(pop-up)
url: http://ricepaper.mirrorsoul.net
site name: Ricepaper
site genre: Personal
site rating: Above Average

Trinity
So here it is, no hype, no pretense, Just me.

Splash Page:
Since you don't have a splash page I guess I'll comment on my first impression of the layout. Not very impressed, it's very plain not to mention you could have used another color for the links. Pink is so blinding on white text, why not try a red or a grey or maybe even black. It would have been nice to see some color instead of white. I mean its all, white. Nothing else, nothing interesting or eye catching; it's just so plain. You need something, anything. If you don't want any color then have at least an interesting layout. All you have are two tables. Two very simple tables that blend in with the rest of site.

The Contents:
home- On your blog entree for April 15, the link Archive doesn't work. On that same entree the link Poem doesn't work as well. On the May entries for the 14th the link name Alanna doesn't pop up in a new window. As well as the links for the second award. On the June entries for the 2nd the link for Layout's In Retrospect doesn't pop up in a new window. This section was good your spelling was decent. It seems you've submitted yourself to tons of wprs. You had few errors on these sections, your blog. It's nice to know you gave credits. I wasn't completely sure what Verses was until I got there. Is that your live journal or someone else's? The archives were well organized.

words- What can I say about this section. Wow, you have some pretty good poems and it was cool to see your comments on your own poems. It showed the visitor what you thought of the poems you wrote at certain points in your life. The purple was also a soothing color. I suggest using that one throughout the whole site instead of using your current color. The way you put your thoughts outs and some of the topics were very interesting a deep. I enjoyed them. It was also kind of fun to go through your stories and the profiles of your characters. They were in-depth, but I suggest having pictures of your characters if you can get them. Either by editing an already made character or drawing one. I have no real complaints, but the text color is hurting my eyes after awhile. I like how you explain the different parts of the site (categories) and what is in it.

Now on your thoughts and writing they were good, but you also repeat things constantly. You didn't need half the stuff you said. You have all this 'filling' and all you're doing is dragging out the thought, stop. You can have a few examples but just enough to get your point across and not bore you visitor.

I'm not saying you can't have a lot of examples it's just that your examples repeat themselves. Over and over that it just gets boring. I also suggest if you can cut out a lot of the 'filling'. This will shortened the length of your Thoughts and Writing but then again that's for the best since not a lot of people link constantly reading long papers.

art- Another beautiful section. You explain everything that comes up on your site. You gave explanations for your pictures and everything. Wonderful. I have nothing else to say about this section, but keep up the work.

site- All of your links worked. What else can I say?

Technical Stuff:
I must give you a hand on you spelling and the use of your grammar. You obviously have a sense on when to saying things and how to say them. Your writings and thoughts really showed that. You had a few broken links here and there and I mentioned them in the Contents section.

Overall Opinion:
I actually liked this site. Since it is a personal site I can't say you have incorrect information or anything along those lines. But a first impression is always good to have. You didn't give me a good impression. Everything was plain and I know appearance isn't everything but something a good layout can draw more people to your site. Making the text easier to read, maybe a darker font color or a different background color can keep you visitor interested. Because my eyes started to burn and strain just reading your text.

Keep it Up:
Your organization and grammar skills are things that you really need to keep up. These are great qualities to have that most sites don't.

Work Harder On:
Appearance and color coordinating are your real let downs. For a site that has so much to offer you really need to be a little bit more rounded. Meaning, have a nice appearance as well as the wonderful content; you already have one now all you need is the other.

The Final Say:
Would Trinity ever visit this site again?
Maybe, I'm not really sure. Like I said before my eyes burned just reading the text. If I do come back that's to read more of your thoughts and writings. They were good.

Trinity has rated this site:
Above Average, I wasn't sure if I was going to give you an above average or just an average. The reason you did get an above average is because your site clearly had excellent content and that was about all. I know people will tell you appearances aren't everything, but in ways it does hold some account in ways people look and feel about your site.

And because Rogue is a dumbass, there she also reviewed this site, forgetting that Trinity had reviewed it also. So lucky you! You get two reviews!

Rogue
Bend me, break me, anyway you need me, all I ever want is you...

Layout:
Since you have no splash page, I will comment a bit on your layout. While there are wonderful things to be said about simplicity, I think that this layout might go a little too far on the simplicity meter. I think that if you kept the similar set up for the layout and just added in a background color and maybe a small graphic on the top left corner, or maybe a banner up top, things would look a lot better, while at the sime time, still being simple. And this advice may sound corny, but since your site's name is Ricepaper, maybe you could add in a background of rice grains or some sort of paper that looks grainy, like papyrus paper. A corny suggestion, but I think it'd be cute, and go well with the theme of your name. You could also mess with CSS some, and maybe color in your scrollbar. By looking at your HTML coding, I can see that you know how to work CSS, you might have just forgotten to include scrollbar colors, or just not of wanted to CSS them. Also, on the text, especially for as much that's on the main page, justifying your text would look a lot better than aligning it over to the left. You can include a text-align: justify code in your CSS or you can place a p align="justify" at the beginning of every paragraph. That would make things flow together nicely. I'm not sure if you just created this in a few moments or not, but I'm not going to say anything because I know how hard it is to make layouts, even the very simple ones.

The Contents:
main page: As I suggested, try including a justify align tag. I think that would make things look a lot better. I also suggest separating the updates from the blog a little bit more. I would put a couple of break tags after the updates, and then go into the blog. Or...you could have a link to your blog below the update, and have a seperate blog site. But that would make a lot more work for you. or you could make the text that says updates and blog stand out a bit more. Grey is such a dull color that blends in so well. Maybe you could make a button or graphic that says updates and blog, or try using CSS and making a header. It isn't that hard to do. If you'd like some help on CSS, you can either contact me or check out this site.

verses: I suggest warning the visitor that this pop ups in a new window. I don't honestly care, but I know how anal retentive some people are about things like that. Also, I suggest bolding the names of the people who are talking in the screenplay-like verses. It really runs together otherwise and looks rather sloppy.

thoughts: These are well written, long, and personal thoughts that I think show the visitor who you are as a person. I didn't read them all, but I scanned through the majority and read two of them. There isn't much I can give you advice wise for this section at all. Your spelling was perfect, as was your grammar. I guess, just keep writing more of these and keep doing a good job.

Stories: Very well organized section, I can tell that a lot of work went into these. Honestly, I only read bits and peices of some. I think that maybe adding in a rating and why you rated each story the way you did would be nice, since there might be younger viewers of your site and maybe not all of your stories are appropriate for all ages. I would also group the stories by complete and incomplete, but that's just me.

Poetry: I like the way this section was organized, the way you let the visitor know what period of your life you were going through. I think it strongly shows in your poetry, and that your words are rather nice. I also like how you commented on each of the poems I read. It gives a bit more insight to them. Please keep adding in more!

Lyrics: Did you actually write out how the song would go on sheet music, or just words to songs? If you knew how to write music, it would be really cool to see the sheet music too. Otherwise, this section is nice.

doodles & photos: Very nicely organized, with real thumnails and all. How nice. I think that you should let the images open in a new window, or warn the visitor that they stay in the same window. I'm very picky about that, for some odd reason. Maybe a popup window? I also suggest maybe adding in some guest interactivity to these sections and maybe adding in a comments system, so that people can comment on your works. I forgot to mention that above with your writings. It could add in something fun for the guests to do, and maybe the visitors could help you with some new ideas or other ways you can improve this or that. The web address for the comments site has escaped me, but I think that it's called enotation.

flash movies: This might be something interesting to see more of. Have you tried messing around a bit more with flash? It would be something fun and entertaining to add into your site.

I did not look over the site section.

Technical Stuff:
There was nothing, really. Loading time was minimal, spelling and grammar were perfect. The only thing that could use some work is the CSS in the layout, really.

Overall Opinion:
I really did enjoy this site, despite it's plain exterior. That just goes to show you that you can't judge a book by it's cover, or a website by it's layout, for that matter. Your site is packed full of your words and thoughts, and it has a nice, personal feel, with real contents that not many personal sites have. The only thing that I would think about doing is maybe investing some time in getting a more interesting layout, and maybe adding in some things that guests could do to keep entertained for a little while, or some things they could do to interact with you.

Keep it Up:
Your content. It's artistic, fun, and it shows that a lot of hard work went into it.

Work Harder On:
Using CSS to your advantage and maybe adding in some guest interactivity.

The Final Say:

Would Rogue ever visit this site again?
Most defenitly. I now have this site bookmarked, and plan on returning again very soon.

Rogue has rated this site:
Above Average

chiiyo's comments :
Wow. Trinity was really good at picking out all my mistakes. And I like rambling style she used, even though it gets a bit confusing at times. And I like how she actually gave me suggestions for my writing style... though I think I'm still pretty guilty of this "filling" thing, though I am trying to cut down. And I really liked how Rogue gave me the benefit of the doubt about how long I took to create the layout. To be honest, after reading all these reviews and staring at the new design (which, incidentally, has been in existence offline for about a year before I finally uploaded it... I have had a lot of time to ponder over it...), I really start worrying whether I simply converted the overly-white layout of ricepaper 2 to an overly-black layout of ricepaper 3.... oh well...



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