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Yellow Rose has 10 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on Yellow Rose. Jump to review form?

1. earthtorose gave it on 8th Apr 2010 and said:

   First Impression
   The bright purple poogle layout doesn't quite match my expectations when I saw the site name "Yellow Rose". The site name gives a mellow; light; gentle feel, whereas the layout is vibrant and well...loud? Don't get me wrong, I like the site name and the cute layout, but the two doesn't really seem to work well together. Try toning the colour scheme down or changing the site name?

   Layout &CSS
   I noticed the header image "fades" towards the middle of the page. It ruins the layout. I think you should center it, or keep a clean cut edge. Failing that, lighten the shades slightly and try blend the image better. If you're using psp, use feathering to achieve the "dream" look.

   Using IFrames is a bad idea. They can be misaligned in other browsers. I reccomend using PHP, but it's your site, whatever floats your boat. The only tip if you choose to keep IFrames is that, you should make layouts which the visitor doesn't have to scroll horizontally to view the content properly. It gets annoying. Scrolling vertically is tolerable.

   The CSS is okay. Just change the line going through the header for a lighter shade or put it beneath the acutal text not through it.

   Content
   The content is okay, but you could use some more. Since you don't have much, I suggest rather than leaving empty space after the few links to subcategories, make those the headers and puts all the links on the same page. So when visitors click "content", the menu will look like this:

   Graphics
   Links to all graphics go here..

   Guides
   Links to guides here..

   Resources
   Resources here...

   Tutorials
   Tutorials here...

   Doing that not only saves storage space and pages. You don't have to edit all of them individually when you need to make a site wide revamp and it's also easier and less off-putting to browse through. Your graphics aren't so bad. For a neopets site, they're good. If you want to extend your photoshop skills though, I can give you a list of sites with good tutorials. After all, there is always room for improvement right?

   Other things
   Another thing I noticed about your site on first glance is that you sign off (<3 Ashley signiture) at the bottom of blog entries. It's okay if you do, but beneath that it already states that the entry was posted by Ashley too. So may advice is keep one or the other. If you decide to keep the heart signiture, just tweak your blogging tools comment page template.

   Also, I noticed you use a stat counter. That's cool, but I don't reccomend using that particular one. It lies. How do I know? I refreshed the page. That counter tracks page views, so everytime anyone loads a page, it adds a stat. Google counters which track "unique page views". Those counters only track the number of individual visitors your site recieves, so you have a more realistic total on your traffic.

   Last comment
   You have a lot of untapped potential, which I hope you use more of. I really hope you experiment with PS, and do something great with your site. Best of luck with things.

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

2. Misski gave it on 22nd Mar 2010 and said:

   Layout:
   I don't like the iframe, and I believe you should get rid of the dash-styled border around your updates. If you want to separate each updates, I recommend setting a background color for your header or at least make the header font size larger.

   Other than that, I like the layout. It's simple. I was expecting yellow and maybe a couple of roses, but that's alright.

   Site:
   I suggest creating a page where you describe the history of yellowrose.co.nr.

   I find the "staff only" section to be completely out of place and unnecessary. If you want a "staff only" section, it should be in the sidebar (you don't really need it, anyways).

   Content:
   Content should be changed to "goodies" (or something like that) since your whole website is basically a content.

   "How to make a Outline" should be "How to Make An Outline" (you should be more specific, like for example, "Creating an Outline Around A Pixel", etc.) In addition, the tutorial is awkward. Isn't it common sense to take the brush tool and carefully go over the pixel? Unless you know a certain trick that many people don't, you shouldn't create tutorials for the sake of updating your website.

   Chat:
   Hmm... Nothing much here for me to comment about.

   OVERALL:
   I believe it's a good start to designing a website. Like the person who said it before me, I recommend learning typography (it's awesome, I'm just learning it now.)

   Also, you should find a nice person who'd host your website (click around until you're lucky). I know if it wasn't for this review, I would've clicked away from your website because you're hosted under Webs.com and you have that "co.nr" domain.

   GOOD LUCK!!!

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

   ocp's Response:

   Thanks for the review! (:

3. robotrally gave it on 13th Mar 2010 and said:

   Layout
   The fact that its centered is a great factor for your site. I first arrived and I wasn't very shocked by the amount of color used , which is a good thing.
   The textures used are nice , and , I like the font used for your site name. I feel that you could have done some nice pattern overlays for the site name , so it sticks out.
   I think you could have done without the "{Graphics , Guides & More !}" part though. Its a little distracting and it makes your header look quite tacky.
   The font for your image map doesnt really match your header , and , its a little gaudy.
   Im not really sure if I like your blogs in a scroll box , id rather have a blog post on each page then having to scroll down.
   On top of that , your blog posts are in small dotted textarea boxes. It doesnt really seem to go with the theme of your layout , I think you could do without it.
   Your affiliates list looks a bit cluttered , I think you should just link your affiliates and display the buttons on a different page.
   Content
   First thing I noticed when I came to this page was that it was using a different (or no layout at all) layout from your home page. Not only that , theres no way to get back to your home page.
   Your banners are mostly neopets themed , and , some sites are do not revolve around neopets. Maybe you could try making some banners with just simple designs and try to drift away from neopets themed things.
   Guides look similar to tutorials , so , you should move these to the tutorials page.
   Your tutorials look nice and structured , keep up the great work !
   Overall Review
   In general , your site just needs a little bit more organization and work. Try to devote more of your time to cleaning up the layout ((:
   Make sure to stray away from making just neo-related things. This will bring more people to your site because you have a variety of resources.

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

   ocp's Response:

   Thank you for the review! :D
   The only part of it that I was confused about was where you said:
   "First thing I noticed when I came to this page was that it was using a different (or no layout at all) layout from your home page. Not only that , theres no way to get back to your home page."

   I wasn't sure what you meant by that?
   When you click on content, it goes straight where the blog posts are?
   So I wasn't exactly sure what you meant by there wasn't any layout, and no way back to the site?

   Other than that, I will start to work on more non-neorelated things! (:
   Thanks a bunch!

4. 

   tugboat gave it on 11th Mar 2010 and said:

   Hello! First off, I'd like to say the name is very cute and unique, nice choice! It immediately grasps my interest.

   Layout
   I was expecting a yellow layout because of the name, but what you have is fine. I like the banner, but I think you should get rid of the border. Unless you have a border around your whole layout (i.e. the container) then the border works. If you wish to keep the border, at least change it to a less clashing color like black. I would use a navy color instead. I think for the banner, the text "Graphics, Guides, & More" is a little too big compared to the site name text. I am not fond of the navigation, the text is too fancy and doesn't blend in well with the layout. I would suggest just using CSS to make your navigation, I'm not very fond of image links. The header text is lovely, I like it a lot. I would use a different color for the main text instead of black, try navy or another shade of blue. I suggest you style the links so that they have a different color or even a hover color to brighten them up. As for the credits, I would prefer them in a footer instead of the sidebar. I see you're using an iframe which I wouldn't recommend, simply for the reason that it prohibits viewers from bookmarking one of your pages. Otherwise, the dimensions are nice and you set a nice width for the sidebar and main content.

   Site
   I think the heading text border is too big; I'd recommend 2px instead. Again, you should style the links so they are more appealing and a different color. Most of these pages are pretty straightforward. On the credits page, there is a broken image. There is a similar problem on the staff page. I don't really like the survey page, I would probably change it to a form or something. I would also call it a review of your site instead of just a regular survey.

   Content
   Your banners are lovely! I love the way you utilize the text and use appealing colors. The blend you have is nice, I'd recommend making some more. I'm not a fan of glitters just because they can be annoying and take a while to load, so I would get rid of them (unless you like them enough and want to keep them). The guild layouts are nice. I absolutely hate Neopets coding, so I admire the hard work you put into the layouts for them. I would make more icons since those are rather popular for mostly everyone.

   Guides
   You only have one guide, so I'd suggest making more or just removing this section overall. The guide you have is thorough and very informative, which is good.

   Resources
   The transparent PNGs are very nice. I would combine them with the graphics section since you don't have other resources.

   Tutorials
   These are good. I've seen many of these tutorials before, so maybe try to come up with something more unique. It's very hard to do, so I'd suggest making tutorials on how you personally make your graphics and your suggestions on them.

   Chat
   You should probably style to C-box to make it more appealing. Otherwise, this page speaks for itself and looks good. I would get rid of the center alignment you have for the rules at the top, make the text left aligned.

   Overall
   Your site has lovely graphics to offer but is a little weak in the layout. I think you have done a great job with what you have, just try to focus more on the layout since it's what will draw people into your site. Keep up the nice work! :)

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

   ocp's Response:

   Thank you for your review! (:
   I am actually making a new layout as we speak so I will try my best to include some of the things you mentioned!

5. jasmine7596 gave it on 1st Mar 2010 and said:

   I guess the overall of this site is fine, at first I was expecting more than what this site has to offer though, the first impression was: wow !! This site looks cool, especially the banner at the top, I just loved it soo much, partly because how it looked sort of like where I'm from. Then I went on and started to explore your site, so obviously I clicked on one of the four buttons under the banner and I realised that it's actually taking me to another page (kind of) I thought it would be more like most of the other sites when they had these kind of buttons, they would have a kind of drop down menu when you hover over them or click on them. So your site was different. That was the biggest downside to your site. It made me think that you're not very familiar with all the site building, I might be wrong but that's what gave me this feeling. So everything I saw started to feel boring. When I come to think about it again, the contents aren't bad and the layout is definitely good enough to keep your first time visitor here but what caused some people not to come back could be the buttons. For me anyway, drop down buttons are so cool you know. If you can get them working, it would add a whole lot of goodness to your site ! ^v^ So my point was basically just focused on the buttons =P

   I myself is not very familiar with html css and all that kind of stuff so I'm not a very good reviewer I guess. but the buttons though made me MAD !! cos I always have to get redirected to another page... but other than that your website is awesome !

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   ocp's Response:

   Thank you for reviewing YR! (:
   I will try to work on those buttons then! That would be pretty cool! (:

6. 

   FLAUNTY gave it on 26th Feb 2010 and said:

   - I think the header banner is a little bit too large for your website, but I like the font that is on the banner.
   - Your cutenews doesn't really match your layout, but the rainbow smilies are cute.
   - I like how your affiliate are listed with small buttons, unlike the normal 88x31.
   - I think that you should/could definitely try to incorporate more colors into your next layout.
   - It's nice that you offer requests for your visitors, and that you have a credits page.
   - Your graphics are nice, but I think that you should use a pixel font to list the URL of your site onto your graphics.. to increase the chance that people will use them.

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   ocp's Response:

   Thank you for your opinion! :D
   And I will for sure, use more colors in my next layout, and work on the size of the credits. :)

7. 

   thatsummer gave it on 19th Feb 2010 and said:

   The heading image is unfortunately not my favorite part about your site, but since it’s the first thing I see, little problems with the alignment are more obvious. The image is not properly centered against the white background; the right side seems to have a padding of 4px while the left side has a padding of around 15px. Personally, I like the 15px padding better, so I’d try to alter the coding a bit more. I suggest expanding your div container about ten pixels. Also, I dislike how there is no spacing at the top, so I’d add 15px border there as well. This would make your style for #container look like this:

   #container {top:5px; width:765px; height:1605px; overflow:auto; background-color:#ffffff; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;overflow:hidden; padding-top: 15px;}

   One thing I don’t love about the main image/navigation is the contrasting fonts. The one you’ve used for your image is a very Valentine’s Day/romantic font while the one you’ve used for your navigation links is very...Harry Potter. I’m not against using two different fonts for a layout at all, but the ones you’ve used don't go well together. It’d be better if you could relate the fonts together and even perhaps with your image.

   There is an excessive amount of space between the navigation and the main content, which makes for a lot of unnecessary whitespace.

   You’re using iframes in your layout, something that seems a bit archaic, though I can forgive you because you have a Webs site. However, I would suggest getting rid of the scrollbar in your main iframe (I believe it’s the one called a.htm). I dislike how there are two scrollbars I get when viewing your site – one on the edge of my screen and one from the iframe. It’s a nuisance to navigate through the pages because I have to deal with two scrollbars simultaneously.

   Your sidebar, in my opinion, is a little crowded with things that I, as the viewer, don’t really want to see. I’m not a fan of the stats being at the top of the sidebar; I would prefer to see it placed lower, perhaps above the credits. The updates are a nice touch to update your visitors about new content, so kudos on that! In my opinion, that should sit at the top of your sidebar because your site’s main focus is graphics, not statistics. My only concern is that the link colors are of the default, blaring blue #0000EE color, and after you click on the link, the colors turn to that equally unattractive purple. Consider adding some style to the a:link and a:visited parts of your stylesheet.

   When I visit your main pages, the lack of CSS styling stands out. I get my default Times New Roman font and, again, the bright blue link colors. It feels especially misplaced against the sidebar, which contrasts against the lack of styling in the main iframe. Adding style is crucial to the look of your site; without it, everything looks bare and sad.

   I can see that you do have a stylesheet attributed to your pages:

   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href=http://yellowrose.webs.com/style.txt>

   However, stylesheets don’t use the .txt extension. You need to change the .txt into a .css in order to make your stylesheet work. Also, you forgot the mandatory quotes around your attributes:

   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://yellowrose.webs.com/style.css">

   Your site section is nicely organized, but I dislike how all the text is centered. It’s fine to center your headings (<h1>) but, in my opinion, not paragraphs. Also, be sure to close your <center> tags since you haven’t in any of your pages.

   I don’t understand how you are offering staff positions at your site, seeing that you are using a Webs site. I know this firsthand; I had a graphics site on Webs, and the only way I could have “staff” members on my site was to share my password with them so they could edit the site. I wouldn’t suggest this unless you personally know these people in real life. If I were you, I’d stick with allowing people to submit their work rather than letting them enter the admin part of your site. Also, if you aren’t looking for staff applications right now, then why even have the page or form up? It might be misleading to your visitors.

   In your content section, I am confused about the difference between Graphics and Resources. It seems to me that they’re both the same thing – offering graphics to someone is essentially the same as offering someone a resource. I would combine those sections into one.

   I like your guild layouts, but I don’t understand what this means:

   To see full previews, just drag and drop into your address bar.

   Drag and drop what? I know you mean the preview images, but this is unclear. The visitor might as well just drop the entire code into the address bar to see what happens. Forcing the user to drag and drop an image isn’t the most visitor-friendly way to preview something. I would instead add a link to the image like so:

   <a href=”http://i47.tinypic.com/2s1x0yb.png”><img src="http://i47.tinypic.com/2s1x0yb.png" height="100" width="100"></a>

   This way, the user can just click on the image to see the full preview instead of having to drag the image URL into the address bar. Much easier for us lazy people. :)

   Your chat section includes something that particularly puzzling:

   Please feel free to use our chatbox, to post any new updates on your site (if you are our affiliate)

   How do plan on controlling people who post updates in your chatbox? You say that others can post updates in the chatbox provided that they are your affiliate, yet I’m not sure how you can control who posts there or not. Even if someone is not your affiliate, people can still plug their site in the chatbox. Nothing is restricting them from doing so. I could be any random person and write, “VISIT MY SITE UPDATED SITE HERE!” in your chat box, even though you specifically say that only affiliates can post updates.

   In your coding, you’re missing a vital element of a web page –- a Doctype! Add this to the top of your index page:

   <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">

   If you didn’t know already, Doctypes are one of the most important parts of a website. I’m no good at explaining them, so I’ll just direct you to Jem’s wonderful tutorial on creating a web page, where she elaborates on Doctypes further.

   Like I said before, be sure to close all of your <center> tags.

   You’re using Cutenews to power your blog. Cutenews is an extremely unsafe blogging system and puts you at a risk for getting hacked, so be very careful!

   And one last thing: I'm a huge fan of smiley faces, and I use them all the time. Unfortunately, every page seems to be filled with multiple (: or :), which can at times be overwhelming. Try to limit yourself when you use smilies, for they can be distracting from the content itself.

   Your site is developed but still has a lot of work to be done in terms of coding. Little tweaks here and there will create a better visitor experience. Nice work, though. I can tell you’ve put a lot of hard work into creating Yellow Rose.

   Using Safari on Windows | Report This?

   ocp's Response:

   Thanks so much for your opinion!
   I am going to start working on what you and the previous other reviewers have commented~!

   UPDATED 24 Feb 10:
   I fixed up quite a few things you mentioned such as:
   The container
   I moved around the sidebar content.
   I fixed up the stylesheet
   I fixed the thumbnails && the chatbox comment
   And I will be working on that doctype thing you mentioned tomorow, and I will be watching myself on the smilies!
   Thanks a bunch~!

8. fugabutacus gave it on 16th Feb 2010 and said:

   I've rated it so low because you're hosted with webs, which is a terrible host and I can't see your site.

   I also have three websites hosted on webs and I haven't been able to view them in two weeks (nor has anyone in the UK).

   I intent to move hosts as soon as possible because I'm sick of webs' incompetence, and I strongly advise that you do the same.

   I'm sorry I couldn't do an actual review for your site, but let's face it, if I wanted to be an actual visitor to your site, I wouldn't be able to do that too. Leave webs!!

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

   ocp's Response:

   Thanks for your opinion! :)
   I will actually look into that!
   I didn't know that some parts of the world couldn't view view webs. o.o

   So thanks again! (:

9. Ambar gave it on 16th Feb 2010 and said:

   I'd make your header image shorter. It may take a while to load for some people. I like the font you chose for your site name but I don't like the font you chose for "Graphics, Guides..." They don't look well together, too much contrast perhaps (handwritten font and decorative font)? By the way, I'd suggest removing the credit you have in the top-right corner, it's... unnecessary. That's just me though, I think it would look better without the credit. If you decide to keep the credit, I'd use a smaller font so it doesn't look so intrusive. Also, why is there so much padding/space on the left side of the layout compared to the right side?

   Try adding some CSS to your pages, they look pretty bland to me. I'm using Chrome so maybe your CSS doesn't load properly in Chrome?

   On your sidebar, I think you need to change the 2009 in the Neopets disclaimer. I'd get rid of the Stats on your sidebar, I think the hitcounter is inaccurate, every time I refresh, it adds a hit. I could refresh 100 times and you'd get 100 hits. Besides, you have sitemeter, that makes this counter even more pointless.

   Site

   I'd suggest removing the "Staff Only" section. If it's only for your staff, then nobody else should have access to it or even see it. You could e-mail your future staff the staff links and have them bookmark them. :)

   Content

   Transparent Pngs - I'm not a big fan. You put the credit directly on the pngs. I would prefer to use a png without credit and then link to your site somewhere.

   I looked at most of your graphics and the thing that really bugged me was the credit on everything. I'm not saying to remove all the credits but I am saying that you have to be more subtle with them. Try using a smaller/pixel font and maybe lower the opacity on some of the graphics. Some of your graphics are pretty but I wouldn't use them because of the credit you placed.

   Also, on your pages that have layouts, create some thumbnails for your previews, rather than resized versions of the screenshots. The thumbnails would look neater and load more quickly.

   My Thoughts

   I think your website has a lot of potential, just think your layouts more through. Think about typography, about cool CSS, just make your layouts stand out more! Also, work on making the credits on your graphics more subtle. Thanks for letting me review your site. :)

   Using Safari on Windows | Report This?

   ocp's Response:

   Thanks for the review! (:
   And i will make sure that I make my credit much more less visable~

   And I will see what I can do for the better Css. Thanks again! (:

10. 

    Kalliste gave it on 14th Feb 2010 and said:

    Firstly, I feel like this layout should be centred. It might be that I'm only using 1024x760 resolution but the layout takes up much of my screen space so there is a uneven-ness to it all.
    Also, I wonder why you're using inline frames. The site overall scrolls and then the inline frames scroll. It makes for messy navigation of your site. The layout itself doesn't really need the inline frames at all. I can't see why it couldn't be done with a table set up.
    The layout is very open which is ok but there doesn't appear to be much buffer between each section. It is hard to determine where one blog post begins and the other ends. It is all so messy in such a small space. I think it would look much nicer if the date and genre information was underneath each posts heading. This would also help to distinguish each blog post.

    Looking through each section it seems like your blog section has unique text formats to the rest of the site. It is quite hard to determine which is a link and which isn't. Whereas your site and content sections doesn't look to have any formatting at all. For me, I like a website to be uniform in these things to show me that everything is related.

    In your menu bar you have a stats section which doesn't tell me a lot other than total visitors (since when?) and who is online. I think I'd like to see other information like a feed link and also a smaller counter. Anything really, or possibly remove the 'stats' heading altogether.

    This is a good start to website design but I think more thought needs to be put in to how the layout will look. What colour should links be? What about bold and underline? How can I make everything a bit cleaner?

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

    ocp's Response:

    Thanks so much! (:
    I am starting to work on it now to start cleaning it up and changing up a few things you said! :)

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