rev.iew.me

TwentyFourCarat.Net has 6 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on TwentyFourCarat.Net. Jump to review form?

1. 

   afscom gave it on 13th Nov 2008 and said:

   Usually I hate when a header image takes up my entire screen but your site is the exception, because it's so well done.

   There's not much that I don't like about your site (I'm a regular reader so I know your blog well) but I'd love for your images in your blog entries to open a bit more.. elegantly? Like by using Lightbox or opening them into a popup window (at a last resort) because it's a bit ugly just opening into the same tab as an image file. But that's just personal preference.

   There is honestly nothing else that I can say though, since I'm an avid fan of your site and I'm biased!!

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   ko0ty's Response:

   Thanks!!

   I actually have the Lightbox plugin for Wordpress but I only have one recent entry where I have a thumbnail opening in a new window which is the one with my FOTD. =P I was thinking of implementing it but decided not to yet since I don't have too many pop up images that don't go to a different website. I will definitely in the future though if I need to.

   It's funny because most of my readers have large monitors or high resolutions but everyone on rev.iew.me seems to either have lower resolutions or they are using a laptop or something with a smaller screen so the header takes up too much space. =(

2. 

   Sewwy gave it on 10th Nov 2008 and said:

   My first impressions are that I quite like the overall design of the site. The colours are nice, and the header is creative. The header area does seem a little bit too busy, however, with the header itself, the Flickr RSS underneath, the navigation and the login area. It might be worthwhile to remove the login area, moving it to the sidebar instead. Some more padding in the area holding the Flickr RSS may help as well, as that area is the busiest to me, personally. Alternatively, you could replace the login bar with the navigation, and leave some white space between the header and the Flickr RSS.

   Speaking of RSS, the RSS button and links in the sidebar are unnecessarily big. They could be shrunk down significantly and still be sufficiently large to attract people to subscribe. Likewise with the RSS/EMAIL text links.

   Your blogs are personal and quite interesting, and I enjoyed reading through a few of them. It's also nice that you update on a very regular basis (considering I struggle to update once a week, I give you big props for that.)

   Profile:
   Well thought out and thorough. Lots of information for the reader to get to know you. I'm not so keen on the generic phrased descriptions of yourself and your hobbies/likes/dislikes, and so forth... Perhaps write a few paragraphs describing yourself instead? It would show you've put a bit more thought into it, and you are still capable of being to the point, provided you don't ramble on too much in the paragraphs. :)

   I enjoyed your Library page, I found it full of great literature, and plan on adding quite a few to my goodreads profile. I'm sure many of your visitors will find it a good reference if they're after a good novel to read, too. It is, however, rather long. Perhaps split it up into categories to make it easier for viewers to find something specific?

   Your Pictures side of the site was a clever idea. The layout of it is rather cluttered. The navigation may be better as a drop down, or subcategorised into pages based on years or months. The long navigation draws the page out unnecessarily. Apart from that, the design works well as a photography site.

   Overall, your site was well thought out and quite lovely. :)

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   ko0ty's Response:

   Damn I wrote a long response and forgot to submit it before I closed the browser because I was doing a billion things at once!!!!

   Anyway, I'm glad you found my library useful.. I love recommending books I love to people. It's actually a plugin so once I take more time to figure it out, I def. need to categorize it and make use of the "tags" function.

   As for my picture site, it started as a local page on my computer years ago so I can view my pictures easily and it started growing so I uploaded it for my friends. Since it's mostly for personal viewing, it's in a format that I'm comfortable with (everything visible at once, less clicking even if I have to wait for the large amount of pictures to load at once).

3. emsz gave it on 9th Nov 2008 and said:

   First Impression
   I like your header, nice colours, nice image, but perhaps a bit too big. I'm not too fond of the enormous RSS image either. It just jumps out at me too much. (Though that might be your point :P)

   Design:
   I like the colours you've chosen, again though, I'm not fond of the size of your header image. Also, I don't like the gradient for the navigation, it makes it disappear a little, and the gradient is in huge contrast with the hover colour. Your sidebar is also slightly too big for my taste, it makes the layout feel left aligned, although it's centred.
   I like your double aspect footer :)

   Content
   I noticed this in your sidebar, and it sort of makes me go: HUH? Because I don't really understand the sentence, it feels as though there's something missing from it:

   am completely in love the one they call Trieu Phan

   I like your about page, it's short and to the point. It tells me everything I want to know about you in about three minutes :). I also really dig the red hair. It look great on you!

   Your past layouts also look great. :) I would like to know something more about why you chose this site name though. It's something that always interests me.

   Overall I think you did a good job on your site :) Just maybe try to keep especially your header a bit smaller :).

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   ko0ty's Response:

   Thanks! I'm going to keep some of these points in mind for my next theme.

4. 

   Lene gave it on 9th Nov 2008 and said:

   My first impression was: "what kind of website is this"? It must be because the first thing I saw when I visited was the log-in form at the top. Your header is so huge that I had to scroll a whole page down to see your content. Oh, it's a blog.

   Design

   The colors you used look pretty good together. I like what I see in your header, the textures, the fonts you used, etc. But like I said earlier, it takes up almost all my screen. I don't like having to scroll down so much to see what your site is about. Maybe the next time that you are making a layout, make the header be like, half the size of the one you have right now. The flickr pictures are a nice touch, plus they add life and color to your layout. I wouldn't suggest having it THERE at the top, since you know, your header takes enough space already.

   Seeing that log-in form at the top of your site makes me feel like you are urging me to log in. I guess that's not your intention, but it stands out so much that, that is the impression it gives me. I know of many website that include the log-in form at the top of the page, but they're another kind of websites, typically commercial websites. I think that's why your site gave me a confusing first impression. I see you have a "home" link up there too. I recommend you make your header clickable (and linked to your main page), so you have no need to that "Home" link at the top. I clicked your header assuming it would link me back to the main page, and then I realized it didn't. Oops.

   Now, your navigation is too small. Well, actually, it looks small because everything else is huge (the header, the font, that RSS button in the sidebar). The size of your navigation links should be proportional to the rest of the visual elements in your layout, because it is an important element that you want visitors to find easily. The search box is too cute, and it's conveniently located. The only thing I don't like about it is that the actual typing area is like 30 pixels to right of where the visible white space starts. So my cursor starts blinking there when I click it and it looks like there are just a bunch of "spaces" before it, but no, the box begins there. So I suggest moving it a little to the left, so it starts as close to the visible borders as possible. Also, I know you have a little drawing of a magnifier glass that pretty much screams "search here", but I'd like to see the word "search" somewhere around there too.

   Although your content area has no defined "frame", I love how well positioned it looks. It is perfectly spaced from the top and the sides. Your sidebar is spacious so even though you have a lot of stuff in it, it doesn't look too cluttered. I do find the huge RSS button to be, well, too huge. Your short intro information is quick and informative, so no complains there. I think you have too many links in your "blogs" and "top commentators" lists though. You could always randomize a short blog list and have a "more links" link at the bottom of that list. The stats section at the bottom of the sidebar looks out of place. Your stats are not important for your visitors; they shouldn't have to see them. If that's your only counter, allow me to suggest Statcounter. It counts your visitors plus gives you loads of information about where you visitors come from. Plus, it's invisible to your website guests.

   Ok now, why is your main-content font so huge? Well, the big font itself is not what bothers me. It's just that every other text in your website is small. Like, very small. Look at the font used for the blog entry date and category. If you are going to go big-fonts, you have to go big fonts everywhere. It doesn't work when you only supersize your main text. Even your headings looks small compared to the entries' text. So, I'm not telling you to supersize to 14pt everything, but keep it proportional. The headings should be slightly more visible that the text on the entries, right not it's not. The entry date is too tiny. While it doesn't have to be 14pt, maybe 10pt would be better. Same for the comments link, they are too tiny. Seeing that you've supersized your text, maybe you should reduce the number of blog entries that appear in the main page, so that it doesn't scroll down so much.

   Your links are of a barely readable color against a white background, and when they are hovered, they turn to some completely unreadable shade of pink.

   I love the way you styled the bottom on your layout. The pattern makes it look so classy. I'm not sure how it fits in with the rest of your layout (it's more grunge at the top, but I've scrolled down so much that I barely remember the header now). Well, regardless of the fitting in thing, it looks very pretty. The bullets are very cute, but they are maybe too purple? Maybe the arrows of the bullets would look better in another color that looks good with purple. I'd suggest shortening those list at the bottom too, maybe to 5-6 items, max.

   The footer looks great, very clean. The font is rather small there too. I'm really curious about that number 24 circled there. It would be nice if you'd made it so that it shows alt text when hovered, that way people would know what it means. I'm guessing it has no alt text because it's not an actual image there, but the footer's background, but that can be changed ;)

   Content

   Your about page looks very organized. The format confused me a little at first. I'm still not sure what you mean in the "beautiful" part. Maybe it is about things that you find beautiful? That's not very clear to me. To tell the truth, most of the "headings" (and some stuff in them) are confusing. I like that it's a different and creative way to talk about yourself, but maybe it needs to be presented a little more clearly. You are not even using sentences here. It looks like an extension of those sidebars some people have that say things like "Stacy. 17. USA. Awesome. Loves cates. Hates haters."

   The archives are perfectly organized, I loved that part. The library page, I like it. It presents the covers of the books you are to read and the one you are currently reading. It would be a bad idea to have the covers of all the books you've read already, seeing that the list is so long. But looks like you thought about that already. Oh look and it's searchable. Nice.

   The page about the site is not very informative. You could easily fit all that information in one paragraph of your other "about" page (since it's not called about me or anything) and then have a separate page for your past layouts screenshots (that you can link from the about page). It would be a lot more organized that way.

   The links section is very organized, I like that you've separated them by category and that you've put them in two columns. I don't like when people have infinitely long single columns of links with a lot of white space. Oh wait; I just noticed your bullets. Tiny, tiny bullets! Now that you are a using 14pt font, the bullets should be a little bigger too.

   Overall I think your site looks pretty nice, my major dislike was that a lot of visual elements seem to be out of proportion with respect to each other, and that some link lists (in your side bar and bottom bar) are too long. Your sidebar is a tad too long for my liking, but if you reduced the size of the things I mentioned earlier (when I talked about the sidebar) then that would stop being a problem. Your pages need a little reorganization, like having all relevant information under an "About" page instead of having two separate about pages. Your personal information is very informative but needs to be check in terms of presentation. The rest of your website is in good shape. You type properly and update your blog regularly. So those are my thoughts and my suggestions, I really hope you find some of it fair and useful. I also look forward to visiting your site again some other time.

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   ko0ty's Response:

   Thanks for the extremely thorough review! =)

   Like I commented below, I finally decided to make the font size smaller since I guess the smaller font size suits the theme well. I DO miss my hugeeee font a lot but I guess that'll wait for another theme that's more minimalistic... my experiments the last couple of days playing with font sizes totally failed! Hehe. I also made the navigation bigger. I left the top login info small so it doesn't stand out as much... but I might move it back to the sidebar where it was before. I just need to put a message there telling people to login/register for private entries; the only reason I have it up there is that I have quite a lot of registered users so I wanted to make it accessible.

   As for your comments on my "about" page.. which I've changed to "profile" (something I've been meaning to do for a couple days now but forgot), I personally get bored when people write long sentences/paragraphs about themselves... I'd rather people write a couple points about themselves that'll tell what kind of person they are so that's why I decided not to write a thorough biography which I use to have up in the past (and I seriously doubt anyone cared to read!). I guess everyone has their own opinions and I totally respect yours, but I'm going to leave my profile page as it is for now... until I can think of something more creative. =P

   I'm still continuing to do minor updates to my site hopefully to improve it though!

5. 

   Aisling gave it on 9th Nov 2008 and said:

   You've been commenting on my site recently, so I've visited yours as well! Still, my first impression should be rather fresh, and here it is: very nice.

   Yes, it seems short, but that's how it is, I guess. Your blog looks very nice at first glance, and even further on. The header image immediately draws you in, and is very nicely anchored between the two thick black borders. Lovely. I'm sure you don't need to hear a lecture on copyrighted imagery, so I won't go into it, I will just raise my eyebrows a bit, and point out that you are fairly talented, there is no reason to you to resort to using someone else's work. ;)

   The dotted border around your Flickr photos remind me of stamps, which is really a nice touch.

   I think your main font is just a bit too big. And I am a fan of big fonts. I think it needs to be a bit lighter. It seems far too chunky and your header is really more elegant. The two do not match! It kind of hurts my eyes, to be honest, and reminds me of really badly done school handouts (back when I was still in school).

   I just realized that I have no idea where your navigation is, which is definitely an issue. I found it on the second black bar surrounding your header image. But it is tiny, and white and off to the side, so I didn't notice it. :( BIGGER, please. THIS is where the font needs to get bigger!

   Your sidebar is pretty standard for a blog. Nice, informative, nothing entirely special, but serves its purpose.

   Your About page is one of the more interesting I've ever seen. I especially love the inclusion of Fascinating People and Beautiful. Your Pictures leads to another site, which is something that always irks me. I mean, yes, it is something I want to see, but since it is not a part of the site, I don't think it needs a spot on the main navigation. It would be better suited with a large link on the sidebar and on your about page, or something. Archives are well organized. The Library feature is really cool. I love seeing all the little thumbnails of the covers, and I love how you can search through the library! That is very neat. The Site Info page is pretty standard; nothing bad, nothing particularly outstanding. Your link list is also very nice, organized and easy to use!

   Overall, you have a very nice site, that really only needs a few small tweaks. It's pretty damn close to perfection! :P

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   ko0ty's Response:

   Thanks for the review!

   Hard decision, but I've finally decreased my font size! I miss the huge boldness of the font but I guess that'll wait for a future theme. I also made the menu bigger so hopefully it's more noticable now!

6. 

   xtina gave it on 8th Nov 2008 and said:

   Wow, this site is absolutely gorgeous (and with valid HTML and CSS!). This looks like a fashion blog through and through, so it's very fitting. However, there are a few minor things that you might want to look into changing.

   I see that you recently changed your font size to 14pt. I personally think that's a little insane. I do agree that this website can easily get away with larger font sizes, but 14 is too overwhelming. If you just knock it down a bit to 12pt, I think it will look much better. It will still be large, but it won't be as bold. Right now, it looks like everything is yelling at me, which is a little scary.

   Also, I feel like this has been said so many times in the online community, but apparently it's worth repeating. In regards to the photos you used for your header image (and in some of your blogs), you're not legally allowed to use them if you don't own them. Using them is copyright infringement. While I really adore the header image, the picture of the model shouldn't be used. Your web design skills are great, so I'm sure you'd be able to create something without using copyrighted images. This header, for instance, would look great even without the picture of the model on it!

   I don't actually have much else to say. You're obviously on the right track!

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   ko0ty's Response:

   That's a good point! It's funny because I do a lot of graphic design work for clients and I usually get paranoid over images I'm using and making sure I won't get into any legal trouble over it... even at work when I use for reference images to create something new, I always read the legal notice but I totally overlooked this on my blog. I think it was because I just think this is an innocent blog on the internet that it won't really matter that much since I'm not really trying to sell anything. Nevertheless, I will definitely keep this in mind for future themes. Thanks!!

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