Phantasm:
(~250) Avatar + Literate + Private
A private, literate, avatar guild. My, my. I admit that I was also looking forward to reviewing Phantasm. First of all, because they weren't at one of my boards before, and purely came to my page by luck. Well, actually, I didn't ask how they came to my page, but it had to be outside of my influencing board. So I was surprised, but pleased knowing that my page is being spread throughout Neo.^-^ And I mean, it's an avatar guild! I've only ever been in one avatar guild. It was mainly because of luck really. I didn't fit the requirements by like 50 avatars, but somehow I got in. I'm pretty sure that it was because my friend Trish was in the guild so she asked them to give me an invite. She ended up leaving, but then again, so did I. I left because I got homesick of my old guild, but I did enjoy the avatar guild. I've come to think that avatar guilds really are the next best thing. They're probably even more popular than Neopet-related guilds. It's because of the Avatar Chat Neoboard in my opinion. Avatar collectors and lenders are usually snobbish and stick their nose up to everyone who doesn't have as many avatars as they do, based on my own observant documentations and my own experiences. Avatar guilds are also usually very productive as well. They are fueled by the supercoolpopular AC members, most likely have impeccable graphics, tons of members, and requirements. I do and don't understand requirements. I mean yes, it is an avatar guild, so they should keep their requirements to 200+, but I hate that they won't let anyone who doesn't meet it out. :o
Avatar guilds just hold up as a different class. It is supported the most though, by the greedy Neopian users out there who think that if they join, they will be lent expensive, rare, and cool avatars. And actually, they are usually right. What more can you ask for from an avatar guild? x)I like the layout. I cannot say that I love the layout, because I don't like the brown background color and it doesn't apply to me personally, but the layout as a whole is very well organized. The main blog's text doesn't include very much. It just has the basic welcome message, and then a council blog. I won't comment on the council blog because there isn't much to comment on. I'll give them credit though, because it mainly revolves around guild support/news. Also, they have guild team graphic boxes that include their teams' points. That was very cute. On the right: Guild goals, MOTM, Sub-council, Birthdays, and layout credit. I just... like it. :)
The message board is pretty active. Although, I don't understand how the guild can call themselves "literate" when some members post only one sentence, omg, rofl, lol, u(you), and such. I thought that literate guilds posted atleast three to four sentences and above? Maybe they should make a rule about that, but otherwise, they are not what they say to be. The members are pretty active too. The guild could use an inactive member cleanout, but I am proud to say that they wouldn't need to delete very many.
The guild website is incredible.
It has a nice layout design, chatbox, guild news, guild map, and tons of activities. You would most likely never be bored. Haha, the only thing that I find odd is that an avatar guild doesn't have avatar lending. xDD Kind of funny, don't you think?
I'm sorry for the short review. School is about to start and I've been busy. I have other things on my mind like taking the PLAN and PSAT/NMSQT tests in the fall, so I'll be studying my butt off. Then in the spring the SAT subject tests and AP SAT tests. I also signed up for, most likely, too many extra curriculars. I'm sad to say that my guild reviewing days will be slower and take longer.
I guess that I also just don't have very much to say about Phantasm. There wasn't anything very special about it. It didn't bring back memories. It didn't give me anything to talk about. It's just... a nice, literate (though in all honesty should be semi-literate), not-so-unique avatar guild. If you're looking for fun, you could join this guild. If you're a serious avatar collector though, this guild might disappoint.
GUILD STAR CARD
Graphics: ****.5
Activities: ****
Activeness: ****
Organization: ****.5
Literacy: **.5
I give this guild *** stars! A fun, not-so-avatar-focused, avatar guild.
Eccentricity™:
(~18) Adult + Neo-Related + Literate + Private
I was kind of excited to review Eccentricity. x) I guess it must have been the part of me that felt proud, because "I am going to rate an adult +18 guild, but I'm only 15". So the honor of being humbly called, "mature" was a great compliment to me. I've always been mature for my age. It's probably because I grew up in a house full of adults, and I'm an only child. My house was never the type to get friendly with neighbors either, so I didn't grow up around kids to really see how they act. Oh wait, that probably sounded wrong. Don't think that my house is that kind of house on in your neighborhood that is so totally excluded that it's old, rustic, historic, full of ghosts and dead cats, and no one has ever been seen coming in or out. xDD I just mean that we weren't very friendly with the neighbors to go up to their house to ask for Baking Powder or whatever neighbors do - I wouldn't know. We were all very polite, and for some reason every single person in my house still loves neighborhood gossip like, "Who moved into that house?" or "They are re-constructing that house. Is it really that bad?" and little things like that. Except for me of course. I just say, "As long as they aren't ex-cons, murderers, smokers, just got out of jail, or what have you, I don't really care who they are.
It's just that it was about after I was already around twelve years old that kids started coming to my neighborhood. I was already used to being more mature than other kids my age, and the neighborhood kids started to cling to me whenever I tried to go outside to ride my bike. It irritated the crap out of me. It still does. I've just never had much experience with little kids or kids my own age, besides that from school.
I even, if you can believe it, started Kindergarten different than everyone else. I was the first one to be able to read in Kindergarten for one thing, and then I started to read adult books when I was in fourth grade, and actually enjoyed them. I was just always ahead of everyone in my class for some reason. When I was younger, I didn't understand how most of them acted, they weren't funny (and I still don't think that most of the things my friends say are funny either), they did exactly what I wouldn't do and what I knew was wrong, and such. I really am the same way now. However, I'm more polite than I was back then, so now I just go with the flow and act like what they said was funny.
Wrapping this up (because I can already see in WordPad that this is getting to be long introductory paragraph xDD), I think that it was the exclusion from kids and the constant adult atmosphere that made me grow up earlier than most people - actually everyone I know. And so the natural maturity has been fused into my system for so long, that I think that I am in the middle. I can retreat to being around the kids my own age, and then hang over to the adults with poise - if someone could do that. ;D I can understand both sides, which makes me a better reviewer, I guess. x)
Moving along; the guild layout was... acceptable. It hasn't been the worst that I've seen, but it also was not the best. I liked the simplicity of the layout. It reminded me of the good ol' days of Neopets when full paged guild layouts were rare, and "you shouldn't have too much of a good thing" mentality. Guild layouts just weren't as complicated as they are now. They just used to have the simple banner and long table, etc. It gave you your information flat out, and didn't "hide it" with petpages, links, and it told you the truth. Nowadays, everything is so secretive and everything is hard to find. It's easy to get wrapped up in links that you lose yourself all together. Trust me, it has happened to me before with these new guilds. "Over doing it" seems to be the case of these young newbies. I cannot say that Eccentricity couldn't have picked up on some graphics though. The banner was saved as a .JPG (why everyone does that, I'll never know) which I have said before, takes away the quality of the graphic right off the get go. The banner could have easily been perked up by just adding a border to the font rather than shadowing it, and then saved as a .PNG file. Other than that and the poor quality of the other graphics, I wouldn't have anything to complain about. The table header colors were excellent, and everything just fit together perfectly. There wasn't a ton of information, but I would say that there was enough to keep you informed and knowledgable to the guild's happenings. It gets your attention. When guilds have just /too/ much information, do you really read it all? I don't. I skim. There was just a short amount of information: the welcome message, news, and essential links. It was easy to navigate though, in other words.
All of Eccentricity's pages have the same format, and that always makes a guild look professional. Different CSS codes (and premade nonetheless) make a guild seem tacky. Organization gives the impression of guild class. Of course, there are certain exceptions to that rule. It isn't a solid rule that applies to everyone, but it is part of common sense (and applies to those with common sense), don't you think? It shows organization. Smart, eh? -pokes guild star card-
The activities are great.^^ I couldn't tell you how many activities were on the page, because I was blown away myself. They had weekly events (my favorite), daily events (my second most favorite), and then the few regular games. I especially liked how there were many graphic banners. ;D The activities weren't "kiddie". To name a few: Book Club, Wishing Fish, Festive Friday, Warty's Wanderings. I don't have anything to say contrary though. I can't name any games that /are/ "kiddie", but I just felt as though the activities were grown up. It may be because I have never seen them before, and "kiddie" games usually makes me think of the normal, over-used, games that normal kids just copy and use. I think that adults are more likely to come up with original and unique games, more than to copy. Anywho, I still think that the activities were impressive.
There really are too many to actually name here. They had a cool KeyQuest time thing going on though, and then the normal avatar lending, adoption agency, and cute Eccentricity care packages.
The message board is fairly active - for an adult guild anyways. It's not so normal that an adult can be as active on Neopets as a kid, because they have their families, work, college, etc. going on in their real life when all that kids have to worry about is school (Yes, I am talking about normally...). Most adults do have a real life, but I think that this guild is still atleast average about getting on to post.
Though, some members could be let go through an inactive member cleanout.
I don't have much else to say to this guild but to just pick up on their graphics, and to have some inactive member cleanouts once in a while. Eccentricity seems already pretty fit to me. :)
GUILD STAR CARD
Graphics: *
Activities: ****
Activeness: ***.5
Organization: ****.5
Literacy: *****
I give this guild **** stars! Check out GIMP, a free graphics software from the internet (worth trying out), and Eccentricity will be all set.
SAKURANBO:
Asian Themed + Semi-literate + Public
-hums- I wonder what made me agree to review this guild. Was it because my page was new, and I just wanted to review guilds? Or was it because I love Pocket Otaku so much that I thought that I'd give another Asian themed guild a try? I honestly don't know. I must have been so unfocused that I didn't actually click on the public guild's link to see if I /should/ review the guild. I have seen SAKURANBO advertise on the guild boards before, so I thought, "Hey, they seem pretty well known on the GC boards. They could be worth reviewing." -stares off into space-
I think that I should have thought this through before agreeing and putting it on my list. Pocket Otaku was nice for me because it didn't smother you with Chinese, Japanese, and too many Asian themed things. I love Asian themes, animes, and manga, but I don't really know a lot about China or Japan. I don't speak the language, I don't watch Asian shows (other than English dub animes), and I don't know any Asian celebrities. I'm not talking about race or ethnicity, I am talking about celebrities actually over in Japan and China.
So I guess that I am totally clueless. The reason that I joined Pocket was because I even said to Dark, "I love manga and anime art, and I love Asian things. My favorite food is sushi, and my favorite movies are Mulan and Memoirs of a Geisha. (By the way, this was at the time that I hadn't read or watched hardly any mangas/animes.) Is it okay to just have a love for it, but not actually know anything about it? Is that enough?" And he replied yes. SAKURANBO on the other hand, is far beyond my reach. I liked to know that I knew enough Asian themed things to be part of an Asian themed guild, but I would never be able to survive in SAKURANBO.I had a feeling that SAKURANBO was an odd name for a guild, so I looked it up. I just instinctively knew that there must be some Asian background to it. Maybe SAKURANBO was just a translated word, a manga that I have never heard of, or something. It turns out that it is a Chinese/Japanese song, or that was what I got out of glancing at the search engine's information. I've never heard it before, so I automatically felt even more lost.
Pocket usually does have layouts based on an anime or manga, more so than an actual celebrity, so I was shocked to find SAKURANBO's layout of an Asian man. Commenting on the quality of the graphic, I would say that it was okay. It takes some skill to be able to blend images together, and to see comparisions in color. I just wonder why everyone saves their images as .JPG files these days. It doesn't ever do a graphic justice, and it takes away quality. But, the organization of the image mapping links, the blog, and the advertisement boxes flowed. The beginning words, "Hello! Anyoung! Ni hao! Konnichiwa!" in the welcome blog were cute. x)
Commenting on my experiences, I do not know who he is. If I was guildless, I would most likely move on and not consider this guild because I like animes/manga artwork. This guild layout was not exactly made as a work of art. If you do not live in Asia, or you know as much about Asia as I do, this guild is probably not for you. If you do know who that is, know the song SAKURANBO, and/or speak an Asian language, etc., you should feel at home here. :)
The guild home page did contain welcoming, and solid information for both guildless visitors and members part of the guild. Its words encouraged cooperation and such. I like the second anniversary spirit week idea, SAKURANBO. ;D
This guild is extremely active. The message boards are regularily active, with the major help from the guild leader, who appears to have a great impact on it and is involved. This guild is also another one of the better semi-literate guilds. Most posts are over a couple of sentences and really don't have any use of chatspeak that I could see.
The only confusing thing is the Japanese/Chinese characters that I do not understand.
Other than what I can see to be board activeness, I cannot judge the activity of SAKURANBO members. Most of them had joined within a couple of weeks to this review, so I cannot say anything but a few members who are extremely active for being in the guild for such a short amount of time. I was just disappointed to see that everyone in the guild only just joined this guild about a month ago, when this guild is supposedly over two years old. I wonder what happened...
The guild poll was in Japanese/Chinese as well, so I wouldn't personally know what I was voting for. xDD As I have said, if you are an obsessor or something of that nature for the Asian theme, celebrities, and language, this guild could be right for you. However, this guild does not contain enough information for someone from Japan/China and could only speak their language. This guild rightly can confuse both sides. It is more like an English/Asian fuse, so if you don't know one, you won't know the other. Does that make sense? xDD
And finishing this up, I click on the link, "Webbie". I can see the forum image link just fine, but the actual website link does not show up. Yes, I even refreshed to make sure, so I have nothing to rate.
GUILD STAR CARD
Graphics: **
Activities:
Activeness: ****
Organization: ***
Literacy: ****
I give this guild **.5 stars! You should have checked that webbie link. ;) I do not take pity on things glitched and unfinished when I arrive. x) Unless in certain circumstances...
A Mad Tea Party:
Themeless/Artistic + Literate + Private
Quotes from Alice In Wonderland
Caterpillar: Who are YOU?
Alice: This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. I -- I hardly know, sir, just at present -- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.
I know what you are thinking. "What's with the random Alice In Wonderland quote?" Haha, re-read the name of this guild, then click on its link. The whole guild is based on the theme of Alice In Wonderland, that's why! I have never seen an Alice In Wonderland guild before, and I adore the original idea of it. I always enjoyed the story when I was a small kid. Okay, I have never actually read the novel, but I loved the Disney movie. Alice In Wonderland was an excellent scheme because of what Alice In Wonderland stands for. Alice followed the rabbit down the rabbit hole, and was brought into an entire mysterious and strange world with talking cats, Mad Hatters, and the weirdest things that you could imagion. What a wonderful brainstorm, whoever thought of it. Kudos! So, lets follow the rabbit with this review.
The guild's application page was the best that I have seen by far. It immediately gives the impression of the magical world of Alice In Wonderland. The colors fit together perfectly, the text alignment was neat, and the application was split up in a way that I also have never seen before. It was split into the "Short Answers" and the "Long Answers". That gives people an idea of where to put their energy, and tells where AMTP wants to see your personality. I don't exactly know how to explain it, but I like it. x)
The application page begins with a detailed background history that captivates the audience. The rule, "Leave drama to the soap stars" made my day. xD By looking at the page, you can see the environment of the guild shine through: fun, literate, unique, and entertaining. I admit proudly that if I was guildless, I would be automatically tempted to fill out the quick application to join. The only thing that I would make me hesitate is that the guild isn't finished. The "Web and Guide" links do not work because they are under construction. I do not hold this against them though, because I know that I am reviewing this guild as a non-finished product. Don't act like, "AHH, but you gave my guild a horrible review because our guild wasn't finished. Why not AMTP too?!" This is an exception. I can go against my own rules if I want to. -glares-
After filling out the application and sending it in, and promtly receiving an escorting white rabbit invitation, you will see the guild's homepage in all of its glory.
The guild homepage, like the guild's application page, made me feel touched. It brought back pleasant memories of this apartment that I went to with my friend. The apartment belonged to my friend's cousin, and she was a professional artist. The apartment was amazing. The floor was painted with tons of different colors in waves, squares, circles, etc. The walls were plastered with band posters, weird clocks, 1900s advertisement posters, paintings. The room was filled with old 1970s pinball machines, old coffee makers, 1900s dolls... The apartment was like a living canvas. The guild's layout brought back this memory because it had that random, but beautiful work about it. It just reminds me of an art gallery - so if you like art, this guild will not disappoint. :)
The layout just flowed. I loved the flowers that dangled from the top, and that the faerie girl looked as if she was holding the bullseye web link with her hands. The graphic was just too beautiful for words. x) Since this is a private guild, you cannot see it for yourself, but I am very picky with graphics, so you will just have to take my word for it. ;D
The message board was as literate as a dictionary. (Yes, yes. Odd wording. It was the first thing that came to mind.) I didn't see one post that was less than about five sentences, and the rule is no less than four sentences. This guild is extremely and strictly, literate. The members are very mature on their message board, but the "being mature" is not enforced my an age limit. The message board also appears to be active as much as it can be, balanced with its member size and most active members.^^
The thing that I did notice, was that all members outside of council, were "Chasing Rabbits" ranks. That is their default rank. By looking at the guild website, I still liked the ranks, "Slurping Tea, and Stealing Tarts". I just didn't understand the other ranks, "Caucus racing, and ANTI IS THE WALRUS".
However, the person with the most number of posts was 160+, so that wouldn't really be a promotion number of posts anyway. Considering their age though, and how the guild does not post one worded posts and such, that is still impressive.
I got a peek of the guild's website though, and it was great. It had the look of a real website, but somehow was coded excellently onto a petpage. I will not reveal too much information, for the sake of the guild because it is not finished, but it was a picky graphic member's "dream come true".
My visit to A Mad Tea Party was my most pleasant yet. I could see that the members all got along with each other, enjoyed company and newcomers, and all supported and loved their guild. I see AMTP becoming a huge success in the future. Even I was sad that I had to leave.
Quotes from Alice in Wonderland
Alice: I've had nothing yet, so I can't take more.
The Hatter: You mean you can't take less; it's very easy to take more than nothing.
If you enjoy art, graphics, literacy, privacy, maturity, and fun, then I suggest joining this guild above all others.
GUILD STAR CARD
Graphics: *****
Activities: -tba-
Activeness: ****
Organization: ****
Literacy: *****
Quotes from Alice In Wonderland
The White Queen: Can you do addition? What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?
Alice: I don't know. I lost count.
I give this guild ***** stars!
[N.F]x_Neopian Faeries//....|| Guild Website:
Neo-Related + Semi-Literate
Yes, this guild also switches from being public to private, so I thought that I should include both links. This guild is currently having a "public" month, so I wasn't sure about which link to add. Onward_ ..I usually write my reviews to the order of which I see. Maybe that is why people feel threatened or weakened by my reviews - if their review was bad, of course - because I don't start off with the positive things and then write the negative things. They tell you to begin writing that way, good to bad, but I do not do that. I think that you should see the guild through my eyes, chronically. I do not want to "sugar coat" things. I do not believe in that. I wish that I did, because that would save myself time and money buying thicker armor, but I write these reviews to tell the truth. Having a guild is like having a business. Your main focus is to keep the people happy, and the guildless boards are your prey (not the same as "eating" them o_O). It's a war out there. Competition is flying! I want to tell you if you have a chance, and teach you how to become elite. I cannot guarentee you anything; "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder".
I need to write as if I was cold and guildless, if you understand what I am saying. The Neopets Guild Boards subjugate the "survival of the fittest". I just thought that I should clear that up, as to why I write as I do. Don't take it personally. :)
Primordial from me looking deep within the guild, I judged the layout. It did not move me. Don't get me wrong though, I didn't hate the whole layout. I thought that the blending and the Shenkuu items fit in with the theme of Shenkuu, but it wasn't high quality (as it was saved as a JPG) and it could have used some brushes. I cannot really judge the graphics so harshly about brushes, because I do not know what photo editting software the creator had used, but I thought that I should just include that.
The background and color scheme fit perfectly with the Shenkuu theme. The coding was also well put together, except for how the layout overlapped a part of the guild sidebar, which made it look tacky. The table fit perfectly with the banner and included much information. I loved the marquee and the team point pixel blocks. It is a nice reminder to members in each team. ;)
Neopian Faeries does have an entertaining sum of activites, but their pages are terrible. The weekly guild event, HIDE AND SEEK's (the event currently taking place while I was there) petpage layout was okay, but it wasn't excellent. Though, it was better then their normal activity pages. The pages don't contain any special CSS, so they are dull and boring. I would move on if I were guildless. The layout and first look of the guild may tempt someone, but it is like seeing the prince, joining, and having it turn into a toad. (Odd choice of words)
If you do not care about how the pages look, you are still in for a treat with the many things to do. x)
There are faerie teams: Earth, Fire, Water, and Dark, and whichever team you join, that is your rank. Everyone gains admin once they join a guild team (of which I do not approve, but it depends on what type of guild admin every member gets).
The guild message board appears to be active, but it all is how you turn upon it. What is your definition of an active board? There are regulars, but they do have their dead board silences where no one posts for a couple of minutes, a couple of hours. They aren't unactive though, so it's all about how you look at it. NF isn't terribly active, but they can't /really/ be at only around 30 members. Well, I guess that they could, but hardly any guild really is, you know? Real life calls, unless you don't have a real life. ;D
I was actually deleted a little while after I joined the guild to rate it. Promtly the guild leader neomailed me saying that it was an accident, because she was deleting unactive members. I wasn't angry as you might think. ;D I found that little happening an insite that she is active with deleting the unactive members when she must. She said that she deletes unactive member sweeps every month, but as I cannot be in the guild for a whole month, I cannot prove that.
There are 17 members with more than ten posts out of 34. I do not really understand (excluding the newcomers) who she could have deleted, because I saw many inactive members. As Nova Sponge Cakes always says, "Quality over quanity". NF should lighten up and just let go of the unactive members. I can understand how hard it is, if you're a desperate new guild trying to get members, but don't be afraid! Many people will still be attracted to your guild because it will be small and homely. The message board appears homely and everyone looks like good friends. You can also tell that the guild is semi-literate. The guild isn't too bad though, so don't get me wrong. There are those who post with one sentence posts and who do not use proper grammar, but the guild is one of the better semi-literate guilds regarding literacy.
The members seem to love their guild and support it strongly though, and the members are the core of a guild.
There is another thing that I don't understand. The main guild page says that "neopian-faeries" dot co dot nr, is their official website, but the guild leader said that it wasn't. She said that the website and the guild were just allies, so that is misleading if people were a fan of that site and thought that this guild was "thee guild" of the website, if you know what I mean. Maybe instead of underlining above "Official Website", they should say, "Neopian Faeries Ally" or something less misleading.
Neopian Faeries, don't try too hard! Just relax, and focus to appeal to your already joined members rather than to look "cool" to guildless-es. x) The only advice to you, as the only advice I can give to most guilds, is pick up on your coding, CSS, and graphics. You can download GIMP (look up with your favorite search engine), a free photo editting software. You can create, with enough practice, graphics comparable to the leading software PhotoShop and Paint Shop Pro, without having to pay a dime!
GUILD STAR CARD
Graphics: **
Activities: ****
Activeness: ***
Organization: **
Literacy: ***
I give this guild **.5 stars! Ease up, ;D
Ambrosia || Information Page:
Neo-Related + Semi-literate
First of all, before I continue, you must be wondering, "She has never included the guild's link and the guild's information page. Which should I go to?" (If you even should go to either page) Well, the reason that I included both was because I found something out. I was told regarding my form that Ambrosia was private, so I asked for an invitation. However, I was on my side account the other day and happened to click on this account's guild, and Ambrosia was public! So after that, I have no idea what to classify it as. I found that very unreliable, so I just included both pages for whatever "whim" might befall council to change to private again after my review.
If I was guildless, I personally might still consider the guild, no matter how unorganized that was, but my other half would say, "They don't know what they're doing" and might not consider it at all.The layout was unsatisfactory. The layout was dreadfully foggy and there were annoying mistakes with coding. The layout had such bad quality, that someone most likely would have to take a minute to even read what the image map links said. I don't know if it was the layout creator themself that made the layout beyond help, but a suggestion Ambrosia, would be to save your images as .PNG files.
The full paged layout was way to big for the average 1240x700 (I know that those measurements are wrong, but they are close) so I had to use the scrollbar to precisely reach the guild council sidebar to just join. Full paged layouts do not normally need window sidebars, because it is annoying to have to use the window sidebar and the blog sidebars. Ambrosia must not have caught on with that, and just wanted a full paged layout. Notwithstanding the sidebar and layout clearity problems, I guess a guildless person could overlook if they wanted to. The coding snag was that the scrollbar (that shouldn't be there) took you to beyond the image layout to a black background with four white dots, which concluded to be the rest of the poll. That is a mistake as well, but could easily be fixed. I can't tell Ambrosia how though unless I took a look at to their coding and saw where the problem was. They can look here: iamkid's Full Page Guild Coding Tutorial, for more help.
Their pages' coding was unique I have to say. I have never seen anything like it, but that isn't a compliment. The colors used in the header banner were as gaudy as the font and its shadow. I also didn't like to see that bright green as a background. I just didn't think that the color scheme matched, and under the "private" section, they hadn't updated it. I think that they should just make up their mind, "Are you private or not?" and take down the application.
I did like the ranks, but "devine" is really spelt "divine" you know. xDD
I liked the relativity to what Ambrosia means, "Of Greek & Roman Mythology. The food of the gods, thought to confer immortality." to the ranks, "Mortal, Renewed, Youthful, Devine, and Immortal".
I approved of the many many activities that Ambrosia had. There were a total of 22 pages that the guild offered, excluding the donation, dailies, and information pages.
I found this funny. Despite the fact that the "donation" shop is the leader's own shop (when I think that it should be a guild account's shop), there was a link to the donation shop at the top of the link sidebar, and at the bottom. It could have been an accident, but that "accident" may have been a sub-concious mistake, if you know what I mean. ;)
The portal page was better color coordinated than the information page, but I was still disappointed because they could have added more core information. This guild doesn't seem to like to give information, because even in the layout, the council chat was all weak and lame, going on about hair or irrevalent statements. INSITE: "Aliesha: If you are looking for our links, they are now all added to the PORTAL Page!
Jessie: The guild is not getting deleted D; !
Sarina: You're spiffeh. :D
Yoshi: People these days...." and I didn't think that what they had to say was neccissary, except for the guild leader and NOW the co-owner who originally was going on about her new hair.
I also almost missed important guild information, because it was held at the bottom of the blog! It was even after the "very important things that the council chat had to say".
I know that some people may not even agree that I should have reviewed Ambrosia because of their poll, "Question: The guild is becoming in-active, Aliesha is getting internet turned off....what do we do!?
Total Votes: 22
Fill council and TRY to keep the guild going
[14 votes]
Go on a Hiatus
[1 votes]
Wait until aliesha is stable, make a new guild!
[2 votes]
Just shut down the guild already.....!
[5 votes]
Even though there are five people who blatently don't support their guild, I thought that Ambrosia was very active! I guess that it isn't my opinion though, because the guild poll just contradicted me.
I still wanted to review their guild because I agreed that I would. There are many people who have "Ambrosia" somewhere in their siggies which made me think that they were very supportive of their guild, but the poll tells me that not everyone thinks so. What a pity. Ambrosia would have been smarter to not put up the poll until the guild rater left. -_-
GUILD STAR CARD
Graphics: **
Activities: ****
Activeness: ***
Organization: **
Literacy: **
I give this guild ** stars! Sorry, but the poll broke it.
Pocket Otaku:
Anime/Manga/Asian Themed + Literate + Private
Pocket Otaku is amazing. There aren't any other words that can describe it. It is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! (Yes, Mary Poppins lyrics. You betcha. ;D)
I must tell you though, I am actually in Pocket Otaku on my other side account, so my review will be biased. However, that is all the more reason to review it, through the eyes of a serious member! Correct? I'll continue on with the review, but I'll throw in bits of my own feelings and opinions. :)***From the eyes of my old guildless self: When I found Pocket Otaku from my guildless board, I first of all, loved the application page. The banner was cute, there was solid and very important core information that an interested member must know! I was instantly very impressed. The thing that bit me was that you had to fill out an application that had to be 4,000+ characters long. Haha, I tried writing normally myself, filling in with detail of course, and I only barely got up to 1,500 characters. xDD
However, if you are considering Pocket, that ridiculously long application is worth taking the hour long to write.
The layouts are always amazing! They are usually anime/manga related, but the guild also puts up layouts just based on anything Asian related! When I was talking to the most famous Dark (Pocket's wonderful leader) he even mentioned that they had a sushi layout before. If you are interested in anything Asian, this guild is right for you.
I have never went onto the guild message board and found that no one was on. Someone is always on, may they be lurking with "Skitty's Disease; A raging disease that causes members to lurk instead of post" or just simply somewhere else - maybe on a Pocket GC board. The members are extremely friendly to new comers, and they don't drown you with anime/manga if you are afraid because you have never watched/read any. :D If you are an anime/manga fan, you can always start up a conversation easily though. Not /one/ person had zero posts except an old guild account. Everyone participates, and the atmosphere is kind, welcoming, and fun!
The guild website is extravagant and very well put together, as well! Not only does it contain tons of activities, games, wallpapers, userlookups, badges, and banners (the list goes on), but it has anime/manga recommendations which I, as a newbie anime/manga fan, x3, found very helpful!
The website even holds a "Guild Members" page so that if you forget someone's name by chance, as this is a large guild, you won't feel like an idiot for forgetting. =D
As I said, Pocket Otaku is a large guild at 103 members, but the message board is comfortable enough that you can chat with people on, addressing them by name, and still you won't be swept away by millions of posts or maybe even pages. The posts are also always literate, as Pocket is a literate guild.
So now that you have read the main points as to why Pocket is as great as it is, there are tons of little tid bits that would take pages and pages for me to all list, so you will just have to join and find out, eh?! -nudgenudge-
If I had a Spotlight section, Pocket Otaku would definitely be there.
Pocket, I have no doubt, will live until the end of time. They have even shown to us, by example when TNT closed down Pocket in February. They made such a huge comeback, that nothing will stop them. Join the fun, won't you? 8D
GUILD STAR CARD
Graphics: *****
Activities: *****
Activeness: *****
Organization: *****
Literacy: *****
I give this guild ************** stars! And that is out of five stars. ;D
LongBottom:
Harry Potter + Literate + Private
I walked into LongBottom, and immediately a smile spread across my face! I very much enjoyed the guild's layout of Emma Watson, or Hermoine Granger. The blendings were excellently done, and I loved the historic book creases and brushes that were used. The main banner just flowed with the entire layout, and the colors matched scheme perfectly. Well done! I especially liked how the house badges were image maped into the banner, so that when you hover over them, you can see house points! That was excellently done as well, and an original idea in my opinion. :) However, if I may give a suggestion, it would have been better if you could see the house points and are actually able to click on the house badge to be brought to maybe the house's page? Or something along the lines of that? Though it would be hard because I am pretty sure that LongBottom's website is offline, maybe they could make a banner of the offsite link to the house of choice.
Regarding the layout, I also found the sub-positions of the "Floo" for the council and guild sidebar, and the "Howlers" for advertising and such were very cute ideas. I could see that this would be the perfect environment for a serious Harry Potter lover. x)The only thing that I did not get was this one tiny contradiction. The guild claims to be entirely literate, but their welcome message includes, " Because Trevor pwns your mom 8)." If I'm not mistaken, pwns is a chatspeak word. So, obviously, they must have overlooked that "pwns" is not an entirely literate word...
I found happiness when I found that they only had four members had zero posts, excluding me, but I did notice that a couple other members had hardly posted in an entire month. On the contrary, after looking at the message board, I have to say that many other members make up for that short loss! The message board was slow enough to enter a conversation and stick with it without being swept away, but there was always, or so it seemed, someone on to talk with!
After my good and elated feeling from the guild itself, I travel onward_ by the floo-work I might add) to the LongBottom website! And, no surprise to me, the website was great! It was organized, contained solid information, and wonderful coding. I highly enjoyed the Submission Form as well, which was another example of the website's wonderful coding.
The guild had cute Harry Potter related acitivities, and I'm sure that every other Harry Potter lover (as I actually am one myself) would enjoy them. Excluding the "gameroom" activities, there were Classes, Prefect Bathroom and Kitchen grounds, and roleplay forums!
In conclusion, I see LongBottom becoming a very successful guild in the future. They seem to provide their members with everything they need!
GUILD STAR CARD
Graphics: ****
Activities: ***.5
Activeness: ***
Organization: ***
Literacy: ****
I give this guild **** stars. You deserve it!
Bandwagon:
Neo-related + Literate + Private
I have to say this: The guild was a disappointment for me. I have seen this guild advertise on the GC boards before, and thought that, "Hey, this guild is literate and private, maybe it's really cool!" I have to say that I thought wrong. I also thought wrongly because I had never even clicked on its advertisement application page, as I had always been advertising my guild.
Anyways, let's get on with the review.Private, literate guilds always attract attention, am I wrong? For some reason, and I feel this myself, private guilds always are appealing because you can't see them. They are secret to us and to people they think are "un-cool" or "not-worthy", such as, who comes to mind? (n00bs) Private guilds are just so mysterious, so you want to hurry up and fill out the application to get a good look at them, right? I say that with Bandwagon, you would be sorely disappointed, and that you shouldn't even take five minutes of your time to fill out their application. It has the mysterious air of a private guild, and literacy attracts attention, but I found the guild was just a sham.
The application page was premade, which right away reduced some points. However, the application page was created by one of the best premade petpage makers, so the page looks good to guildless people, if they had never seen it before, of course. But the major thing that reduced points, and took my good reputation for the guild, was how it was so likely based on two other, great private and literate neo-related guilds, Nova Sponge Cakes, and Redux. On the application page, it uses the motto: "based on the concept of quality, not quanity" from Nova Sponge Cakes. I cannot say that NSC was the first to create it, as it is an olden quote from back in the ages of time, but I hate repetition. Bandwagon also copied the exact words of "a friendly, tight-knit community" from NSC as well. I found that dispicable, as I hold NSC in the highest regard. Bandwagon also copied it's last application question from Redux, "Do you think that you can comply with our posting rule (at least 2 sentences per post)?" and Redux's "How could you cope with our posting rule (3 sentences or more per post)?" I, personally, would never join a copy cat guild, as I doubt any guildless person who knew about NSC and Redux would either.
Just another quick fact, the website wasn't finished. When I clicked on the website link, it said, "The website is currently being renovated. Please check back soon. Thank you.
-Sammy, guild leader" so that would make me, as well as any another guildless person, also disappointed.
Fortunately, the teams page was finished, but it was also premade. The team names were nice, the "Top Hats, Bow Tie Brigade, and Cufflink Club", but they didn't appeal to me personally. x)
This guild has many games though, so if you like to play games, you could pop into this guild and have fun with that. I didn't see many event activities or anything other than it's gameroom for fun though, and I wouldn't enjoy that much. I personally like guilds that have all around fun if you know what I'm talking about. :)
Bandwagon has a great library though! I was actually expecting articles and journals there, but it was a library where you can check out and read to your pets by your BandWagonTokets (BWTs). I liked that idea, and I thought that it was a very well put together (though it was also in a premade layout).
After checking out what the guild has to offer, I then go to the message board.
The guild wasn't very active either. I can't say that it was totally unactive and boring though. The guild did have members who posted around the same time, but never really /talked/ together in conversation. The guild holds to being literate however! I would give them five starts for sticking to their name. :)
The guild didn't have any, but one member, who had zero posts, but the one with the most posts was the guild leader with 700+ in two months. It isn't the worst, but that certainly isn't the best show for activitiy. If you are an active member, this guild may also not be for you.
The layout also has the Redux theme of having the links up at top, then the layout, but that isn't a big thing. I'm probably just being protective because Redux is my old guild, but Bandwagon has many sly comparisons with Redux...
With its desperate premade layouts, sly comparasions to popular and successful guilds, Bandwagon has certainly jumped on "The Bandwagon".
This guild lacks originality, so be warned. :)
GUILD STAR CARD
Graphics: *
Activities: **.5
Activeness: *.5
Organization: *.5
Literacy: *****
I give this guild *.5 stars. I like orginal guilds, not copy cats.
Simply Neopets:
Neo-Related + Semi-literate + Public
My, my! The third guild review that I have written, and I finally see a guild layout that I could live with! The background is nice, and the colors match perfectly with the "Simply Neopets" main welcome banner. You look at the guild and immediately it sparks some interest. :) I also liked how this guild layout also included guild news that was labeled with the date of the event. The guild goals at the bottom was a nice finishing touch.As I now see on the right hand side -- the guild website! I click on it of course, and am lead to the guild website. My hopes sink immediately. This website, with the guild layout that was so promising, is premade. I sigh. Well, we can't dwell on the premades for long, I must continue on with my records.
I like the nice touch of "Sun Points" that the guild gives out though, and I really enjoy the island themed member ranks.
The guild isn't put together though. I clicked on "Activities" and the link was some wolf petpage, and I clicked on other important fun things, which lead to default, blank pages. I wonder what happened, and how big of a turn-off a guildless person would find that. I frankly found it a bit irritating, that I now have to give a terrible review, because I have nothing to work with!
-tear-
The guild isn't very active either. If you are a laid back person who doesn't like to chat very often, I suppose that you could slide in a Hi, but if you are an active person who likes to chat, this guild might not be for you.
I also don't know exactly when the guild poll was put up, but it was not a very promising outlook to the guild's activeness as only one person had voted, and that was most likely the creator.
I could feel this empty, cold-air gap for some reason in the guild, that I felt that I would not fit in, because I am a person who likes graphics, activities, and members having fun on the message board! There also were a lot of members who hardly had posted anything for weeks since they joined, but I suppose that it doesn't matter. It just depends on how you look at it and what you are looking for.
GUILD STAR CARD
Graphics: .5
Activities: *
Activeness: *
Organization:
Literacy: ***
I give this guild *.5 stars. Sorry, but this guild could use some improvement!
Iconic:
Neo-related + Semi-literate + Public
When I first started to rate Iconic, I was a bit disappointed right from the start. I found that the layout was too bland, and it being full page didn't fit. The layout falls short of a full page layout by hundreds of pixels, and it does not blend in with the background. Though I am looking at it with the 1247x700 resolution, so maybe it's just me.
The first look of it is a huge turn-off for guildless members in my opinion, and they are most likely going to pass the guild as a "not considering". However, if the guildless person is not interested in graphics, I say that Iconic has a chance.
The links are immediate however. Most guilds only include the main three links, "Chat, Join, Web" but Iconic was very thorough with its offers. It gives the guildless member an insite as to what they could look forward to, which is good. :)
I would suggest that Iconic would stop using premade petpage css layouts. Guildless members like to see original work, but Iconic's website and petpages do not show it. Also, I would suggest that Iconic would examine their grammar and spelling mistakes, as "Welcome" was spelt "Welocme". It would have been a huge turn-off right off the bat for literate people, but if they didn't care, they could brush that away.
The website would have been better if they would include guild links as well. It provided me with no choice but to click "Go back" with my own browser to get back to the guild.
Iconic did not have many activities I found, and I found that disappointing as well.
Iconic was not very active on their guild message board either. Their silent board sections are at random times, but I noticed that only a few people post regularily, and only four out of their 14 members (excluding me) voted in their poll.
However, I noticed that hardly any members have no posts, which made me happy. :) The highest number of posts have been 2,000+ posts in five months, so maybe that actually isn't the best. :/
As in a conclusion to this guild, if you do not mind being in a premade and not so unique guild, this guild may be for you.
Iconic, if they work on learning more about graphics and CSS, could prevail as a nice and well put together guild.
GUILD STAR CARD
Graphics: *
Activities: *
Activeness: **
Organization: *
Literacy: **
I give this guild ** stars. Nice! Or maybe not so nice...
CSS BY AXISTE
Started August 09, 2008
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