangular buttons try some with maybe a stamp edge and that are transparent gifs. Or give them a roughed up paper type edge. Same goes for avatar type icons, just small things like that can really add to them.

    Tutorials - Right of the bat, and I don't mean to be offensive, I'm going to say drop your html and css tutorials. You are a graphic site, not a coding site. You also don't validate or seem to know how to code correctly so you'll just be passing on those errors to anyone who uses those tutorials.

    I'm not sure why but I cannot click the text to your PS tutorials yet I can on your html... might fix that. Browsing through the PS tutorials I see some pretty common ones. It's nice stuff to know, and you have them set up nicely, but I see these type on many many other sites and even can find them easily on google. I'd suggest trying to find something that is rarely seen and make a tutorial on it, maybe some of the more advanced things that can be done in PS.

    Plugboard well that's just a basic thing many sites have so I really have nothing to add about it.

    Modern At the Movies - Ok first off for a link in the nav that is really WAY too long to be in there. It takes up too much space. I would either shorten it to MotM or come up with a different name. However! I like this section of the site. So far I think it's your most unique feature.

    I love seeing movie reviews so it would be really great if you would expand on this section. It would be really good to see you also make longer reviews for the movies. Make it almost like a mini essay. Make them worth reading and taking up space on your server. Give good reasons to see the movie, some of your favorite things and then maybe a few things you didn't like.

    Coming soon is a nice thing to have as well. Maybe instead of having this as just links, get rid of the page and put it just on the MatM main page as a small poster gallery. Find some kind of script so that you can easily keep it updated as well, and link to either a trailer or the IMDB page like you have.

    Ok so after going through your whole site I thought it was ok. It does not stand out to me and I probably would not come back because of that, however I do think it has some potential. If you could come up with a more original layout, expand upon your movie reviews and think a little bit more out of the box on your graphics your site could really shine.

    Since this is a site basically for movies and celebs, rather than using just popular female celebs try going for maybe just cinema related graphics in it. It might look cool to use a film reel and a clacker board in the header with maybe some fancy glittery looking stars against a darker background and then have a brighter content box. Maybe using a gradient or two in there. Then work on fixing up your code so it's at least correct if not completely valid.

    I hope this review was somewhat helpful to you and didn't come off as too rude as it wasn't meant to be in the slightest.

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

  6. [img: avatar]
    Peta gave it **--- on 3rd Mar 2009 and said:

    Hi, my name is Peta and I'll be reviewing your website with FF3 on Windows with a 1600x900 resolution.

    First Impressions
    - Uh oh, celebrity images. Nice colours though. I don’t like the swirls behind her though, reminds me of when I used to do similar childish things to pictures as a kid.
    - Your favicon is annoying. Why doesn’t it just stop flashing?!
    - Your font size is good, but your line height? Not so much. Bump it up a bit so blocks of text don’t look so smooshed.
    - I just spent ages looking for your navigation before I realised it was at the top of the page. I think you should darken your link colour for this so it stands out a little more. Maybe even use a contrasting colour?
    - I really, really wish this layout was centered. It would look so much better. Slightly off center just doesn’t work.
    - I see you have a disclaimer at the bottom stating:
    I DO NOT claim any of the celebrity pictures as my own. They are the property of the rightful owners and I use them only with credit! If you would like to view all of my credits please click here.
    Well, I see a distinct lack of credit to the actual photographer that took the image. Do you think those celebrities took the images themselves or something? Also, unless you actually have permission from the photographer you still aren’t allowed to use it. So

    Coding
    Good work on your CSS, it validates! Unfortunately your HTML does not. You have 51 errors and 29 warnings. And I think I just figured out why. Taking a look at your HTML, you have no html, head, or body tags. You’re also lacking a doctype, but since you’re missing these fundamental pieces of basic HTML structure, I’ll let that one slide. Your HTML should look like this:

    <html>
    <head>
    <title>
    Your site title
    </title.
    Linking to external stylesheets, meta tags, etc. goes here
    </head>
    <body>
    This is where everything else goes. Your divs, your content, every last little thing.
    </body>
    </html>

    At the moment, it kind of looks like you just opened up a basic book on HTML at the middle, read a tiny bit then stopped before they could tell you the rest.
    I strongly suggest you read up on basic HTML, especially if you plan on offering pre-coded layouts to your visitors. In all honesty, I’m surprised your site displays as well as it does. You’re also using deprecated tags, but for now I think you have bigger fish to fry.

    So, let’s move on to your content now, shall we? I see you have Site first in your navigation, which to me is a bit unusual. Oh, and then you have your Owner page inside the Site section. I would understand if this section was simply called ‘About’, but really, this is your site and people want to read about you. Make it a little easier for them to find.

    Owner – Well, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t expecting a guy to be the owner of this site. Your information is pretty short, but I guess you get the point across. And I too have trouble writing about myself so I understand how hard it can be, but maybe add a little bit more just so we feel like we know you a little.
    Past Layouts – You have some nice stuff here; it’s a shame to see your time wasted on celebrity images.
    Buttons – Your buttons are nice, but they lack variety. Add a few more styles perhaps? It looks like you made one or two staples and then just colourised them.

    Content – you have quite a lot, so I’m just going to write about what I think are either standout pages or pages that need work.
    Brushes – you have some very nice ones here, but it’s difficult to get a feel for them from the sample images you’ve made. You also have two different ways of displaying them. Continuity is great for design, so I think you should convert them all to first style.
    Fonts – I don’t really see the point of these. You didn’t make them so why should you waste your bandwidth to give them to other people? Wouldn’t linking to dafont be the same while actually saving download space?
    High resolution celebrity pics / PSD’s / Blends / Icons – Illegal.
    Animations – The animations you have (that aren’t celebrity images) are a little jerky, apart from the ‘electrifying’ one and then one at the bottom about slow motion.

    Tutorials – you have an extra link to this under your Content section. I think you need to pick one and remove it.
    Looking at your Photoshop tutorials, I feel like there’s nothing here that actually need a tutorial or hasn’t been done before. Try finding something new and unique. The one HTML/PHP tutorial you have is also fairly basic, and should probably be renamed something like 'How to Link an Image' so that people know they can use it with any image.

    Plugboard is pretty standard fare so it doesn’t need to be reviewed.

    Modern At The Movies
    This is an interesting concept. I like the idea of reviewing movies, they’re always good to read. But I personally think the idea of posting movies that are up and coming along with their synopses’, trailers, etc. is kind of pointless. People can find this information on the movies official website or the website for their local cinema. I know that if I wanted to look up a movie I would go to the website for my cinema instead of looking it up on a personal website. Do you actually get many visitors here?

    Also, have you noticed that your title changes depending on which page you’re on? I take it you’re not using includes on your pages, even though they are PHP. And I assume this because in my experience you would have your site title inside your header.php and be calling your header.php on every single page, thus resulting in having the same site title throughout.

    Conclusion
    Your site is fairly nice, although it does have a lot of content I’ve seen before. Not to mention the celebrity images you have throughout your site. You need to read up on basic HTML, possibly some PHP and definitely on copyright laws. You seem to have a fairly good understanding of design, and if you just stepped away from the celebrity images I think you could make some excellent things. Good luck.

    UPDATED 03 Mar 09:
    My website is not up here because I'm still working on. I just purchased the domain and it's kind of difficult to get it up and work a full time job. I will be adding my website here when I feel I'm ready to post it. I wouldn't give it if I couldn't recieve it.

    I'm sorry I don't sugarcoat what I say, but the things that I point out are things that I feel need work. I wouldn't be harsh if I didn't think it was necessary. I'm not intentonally bashing people and I feel bad that it comes across that way. But this is me listing my thoughts on a persons website, and if most of them aren't great, why should I change that just to make them feel better about themselves? I'm sorry you were offended as it wasn't my intention, but I guess it can't be helped.

    You make think that celebrity images are a petite problem but as Shadow posted, some people have been contacted by the photographers and asked to remove the images. I realise it's not likely that you'll be picked out in a sea of people doing the same as you, but it has happened. I just don't want to see you (or anybody else) get sued for something so silly.

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

    mrevolutions's Response:

    I'm not looking to win a prize for my website. Its my hobby and I'm not going to let it run or ruin my life for that matter. As for your "criticism". I wouldn't call it criticism at all. You talk down to mostly everyone that you review. (I've noticed after reading a few of your reviews). We are human beings making these things for something fun to do. I could see if we were making these things for money or working for a very big company, however we are not. So please don't talk at me talk to me. Lastly, I see you constantly "bash" people's sites and don't see your website here. Hmm, wonder why? As for the celebrity images I doubt if I emailed the photographer of Cosmo that he would take the time to answer me, because honestly its very a petite "problem", if you will.

  7. [img: avatar]
    Shadow gave it ***-- on 3rd Mar 2009 and said:

    First Impression

    I love the color scheme. And it is clear that this is going to be a huge celebrity based site. I will say this though. Be very careful. Just because the pictures are out there, it doesn't mean that they can be swiped up for site layouts and the like. It's unlikely, but not impossible, that a photographer of these photos will see them and slam a cease and desist on you.

    Now that I got that out of the way, I love the color scheme. As for everything else, not really. What's annoying me the most? The navigation. It's not only too far up to the top, but it's also practically blending into the blue background. It also looks like your navigation is overflowing as well, but I'll get into that soon enough.

    Blog and sidebar

    It's rare that a serif (Times New Roman or Georgia) font works as the main text. It might work here if the text was bigger and if it were a darker shade of gray. Yes, it's kinda small, and the line height is small as well, so it all looks smushed. Not to mention, you also have a lack of padding, especially on the sides.

    But at least the sidebar is a great size. Great job on that.

    The other pages

    Site: At least you have descriptions here rather than just links. Great job at that.

    Your picture is tiny, and is resized to the point where you're stretched vertically. And there isn't much here about you. I know you hate talking about yourself, but a little more won't kill you. Expand on your likes. Your dislikes.

    And "furtherest" should be "farthest".

    Your credits page seems to be inside a blockquote or something. It's not uniform with the rest of your site.

    You're pretty well-versed in making layouts. I just wish that you made something that didn't feature celebrities for once.

    I see nothing about the history of the site, or the objective. You should add one of those here. They call it a site section because there should be a "bio" of some sorts in this section.

    Content: You mean visitor content? Change "content", which encompasses everything on your site.

    -Your brushes are nice. You should also have previews of your older brushes though. Go all the way.

    -You do say that you didn't make these fonts, but some of these fonts (plenty of which I've seen on dafont.com) clearly states not to redistribute anywhere. Take these down before they catch on.

    -Given my hatred for celebrity image usage, I'm not going to even touch the redistribution of the high quality photos.

    -I've seen those actions somehow duplicated before. Come up with some interesting action effects--something that no one has ever done before.

    -Not touching the PSD's. No one really uses this anymore.

    -You don't need the tutorial link in this area and in the main navigation. Take it out of this page or in the main navigation.

    Tutorials: While they're well-explained, I've seen these tutorials all over. It's best if you write tutorials about things that you may know but not many more do. Originality is key.

    Modern at the Movies: I think that this title is too long. If it is what's causing your navigation to overflow, you have to shorten it.

    I can't say much about this section, because it all seems unfinished to me.

    As for the bookmarking, I would look into using feeds rather than the bookmark, because it makes everything easier, and that Javascript won't work on those who has it disabled anyway.

    Coding

    You have a check saying that your CSS is valid. It is, great job. You have 51 errors in your HTML though. But in order for you to fix those errors, you need to learn the basics of coding. You have no Doctype, which makes it impossible to validate. Then you also have no <head>, <body> or <html> tags. No wonder you have those errors. With that being said, go to w3schools to learn more about the structure of an HTML file (all of those are important!), then run your site though the validator and work your way up.

    All in all...

    I hate your navigation, I really do. It's sloppy, and it mixes right in with the background.

    Your layout is okay, but as I said, be very careful with the use of the images. But the scheme is pretty.

    Your coding is a mess. Read up on the correct structure, and it would help you put an extra check to the valid CSS one. You also need more work on the visitor content side. You need more originality here. This encompasses everything in that section. Your brushes are okay, but if you offer stuff for your visitors, they're going to want to see more, so you can't weigh heavily on that.

    Your site is a diamond in the rough. It needs more work, but with said work, it will go a long way. Good luck!

    Using Opera on Windows | Report This?

    mrevolutions's Response:

    Thank you for the constructive criticism. I will work on that and hopefully post my site again sometime soon :) I will also look into getting permission to use those celebrity images :)

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