Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
Review by: Rogue Reviews (now closed)
The following review was completed on June 28, 2004 and is for Version 3: Silent Horror.
Eye Candy
There is an unwritten rule about the internet; any default colours, fonts or
anything should not be used in layout, no matter what. They are all ugly and
unprofessional. Guess what? I see the default New Roman Times font. In your
source, you tried to put the font CasablancaAntique. Anyone, like me, who
doesn't have that font, will be tortured with the nasty default. What you should
do is leave CasablancaAntique in there, but then continue it by typing
CasablancaAntique,Verdana,Arial. This way, if the user doesn't have
CasablancaAntique, then Verdana will appear, and if they don't have that, then
Arial will appear. So, you're covered no matter what. Now, moving on.
Good job; you list the requirements. The one about needing 24-bit RGB color
can be removed, though. Pretty much everyone has that. As for the screen sizes,
cut that part out, too. If both screen sizes work, no sense saying so. As for
the splash itself, it's rather plain. The text looks pixelly and jagged, minus
the actual word 'Enter'. You should put some of your pictures onto the splash to
jazz it up a bit.
I'm finding the layout rather plain, too. What did it take, half an hour?
Black, grey and more grey is all I see, minus the links. I've seen black and
grey layouts been pulled-off before, surely you can do better! Add some
backgrounds; put faded text behind the image; do some special effects to the
image of the boy; anything!
The Filler:
Contact: Here's a question: why is there a link to the Link Me page if
this is the Contact page? Does putting a link up to you have anything to do with
contacting you? Not likely. Move the link somewhere else; it makes no sense
here. Also, you have a mailing list... for what? It says sign up for updates.
Updates of what, exactly? When you post an image? When you post a review? When
you post a rant? WHAT?! No one is going to sign up unless they know what they're
signing up for.
Art: I like how you have both text links and thumbnails; good for
56-kayers. As a personal preference, I like thumbnails to be all one size. It
looks much neater and more organized. Pick a size, and resize all the
thumbnails to that size. The pictures might be a bit distorted, but they're only
thumbnails, anyway.
Here's a question: why do you call the Buffy images Mini Mangas? They're not
manga, in any way. Manga are anime comic books, and these are not comics. They're
just... images. I'd love to hear your logic on this one. They're drawn in anime
style, but that doesn't mean they're manga. Here's another question: you're
obviously a very talented artist. Many of your sketches are gorgeous. So, why
did you use that image of that guy in your layout? You've drawn other better
pictures, so why him?
Other than the thumbnail issue, your galleries are nicely organized. I like
that you have back buttons; always helpful. If the rest of your site is this
organized, you're in for good marks from me.
Reviews: You've got a ton of reviews here, and a good assortment. One
note I'd like to make is that in the Movie Reviews section, instead of Harry
Potter 3, you should put Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Some people
aren't all that bright, and won't realize Harry Potter 3 and the Prisoner of
Azkaban are one in the same. In the Novel Reviews section, you should mention
who the author is on the index page. People are more likely to read a review if
they happen to know the author of that novel. I very much agree with
Thunderdud's review for Family Guy; that's a fantastic series. It's too bad he
didn't mention much about the neighbors.
Rants: I have no problems with the organization of your Rants page,
but I really beg to differ with the Rant about your trip to Canada... we do
have real police, you know. But since ranting about your rants isn't what a
website review is about, I'll shut myself up before I get started. ^^; I can
understand the issue with French-Canadians, though. They have a pretty different
accent, and even me, being someone who is used to the France French accent, can
find them a bit hard to understand. Anyway, moving on. I like the way the rants
are written; they aren't just simply bashing, but do have real humour, too. Good
grammar and spelling from what I can see as well.
Misc: The tagboard is rather wide; you might as well call it a chat
room. For the Site of the Month page, you should probably put who is the Site of
the Month right on the page, in case people don't look at the bottom of the
layout and see it. Also, it would be nice to have a brief word on why you picked
that site. On the Quizzes page, you should install a javascript quiz, instead of
having the guests add it up mentally. The 100 Word Challenge looks so very hard;
for the sake of my sanity, I wouldn't even try it. I like the Guess the
Lyric page; it's a cool idea. The Fake FAQ is an awesome idea. Suddenly I feel
like I need to get out more; I've seen every movie and show you've mentioned.
o_o; It's nice that you have a short bio for each for the contributors. I was
wondering who they were. ^^; To spruce up the page more, though, maybe an image
could be put beside each bio. An avatar or an actual image of them, it doesn't
matter.
Fine Print: I like that you used this title instead of 'Disclaimers';
much more original. Not much to say here, since it's just a long page of
disclaimers.
Links: This page is rather long, so you should have bookmark links on
the page. You know, those links that you click to hop around the page, usually
used for a 'Top' button? I'm not good at explaining myself, so look
here for a better idea of what I mean. Click on the letters under the Legend
and see the magic. As for the Link Me page, you should probably make a 88 by 15
button as well, since those seem to be coming into style.
The Whole Shebang:
likes: I like that almost everything is very well organized, and the
originality. The artwork on the site is beautiful, and all the reviews are
solid. The rants are humourous and entertaining.
dislikes: The layout seems rather plain, and the font won't display for
me, so I'm stuck with the nasty default font. Bech.
suggestions: Liven up the layout, for sure. Thumbnails all one size. I
had a whole load of suggestions, but it's late and to save myself time, just
read the review. I don't want to be an echo here.
Chocograph:
The content on this is site is great, but the presentation really takes away from it. I'm sure with more practice on graphic designing, you'll make awesome layouts!
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