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Thread: Be easy on me...
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10-20-2000, 10:26 PM #1Newbie
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Be gentle...
I'm self taught and have been hobbying with html for 4 years now and was wondering what you pros think of my site.
http://www.wcvw.org
FWIW, I know there are major issues with IE3 (and probably N3 as well.) A minor part is table centering, but the big one is I've switched to PNG files. (Stupid software patent...) Shouldn't affect 4.0+ browsers though, and I've only had 2 v.3 visitors since I started tracking 3 months ago. (And I was one of them, from work.)
My main goals were a quick load time and an organized layout.
Oh, and Stuart, I'll just review it for you:
"I didn't like it. It loaded too quickly."
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10-21-2000, 12:20 AM #2Junior Guru Wannabe
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Perhaps you shd consider paid hosting to get the ugly oversized ad banner out of the way! hehe
Other than that, site looks pretty good.. except the "best" logo @ the bottom of your left menu looks rather "out of place"? And I think the text on the main box are too close to the borders, making the page look quite messy.
Ermm... may I confess.. after looking through your website, I still have no idea what a "Water-Cooled" Volkswagen is?? Am I stupid? Can I still live??Hi! I'm a shareware signature! Send $5 if you use me, send $10 for manual!
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10-22-2000, 11:10 PM #3Newbie
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Don't feel stupid... I'm here to help. The early VWs (Beetle, Thing, ...) have engines that are cooled by air (no radiator.) Starting with the Rabbit, VW switched to conventional "water" (antifreeze) engine cooling.
The "Best" logo is a rotating ad button. My only sponsor at the moment, so you can't really tell. I make that 120x60 hastily because he only had a full size banner. I think we're going to change it soon.
As for moving to a paid server, that's how I discovered this forum! Having just been sponsored by Best VW, I was poking around for a new home and have been eyeing a few providers I found here.
Once I move to my new home, I'll have to (want to) rewrite my pages for SSI anyhow, so I'll add space to the text then. Thanks for the suggestion!
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10-23-2000, 02:02 AM #4Web Hosting Master
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Hi Mage
I just have 1 advice .. get rid of the VW background ..
I know it's the theme of the site but it makes it look a little old .. like something that would have been made in 94 / 95 (yeah, on the net 5 years is a long time)
I would use just a plain blue background, you already have the VW logo in the main Graphic
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10-23-2000, 02:26 AM #5Junior Guru Wannabe
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i like it
and i like the vw background. it is subdued enough to not be annoying. my only gripe is that hi hate times on web pages. i don't know why. i just think it makes designs look sloppy. if it was a page with just text, it woudn't bother me.
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10-23-2000, 08:51 AM #6Web Hosting Master
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hehe .. I furgot that one, I can't stand times as well ;-)
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10-23-2000, 10:30 AM #7Newbie
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Times?
Times? You mean, the date on my news? Perhaps I'll drop the date then and just date it in the news archive. Or do you mean the established date?
BTW, I've been using that background since I first created my regular VW page... 1996! (Good guess!) I need a tie-breaking opinion as to whether or not I should keep it. Anyone? (I could invert it so it was navy on a blue background if that made you feel better...
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10-23-2000, 12:22 PM #8Web Hosting Master
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Mage,
I think they are talking about the Times Roman font that you used for text. Personally, I agree with them and would go with sans serif font such as Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana.
Marty Hoskins
http://tlcwe.com
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10-23-2000, 02:11 PM #9Web Hosting Master
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Mage ..
I;m sorry I wasn't specific, yes, we mea Times as in the Font ... it just looks terrible (expecially if you are at a very high resolution) .. and 1996 hum ? hehe, I guess I was right then hum ?
tell you what .. why don't you e-mail me that VW logo and I'll send it back to you as really nice background pic ..
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10-23-2000, 02:34 PM #10Newbie
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Times font...
Oh, that's what you guys meant! I didn't even realize it was showing in times... serves me right for tinkering with the default font in my browser (and not specifying a font in my coding.)
I'll change it when I get home (I'm at work... shhhhhh) and I'll send you that background just for fun.
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10-27-2000, 07:11 AM #11Junior Guru Wannabe
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I looks normal make it more colorfull and a new layout would help.
ICQ# 95884722
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10-28-2000, 12:18 PM #12New Member
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Mage,
I like the background! So there! '96 was a great year.
Switch to Verdana font to give it a quickie face lift, and change the electric blue frame. I know there is blue in the background and title graphic, but "that" blue distracts and looks unprofessional when carried through borders and frames. Try a more subdued blue - grey blue - or even a medium grey, something that would subtly define the content from the border. If you added a little cell padding to the content, it would look much cleaner and actually be easier to read. Consider also, a slightly subdued yellow for your links. Yellow on black can look a little garish if not tamed just a tad and you want it to serve as additional information to your main text. My eye was drawn first to the links.
As someone else mentioned, many don't know what a water-cooled-Volkswagen is. I would make the title graphic larger - at least as tall as the ad banner - and reserve the remaining real estate, above the fold, for a welcome for first time visitors or a brief description of your site goal. Perhaps include an image on the first page. Something to let them know what they're going to see here.
The load time was fine on a 56k connection. I think you've done a very nice job with this site and the content is really interesting. I hope my comments are not read as critical - I just took the time to look at it very objectively and pronounce my "opinions". We all want our sites to be optimal, so that's my take.
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11-05-2000, 04:41 PM #13ex-Aussie
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Are you still looking for a tie-breaker on that background graphic? I say lose it. Soon as I saw it I almost went for the back button. I'm trying to think of a better water image to use but nothings coming to me. Maybe use an image of one of these water cooled VW's instead maybe? I would make the site look a little more interesting. There's a lot of possibilities, and I'm sure sure the water theme is exploited them well enough.
Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net
Former Webhost... now, just a guy.
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11-07-2000, 10:44 AM #14Newbie
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Originally posted by akashik
Are you still looking for a tie-breaker on that background graphic? I say lose it. Soon as I saw it I almost went for the back button. I'm trying to think of a better water image to use but nothings coming to me. Maybe use an image of one of these water cooled VW's instead maybe? I would make the site look a little more interesting. There's a lot of possibilities, and I'm sure sure the water theme is exploited them well enough.
The problem with using a VW image is there are 12+ different models and I don't want to favor any one... silly I guess.
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11-07-2000, 11:45 AM #15Web Hosting Master
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I Really.....
Like it ..it loads fast is easy to read has a good Nav system and your using my Favorite colors
Dana aka Laci My Alter Ego
Former WHT Moderator
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11-07-2000, 06:51 PM #16New Member
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Getting better and better!
Mage,
I took a look and it is looking much better! I think one thing that still needs to be done is to add some cell padding to the table. (The main content.) This would prevent the content from running all the way to the edges of the borders and it would "clean up" and center the presentation. Also, the font looks better, but Verdana was specifically designed to be easily read on the web and if you choose it, you could reduce the font size and easily add the cellpadding that is needed.
This is just an opinion, I would consider distinguishing your top navigation bar by giving it a little more constrast. My first choice for both navigation bars would be the use of java mouseovers. This really adds a professional touch and can be done with multi-state buttons or just color change. (Look at some of the free products at http://www.codebrain.com . They are very well documented so they're SIMPLE to install and free is always good.) If not java perhaps make the table cell taller, give it a differnt border color and choose a bold font of a differnt color. It's hard to choose a color palette based on the very vivid blue, but it can be done. I might choose a complimentary color - gold - but VERY drabbed down. Varying values of the bright blue are also effective - pale blue rather than turquoise.
I think if you get the text away from the borders with cell padding and jazz up the navigation a tad, I think you'll like the page a lot. Hope this is read as it is intended...opinion and thoughtful critique...no offense is ever intended.
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11-07-2000, 08:51 PM #17Web Hosting Master
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Mmmmm... sheepdip. Really nothing better for dippin' your veggies and chips than sheep I always say.
Back to your regularly scheduled site review...
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11-07-2000, 09:00 PM #18Newbie
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Hey, I feed on this stuff!
I increased the padding for P (I had 2em but changed it to 5px instead.) Gotta love stylesheets. I suppose I could make another table, but this is easier to tinker with and in my opinion cleaner (heaven knows I have enough tables already!
I also made the font change. I see what you meant about easier to read... still playing with things here and there. (Added classes for the top and side bars so I can mess with the text a little easier.)
Keep feeding your thoughts to me, guys! Particularly, what do you think about the new title background?
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11-08-2000, 02:11 AM #19ex-Aussie
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I like that header graphic a lot more than the old water one. I see your point about not playing favorites between 12 models though. I can just imagine the email from people's who model you *didn't* pick
There's still something about the site though... maybe it's the choice of font for the header. I'm down to nit-picking now so all in all it's looking pretty good. If you've read many of my reviews you may notice a bit of a hatred for cyan so I'm trying to discount that as a reason for not liking the color scheme.
I think if the graphics were a little tighter color-wise without the *small* amount of blurring and bleeding I can see it'd be just about right.
Greg Moore
Former Webhost... now, just a guy.