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Ho hum, nothing new on the site front. I've been thinking about reorganizing the rubrics and sitely pages so that they are using space more effectively, but that might not happen until my next day off.
Unfortunately there isn't much to report site-wise. Review requests /are/ open, but I think there might be a slight dip in activity across the site community. Ah well, just know that I'm here if you need me!
Reviews are open!
I'm considering doing another MadLib, but I need to figure out exactly how long to run the extra and how many slots to put. Hm, decisions like this are fun to agonize over.
Please excuse the following rant. I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news only applies to me - I was "let go" from one of my jobs. The good news applies to me and to you - I will now have more time (actual days off?! What is this madness?) to do reviews and to be on neopets.
I was listed at the Affinity
I moved a few older reviews to the portfolio section. Hurray for organization!
The updates were getting a bit cluttered so I decided to clear them.
Huzzah! The final review on the waiting list is complete. I've been really swamped with work (two jobs is getting to me) and school (online classes aren't as easy as they sound) so thank you for being patient. Reviews will be open on Thursday after I get off work.
You approach the counter and the small girl behind it turns around. When she meets your eyes her mouth widens into a grin. You smile back, uncertain of her character until she says warmly,
Hi there! Were you looking to grab something from the drink case or did you want me to make you some fresh coffee? Personally, I would recommend waiting around for a hot brew, it does look chilly outside.Her eyes search your confused face and she slaps her forehead,
Of course! You wouldn't know how to order...She hands you a mug shaped menu and shuffles you over to one of the armchairs.
Just look through the menu and let me know!
Please request only if your site is on Neopets. Cafe au Lait doesn't do off-site deliveries! I am sorry to say that I will not review the following: Guilds, Guides, About-Me, Writing Sites, Art Sites or Screenies pages as I do not have sufficient experience in these areas to review them accurately.
Cafe au Lait only lets you order fresh drinks twice a month.
If you do not recieve a neomail within three days of requesting a treat,
please re-send your request (form filled out completely) the following day.
Please fill out all parts of the form! If any parts of the form are not filled in I will have to reject your request. If you do not know what to put, just ask!
Please be ready for the review you requested! I would appreciate it if you prepared your site for the review to the best of your ability!
Please link back to Cafe au Lait during and after your review.
Please do not make any alterations to your site once I have neomailed you saying I have started on your review!
Send to: elfere
Title all review requests: Cafe au Lait; Review. Your name: Choose a browser: IE, Firefox or Chrome. Your site's name: Your site's URL: Which treat would you like? Is there anything in particular you'd like me to look at? Have you prepared for your review? Other criteria? To Request: 
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waiting list
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First Impression (?/5) - What do I first think when I enter your site? What stands out (good or bad) and am I compelled to stay or leave? Do I know what your site is called and if there is a theme right away?
Introduction (?/5) - Is the introduction written well, or is it choppy? Do I know who runs the site and when it was established? Do you introduce the purpose of your site effectively?
Layout (?/15) - Depending on your site the critique in this section will change. Is the layout well-made? Is the effect appealing and does it coincide with your theme (if you have one). If your layout is strictly CSS does it function well for the purpose of your site?
Rules (?/10) - Do you have a set of rules that is fair and easy to understand? Do you have any unnecessary demands or even unreasonable ones? Do you offer any additional services in this section that are beneficial to the user? DO you have a "trick" and is it used effectively?
Quality of Content (?/25) - Is your content of high-quality? Have you executed your content effectively? What could be helped or changed to make things even better if you have high quality content?
Grammar/Spelling (?/15) - Do you have any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors?
Organization (?/10) - Is your site cluttered or is it neat and tidy? Do you have an easy navigational system or is it extremely complicated?
Visitor Convenience (?/5) - Do you make things easy for the visitor? This section will change depending on your site type - each site has different things that need to be convenient. If you are a button site do you provide the code for the button? This also applies to graphic sites. If you are a directory is the key easy to understand, etc.?
Professionalism (?/5) - Is your site a great example of professionalism? Or is your content full of smileys and errors? Do you make an effort to help the visitor understand anything that may seem confusing? Do you sometimes say things that may make the visitor feel unwelcome?
Sitely (?/5) - Are your link back buttons high quality? Do you have active affiliates? Are there any inactive listers or affiliates? Is everything organized?
Overall score: (?/100)
Final Comments: I will make any other comments that I feel are necessary here.
Points will be added or altered depending on what you add to the rubric. You may NOT take away anything from the base rubric, but you may add all four of the criteria below if you would like.
Quantity of Content: Do you have a sufficient amount of content? This can be applied to graphics/pre-made sites/directories or any other
site that would like me to assess whether they have a good amount of content for the visitor to access and use or if they need more
to function better as a site.
Readability: Is your site easy to read through or are there awkward phrasings here and there that just make things difficult? Do you use words out of
context? Do you use large words ineffectively?
Recommendation: This will be added to the end of the review, there is no score for this part - it is merely an opinion. I will say whether or not
I would recommend this site to other users.
Aesthetics: Do you have little things that are misaligned or out of place? Is your site visually appealing or does it have a few issues that need
to be worked out? This goes beyond organization to things like margins and line height. Do you have borders around your link buttons, are the color choices for
your fonts attractive?
Originality: Do you have a unique theme? If you don't have a unique theme (I certainly do not!) Do you carry it out or present it in a unique /way/?
Are there any other original ideas spread throughout your site, if so - are they executed well?
Reviewed in Chrome on September 25, 2011
Your color scheme is rather harsh on the eyes. The bright green you used for your title is too stark against the black "shadow" to be visually appealing.
I'm confused as to why you have the hover effect on the, "cre" different from the rest of the word. It's distracting, and would be better if it were all uniform or not there at all.
The giant black circle on the upper left isn't appealing – if it were an image (I know you are a CSS site) it would make sense to block out an entire space with that shape, but since it's a huge black circle it just looks like it's missing something.
This sentence, "We are a GROWING CSS site that is closely associated with Impala Fonts & Pandora Graphics" is unnecessary. If you are close affiliates with these sites than mention that in your sitely section.
In your third sentence change the & to, "and."
Your last sentence is extremely confusing and phrased awkwardly. I have no idea why that sentence is there.
This sentence, "If haven't already seen, please take a look at the rules" should read, "If you haven't already, please take a look at the rules." The word, "seen" makes the sentence read awkwardly.
Which concludes our rules" should read, "This concludes our rules."
I do take requests, in fact. (:" shouldn't have a smiley face in it. It looks very unprofessional. The words, "in fact" are also unnecessary.
Just simply type up what you would like your layout to look like and send it to me" doesn't need both words at the beginning. Choose either, "just" or "simply" and stick with it.
The font you use for the words, "Requests are Open" is very faint. I would recommend darkening it.
Reviewed in Firefox on September 28, 2011
Your layout is very tall. I would recommend keeping the layout at 550px and under so that it limits the amount of scrolling the visitor has to do. On your homepage alone I had to scroll down the page, then scroll within your page to see the updates – which I then had to scroll to read. It was very inconvenient.
This sentence, "elfere, hello and welcome to Dreams of Neopia {v5: Royal Sea}, a banner request and premade site, run by yours truly, Totem." Has so many commas it was difficult to comprehend! Instead you could try, "Hello visitor and welcome to Dreams of Neopia! (the version of your layout isn't really necessary information, if it's that important – have it on the layout image) This is a banner request and premade site run by yours truly, Totem." By taking out all of the commas the sentence structure is varied and easier to read.
I will try to supply for everyone's needs so neomail me if you have questions, feedback, or just want some tips on making banners." This sentence has a phrasing issue. "I will try to supply for everyone's needs" could be changed to, "I will try to suit everyone's needs."
You need a space between the first two words of your second to last sentence.
I make banners for anything! As long as it will be used in Neopia only, it's fine!" could be changed to, "I will make banners for anything located on Neopets." The second sentence you used is awkward and if you read it out loud it sounds like a fragment.
If you read the rules, but a *meepit* smiley at the end of the form." The word, "but" should be, "put." Instead of, "If you read the rules" you could try, "If you have read the rules" to sound more professional.
In your pickup section the first banner scrolls – to prevent this and to keep your section looking more organized you should resize every banner pickup to the same size. Even if the banner has different dimensions than the rest they should all be uniform o present a more professional atmosphere. I would also recommend putting a paragraph tag after the image so that there is more space between it and the text area.
I will only critique the two most recent banners you have made.
The image you used for "The Daily Grind" is very grainy. If you start out with a .png file your banner will automatically increase in quality. The font you used is very large and it takes up a massive amount of space on the banner. If you had a better quality image you wouldn't need such huge lettering.
The green bokeh texture is off-putting. Why not re-color the texture to a light gold or rich brown to offset the color of the image? I couldn't tell if the horizontal scan lines were part of your original image or if you had just added them in. If you want to use scan lines, try putting them on inly part of the banner and really lowering the opacity. You could also pixelate other parts of the image to create different effects throughout the banner. This image just looked like you put it together in a rush. The color isn't very rich and the overall effect is just drab.
The banner for "Blank Canvas Magazine" has a great image and it is cropped well, but the dark outline around the white text is really startling. It isn't very aesthetically appealing either because the dark color isn't a soft black that matches with the banner. If you had used the Gaussian Blur technique around that outline to soften it, the banner text might have improved.
Banner 35 under resources is a broken image.
In your FAQ I couldn't scroll all the way to the bottom to read your final answer. I would recommend inserting a paragraph tag just so the visitor isn't inconvenienced.
The text explanations under your "top ranked site" should be aligned to the left. Large bodies of text should be aligned to the left for ease of viewing and professional appeal. The only things that should be centered are graphics and text that has a special emphasis.
Under graphics the first link back under "other" is a broken image.
Again, I couldn't scroll all the way to the bottom of the rankings page – I felt rather frustrated by this because I genuinely wanted to see what else you had written. The second link back under directories "other" is also a broken image.
Under sibling sites the sentence, "Formally a review site, Understatement now offers great custom banners, which I'd reccomend to anyone. So go check out this amazing site!" should begin with "Formerly" and the word recommend is spelled wrong.
Your affiliates section is so crowded! I would recommend putting a space in between all of your affiliates. You can do that by organizing your links like this:
Link here
Link here
Link here
Rather than like this:
Link here Link here Link here.
The third button in the final row of your affiliates section is a broken image.
If you have inactive affiliates, just remove them. They are not providing you with sufficient "cross traffic" and if they are inactive I don't see why the visitor to your site would want to go to an inactive site.
You have a double arrow bullet in your credits section where it reads, "Request Layout inspired by Utopia."
The image before your counter is broken.
*FAQ
- Your questions may already have answers!
*Previous Cafe Visitors
- Curious about who has been to the Cafe?
Why didn't you accept my affiliate request!?
First, calm down. Second, there are a few reasons why I may have declined to be your affiliate. I have listed a few reasons below.
Stolen content - a big no, no. There aren't any reviews up for me to read and assess your review style, I like to know how you review before I accept your request. You may have low quality reviews. By this, I mean that the review I looked at was not in-depth and was mainly subjective rather than objective. You are not a review site. Your site is under construction or not yet open. I would like to be affiliates with a review site that is actually offering their service to others.
Will you make me a ____ ?
If I have the time I will state in the updates that I am offering to make certain things. I closed my button request site and Waffle because I was not interested in investing my time into them anymore. So, in general, no I will not make you a ____ .
To be affiliates with Cafe au Lait please title the message: Cafe Affiliates.
Review sites only please.
Cafe au Lait is (c) Elfere.
Image used in the layout courtesy of rose_designs at DA.
The envelope pixel is from Waffle. The bullet pixel was made by me. The arrow pixel, counter base and the dividers are from The Lunch Box.
I learned how to code this layout thanks to Zel's Anchoring Guide. Thank you to CSS Guide for helping me remove the yellow part of the Neopets bar. A huge thanks to CSS for You for teaching me about tables, text effects, headers and text areas. Last but not least, thank you CSS for helping with filter solutions, the hex chart and the div coding!
# of visitors since August 31, 2011
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