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NotSoQueer has 5 Reviews

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1. 

   FLAUNTY gave it on 26th Feb 2010 and said:

   - Your layout is awesome. It looks like it took a lot of time to make and code it.
   - The colors are simple and don't hurt your eyes. The font is easy to read also.
   - You don't have too many pages on your site, but it would be nice to see a few, like maybe a longer about me page or some content.
   - I don't really like the name of your website :/
   - I like way your avatar pictures moved with you mouse over it.. very cleaver.
   - Your site reminds me a lot of a tumblr type of site, but I like it.

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

2. 

   Deanna gave it on 12th Feb 2010 and said:

   When I first entered the website it gave me the feeling of professionalism. I really liked the layout.

   I was impressed by the frequency of the blog posts for January. But it seems that must have been a freak month because there have been very few posts beforehand and none at all afterwards.

   I thought it was interesting that there was a random page that would load something different each time you clicked on it. Other than for fun, I don't see much purpose in having this page.

   This website doesn't have a whole lot of stuff on it and I quickly ran out of things to look at. I would suggest adding more content or more blog posts to keep your visitors sticking around.

   Using Safari on Windows | Report This?

3. 

   Vera gave it on 9th Jan 2010 and said:

   Hi there Charlotte. I've been meaning to review you for a while now... and since your content pages now all show up, here I am.

   = First Impression =
   ---------------------------------------
   WOW! This is an absolutely gorgeous design. Exactly like what I wish I had the inspiration (and ability) to design for myself. Even if I were a a random visitor, I'd definitely click around to check it all out.

   = Presentation =
   ---------------------------------------
   Normally, this is the part that I claim to know nothing about and then I get all critical and start nitpicking on everything. Well in your case... I really have to look at things... more than twice.

   So, like I said before, I LOVE your design A LOT. At a first glance it looks very simple, most probably due to the somewhat faded borders around the various design elements. I rather like the postal theme you have going here. It truly gives this site a personal/blog type of feel. Some people would can enter a site, look at a design and say "this looks like X kind of site". I'm not like that, probably since I see more than my fair share of different designs in my line of work.
   Nevertheless, the first impression I got was that this is an intensely personal site. Like, I had 'unwittingly' stumbled across your treasure box and was now checking out your old love letters. Since I have almost no sense of privacy, I actually feel excited about the prospect, rather than embarrassed. Good for you, I suppose... seeing as you'd want people to check things out.

   Though I can say that I really really like your design, that doesn't mean there couldn't be some details (here and there) which can be improved upon. So first of all the site title. Obviously, I understand that you can't have blank spaces in your URL, however that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't have them in your logo. Since your site name is three words... you should display it as such. For someone not very familiar with English, it might make things somewhat harder to decipher.
   As for the word "queer", is that suppose to have a double meaning here? If so, I commend you. I love word plays.

   Your links on the right are well positioned, but they look somewhat squished in there. By "squished" I don't mean that the lines overlap, or there's not enough spacing between the lines. It does, however look like there was EXACTLY enough space for them to fit in there. I suppose this is a personal preference here, but I like to have some breathing room around it. So I'd add another 100px to the background image (50 on top, and 50 on the bottom, so that the text still stays vertically centered).
   The icons are a nice touch, executed quite well, compared to what I've seen most of the time. Nevertheless, with the exception of the folder icon for archives, I really don't think they're relating to the text. Why would a picture of a spade make me think of hosting? To host someone, means to offer his/her site a home. How about looking at some sites/icons relating to real estate for example?

   For the random post... I have no idea what icon to use, but the one you currently DO display makes me think of having to make a choice. By displaying a random post, you don't exactly let me make one. Furthermore, since your main page is your blog, I don't think that one of the first things you need to suggest your visitors, is a random post. How about exchanging that link with one pointing to your self description? Yes, I know you have a small link below your icon, on the sidebar. But most visitors don't really read, just look at the pretty pictures. Aside that, having an about page in the main navigation is more important than having a link to a randomly generated page.

   As far as I can see, you have relatively few posts. So how about displaying the 3 most popular/most interesting post titles instead of a randomly generated one? I'd wait until you have 20+ posts, and then add a link to a random one, when visitors would be unlikely to look through all your posts. As it stands now, your posts are few, and they're very short, so they'll likely read most of them anyway.

   My Latin is really rusty... so I'm not sure what the text means. Using a translator I think it might be something like "Everything you say in Latin, has a deep meaning"? But I have a hunch that it's nothing of the sort. My wild guesses are rarely accurate.
   You might want to have the explanation show up while hovering over the text, or perhaps add a footnote somewhere on the sidebar with its explanation. Not sure about anyone else, but I hate looking at text I don't understand. I have this mad urge to read everything that I see written (be it a leaflet, store name or important document). Then again, maybe some visitors take it in stride and just think "oh OK, fancy Latin stuff" and move on.

   Most of my time here, has been spent moving my cursor over the icon in the sidebar. I really like it's frame, like that of an old picture. The hover also makes it look really realistic, as if I were moving an actual picture hanging on the wall.

   Your search is a bit too... complicated. I'd much sooner click on the magnifying glass, than on the encircled text. The latter makes me think of NB (nota bene) snippet, one might make in a lecture, book, etc.
   I'd suggest getting rid of the heading, just having the textbox, but shorter and the magnifying glass as the submit button. Alternately you can also have default value "search" for the text input, which can disappear if the input is focused on. Erm... right my explanations tend to be all over the place, so here's an example for the search text input.

   
<input type="text" value="Search" onfocus="if(this.value=='Search'){ this.value = '';}" onblur="if(this.value==''){ this.value='Search';}" />


   This obviously relies on javascript, so it won't work with javascript disabled. In that case, the user will just have to manually delete the text from the input. I noticed in one of the posts lower that you said you programmed an e-mail related application? So if all this I said is self explanatory, I apologize in advance. Just wanted to make sure, you know what I'm referring to.

   I LOVE the styling of your individual posts, especially the little explanations on the side saying 'picture' or 'text'. Your attention to detail is amazing. I truly admire your patience in making this. Out of curiosity, how much time did it take?

   Your text in the footer, confuses me a bit. So on the one hand writing " © Charlotte is NOTSOQUEER" is quite funny, but on the other hand, your meaning is that the site (named Notsoqueer) belongs to you (Charlotte). I'd rephrased it differently. It's fine to keep a funny meaning, but also keep the initial one as well. From the way you phrased it, I get the feeling that the webmaster belongs to the site, not the other way around.

   So all in all, your design is amazing and I'm having a hard time not getting inspired by it for a design of my own. Then again, I'd never manage to make it this nice so you're safe :P

   = Content =
   ------------------------------
   As I said in my PM to you, the reason I've been putting off reviewing you, was the lack of sufficient content. Though first impressions tend to be fairly important to me, it is ultimately the content that makes me come back. You can have a gorgeous design, but if there's nothing else to this site, I'm unlikely to spend too much time on said site.

   Home
   The pretty design and small length of posts is so tempting that I've actually read all your posts. I quite enjoy your writing style, so it's possible I'll be back for more. One thing I missed here, was the comment link. Not many people will think to click on the titles, to comment. How about having a small comment link on the bottom right of the post? Maybe make it a 'scripty' text, like you've done with the search button? But use a darker shade, otherwise people might think it;s just decoration.
   I especially like the blue circles (is it supposed to be a stamp?) you have for dates.

   As for the comments itself, I like their styling as well, but the small gravatar look rather odd there. Either use a larger image and align it left/right of the comment text, or don't use an image at all. My personal choice would be to use a larger image, but then I'm ridiculously fond of seeing commenters' gravatars. Either way's fine.

   Archives
   You should disable comments on this page. There's nothing really to comment on its content.

   I like the expand/collapse effect you have going here, but it's not entirely clear for everyone that they should click on the month name to make them expand. Sure, you have the expand all option as well, but just think of it, what if you have 12 months, each with 10 posts? And the visitor what's to expand just the 6th? It's annoying to scroll down through half of the expanded months. Instead, I'd get rid of the default circles for the list, and use background images. For example, + when it's collapsed and - when it's expanded. Or arrows are also a good choice.

   Hosting
   While I work in the website/web-application business, I still had no idea what TLD came from. Had to google its meaning. So I'm assuming that non-tech-savvy people might not know either. Consider making it an acronym.

   Get rid of the "comments closed" text, if there are no comments. It's irrelevant.

   About
   Now I officially hate you (j/k) :P. It's incredibly unfair that you're so much better at design than me, even tough you're so young. *goes to cry in a corner*

   Your omegle conversation snippets (what you posted) are funny. Me want more of it! :D

   Oh and disable the comments on this page as well.

   = Coding =
   -----------------------------
   OK, so this is just an excuse now to see how you did it all :P By the way, I don't validate, s you can do that yourself. I'm much more interested in the logic behind it all, and how semantic it all is.

   Your XHTML looks clean enough and well indented, however you seem to be using divs entirely too much. For example, you main navigation, should be an unordered list, while your sidebar, could be one large div containing it all, as opposed to multiple smaller ones.

   You should change the comments on top of your CSS, since this is not the classical Wordpress theme.

   I'm not quite keen on the absolute positioning. It makes positioning rather hard, plus it won't look the same in every resolution. For example, your design looks centered in mine (1280x1024), but if I use a larger one, than this will no longer be the case, since you used absolute positioning. Absolute positioning has its use, but the way you do it has been "deprecated" for quite a while.
   Use floating instead. Here are two articles on Tutorialtastic which will help you:
   http://www.tutorialtastic.co.uk/tutorial/the_centering_cheat
   http://www.tutorialtastic.co.uk/tutorial/three_column_css_tableless_layout

   Furthermore, don't use pixels. Font sizes should be relative, as such use percentage and/or em instead. This way it'll be easier for the user to resize the text (if he/she wants to) using his/her browser.

   Score: 4/5

   The main reason you don't get full marks is because you barely have any content. If I weren't reviewing you, I'd be done here in 10 minutes. It's nice and cute and everything... but there's barely anything here. It's an excellent starting point though, by all means keep doing it.
   And the secondary reason, is your coding. I'm very disappointed in your absolute positioning. That's the lazy and very out dated way to do it. Learn CSS floating, and use relative font sizes.

   Otherwise you have an excellent site. I'll definitely return here more than once.

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

4. 

   Diana gave it on 9th Jan 2010 and said:

   Oh, I like the design! I appreciate that you used rollover effects for all the links---especially the dates on your entries. That is adorable.

   I like the background of the entries and that you used Courier New. I've been trying to sneak it into my designs, but it doesn't work out as super appealingly as it does here. Good job.

   My eyes first went to the "About me" section after this, but I think I'll click the links in the header first, for fun.

   The archives page looks nice. Yes, very nice. I like the hierarchy. I have to ask why the comments are enabled for this page, though. And I'm assuming you don't use categories. Nothing wrong with that, but I'm kind of feeling like I'm not seeing a link I should be clicking or something. I'm not sure what I'm saying here. I'm just used to seeing categories, I guess. Props for not doing the usual.

   The hosting page came up with "Page not found."

   The random link is fun~ I came across your post about Omegle. And it's hilarious. Gg.

   Okay, now time to find out about ~Charlotte~ (Time to click the link in the about section.) Oh, look! Domo-Kun moves when I hover over him.

   Oh no, yo. The link to /about is broken.

   All in all, I really like your design and the content is interesting. Besides fixing broken links, I would suggest a rollover effect for the search button. Ha, and I just Googled "Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur." Awesome.

   Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?

   Exa's Response:

   Thanks.

   Uh categories. No idea there really. It didn't hit me that the categories were missing; which means they're really useless in my case. So it shall stay so.

   The person below v also got a 404 error for the about page, so that means the issue's with me. I don't get it though, it works fine here. I've edited the template to include the absolute URL - instead of a simple relative href - so hopefully that'd do the trick.

   UPDATED 09 Jan 10:
   The commenting option is on by default, I've turned it off for the 'hosting' page now.

   UPDATED 09 Jan 10:
   Vera solved the mystery of the 404 pages; silly me had them "scheduled" instead of published.

5. daffadillies gave it on 4th Jan 2010 and said:

   Mozilla Firefox, 1440x900

   First of all, let me say i absolutely love the design of this website. I don't know how to describe it... Just the way it looks all home-made and stapled, it looks great. And you used Courier, a font which wouldn't be my first choice to go with a design like this, but it actually works really well and I'm impressed.

   Naturally, the first thing I'm drawn to is the banner. Then to the latest blog post, because it's big text when I think it would be better to see the about section next. But again, this is because of this particular blog post and it isn't a big problem.

   I then clicked the link in the about section and I'm sorry to say, it didn't work. Page not found. Which is disappointing, because I like the design and from scrolling down the page the blog seems pretty interesting, so I was interested in learning more about you.

   Search is in a good, easy place, no problems there.

   As for the actual blog itself, fantastic job lining up the font with the lines of the paper background, looks fantastic.

   I do have a problem with the video posted though. Obviously there's nothing wrong with posting video and if it's something you're eager to share, you should, it's just that it seems out of character with the rest of the printed-look page, but no biggie.

   From scrolling down the page and just skim-reading the blog I feel like I already know quite a bit about you. Right away I know you're into the web-design thing and right away I spot that you earned $1111, making me both jealous and admiring of you.

   Anyway, that's about all I have to say, except... What's with the name? It's not good, it's not bad. But it makes me wonder where the heck it came from.

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

   Exa's Response:

   Hi,

   "I then clicked the link in the about section and I'm sorry to say, it didn't work. Page not found."
   Confusing, because it worked here when I tried.

   "Anyway, that's about all I have to say, except... What's with the name? It's not good, it's not bad. But it makes me wonder where the heck it came from."
   I'm not too sure either. The ones I wanted were all taken. But it's not too bad eh? At least I'm sure you'll remember this site with the not so queer name for a while to come :)

   Thanks.

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