Cafeamour

Cafeamour

**--- (Rated by 6 people, viewed by 218 people)

My site has graphics and resources for everyone to use along with easy to follow tutorials and a personal blog

Added by cafeamour in Graphics

Cafeamour has 6 Reviews

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

  1. [img: avatar]
    Vera gave it **--- on 14th Sep 2010 and said:

    I like reviewing sites, a lot. I especially enjoy reviewing sites, where reviewers receive such responses as you gave to your latest review. I'm saying all this, in case you'd like to know why I reviewed your site.

    = First Impression =
    ===================================================================
    This looks like one of those sites which offer myspace layouts. And when I say "it looks like", I don't mean it resembles. I mean it literally looks like 99% of every other myspace layout sites. I'm saying 99% because I'm sure I didn't stumble over every single one of them.

    = Presentation =
    ===================================================================
    Reading things, is obviously not high on your visitor's to-do list. Either that, or you're like one of those loan sharks who writes all the important stuff in the small print... now THAT is a scary concept. I never read the small print. What you DO seem to be interested in, is people clicking somewhere. It's really really annoying. If I thought the seizure inducing movements and color changes would stop, I would even click on those buttons. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to be the case, so you've lost one potential "clicker".

    Out of curiosity, I want to hover my cursor over the button, to see where the clicking would have led me... only to discover that it has been hijacked. Where is my mouse pointer? Moving my mouse around, I noticed some odd doodle moving around on the background. I have no idea what it says, can't see it properly when I hover over some text. Speaking of hovering, I can't even read the text when I do that. Not that I could do that very well before. Well, this review will be cut very short if I don't do something. We can't have that, after all this is the first time I've subjected myself to going through an entire myspace oriented site. Oh for the record, I have no idea if this site is indeed dealing with myspace, but it looks like those that are. Hence, the reason I'm calling it that.

    Anyway, I need some changes:
    1) hit ctrl+ (using Firefox) 3-4 times, to obtain a reasonably readable text.
    2) open firebug, and remove the the pesky CSS which changes my cursor.

    The downside of all this, is that I will have to keep firebug open, since I will need to disable the cursor for every single page I visit. Downside for you, I mean, as the browser's viewport is not smaller, and now my two scrollbars are even looonger. And here I thought that i-frames had meat their (timely) death by now. Shows how much of an optimist I am. Oh wait, it's a scrolling div. But... it's so long... so why does it need to have a scrollbar? I mean the browser window already has a scrollbar, which is working just fine...

    So... what do I like about this design? The background: it's an interesting pattern, which could have been used really nicely. Then again, we all know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So ultimately this is just my opinion.

    The colors on the header image are not bad either. And by that I mean, that there is an interesting doodle there, with a nice combination of colors, which flow together in a seamless way. A closer look however reveals that part this colored shape is actually the site title. I can make out "cafe". So, you might want to sharpen the edges, and separate some of the more... intimate letters from each other. All this assuming, of course that you're interested in people remembering your site name.

    Oh one more thing: I know you probably don't care whether or not I am able to leave a message on your tagboard. I wouldn't be nice about it. But some people might, in which case making it easier to see the submission form would be helpful. See bright yellow on a white background is quite hard to read for a sizable number of people.

    All in all, I don't like the layout. Yeah, I know it doesn't shock you (will try harder next time). But... I've seen much worse. Plus as I have handy tools like Firebug, I can remove some of the more annoying CSS. Nevertheless, it is a drag: so maybe invest some time in upping the font-size at the very least.

    = Content =
    ===================================================================
    One thing that sites like these have, is a lot of content. So in theory, I shouldn't be bored. Then again, I'm the adept of one of those pesky theories like "quality over quantity". But don't worry, I don't have the attention span, so this will probably be ended soon-ish.

    - Home -
    I notice that you have a lot of affiliates. Now most people in my circle of He--erm Internet, call this 'being desperate'. After all, affiliates are basically sites with a similar scope of activity which are really good... and bring you lots of traffic. But having over 20 kind of defeats the purpose. On top of that, I see that you had a post where you seemed to have removed a lot of affiliates. So basically you had MORE than this? Wow... there must be a lot of greatly talented people around this side of the web. Which is a good thing, mind. It's just odd that they all seem to be suffering of relative obscurity.

    Going further down on your sidebar, I am confronted by the warning message above the CBOX. So... unless someone has a website he/she is not allowed to express an opinion? But your introduction says that you offer pre-made layouts. So at least in theory, people with no sites would come here to look for a design for a site. And yet you don't even allow them to thank you on the cbox.

    Speaking of the introduction message, there's quite a lot of it. And most visitors on the web don't read. Keeping that in mind, I would suggest putting the purpose of your site first, before all that thank you message to your host. Oh, I'm sure you have a lot of returning visitors, but... I'm sure you have even more first time visitors. You might want to make it easier for them to find out the purpose of your site.

    - Content -
    Your navigation sports a few other sections beside this. And yet none of them is labeled content, so what are they then? I, for one, have always thought that every written text/image was supposed to be a site's content. Oh well, maybe reading these pages will make me understand the difference.
    Oooh look: the links are playing some sort of demented peek-a-boo game. Every time I hover over them, they disappear. Is this just for me, or for everyone? I sure hope it's the former: makes me feel important.

    The "add the myspace" link send me to... myspace. Yikes! I don't like myspace. I'm not even reviewing myspace... so why am I on myspace?
    Oh look, you have an add the backup too. I smell desperation... or maybe I should blow my nose?
    You plan on making graphic and webdesign your life? Oh wow... well, good luck I guess.
    I have a bit of a curiosity here: you say everything you do must be perfect, right? But this doesn't include spelling and grammar, does it? Or, it doesn't include it on your site at any rate. Just checking.
    Well... at least you're consistent. You offer your visitors the same quality that you would accept yourself. Some of your content is not bad... but frankly, quite a bit of it I've seen elsewhere before. So I'm not sure if you'd deserve the credit.

    - Myspace, Backup -
    Another link to your myspace pages. Is there a hint here, which I should take?

    - Owner -
    Eh? Wasn't I here before? So... the Content page was like a sort of contents table? But I thought that contents tables are displayed upfront. They don't need to be specially linked to...

    - FAQ -
    Just one question: did anyone actually ask you all of these? Really? Hm... people must like asking rhetorical questions then. Wonder why no one asks me such things.

    Mmm yeah... you have a lot of content. And all of it suffers of (or sports, if you prefer) the same style as your own design does. So I guess that it would be a good thing for those who like your design. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those.

    = Coding =
    ===================================================================
    Generally, this is my favorite part in a review. Somehow, I don't really feel that excited, right now.

    HTML
    - is it me, or does all your "main" html content start AFTER you close the body tag? I remember there being this rule that all HTML content must be between the starting and closing html tags.
    - I'm also pretty sure, that all HTML documents need a body tag. It's not optional.
    - oh and empty style tags can safely be removed.
    - oh look: another head tag... I think it's lost, though. There's no other head section specific code in there.
    - target needs to be assigned the value _blank. So you need the equal sign. Otherwise, your links won't open in new windows/tabs. Granted, I like links which don't open in new windows by default... but I don't think that's what you wanted to achieve.
    - psst: there's a huge scoop! The paragraph tag's been invented! You can use it, in place of multiple line break tags.

    CSS
    - you sure like to mark everything as important. Out of curiosity, do you know what it does? Or did you just like the exclamation mark?
    - any reason why you can't stick to one particular coding indentation style? I mean, other than messy code makes you look more important?
    - is that some html I see there at the end? Surely, they're lost. I suggest you help them find their way into the proper html documents. This is a CSS document.

    I can't decide whether you know some coding, or are just very very lucky in selecting large parts of "decent looking coding". I tried, but it's really difficult, so I gave up.

    Score: 1.5/5

    Well... you don't have a blinding lime green background. And the annoyingly flashing buttons are only present on the home page.
    Other than that, seeing your site or seeing another similar site... same thing. If anyone made me play the game of spot the differences I'd fail.

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

  2. [img: avatar]
    inrhapsody gave it ***-- on 30th Aug 2010 and said:

    Overall First Impression: This site is way to dark, and very difficult to read. The fonts don't go well
    together, and the blinding yellow sign that says to leave a link after every comment is blinding. I also don't
    feel profanity is needed when asking others to even leave a link to a site, it's considered rude.

    Layout: I've never understood why people feel the need to use celebrities on their headers, but it's a choice. I
    think your site would look a lot nicer if you made a header without the celebrity image. For one the header is
    blended well, however it's so well blended that your site name is hidden and unseen clearly. This makes your header
    look messy and distorted. Either fix it so that one can read your site title or change it completely. You have the
    potential and the talent, just use it more.

    The font colors are too dark for a black background, way to dark. I would suggest you made the font lighter and
    a little bigger, and please no yellow font, there is enough yellow in your header and that font color just makes
    it look tacky. White is always a good choice with a black background. As for the other fonts, I would suggest you
    stick to one type and go from there. You do have the right idea, but you need to work on it a little more.

    Affiliates: You have so many it's literally insane. Do you visit all your affiliates and vice versa, or do you just
    have them linked to look popular? It's your choice, so please don't think I'm complaining. I just feel that sometimes
    too much is not always a good thing.

    Content: You certainly have a lot of that, which is a good thing, however some things you may want to consider
    either changing or moving. Now let's go over your content and see what can be changed or what should be removed.

    Backgrounds - I'll put it to you this way, I would not use them, they are not that appealing.
    Button bases - ANYONE can make these, they are not exactly original, so I would remove this part.
    SM cutouts - Why not call them PSD's? That is what they are.
    Favicons - Cute but not very original, as I think anyone can make these as well.
    Ftp programs - Helpful for those looking for an FTP program.
    Gradients - Again, anyone can make these, they really aren't that original, I would remove this.
    Premade signs - I have no words, nothing special but, interesting.
    Sitemodels - I don't get the point of this, if each picture takes you to their myspace, why not just make a seperate page, since they are links anyway.
    Site tips - They are good tips, now I'd suggest you followed your own advice there.
    Vectors - These are interesting, now there is something you can call original.
    Brush packs - You stated not all of them are yours, why not just add your own brushes instead of using someone elses, maybe state who's brushes you've used, give credit!
    Color schemes - Way overrated! I've seen to many people do color schemes, nothing new.
    Dropdowns - Interesting idea but a bit pointless at the same time, anyone can do this.
    Fonts - I like you made your own examples and linked them to where you got them, that's a plus.
    Glitter fills - A lot of people honestly don't know what glitter fills are, even I don't know. Maybe state what they are for and how they are used.
    Patterns - Nice patterns, but I'm assuming they are not your own since you didn't ask for credit.
    Revamp signs - Nice! Now if only you'd make the words under the sign bigger, then we could all read them!
    Sitename Ideas - There isn't an original site name here, since I have seen these used on other sites that give out "sitename ideas".
    Textures - Most of them are the same style in different colors, which is ok for a beginner.

    Domain Layouts: Very bright and colorful, a bit eye blinding but nice for those starting out in the webhosting world.

    Album covers - I don't understand the point of these, since you didn't state how they should be used.
    Everything banners - Nice banners but what do you mean by everything banners? Is there a point to them?
    Icons - Interesting icons you got there.
    Movie banners - No point in these, I'd remove this section.
    Photo Edits - Interesting, I've never seen anything like this on a site.
    Tv graphics - Nice, but no point in them really, I'd remove this.
    Class of ___ - Anyone can recreate these graphics, they are to simple and don't show your true creativity.
    I love ___ - I like these, they are nice, but I find them way to big for my taste, who really wants to express their love for things in such a huge headline? Not me.
    Name plates - Nothing new here, all you did was just use a larger font to make them. No point in these at all.
    Pixels - All you did was display someone elses work here. Remove this part, you don't need it up there.

    Tutorials: A lot of sites have tutorials, especially photoshop tutorials, and many a time they are all the same. However, they are helpful for those just starting out in webdesign.

    Overall: You have the ability and the potential to have an amazing site, but you're not following your own rules. I suggest you seriously credit those whos work you've redistributed on your site.
    Don't just slap on someone elses work like the brushes section or the pixels section. You are redistributing something that dosen't even belong to you. Have common courtesy, otherwise this makes you look like you're taking credit for what isn't yours.
    Work on your site a little more, and don't try to hard, by that I mean don't go around trying to be perfect, a great site takes time and care.

    Please don't think I'm being mean or rude, I'm simply giving you a review in my own words.
    I wish you the best! Good luck with your site! Keep improving, you're almost there! :)

    Reviewed By: Bella @ Inrhapsody.com

    Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?

    cafeamour's Response:

    1 i and everyone who comes to my site likes the layout so i don't care what you say about that. and 2 when you tell people 8 times and the still don't get the hint profanity is needed its everywhere and if you dont like it get off my site and the web. and the fonts not dark at all what browser are you using because its a light grey almost white. my site name is suppose to be clear text and see through thats how i want it yes i do visit them all every week and say hi and talk to them. whether they visit me idk nor care. backgrounds- maybe not to you but your only one person. no one said original. content is stuff everyone uses you just have to be different from the others who provide it. ifyou knoe what an album cover is you know how to use it if not than you shouldnt use them the rest of your review i could care less about since i've probably heard it all before you cant critque someones personal style because its not like your own for example i don't particularly like your site layout but its your style so i leave it alone.

    goodbye

  3. [img: avatar]
    Cherry gave it ***-- on 19th Aug 2010 and said:

    I visualized your site in Mozilla and Opera.
    First of all, I want you to know that I saw what you did with the owner of In The Rain - a blog that I love, incidentally - and I can not say how it was immature of you. But the truth is that I'm here to review your site, not your personality, so I will not consider any of this.

    First Impressions&Layout
    Well, I'm seeing that the layout is not the same. You know, I REALLY can not understand why every damn graphics site has the same layout. Perhaps because of the amount of pages, but it is not necessary to put all on the homepage. Have you thought about just putting some links on the homepage ("graphics", "resources", "about", and anything else) as in the personal blog? I know that "graphics site" is a class of site, but that does not mean everyone has to have the same type of design. Try something more original here.

    coding: there are 126 errors in your HTML and 27 errors in your CSS, but nothing you can not change.

    colors: not good. I personally do not like to see dark sites, in fact I admire sites that have your layout as clean as possible and white as base color. But apart from the background, which could have used some lighter texture, the other colors blend well and make the layout look pretty happy.

    fonts: the font of your posts are readable. It is a good font. Remember to use it on every page, and please, no pínk fonts. And, wait a bit, the links are in black font! I mean, black font on a almost black background!
    Now, the code that you used for the underline is terrible, and we can not read anything that is underlined.

    Content

    blog: ok

    about me: all necessary information, nothing in excess. I liked the way it is well organized and is very original, not a boring profile. All right here.

    faq: the kind of thing I would do, actually. Sometimes a visitor wants to know some information, and is one way to answer directly. Try not to appear too aggressive. Oh, and I'm seeing you don't have a about page for the blog.

    backgrounds: really lovely. But I'm sure I've seen most of them out there. Not much needed re-distribute, do not even know if it's allowed. You have edited and changed their colors, which is a good idea because it gives many options. But anyway, I'm sure the owners would not approve the re-distribution. At least, you could put the links of the original backgrounds and their owners on the page.

    brushes: again, I do not think redistribution is a good idea. This is getting repeated. But you put them in packages, then it is something.

    button bases, Color Schemes, fonts, textures, glitter fills, patterns, premade signs, revamp signs, vectors, ftp progams, site name ideas, gradients: ok

    site models: I really don't know what's this. I don't use MySpace, and I think is something about it...anyway, I don't think it is a usual resource.

    dropdowns: they are very useful! And the variety of colors remains:) This is a good thing.

    favicons: ok. I loved the flashing favicon. But you wrote "if you do not know how to Use these just click", which I guess should be a link to a tutorial? There is no link there. In fact, you have a tutorial on this, very helpful by the way, but forgot to put the link in the page favicons.

    site tips: good, but I disagree with the tip number seven, "Have a lot of affies (affiliates) It will help you get noticed. For those of you who don't know affies are when you put someone elses link on your page and they put yours on their page. " Is not that what the affiliates are. They are like friends online, you visit their website, you know them, you talk to them. I'll take the opportunity to talk about the amount of your
    affiliates: I do not think you know at least the name of them all. Trust me, they are 103! Nobody can know something about the lives of 103 people you do not know personally. Maybe you want to change the title of "affiliate" to "link exchange". Link exchange is a good way of advertising.

    graphs in general: all are common. It's good for those who like that sort of graphics. Some are not really helpful - are not even usable, but others are original.

    tv graphics: I honestly do not know why anyone would want that.

    I love ___: I especially liked these. The font and colors are beautiful.

    icons: they are very few. But I can not complain because on my site until now has only three.:) But keep doing them, they are great.

    photography: if it was not you who took, and just added some effects, I don't see for what they would serve. But I liked the first, and maybe if you did some collages with them ...

    pixels: I hope it is the last time, but I have to say it again. If you like a graphic and think your visitors would enjoy, simply place a link to the site of the original author. Some sites have a section just for links to useful sites, and you could have one of those.

    tutorials: great! Easy to understand, practical and useful. And there's little text and lots of pictures, which I think is essential in a tut. Too many text lets the visitors tired before they can understand the tutorial.

    Conclusion

    You have enough space to do much more. If graphics is what you enjoy doing, then do it! You would have a much better site if you took half of the content that is not necessary or is not made by you, and concentrate on doing your best at what you know well. Visitors want good graphics and in sufficient quantity, not mediocre graphics in huge quantities.
    And, repeating what has already spoken in a review, "it's a bit stupid to slap the site name everywhere - no one wants to use a graphic covered in the site's name." This is something that I also found it strange. It's okay to put a link to your site in a layout made for you, but resources generally are not for personal use, but to make other graphics. So there's no sense in it.
    Thatś all, good luck to you, and sorry if I wrote too much. :)

    Using Firefox on Linux | Report This?

    cafeamour's Response:

    okay well as for the layout it was bright colors as you can see in the picture but they were too bright on some peoples computers but i agree i liked it better before. so i have changed it back to the layout in the thumbnail above. as for the errors i don't know how to fix them. i am thinking of minimizing the amount of links because it is getting too crowded. font wise i hope if you go back to my site you like the changes. the blog isnt really meant to be a blog more of an update blog not a personal one. of course most of the backgrounds are the same as others or similiar because most of these sites have all the same brushes so it gets a little repedative and as for credit i don't know where i got the vintage backgrounds since i assume thats what you were reffering too. as for the sitemodels they are just links to myspace pages of girls and guys who want to be in default pictures/signs on peoples sites so they are called sitemodels. i added the link in the favicon section. i didnt have the tutorial up when i made the favicons and i forgot to add it . the title of affies is now changed. though i was always told that affies were the same as link exchange but i guess we all have different opinions. i wanna make more icons but my photoshop is down atm sooo that'll have to wait but more are coming. and as for the graphics i do polls every now and than and make what people like i dont see why people want tv graphics either but they voted so i made. i did give credit for the photography though. about the name on everything i dont know if you're aware but there are a lot of people out who steal graphics made by people without a name on it. if we dont put our names on it people steal and than we have no proof of if it's our's or theirs if that makes sense on most my graphics i try to fade the name so it's not so bold.

  4. [img: avatar]
    Chien gave it ***-- on 24th Jul 2010 and said:

    I'm a bit of a picky reviewer so I apologise in advance if I offend or clash with your views. My reviews are my views after all (:

    Using Mozilla Firefox on Windows Vista at a 1280x800 resolution.

    First Impression, Coding & Design
    ====================================
    What the heck. The fonts used immediately shocked me. It didn't take me long before I realized that the font you used was Small Fonts. One thing's for sure, it did not render nicely.

    The design style used reminds me of my younger days when blends and distinct columns were the 'in' thing. I don't have anything to say about what I like since nothing particularly stands out, but I'll point out the issues.

    What I don't like:
    1. The current right sidebar appears to have it's links going past the border. That kinda irritates me, simply because I love boxes (a bit of an OCD of mine) and I don't like things out of place.

    2. It's left aligned. The layout can work better if it was centered.

    3. The huge XOXO KATIE sign. We all know this is _your_ website. Your signs are taking the focus off your blog entries, which isn't exactly what it should be doing.

    4. The lack of padding is also starting to make me feel a bit claustrophobic because I love a lot of white space.

    5. Choice of fonts. Small fonts is not a good font since it's quite a low quality font. Verdana is a nice font when scaled down, and I'm sure it'll work just as you expect small fonts to :)

    6. Marquee. I can't say how much I dislike them, really. Even when I hover over it, it won't stop. And it bugs me.

    7. This one's not really your fault but I have a thing for vertical rhythm. I don't like how things don't fall in a straight line.

    8. Cursors. I like my default cursor, thank you very much, and I don't like to be confused by the hand cursor. It agitates me a lot when things aren't the norm for me.

    9. The whole site is bloated thanks to the sidebars. There's too much on the sidebars and it causes me to look more at the sidebars than the content. It feels like verbal diarrhea. That's not what you should focus on since your site offers resources!

    Now let's move on to coding. It's atrocious. Before you actually give out layouts you should ensure that your own coding is up to standard. I'm sure you wouldn't want any bad layouts yourself if you grab them off a resource site! There's various tutorials available online so you can refer to them yourself.

    Content
    ====================================
    I'll write about pages that need correcting or criticism only, or have something striking since you have a lot!

    ABOUT: The lack of padding irks me again, and since everything is in one huge paragraph in bullet points, I get tired after the third line.

    Advice, I'd scrap tutorials because there's a lot out there, and it gives room for others to criticize. But then of course, it's your site and it's up to you.

    Overall
    ====================================
    Though it's not a site I'd go to for inspiration or resources you still have a lot to offer, and I'm sure you'd have a lot of room for improving too, no worries about that. Brush up on your HTML code and you'll get there! There are some different sites for inspiration as well, like bestwebgallery and WebDesignerWall. If you're ever going to go professional with designing, you mustn't stick to a single type - experimenting is what you can do!

    Good luck!

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

    cafeamour's Response:

    i already know about the font and i just changed it it should look better i don't know why the column was outta line it never was before but i'm hoping to change it and i too like boxes but i never learned how to make them nice and neat. and not everyone knows it's my site but i could shrink the sig. just a bit i don't get what everyone means by the padding nothing changes when i add padding so if you could explain i'd love it. i'm working with the font to find one i like and since you're using a different computer and resolution than me when i'm done i'd love if you could look it over and tell me how it looks. the marquee i forgot the code to make it stop i'll hunt it down tonight and i personally don't like marquees either but i don't want a bunch of buttons taking up space so a figured a 31pk height marquee would be better than a long row of them. i can't really minimize my sidebar content without taking it our all together i already have 50 pages of content i really didn't want anymore to store other links if that makes sense. but i can try to narrow it down some. i like my coding it's easy for me to follow. but i never really though about others. i never learned iframes or anything but divs and thats how i make mine but my conding could me a little more neat i suppose. i really hate writing about mes so they always suck and i never expect people to read them but it's nice to have them for the few that do. thanks for the review. although 3 people giving me a totoal of 2 stars has really upset me since i've ben doing this 7 years and apparently i'm no better than when i started. i'll work on what needs done and again thank you

  5. [img: avatar]
    Sillyish gave it **--- on 24th Jul 2010 and said:

    Hmm, this layout reminds me a lot of one of ex-pine.co.css's previous layouts... And I think I've see it around elsewhere as well. Is there some sort of pre-made template that a bunch of people are editing to make it their own? Or is it just a fashionable layout style?

    Anyway, down to the actual review....

    LAYOUT
    The first issue I come up against with this layout is the size of the text. I uploaded an image for you to look at in case it looks different on your computer...

    Basically: It is small. Very small. Small enough that I can't actually READ it, and y'know, being able to read things on a website is usually pretty necessary.

    Even the slightly larger text (the non-links, it looks like) is still small enough that I'm not reading it comfortably. It's at the level where I *could* read it if I wanted to, but it's so small that I don't really want to bother trying.

    The other thing that struck me pretty quick is the cursor. I'm not sure what you've done with it, but it isn't behaving the way that I'm used to cursors behaving. Sometimes its a hand, sometimes it's an arrow, but not in the usual way: I can wave the hand around the page (non-link areas) and it'll stay a hand. I can put the arrow over a link and the arrow won't change into a hand like it should.

    Having your cursor change when it hovers a link is important, because it tells people that THIS IS A LINK. That is often the ONLY way I know something is a link, so keeping that feature is important.

    What I do like about this layout is the heading text. The zebra striped cafe amour looks pretty rad.

    Other layout notes:
    -I think this layout would look quite a bit nicer if it were centered
    -Right now, the layout starts right at the top and then fades off into the bottom. I think having a footer would really close things off nicely, and having some sort of header would be nice too. I know that probably doesn't make sense, and you're all, "What does she mean? I *have* a freaking header!" But I mean... Something to polish it off. If you look at the very bottom of the page, the three content bars end into the bottom of the browser. There's no real FOOTER. And I think footers can really give a layout an extra polished look.
    -On the note of readability, here's another link where I think things need to get cleaned up. Some of the text is too small, and some of it just needs more of a line-height, because it's quite smooshed together.
    -Finally, I thought the headers for each section in the sidebars were a good idea, but the headers themselves look a little messy - the text is quite blurred, and I think it looks sloppy. Also, some padding would be helpful - right now the text is flush up to the edge of the graphic, giving it some more space would look much cleaner, I believe.

    ---------------------------------

    CONTENT
    Argh, as soon as I move on to content, I click on the first link and your site seems to have gone down for the moment.

    No worries, I won't ding you marks for that :P Just complaining because I'm annoyed.

    One thing I did see before this freaking thing stopped working is the colour scheme suggestion page. I think this is a good idea, but I think that instead of just providing squares of colour, providing the hex code underneath for each colour would be useful for people. Otherwise they have to paste it into a graphics editor and use an eyedropper, which is really nothing but a pointless empty step, right?

    ...Site still not loading...

    I'll tell ya what: I'll leave it at that for now, and if you WANT, let me know and I'll come back and edit my review later with a more thorough review of the content and the code.

    In the meantime: Good luck with your site :-)

    Using Safari on Mac | Report This?

    cafeamour's Response:

    if you mean the columns it's not a template everyone just uses it and if you mean the picture i got it from a tutorial so they might have too. the text does look different on mine than yours i will have to fix that tonight :) lol i didn't realize maybe everyone doesnt have small fonts i'll have to use terminal i think everyone has that the cursor was a premade one so i'm gonna take that off so it doesn't do that anymore ha thanks i love the header font zebra matched her clothes so i made it that i love it too i tried centering it but i always have issues with it not working or people telling me it goes too far right on their resolution i always found it better if it's to the left but i can certainly try it
    i tried footers but low and behold i can't get the footer php file to place right :( again the text i will fix tonight and try to figure out something everyone can work with. i always forget different computers have different fonts as for the headers ill work with them too. yes 2 of links are down because they are under construction the colorschemes hex codes are a good idea i'll think about adding them :) i'm sorry my site stopped idk i think its my host/server cause i cant log in to edit anytthing i'll let you know and deff have you come back to look at it again

  6. [img: avatar]
    wiwaneko gave it ***-- on 23rd Jul 2010 and said:

    Hey there, I'm Trish and I'll be reviewing your site. :)

    First Impression/Layout
    Wow, this reminds me of when I first got into website-making. Marquees? I haven't seen those in around four years. A few things I want to point out:
    Layout position - I think the layout would look a lot nicer if it was centered. Usually you can make a div wrap with [margin: 0 auto].

    #wrap {
    margin: 0 auto;
    }

    Organization - The layout looks really crowded. You have so much crap on your sidebars! Maybe making general links (site, visitor shiz, links, etc.) would make things less crowded. Just a suggestion.
    Shadow Repeat - On the sides of your layout where there's a shadow, it doesn't repeat correctly - there are gaps in the sides. If you change the wrap image to a height of only 1px, it should be fixed.
    Text Size - Your text is very small compared to the size of your headers and the signature. Maybe upping it to 11px would make it flow better.
    Blog Signature - I think it's neat to have a signature sometimes, albeit a bit unnecessary since the visitors should know your name, but yours is huge. It draws a readers attention away from the blog, especially since the text is so small. Remove it or make it smaller.
    Score: 2.5/5

    Affiliates
    You have a lot of affiliates. Almost to the point of it being ridiculous. Do you actually talk to all of these people? I won't score this section just because it's a personal choice, but maybe chill out on the affies for a bit...also, the affiliate header is repeating wrong.

    The Cafeamour Section
    The links are so small, I barely found the home link. Like I said before, maybe increase the text size. I don't see why all those links are necessary when you could just put them on one page.
    About Me - So much text, so little padding. I skimmed over it, but it's too close together for me to want to read. Most readers probably won't even read any of it since it looks like you wrote so much, when you really just need some padding. 10px would be a good start.
    Credits - Not much to say besides good job crediting people.
    FAQ - "DON'T ASK ME IF IT'S ALREADY HERE" That's the point, isn't it?
    T&C - A bit pointless since you use celebrity images without asking.
    Score: 3/5

    The Resources Section
    AIM Icons - Page doesn't even work. Why would you put it up there???
    Album Covers - I might just be retarded, but I have no idea what these are for. I'm guessing Myspace albums? It's a neat idea. They're nothing special, though.
    Backgrounds - Again, nothing special.
    Brushes - I don't think "random" has an "e" on the end...nothing really unique about them. I do like the crab in the summer brush set, though.
    Button Bases - These could be made by anyone, so I don't see the point in having them up.
    Color Schemes - I personally don't favor them, but besides that, nothing remarkable.
    Content Headers - They're alright. I think most people who have a content section on their site know how to make their own graphics, so it's kind of useless/pointless.
    Domain Layouts - They all look the same, besides a change of colors/pictures. And to be honest, they're nothing special.
    Drop Down Menus - Just an easy change of colors; nothing anyone else can't do.
    Favicons - These are cute, especially the little lightning bolts. I'm not a fan of flashing images, but whatever floats your boat. The last two favicons don't show up, though.
    Flair Buttons - Good idea. Never seen these offered before.
    Fonts - A lot of the images are broken. I admire that you linked back to the original sites for download.
    Movie Banners - These were a bit annoying to look at.
    Name Headers - I like the font you used for the girls. They're simple, but something I would use for Myspace. Since you don't have any for the boys, you should just take the link down altogether.
    Pixels - Why. Why would you add something when you didn't even make it? That goes against your own T&C!
    Premade Signs - They're okay...kind of weird.
    Revamp Signs - These are neat, but the description text is almost too small to read.
    Site Models - Never heard of using models. You could make this page look neater if you centered the images:

    <div align="center">
    <img src="http://" alt="">
    </div>

    Site Tips - Actually, it's better to save under .jpg because .png files take up a lot of space. I only use .png files when I have images I need to be transparent. I also don't agree with having a lot of affiliates because that's just a way to whore your site around. Advertising is a different thing, but affiliates are supposed to be your online friends, not just people you use to get your site known. Updating every day just to update only makes your updates crappier (this applies more when you own a blog). Update when YOU want to, not because visitors will think your site is dead. It's YOUR site.
    Vectors - I don't really see the point of these, but they're okay. It's a bit stupid to slap the site name everywhere - no one wants to use a graphic covered in the site's name.
    Score: 2.5/5

    The Tutorials Section
    Your tutorials are pretty un-original; they can be found everywhere. The only useful or semi-unique ones were the preppy and reflection text tutorials. One of the tutorials doesn't even have a page (making a domain layout). You said in your site tips section to make content that is unique, but you haven't even done it yourself.
    Score: 1/5

    Conclusion
    Your site isn't anything remarkable. You have a lot of potential, though! Work on organization, coding, grammar, originality, and your site will be greatly improved. Increase the text size, remove unnecessary links, make useful or more original resources. All in all, I just got the impression that you're an amateur. If you work on the things I suggested, you'll have a great site! Please don't take any of this personally; I wasn't trying to sound harsh, but babying people doesn't help them get better at anything. Good luck!
    Total Score: 2.5/5

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