Entertainer Ratings©
Welcome to Entertainer Ratings. We give in-depth reviews and a rating. The rating amount can vary depending on the reviewer, but mostly it will be out of 5 or 10 stars. We review any guild/graphic page no matter the theme. Our in-depth reviews will consist of multiple paragraphs telling people about your guild/site and what the reviewer's opinions were.
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Newest reviews at the bottom of the page. ;D
Toxic Vibez [nr, semi-lit, public]
On first impression, Toxic Vibez's layout seemed somewhat plain compared to the extravagent layouts that many NR guilds were sporting. But it didn't cover up their stats, which doesn't violate TNT's rules. There's a plus! When viewed in IE, the coding was good, but in FF it was slightly off. The welcome message seemed good enough, although not telling anything about the guild other than 'semi-literate and neo-related,' which so many other guilds claim. There was nothing particularly eye-catching or unique about the first glance. The owners, based on the owner chat, seemed friendly and welcoming. It was also nice to let their guild know about their vacation schedules and when they'd be online_ They also seemed very attached and dedicated to the guild which is always a good sign. There was only one council spot open at the time I was reviewing Toxic Vibez, which could turn off many guild-searching people looking for a guild that they could
progress in. Their teams seemed to be active, which is another good sign and shows that there is entertainment.
First Impression Rating: *** 1/2
So, next I headed over to the webbie and portal to take a look at the content. The webbie layout didn't have the best CSS, which could be a disadvantage for those guildless people who make their decisions on the quality of the graphics and CSS.The webbie held everything your average webbie did. I noted the ranks were fairly easy to reach, which allows for easy rank progression, which could have it's ups and downs. The portal layout wasn't especially spectacular, either, but there were a
good amount of choices and entertainment. The activity pages had the same 'ol activities that many other NR guilds offer. There were many participants for each one, so that's a plus. They offered many things as well, from 1NP auctions to newbie packs.
Overall, the content wasn't too spectacular and there wasn't much that was eye-catching and unique, but it did provide many things to do.
Content Rating: ** 1/2
The quality of the guild seemed so-so. I can tell the owners put effort into everything, but I think everything could have been a bit better. :3 The activeness of the guild overall seemed pretty normal. The members seemed dedicated and active with teams and activities, but the guild boards (at the time I was there) were fairly slow. A member had just posted 5 minutes before I had, and I waited over 15 minutes for a reply, but none came. It may have been a lull in the chatting, which most guilds have,
of course. A previous rating at said that they were extremely active, so I think I may have come on at a slow time. I looked back, and there were good chats going on for a while. But most lasted only about 15 minutes, and then it died down. For the 26 members they have, there were 7500+ messages, which is okay. There were not 0-posters, which is FANTASTIC! But there were three 1-posters, and two 2- to 3-posters.
Quality Rating: **
Activeness rating: 3 1/2
Although I didn't get a chance to talk to anyone yet at the time of this review, I re-read the previous posts and everyone seemed mellow and welcoming. There was no 'ZOMG NEW MEMBER' barrier that you have to break down to be accepted.
Friendliness Rating: *****
Overall Rating: *** 1/2 out of *****
Toxic Vibez seems like a great guild. Especially for people who enjoy the ocasional leisurely chat. There are many fun activities for entertainment, which is a major plus.
Visit Toxic Vibez
Review By Bella
Topaz [twilight, semi-lit, public]
At first glance: Topaz has a very simple, yet pretty layout that doesn't overwhelm you with bright colors, odd shapes or anything intense. I love the idea of a link to the info, as well. That takes some great coding, which give the impression that Topaz has pretty good coders. The CSS is simple; it is not the strong point of the layout. Their intro is very warm and welcoming, and uses proper grammar, spelling and punctuation, as does the whole front page. There is quite a few owners, all appearing very sweet. However, Laura's blog runs off the page and only if you knew the arrow key trick you could read the complete blog. Small error, I'm sure their coders could pick up on that. The teams are in a very tight competition and that lets me know that their teams are equal, none is superior to the other. If I was a Twilight fan I'd be very interested. First Impression Rating: ****
After my first glance at the guild, the webbie was my next destination. It is offsite, which is technically against Neo's rules. The webbie's layout is quite amazing, I must say. Completely by the owners, too – nothing pre-made for Topaz. The CSS impresses me much more than the front page's. It notes on the front page: "We're semi-literate and spoiler free, so you can join if you haven't read all the books, without getting any of them spoiled!" That's very lovely. I'm not an avid reader of the series and this makes me want to jump into the guild even more. The rules are pretty generic, with the exception of the "no spoiler" rule. The teams look very fun, with actual prizes for the team with the most points! So many guilds do it solely for the spirit of competition and their teams flop. I'm sure members have tons of team spirit. A couple of the activities are pretty ordinary, but they all have stories, and that shows the owners but work into this page. The avatar-lending page is very plentiful, and there's no collateral, which is kind of risky… The role-playing is almost a completely different site, and it's okay in activeness & content. The fanfic section is a lovely display of the talent that Topaz has. There are many graphics, and the owner page is pretty basic, as is the member directory. Content Rating: ***½
The quality is superb. The effort put into Topaz is amazing. There was endless hours spent towards this, I can tell. The quality could be amped up slightly, in a few areas like the activities, role-playing, etc. Quality Rating: ***
The guild seemed kind of active… though a few recent posts were spam and there is many multiple posts by members. Chatting seemed slow, and it was a Saturday night on the time of review. Odd… Upon clicking on "Members," I immediately noticed that there were some posters in the 1000s and many posters in the 100s! Sadly, there was nine 0 post members. Activeness Rating: **½
I didn't have the chance to chat with anyone, but looking back in the posts new members are accepted usually sort of quickly, though not the best I've seen. Friendliness Rating: **
Overall Rating: *** ¾ out of ***** If you like the Twilight series, are exited about the movie, and like freebies, avatars, awesome layouts and/or team competition, Topaz is one to consider.
Visit Topaz
Review by Char.
Delicacy [NR, public, semi-lit]
Delicacy is a 'brand spankin' new NR guild. From the first sentence of the welcome message, I felt they would be very welcoming and friendly to new members. The welcome message was complete with a little humor...and a little confusing, but it gets the point across. (and a few errors, too.) The layout was very nice. Nothing too extravagant; a normal, full-page custom. But it seemed to fit well with the guild. Not much to see after that on the front page of Delicacy, so I clicked the webbie link. -dun dun dun- Actually, it has a very nice layout. The content basically had what every webbie should have. Although I was slightly insulted when I joined and realized I was 'replusive,' (:3), the rank descriptions made up for it. It was fairly easy to rank up. Overall, the first impression was pretty good. Nothing to knock my socks off, but it definately could have been worse.
First Impression: ****
I'll admit I was disappointed with the amount of content the guild had. I looked at the portal to find only 4 links- two of them being the guild & webbie. They'll probably get more as the guild progresses, but many guildless people look for activities, plots, events, etc. to keep them entertained. The remaining links were for fonts and an adoption agency. The fonts page had one default font with different colors for different avatars. Not much of a variety. All the colors provided were for avatars that weren't easy to get, either, but I'm kintpicking now. :3 Next: the Adoption agency. The background
really stood out. And not in the best way. The layout wasn't exactly as good as the others (which were all the same) but it got the job done. After that, there wasn't any more content to base my rating off of, so-
Content: *
(They'll probably add more soon, since Delacacy is new. I recommend adding some activities pretty soon.)
At the time I was in Delicacy, no one was at the boards. The last post was two hours before I had joined. If you were lucky enough to be on at the same time someone else was, there were conversations from what I could tell. There weren't any 0-posters, though, with is a plus. I'm not sure how much of an accomplisment that is with about 14 members, but it's still good. ;D The members that were in the guild seemed pretty dedicated. Everyone except 3 members (not including me. ;D) had at least 10 posts. Not much more to review about the activeness of Delicacy without teams or activities to base the rating on. I'm sure, with a few minor additions, the rating would increase. As for friendliness, everyone seemed very welcoming. Of course, I'm basing my decision on previous posts and the owner chat. I'm sure everyone would be very nice and welcoming to new members. For now, I'll give Delicacy a:
Activeness: * 1/2
Friendliness: ****
(I'd give Delicacy a 5 in friendliness if I could have talked with some of the members and knew for sure.)
There could have been a bit more time put into Delicacy before opening. (I think Delicacy was open at the time of this review. I didn't see anything about a Grand Opening or pre-joiners. :3) In my opinion, a guild should have at least one activity of some sort before opening. The quality wasn't the best I've seen, but the graphics were decent. (and I really did like the layout. ;D) There's not much to judge this rating on, so (once again) for now:
Quality: ***
Overall, I think Delicacy has some good potential if they put a bit more effort into making it appealing to people. Come up with some unique ideas to draw people's attention, and then make sure members aren't disappointed.
Overall: ** out of *****
Visit Delicacy
Review by Bella
Revelry [NR, Semi-lit, Public]
When I first clicked on Revelry's link, I was blown away by the uniqueness on the layout. The way they positioned the imagemapping was outstanding. Not many people would have the outstanding of using neopet backgrounds as photos, and the photos as the Join, Chat, and Website links. In addition, using the notebook as a blog. The layout looks a bit bland, and the blog coding looks a tad off, plus, the coding itself is also a tad off. However, those are minor negatives. I would give the first impression rating a 3.5 out of 5.
The content in the blog area isn't much text, so that would be a thumbs down. The headers I must say are unique as well. A scribble-ish feeling. I would recommend to this guild maybe a "News" section, or a "Council Chat" section. That would make it a little more appealing. I would give it 4 out of 5.
Now to the activeness... Telling from the Messages section of the "My Status" part of the sidebar, it's to be honest, decent, judging from the members to the messages. I assume that there are at least 3 or 4 inactives, but overall, I give the activeness of the guild a 3.5 out of 5.
The quality is actually fantastic. The webbie, the layout, etc. Outstanding indeed. Though, I would add a donation shop, but overall, I would give it a 4.5 out of 5.
My overall score for this guild would be a 4 out of 5. I would recommend this guild to those who like something new and unique.
Visit Revelery
Review by Potato
Crisp [scribble, public]
LAYOUT & CSS
When I clicked on the guild link for Crisp, a "brand new scribble guild", I was disappointed by the layout and coding. The layout could have been done by me, a complete un-scribbler. xP It was just a whale with some water. It was on a plain white background - the effort it looks like it would require? Maybe 20 minutes, at the most. The CSS was even more disappointing. Incredibly trendy, for one thing. The join chat web links with a hidden stats bar, advertisement boxes, and a blog box. The headers were simple, too. The "Guild Home | Guild Help | My Guild " links were partially visible due to iffy coding (on fire fox). In Safari, this problem is solved. In Opera, it is still partially viewed.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Reading in the introduction, there were no capital letters. Not one. (Besides the "CSS" - but whatever. xD) And overuse of exclamation points. Dx The welcome message was bland. It didn't make me want to join at all. It said that the guild was new, who it was owned by, and a note to members to advertise and stay active. Um, would you want to join a guild that needed to remind members to stay active? Just my opinion. xD I like the updates section, very organized. But, today is the 11th, and the last update was the 3rd. Yikes! No updates for more then a week? =| Reading further into the owner blog, the short quips would be interesting to members, but not people looking to join. Some of them were along the lines of how many members they had, each different; 82 members ?! " ; "90 members ?! A few also mentioned how happy they were for being chosen as ownies. Hoorah. The council looks good, only two spots filled. No need to rush - that's a good sign. The poll was had a disturbing. 8 votes!
ACTIVITY/FRIENDLYNESS
The boards seemed to be outrageously active, considering the stats! 140k messages in 12 days.... wow! And when I visited the boards, they were, no surprise, incredibly active! I posted to introduce myself at 5:39. Three members quickly and warmly welcomed me! Unfortunately, when looking back on posts, almost every single one was related to members: its ok we can gain 3 members!" , " Woot! 98 memebrs!!!" ; "AWWHH -weeps- we lost a membeer D: etc. There was a little chat on Twilight and music, though. Chat is the key word! Nothing intense or heavy.
I noticed some members had names of other member in their fonts. While it may be a little excluding, it really bonds members and shows Crisp has brought friends together! Kudos for that!
Some numbers: 42 people with less then 20 posts, 9 0-posters, 97 total, 1435 is the highest posts, the owner is the 9th most active member, 31 members with 100+ posts, 1 owner had 176 posts.
I visted the boards a little later. Well, I guess people signed off. xP
-is bored- -goes to make scribble-"
hmmmdidlydoo."
got to go guys. cyaa! hopefully when im on again there will be 100 members. cya!"
CONTENT
The website, first of all, obviously wasn't updated recently, considering it only lists 3 out of the 5 owners. It, in short, pounded advertising into peoples heads to advertise and participate. One of the rules was posts must be 4+ words long. This rule was not enforced - that is all I have to say. It also says to please be literate, but I guess uppercase letters don't count. xD Maybe that's just a scribble-guild thing. Hmm...The updates portion the the webbie was last updated August 1st to tell the guild they are pre-opening that day. Well, okay. How....informative.
There were so many links! That's great! Lots of member-made activities, which is always important, and shows member involvement. Most of them were scribble related, and sound fun. Although not many entries; most had 2 or less, and in a 90+ member guild? Well, that is a bad sign.
The mascot activity, though not original, had four well made, very cute and talented entries! They were very good! I also liked the scribble gallery, it was vewy coot. (:
Lots more activities! Though not very unique, the members really looked like they had fun making them! And they showed plenty effort in each and every design.
OVERALL
I was not too pleased with Crisp, considering the member count. I honestly do not think they deserve all those members. It's run-of-the-mill and quite average. I give it a 70% out of 100%.
CRISP IS GOOD FOR YOU IF: You love activities, you like active message boards, you are a newbie scribbler, you want lots of friends
CRISP ISN'T FOR YOU IF: You like to talk about scribble stuff more then anything else, you like offsite websites, you need custom CSS, you are advanced and don't want to be with beginners
Visit Crisp
Review By Alice
Last Chance [Graphics site]
LAYOUT & CSS Upon entering Last Chance, I immediatly was confused - a no-no for any website. I didn't evn know what website it was if I haven't looked at the address bar! The layout is, well, horrible. It is a square image of a blend (although hardly a blend, considering there are definite lines mostly) of Vanessa Anne Hudgens. There are giant light spark thingies going through the middle which is so distracting. The layout does not have a border and it does not blend with the background. It is just a block of pictures with a texture and words. The background clashes. The text on the layout has no effects for the most part. It is just typed out and schlapped on! What your eyes immediately go to is "Featuring Vanessa Anne Hudgens". Well, that's just the alyout! No visitor will appriciate that. I didn't even realize the links were on the layout, or anywhere. Until I hovered over them, then I found out. And I had to hover to see what the heck it was, since it is going down, which is really annoying.
The CSS is bad, to put it plainly. The imagemap is /so/ overused! Seriously! ._. The headers are kinda cool, but there is not enough contrast between the text and the BG that you have to highlight to see what the heck you're reading. And, just a question. How can you have Top Affs if you don't have any affs? And the "APPLY" text doesn't even link to a page. How will people apply? They will immediately be turned off and not want to go through the trouble of finding the page. Then, there is the CBOX, which is so tacky. You should just be able to leave a commment. CBOX's are heavens for spam. If people want to contact the owner, they should have a contact page.
CONTENT Er, how am I supposed to critique "HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"? o_o Is this considered content?
When I clicked resources:
The requested URL /REQUEST LINK HERE was not found on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Okay.
Staff page? Am I supposed to critique "HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" again?
Site page?
The requested URL /SITE LINK HERE was not found on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
QUANTITY OF CHOICES : No choices at all, 0/100
QUALITY : Horrible, 0/100
VISITORS SATISFACTION/COMMENTS : No visitors, no satisfaction, no comments, 0/100
FIRST IMPRESSION : The only good thing was the headers 2/100
OVERALL: 0+0+0+0+2=2/400 = .5/100
LAST CHANCE RECEIVES A .05% OUT OF 100%, GOOD LUCK NEXT TIME.
lastchance[d]vintage-crimes[d]net
Review By Alice
Bonjour [Graphics site]
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I was interested when I first entered bonjour. The layout is small bu effective. It is some sort of blend. I really like the colors are rainbow, which is hard to make CSS for. It only has one visible brush, a text one under the site name.
CSS
First of all, the coding is not good. The ME+NAV+LINKS OUT section overlaps the main place. How unattractive. The colors are really cool, the deep purple in the headers! And the gradient definitally makes it look more professional, as well as the uppercase, elegant font. The links, when hovered, make a block which, while unique, is unique for a reason. It doesn't look too good and is kinda annoying. I like the backround, the simple dot pattern. It doesn't make you blind, but it is pretty and subtle. x3 OH, NOOOO! I just noticed credits on the bottom. SHE EDITED JORDDAAN'S CSS. Okay, scratch all the nice things I said about it. =.= If you are going to have a website, make your own CSS! Jeez. o_o
FRONT PAGE
Well, it looks like there is a nice little welcome paragraph. Too bad I can't read it because of the coding. Well, on to the blog! The first one is an update, which is great to keep visitors updated on new stuff! A lot of the blogs is mostly personal life. It keeps your interest fora few minutes, but then you get kinda bored. There should be some comedy, or some bold/italics/underline to make it a little more interesting. Also, sperate the big blocks of text to make it less daunting.
CONTENT
Stefani has one set of brushes, only available in stamp form. They're cute! I actually really like those. Wow. Make more please. =D The adoptable page is pathetic. No one uses them. Wtheck are you supposed to do with them, anyway? Sure, they're cute. But....xP Patterns have a small selection. I would only use one or two of them, though. Err, the PSD page is just PNGS. Therei s a difference. When you click them, they are not downloaded, you go to an image. Plus, there are only two. The layout is kinda cool. The big black things with the flowers in it is distracting and don't look good, they bring down the quality. You should do your credit somewhere on teh layout so people can't cover it, by the way. And, you should have them coded, since no one will use something with no code. Sorry, just being honest.
QUANTITY OF CHOICES : 35/100 ~ Add more of each thing, especially brushes. Hint hint. (:
QUALITY : 60/100 ~ Much of the stuff was pixely
VISITOR SATISFACTION/COMMENTS : 50/100 ~ The two comments seemed to like your blogs, though both comments by the same person. Try advertising more!
FIRST IMPRESSION : 85/100 ~ Neat and put together, just coding is off
OVERALL : 35+60+50+85=230 ~ 230/400 = 57.5% OUT OF 100. YOU HAVE POTENTIAL! KEEP GOING AND DON'T GIVE UP! ADVERTISE AND ADD MORE CONTENT! MAKE YOUR OWN CSS! GOOD LUCK!
missy[d]colorfuldoodles[d]com
Review By Alice
Pocket Otaku [Asian, Private, Literate]
The first impression of Pocket Otaku is honestly fantastic. They have a layout that looks VERY good, with quality custom graphics, that still follows TNT's rule. (Which is not to cover up the links) The only minor critique I could point out for the layout was that it was hard to read the dark text when it was over the dark parts of the layout and vice versa with the light text. The owner chat really gave a taste of the owner's personalities without talking much about inside jokes, which didn't make me feel left out. :3 After finishing marveling over the layout, I went to the 'joining rules' page. The layout suited the page perfectly. I would recommend changing the font to a different type do it doesn't look so default, but that's really only my opinion. The page was full to the brim with all the perfect information that guildless people would like to know. I especially loved the FAQs section. A nice touch. ;D It was very reassuring that Pocket Otaku has been around since 2005. Overall, the first impression was almost perfect. ;D
First Impression Rating: ****.5
Next, onto the content. My oh my. One word: Wow. (in a good way) But let's start with the website layout. It's
very nice. I loved the brushes that were used. The 'Quick Pocket Facts' were very entertaining. That was a really nice idea. Now, to the actual content. There's so much! Almost every activity is complelety unique or has a twist to it somehow. I was surprised to see that Pocket Otaku's content even included Japanese lessons. There is absolutely nothing bad to say about the content. There is also alot of participants for the activities. Pocket Otaku's content is the perfect example of what guilds should strive for. ;D I was really impressed with the well thought out plots. Before I go on and on about what else impressed me, I'm just going to say that there is something for everyone. Hopefully that sums it up about right before I write too much.
Content Rating: *****
The quality of Pocket Otaku and the time and effort put into it by the owners and members is outstanding. I wouldn't say it's absolutely perfect, but it's just about. I'm not sure if I have to say any more than that.
Quality: ****.5
The activeness & friendliness of the Pocket Oktaku members is what any guildless person would look for. They are very active, but not too overwhelming. There are some inside jokes and all, but that's to be expected. There seems to be someone on whenever I checked. They had a whopping 43k messages, and they increased by almost 100 from the start to the end of this review.
Activeness: *****
Friendliness: *****
Overall:
As much as I tried, I really couldn't find anything to critique besides the minor things I already mentioned. If you're looking for a well-established guild that has a little bit of everything, that as an insane amount of activities, and that is extremely active, Pocket Otaku is a great choice. ;D
Overall Rating: *****
Congratulations, Pocket Otaku. ;D
Visit Pocket Otaku's Joining Page
Review by Bella
CHIAPOP [NR, semi-lit, private]
I clicked the link to CHIAPOP and I was immediately impressed with the layout. It was unique and fresh. I've never seen the same picture used for a layout before. The coding was also different from many of the other NR guilds, but not as unique as the actual layout. The links were not covered up, with is a plus for TNT. The council was pretty much filled except for the last position, which could be a set back for some guild searching members. In the owner chatter, one of the owners hadn't typed anything yet and one of the owners had typed 'ADVERTISE ADVERTISE ADVERTISE' which gives the impression that they are focusing on their member count. There wasn't much in the welcome message other than stating that they were a private NR guild that supports their members. They also included the teams on the front page. There seemed to be a good amount of points for each team, so that means active! Of course, I wasn't sure how easy it is to get points. So I made my way to the webbie. I loved the webbie layout. It's very neat and easy to read & navigate. The graphics are easy too look and eye-catching. A major plus for those guild searching people who look for quality custom graphics.
First Impression: ***.5
I'd add a bit more information about CHIAPOP on the webbie. Since the guild is private, guildless people will be looking to the webbie for their information. Just stating that CHIAPOP is fun, NR, private, and friendly isn't exactly telling a lot about it.
Next, I took a look at the content. I went down the links in order, starting with the application page. The requirements are understandable, although I thought the hour a day thing might be a little demanding, but at least it promotes activeness. ^^ Next- the rules. Same old same old. Rules are rules. :3 Onto the next link. (skipping a few in between) I noticed in the meet the owners section that only one owner posted about them. Not exactly a plus. Onto the guild teams. I thought the assigning-members-to-a-team-once-they-join idea is really efficient and takes away from some of the
unnecessary competition between team leaders & team members. The random contest was outdated. It said that the last day to submit entries would be on the 2nd and that the voting will take place on the 3rd. It the 12th. It would be a good idea to update that. 3 of the 5 team activities had no participants and the remaining two didn't have much, either. I would expect a bit more from a 30+ member guild. Next, I visited the adoption agency. The only thing I could point out there is that the image map doesn't work. (At least, on IE it doesn't work. I didn't check on FF or Safari.) The quality of the graphics is really nice. (: The activities page was somewhat confusing and a lot to look at all at once. From what I could discern, many of them had at least one participant. However, it seemed like the same one person participated in most of them. There were a few others here and there.
Content: ***
I would suggest promoting your activities a bit more, especially the team related ones. Also, maybe change the font face & line height of the text on the activity page to make it easier to read. Maybe adjust the text alignment so it's not always centered. That may make it a bit less confusing.
Although I didn't join CHIAPOP to see the activeness first-hand, I stalked (xD) the post count for a few minutes. After about 15-20 minutes, there were 9 new posts. Which is moderately active. I may have just caught a lull in the chatter. There were 4300+ posts with 30 members. I've seen better stats, but it's not exactly bad. Combining that info with the participation of teams & activities, I'd rate their activeness:
Activeness: ***.5
I've definitely seen less active guilds. Keep up the good work and promote chatting & those activities more. ;D
As I've mentioned before, the quality of the custom graphics were superb in my opinion. Although most of it was trend-following, I was impressed with the layout. The picture used was very unique. ^^ The other graphics & CSS was also pretty good. Not the best of the best, but it's still good.
Quality: ****
Overall: *** ¾
Great job, CHIAPOP. With a few minor adjustments (telling more about your guild on the webbie, promoting activeness with your current members and not pushing for more, adding some unique twists to the content so everything's not so bland, etc.) CHIAPOP will be a great guild. (: If you're looking for another NR, semi-lit, and private guild with a decent but not overwhelming member count, quality graphics and a few basic activities, then CHIAPOP is one to consider.
Visit CHIAPOP's web
Review by Bella
Writing Down the Bones [Literate, artistic/Neo-related, private]
When I first saw Writing Down The Bones being advertised on the GC, I knew that it wasn't just your average guild following the unoriginal trend that many follow these days.
As with many private guilds, there is always a sense of excitment and curiosity to what you will expect as you cant see anything at all until your invited by a fellow member.
I was not one to be disappointed as I was immediately directed to the Writing Down The Bones' Prospective Members' Page! Instead of being bored with the usual application process consistng of the requirements and such that many private guilds have, Writing Down The Bones went the extra mile to make sure you knew exactly what you would excpect in the guild, what content and activities were on offer and the overall vibe of the guild it's self.
As I was so intrigued it didn't take me long to fill out an application, and before I knew it I had recieved a very warm welcoming neomail saying I had been accepted as a member! My first impressions of the guild had already exceeded my expectations so of course I was very posotive about what I would discover on the guilds homepage..
The layout is quite simple, but yet fresh at the same time, a style that I have not seen many guids use. The layout has a nice warm welcoming feeling about it, whch is great for new members to view for the first time! But best of all it's not to busy and instead of the usual council chat, and a little paragraph on what the guild name means, Writing Down The Bones takes a different mature approach.
I think it's good that they have a great welcoming message to introduce themselves because thats what counts when it comes to first impressions.
First Impression Rating: ***** (Five stars)
Next I go straight to the webbie to check out the content, again Writing Down The Bones have a very nice little introduction and alot of interesting links for it's members to explore! The content ranges from "A new kid guide" for new members, to all kinds of different actvities that are very imaginative and very witty!
The best thing I loved content wise on the webbie, was how Writing Down The Bones encouraged members to get involved within things going on around the guild!
For instance, the Fesnyings, which are commanly reffered to as "guild teams" on the GC. Writing Down The Bones completely takes this idea to a whole new level with a strongstructure and fun concept. You can really see the creative side of the guild and I think that this idea cannot be compared, nor challenged by any other guild I have seen in a long, long, time.
The next thing I would like to mention is "guild jobs", as known on the GC this feature is quite common in guilds. After all it's always nice to have different members suggesting new ideas in to the guild and getting a chance to show everybody just what they can do.
But the best thing I like about the jobs is that the guild gives you so many different posts to choose from, and that they are all exciting in one way or another. Instead of the usual jobs like "advertiser" and "banner maker" the owners have obviously spent time thinking on what their members would actually want to do. I think thats great that even in this situation the owners always think of their members.
The last thing I would like to mention is the guilds newspaper, and no this isn't your average newspaper which has a premade layout and has story submissions every two months..
Oh no, Writing Down The Bones has it's own dedicated team of amazing people releasing a new issue every week on a Monday. Members have the chance to submit their own work, but dedicated people write and draw things for the newspaper every week, which I think is fantastic because you dont see many people doing that in guilds these days.
Content Rating ***** (Five stars)
Writing Down The Bones is a very active guild, most guilds have different posting rules but Writing Down The Bones lets members talk in what I find quite a literate and unique way. Most posts can range from a few paragraphs to a couple of posts in length, yes this may sound challenging but the conversations are so deep that you dont have much trouble finding the words to write. Out of 45 members there is not 1 member with 0 posts which I think is a major achievement for a guild that has been running for the over 2 years.
As for activities and The Feses (teams) both seem pretty good when it comes toactiveness, for instance a variety of members participate in various different themed activities from writing a poem to doing a sudoku there is something for everyone so you wont be bored, Most activities run for around 1 week but some are 2 weeks before being resetted with a brand new challenge I think this is a good idea as it gives everyone a chance to do something without having to rush. Another good thing I like about the feses is that there are a lot of ways to earn points for your team, not just by participating in activities so everyone gets involved and helps out their teams.
Activeness rating: **** (Four stars)
When going onto the guild message board you will always find guild members chatting to each other or introducing themselves to members, no one is ever left out or not replied too and if someone has a question then they can go onto the board and ask for help. I think this is a very strong part of the guild as there is no drama as in other guilds I have seen .
Friendliness: ***** (Five stars)
The quality is fantastic, I rarely come across a guild like this where the owners have been so hard working and passionate about what they are doing, this is not just a guild that will be gone in 2 weeks it will be here for a very long time. Numerous amount of effort has been put into this guild to make it enjoyable and successful for everyone who is a part of it, I guess you could say it is a fun community where you can get away from the real world.
Quality Rating: ***** (Five stars)
Overall I think Writing Down The Bones is an outstanding guild! It's been open for 2 years and still going strong, with it's great council and members Writing Down The Bones can onlyget better. So to Kristen, Writing Down The Bones' phenomenal leader thankyou, you have created such a nice heart warming guild and to everybody at Writing Down The Bones I wish you all the best of luck!
Overall Rating ***** (Five stars)
Visit WDTB's Info page
Review by Marina
Synchronized [Themeless,Semi-Lit,Public]
When I first saw Synchronized I thought the layout was colorful, energetic and overall fantastic to other to other guild layouts across the GC. I have to confess though I was a little confused when it came to what type of guild Synchronized was but then I managed to find on the layout a white star saying "Join Synchronized today we're NewThemelessSemi-Lit & totally pwnful" I thought this was a very interesting message compared to other text I have seen on layouts. As for the blog on the left hand side it was simple yet effective CSS and the colors worked very well together, not being to dull but not to garish. The content on the blog had usual important info that was presented well, it was clear and gets straight to the point.
First impression Rating: **** (four stars)
Next I concentrated on content I immediately clicked on a link from the navagation, "Brochure" this is something quite different from what I have seen. It had different paragraphs relating to particular information including the history of the guild to the guild ranks, again this was presented well I thought the CSS was really something until I realised it was premade css by ftw (fake the way). There is nothing wrong with premade CSS but for a guild with 31 members this could put people off. I must say I was disappointed with the content overall for Synchronized. I looked at other pages on the guild, it was all premade CSS which could put people off so for content I will give..
Content Rating: *** (three stars)
When I first went onto the guild message board I could already see a big number of members posting messages of different lengths every couple of minutes, then I introduced myself and got a warm welcome by a few friendly members, then when I checked the member list only two members out of 31 had not posted, some members had posted into the thousands but some had only posted a couple of posts so this varied quite a bit but I think this is one of Synchronized stronger points. As I was looking at the content I came across a page titled "yearbook" but when I clicked on it out of the 31 members (not including myself) only 5 members had bothered to fill out the form.
Activeness: **** 1/2 (four and a half stars)
As I have listed in activeness there were friendly members who warmly welcomed me and I am sure if I would be a member in the guild that it is indeed a very friendly guild.
Friendless Rating: ***** (five stars)
The quality I would say is good but there is not a portal page or activites as I got a neomail from the owner saying that she had accidently deleted the portal page so hopefully it will be up again soon. Quality Rating: **** (four stars) Overall I think Synchronized is a guild to consider joining if you like these kind of guilds and if you havent joined one of these guilds before then I would definitely consider joining, apart from the lack of activities, I do not see any fault and I wish all the ownies and members at Synchronized the best of luck and thankyou for letting me review your amazing guild! Overall Rating **** 1/2 (four and a half stars.)
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Review by Marina
