Ealain

The Site: Skyefairy
Owner: Skye
Site Type: Creative Arts
Reviewer: Rene
Review Period: 12/28/07 (started) - 1/18/08 (completed)

Skye: My comments are in italics

First Impression

I have very mixed feelings about my first impression on Skyefairy, in terms of its look. I think the banner is appealing, but what surrounds it leaves me uneasy. You have such a bright header, but you surround it with white space and black detailing/text. I also scroll down to see the rest of your navigation and a footer with words I can’t say I comprehend. However, I feel that this will be an interesting review seeing as this is a well known creative arts site.

What words don’t you comprehend?

Design/Layout

First, let’s get the compatibillity checks out of the way. It works properly in Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera. It looks alright in 1024×768 and 800×600 resolutions. I am asuming that the layout would look just as good in screen resolutions that are higher than those 2.

In bigger resolutions there is a lot of dead space on the sides. On my next layout, I plan on making it with 1024×768 and 1280×1024/800 in mind instead since those are in a higher majority than 800×600 (source). A fluid layout might be a better choice–this would be the place where you could recommend that as a reviewer. However, it comes with its own problems with cross-browser compatability and I’d rather have control over what sizes/space things take up so I’m not going that way yet.

Starting off with the banner itself, I think it’s pretty attractive. However, I think it would look better if that light text behind the site title was gone. It looks out of place and I don’t think it’s needed since it doesn’t make the banner look any better.

Without it, the header looked too plain and unbalanced in my perspective since the smooshed fairy had a heavier “weight” on the right. The text helped fix that.

Moving on to the surroundings of the banner, I’m greatly disappointed to see it surrounded with black, grey, and white. You use such vibrant colors within your banner, I think that adding those neutral colors around it was not the best decision. For the black line that comes underneath the banner, I think you should’ve switched it into atleast the navy color you use for the site’s title. I think you should also use that color for the line that borders the top of it. Then, the diagnally striped background behind the links at the top could be switched to a light purple color.

The blacks and greys of the text are also offsetting. Atleast if you had put in more color into the CSS, it would better compliment the colored banner. Without that similarity between the text and banner, the layout starts to look uncohesive.

The fact that the background behind all the text is white is also a negative aspect of the layout. It makes that space look empty. Switching it into a lighter shade of the base color of the banner would help fill the space and helps add a similarity between the banner and content. In fact, if you were to pick that option of changing the background color, you probably wouldn’t have to make all those changes to your banner that I suggested.

My layouts prior to this layout were very blend-heavy and had a very textured feel. It started to annoy the heck out of me. In this layout, I craved the white and the crisp and the primary feel. That is what spawned the black/white/gray + primary colors. It is what I needed at the time and it was an expirement. With your suggestions, it wouldn’t have worked the way I planned. So I don’t see it as a failure or negative. It suited what I needed and wanted at the time. I guess it is a perpective think

I’m nervous about how your navigation falls at the bottom of your page. I understand that you have a link at the top of your page that is able to let a visitor skip down to the bottom. However, what if a visitor was in the middle of your content? They’d have to either scroll back up or down to either a) get to the link that leads to the navigation or b) just get to the navigation itself. I also question the navigation placement because most people are accustomed to a sidebar that is beside the content. A new visitor could easily mistake the site for having no real navigation at all which can lead to alot of confusion on the visitor’s part.

I also want to comment on how the bottom navigation is organized. The purple strip that seperates the two sections of links looks awkward. It seems as if it should be a footer that is at the bottom of the layout. Additionally, I don’t think the footer you have now adds much to the overall look of the layout.

A solution to both these problems could be adding a side navigation that contains the links to the Creative Arts, Webdesign, and Site sections. Since you have a large content space anyway, I don’t think adding in that side navigation would do you any harm, seeing as you’ll have enough space left over. A solution to the “purple-bar problem” would be to leave the bottom navigation with only the Design Daoine, Arts Daoine, and the Network links. Then you should move the purple bar to the bottom and get rid of the original footer completely.

It makes you “nervous”? I’m not quite sure how a navigation’s placement would make someone nervous. Regardless, big bottomed layouts have become popular recently and are wide-spread. I’m sure many designers have seen those around and, thus, a new visitor would be able to find it. I hate to say it, but if they don’t put the effort into at least scrolling to the bottom to see what is there, they weren’t interested enough in the site in the first place to click the navigation. The placement may not be “traditional” but it isn’t revolutionary, either. Besides, what’s wrong with being untraditional every once in a while? It doesn’t always have to be topbanner, content/navigation, footer.

My content is wide with no side navigation because I use the same setup on my image viewing pages, which CAN’T have a side navigation because the images are large. If I had a side navigation on all other pages, not only would I have to have a separate setup for this page excluding that, I’d have to end up having a bottom navigation regardless for those pages so that the visitor would be able to navigate from those. I think THAT would confuse the visitor more (the sudden change in placement) not to mention the extra coding hassle on me.

In terms of your coding, I question this part of it.

<div class=”content”>
<h1>Welcome to Skyefairy.net. . .</h1>

<div class=”content”>
Blah………..
</div>

Within your CSS, if you would’ve styled it so that it was like the example below, you wouldn’t have to insert the <div class=”content”></b>.

h1 {
margin: 0 auto;
width: 750px; }

Other than that minor detail, I didn’t really find any other issues with your coding.

That really is a minor detail and, having the extra content div doesn’t make it bad coding. Your provided CSS would have centered the h1 tag. I know because I tried it when making the layout. The reason I put it inside the content tag was because I didn’t like it centered and there was no way to position it on the left like the content other than to use the same coding that I had for the content. That would have been redundant (repeating coding), which is a bad practice. Repeating should only be done if absolutely necessary because it lengthens the CSS loading time–small in this case but it adds up. By puting it inside, it eliminated that problem

In Summary… Your layout has a nice header, but it’s surrounded with white which makes it look empty. Additionally, you add black detailing which does nothing to compliment the colors within your banner. Because of this, it makes the banner and content looks like they’re two completely different things. The coding that was behind the layout was a different case. You code neatly and efficiently, which is good. I made few corrections within that area of your layout. From these two aspects of the site, I conclude that you need to better connect your banner and content so that they look like they are both part of the same thing.

Content/Errors

Since I am aware that Skyefairy is a large site, I will be grouping the content and errors section together so that I don’t have to go through Skyefairy twice.

Skimming through your main page, I think you’re very organized with your updates and I like how you link to new additions. Your introduction seems to get kind of wordy with its long sentences. Chopping it up into shorter sentences would make it more understandable to visitors. However, I have only one real correction for it.

“This site is [focused] on staying “kid-friendly” so there isn’t any [inappropriate] material that would not be viewable to any audience.”

Thanks for the suggestion; it has been edited.

I go through all the pages under the Creative Arts section and generally notice that you don’t really have introductions or descriptions for those pages. I think adding in a small paragraph that explains what the content is wouldn’t do any harm. You should also insert something about what people aren’t allowed to do with them, or atleast link to the terms of usage. That way, visitors now how they can and cannot use those items.

I’ve never had section introductions because I figure that the titles pretty much sum it up well: Poems, Stories, Art, Photography, etc. If I did, what more would I say other than “This is the articles page; here is the terms of service.” I’m not sure how an introduction would help any in that manner: it would be repeating what I’ve already said which you look down upon later in the review.

I also notice the organization of the Creative Arts pages and I like it. It makes it easy for people to go through everything. However, I have section-specific suggestions on some of the pages.

Poems
I took a glance at a couple of the poems within Skyefairy’s collection and find them well done. However, I did check all the poem links to see if everything was linked properly and there wasn’t weren’t any “technical” mistakes that have to do with the page’s formatting. On Joyce’s poem “lost friendship” I wanted to point out the lack of capatlization. I think the I’s should’ve been capatlized atleast.

I have a policy of not editing submissions. Capitalization in poems is one of those because I’ve seen many poems where a lack of capitalization was intended for whatever reason. It isn’t my place to assume that the lack was an error on their part and not intentional. See Veve’s comment (4) for some reasoning behind that.

In Qin Pei’s poem “Mother Pearl”, the seventh stanza has a mistake. I believe it was suppose to be “And bestowed herv / With the loveliest pearls”. A line break was left out.

In some of my OLDER submissions, I didn’t check after posting. I use the ctrl+c, ctrl+v shortcuts to copy/paste line breaks in submissions. The v was it coming out wrong (showing the v instead of <br>. Fixed.

“True Love” by Ebony has diamonds with question marks in them in places where apostrophes go.

One time my database was accidentally deleted and I restored it with a backup. I’m not sure your experience with databases so I’ll summarize the reasoning; excuse me if you already know this. The database uses apostrophes to hold information. For example, one field of a row in a table would have ‘row information’: the information in the row held by apostrophes. Thus, if the row contains apostrophes, it switches them to a different type of apostrophe when it saves it in text form. It isn’t an ` but it is sideways like that; sort of an apostrophe with a slant. It does that so that it can differentiate and know when the row ends. Likewise, all of my submissions with apostrophes (and quotes because it made them sideways ones too) turned to those, which don’t show naturally without an html entity reference (eg. &lt; to mean <). I’ve fixed the majority of them but there are some that I’ve missed. When you mention them further down in errors, I’ll skip over the re-explanation (and fix them as I go).

Stories
In terms of the information you put down for these stories, I think it would be easier for a person to look for a story if it also included the genre beneath the author’s name. Otherwise, a new visitor to this site would be blindly clicking on links in order to find what they want.

Even better, you could completely re-format this page so that it is organized something like this. However, instead of putting in all the information on the bottom line of each description, I think that just adding the genre, possibly the publication date, and the word count would be fine.

Noted. Will add to my list of things to change with my redesign

Like the poems, I didn’t go through every single story. While going through these I don’t really spot any spelling errors, but just in case, I suggest running these stories through spellcheck before posting them. Within “Tales Beneath the Sea” by Stephanie, when they insert “Part One”, “Part Two”, etc. I suggest underlining them or centering them. Either that, or you can insert those scribble dividers to seperate each part.

Underlined.

The “diamond question mark” issue occurs in “My Melodic War” by Stephanie, “Cousin Kingdoms” by Skye, “In the Stars” by Ayii, “Magnolia Blossoms” by Xuan, “Eternal Darkness” by Walker, “Osiris’s Story” by Valerie, “Lleld’s Story” by Valerie, “Cursed” by Silversun, “Empty Inside” by Maria, “Memories of Eire” by Skye, and “Tiger’s Eyes: Ch 1 & 2″ by Skye. As you may have noticed, it occurs alot. I suggest looking over the story’s page before posting it. “Kill the Undead” and “Not Bloody Likely” by Skye, has light grey borders around the dividers.

Fixed on Cousin, Magnolia, Eternal, Osiris, Lleld, Empty, Memories, Tiger. Didn’t see any on Melodic, Stars, or Cursed.

I wanted to suggest that with stories with multiple chapters, you should probably insert links to the next chapter so that when someone is done reading the chapter, they can just click a link and then go to the next part. Otherwise, visitors have to go through the proccess of clicking the back button, searching for the next part, and then clicking the link.

Will do.

Articles
I think adding in the subject of each article underneath the author’s name would inform the visitor what the article is about. Maybe even displaying the tags that it is set under like so: “Tags: Blah, Blah, Blah” underneath the author name. I suggest searching through some of these articles for those “diamond question marks” since I saw a couple of articles that had them.

Art
I’m happy to see a section where I can actually preview something before I view the whole thing. I went through a couple and I think alot of them were well done. I don’t have any further comments on this section. My comments for the Photography section are the same.

Blends
On the second page of the Blends, on the first preview on the last row, because the title is so long, the title jumps down so that it is below the thumbnail which makes the box bigger. Therefore, the preview looks “off.”

I’ve noticed this here and on the DennisJRichards that you mention further on. It wasn’t “huge” so I put it off because I’ve already planned to make those boxes bigger anyways, which will fix it.

Colorizations<
My only comment on this section is "Colorizatio" by Christina. Are you sure it isn't "Colorization"?

Her submission titled it Colorizatio without the n. I left it as she submitted it.

Vectors
“BOA” by Silversun has a small mistake within her comments section.
“Due to the length of time, [this is] the last time [I’ll] ever vectored something complicated.”

In “Japanese Maiden” by Joshua, I also have a grammatical correction within his comments.
“. . .arms are supposed to be elongated. The arms were meant to be elongated.”
The second sentence wasn’t needed since he was basically repeating what he had stated in the sentence before.

“Concrete Rose” by Anna:
“. . .it didn’t last too long because of errors in [the] coding.”
“Roses are often used to symbolize and represent beauty, however, concrete can be cracked and broken [and is] never perfect. When you combine the two, Concrete Rose is born[.] [This title presents the idea that] even the most perfect things have a [crack] in them somewhere.”

With those corrections, I suggest checking the grammar/spelling of your artists’ comments.

CG
On the eighth page, in the center of the fourth row, because DennisJRichards couldn’t fit on one line, it pushed it down to the bottom of the preview. This caused the bottom row to misalign.
The CG’s are amazing to say the least. I am especially fond of Crystal’s 3D works since I’ve never actually seen someone do that.

“Lil Grim” by Joshua correction
“This is one of my newest drawings [and] I like it a lot[. I]f you couldn’t tell[,] his name is Lil Grim ;D”

Layouts
Now starting with the webdesign section, I can now fully critique the works to the best of my abillity. Comments made on layouts are directed at the person who made the layout, rather than specifically you, Skye. However, there may be some comments that you will be able to fix, since I do notice some technical errors within some of the layouts. I’ll skip over layouts that I don’t have any specific comments on.

As mentioned before, I’ve kept the policy of accept or reject. If I like the layout as a whole, a small error in one browser doesn’t keep me from accepting.

I’m kind of surprised to see the preview turn purple since I was use to seeing green. I suppose the color change-up was a good way to incorporate those colors from your header.

That was its intended purpose.

When I check the downloads, I notice that the downloads open up in new windows. In some browsers, when a new window is opened for a download, when the download is complete, it leaves a blank page that the visitor has to close. I suggest not doing it since it serves as an inconvenience to people who are downloading the layouts.

On the contrary, I find it an inconvienence when visiting a site who has them open in the same window. When I’m done viewing, I hit the X button and then have lost the site. It’s personal preference for the most part.

A Fire Inside
The headers for the content are kind of hard to read when they are at the top. This is because of the golden colors that are used within the blend continue down into the content area. I suggest switching the header colors so that they are that close-to-white color that is used to write “Kiss My Eyes and Lay Me to Sleep”. I also want to comment on how “A Fire Inside” is hardly visible behind those words. Moving that title up and boosting the opacity would make it clearer.

Your Star
The background of this layout (in Firefox atleast) shows up as white. I’m pretty sure that the background was suppose to be that light green-blue used within the background. Looking at the blend of the layout, I can say that things were “over blended”. So many things were tossed into it that it lost it’s focal point and instead left a large glob of images. For the content area, I am disappointed in the use of black text. This is because when someone uses black in their content area, even though it shows up well, it never seems to match a layout. I think a dark brown would’ve been more appropriate.

Wings
With this layout, I had no criticism for the header. However, I think the content area is less than usable because of it’s small size. It is the same size as the navigation when it doesn’t even need to be. On the right and left, there is an obvious amount of blank space. Pushing the navigation to the left so that it covers the blank space, and then widening the content area to accomodate the rest of the space would make the layout look better as well as more usable.

Surely Forever
The headers above the content is close to invisible when it is at the top of the page. I suggest making the header color the color of the background of the text. This should make them readable.

Summer Melody
Because of the largeness of the header, when the layout is in a screen resolution of 1024×768 and below, it takes up the whole screen vertically. The size of it could’ve easily been reduced by resizing or cropping the header and implimenting a navigation on the left, rather than the top. Doing so would push the content up and would also get rid of the less than functional navigation.

Serenity
My only comments on this layout is the navigation. The links look awkward because they don’t span the length of the area.

Sanctuary
The background isn’t showing up for this layout and I don’t think the content and link colors are suppose to be that way. Needless to say, I think you need to check out the stylesheet and see why it’s screwing up. The same problem is occurring with Resistance, Night Tide, Missing, and Rain Sakura.

Overgrown
The text within the headers goes outside of the block of color. This can easily be fixed by increasing the link height of the headers. The layout also has a less-than-functional navigation. I think the links can still stay there, but add a navigation on the right. After all, there is enough space to put on in.

Moon Burn
The background color is not visible, which leaves a white background. Also, I want to comment on the content header’s visibillity, specifically the one on the top. Because it isn’t visible, I suggest changing it’s color to that light, murky teal that is used for the words “Moonburn.”

In the Hands of a Goddess
The links on the navigation are hard to see on the light background. Switching the white into the color of the content’s background color would make the links more visible.

Dreamcatcher
The bold text and the actual text color needs to be darkened considerably since its practically invisible on the pale yellow background. The use of Century Gothic is another thing I don’t like about this layout. First off, its a harder to read font because of its minimal letter spacing. But more importantly, not every computer has that font, since it isn’t as common as Arial, Tahoma, etc. Switch it to a different font.

Aurora
I suggest darkening the link colors in the navigation since they are hard to read. Also, the text that is beside the title that the user is allowed to type stuff in should be darkened considerably since it is close to invisible.

Angelus
As I mentioned, having black text is a negative thing. I suggest switching the black to the color of the bold text. I also would like to mention that the image on the right of the content isn’t showing up.

1776
First off, add in a navigation on the right of the layout since there obviously is enough space to insert one. Secondly, I would like to say that the quote within the quote box is in such a light color and tiny size, the layout has the potential to do better without it. Either darken and enlarge the text, or don’t insert it at all.

Hear my Cry
I don’t really understand why the splash page was neccessary. By now, every one has pretty much marked them as useless and I don’t think this case is any different. Darken the navigation links as well as the headers of the content so they are more visible.

Time of Faerie
My question for this layout is “How is someone suppose to navigate through a website when the layout has no navigation?” I think that implementing a navigation within the layout would’ve been simple, seeing as the content area is large enough to be able to have one. I also want to comment on the reddish-brown box. it looks out of place because the layout uses mostly blue-purples. I think that it would’ve looked better if it was a color that was slight darker than the content’s regular background color.

Guardian (Blue)
I immediately recognize the large amount of white space. For this blend, I think a very, light blue background would compliment the layout well. Also, I think cropping out the excess spacing on the top of the layout helps push the content up.

Guardian (Yellow/Green)
Like the first “Guardian” layout, I think adding in a very light yellow for the background color would help get rid of the white space. I also suggest adding in a navigation on the right or left of the premade so that people who have sites with alot of links can still use this layout.

From First to Last
There is a really obvious error with how the background was done. The background that is part of the graphic doesn’t properly align with real background, which makes it look off. This probably resulted from the fact that the design is centered.

London Calling
With this layout, I would like to say that there is so many things going on in the header that it begins to lack a focal point, just like “Your Star” by Silversun. Because the header is so busy, it can irritate the eye since it doesn’t have anything it can properly rest on.

Spinae Terrae
I first see how the black edge of the navigation headers is easily seen when it is put close to the image. I also notice the large amount of spacing between the header and content/navigation areas. They should be pushed up so that they are almost directly beneath the detailing and the title. Also, I think the site title in the layout should be enlarged so that it is clear. Right now, it looks like it was suppose to be hidden.

Canzone
The header above the content looks like its experiencing some sort of technical difficulty. It’s very large and has small line spacing which makes them overlap. The large amount of text within the headers also doesn’t help. The navigation headers should be switched to a dark reddish-brown rather than black, and the navigation links should be either darkened or lightened drastically.

In the Twilight
The header is large and fills up a large amount of the screen vertically. Cropping it wouldn’t hurt. Also, the striped background doesn’t compliment the smoothness of the header. It would’ve been better if the background color was just a light solid color. Also, I think the font choice was poor. Using verdana or tahoma would’ve been better.

Deviant
The about box that is within the navigation needs some padding in the inside. It doesn’t look right without it. Also, I think that the footer should’ve been image mapped so that the credits are actually “clickable”.

Precious
The largeness of the character’s face duoed with the premade’s tendency to look large can be really “in your face” when a visitor has a smaller resolution. Even though it fits within the screen resolution of 1024×768, the proportions of everything makes the layout unsettling.

Angelic Spirit
The content’s text colors should be darkened slightly since I’m having a bit of trouble reading everything. I also want to point out how the sharp cut out of the top really clashes with the smoothness of the blend itself.

Shine on Me
The text looks really squished together. It the line height was increased, it would make the text looks less cluttered.

All in all…
I think this collection of layout on Skyefairy is pretty good, seeing as there are a number of designs that focus on the functionality of a layout, and then a number of designs that focus on aesthetics. It offers both types of layouts. However, I would’ve liked to see more layouts that actually duoed those two things. Additionally, I think you should’ve check the newer layouts since quite a few are missing/not showing their backgrounds, or have some errors going on in their stylesheet.

Tutorials
Looking at the “Coding a Layout Parts 1-3″ you do a good job of teaching it. Instead of just directing someone to do something, you explain why so that the student knows what they are doing. However, I feel you could’ve worded things simpler. That would’ve made alot of them easier to understand.

I would also like to point out something that you insert within the paragraph where you describe sans serif & serif fonts (in Part 2). “Fancy” is a really general word when you describe it. Even though you explain it as the text having things “like curves at the end of letters with tails”, I think it would be better explained with a visual. Try making an image to go there like what Wikipedia has.

It was a quick, off-topic summary to explain what I was talking about so that they wouldn’t be lost. More detail wasn’t needed for that particular tutorial so I dont think images are necessary. If they want to know more about fonts, they could find more information on other sites; there’s TONS of stuff on fonts.

Additionally, you may want to post the whole stylesheet that you came up with so that readers can double check their own coding. Also, it helps the people who learn through looking at CSS coding, rather than being taught through tutorials.

The whole stylesheet IS there, just split up by line/section.

Some grammatical/spelling corrections:
For Part 3:
“[The] box sits inside [a] big[ger ]box that is also 100px wide, so [the] box has 100 pixels of room.”
“[This] is because [the] big[ ]box is 100 pixels.”
“The result is exactly the same. The background image isn’t squished. In both cases, it looks the same.”
“And I said that this sometimes [] happen[s] in one browser and not the other?”

For Part 2:
“Whether you separate things or not, and how you separate them if you do, make no difference.”
“However, I find it easier to manage if I know where things are (especially when you[’re coding] get[s] further advanced and [you develop a] long page of CSS).”
“However, we only need to style [what’s] within the body what it directly holds within it.” The second part of the sentence was striked out because it basically repeated the portion that came before it.
“In the layout I’m coding, that is only the red strip at the bottom.”
“I have an image for it, which I want to repeat [horizontally.] [I want to place] it down on the bottom. “
“. . . it won’t affect our layout (we want to decide what it is, after all, rather than giving that power to the browsers).” The text within the parantheses repeats what you basically said in the previous sentence.
“The consensus seems to be, however, that for default text in content you should use sans-serif fonts as opposed to serif or monospace. “
“Serifs add the “fancy” things, like [tails] at the end of letters with tails.”
“However, you always need to provide a backup in case your viewer doesn’t have [the] font of [your] choice.”
“I don’t have a preference for [the] next best [font], so I will merely state that, if Verdana is not available, use any other sans-serif font.”
“Em is supposed to be the [best], [but] it has problems[.] because [Y]ou have to keep in mind [that] the “parent” layers and the font sizes* [relate to each other].” *? I’m not exactly sure if that was what you meant.
“You don’t want your text too close because then the lines will “merge” together[. This] caus[es] readers to skip lines and have trouble [focusing] on one line.”
“If you are [focusing] on keeping your site viewable to all people, it is best to keep in mind the 800×600 users [in mind] since many are still around[. This] means that your layout width shouldn’t be larger than 780px wide (subtracting 20 pixels for your scrollbar).”
“If the background has no flair to it in terms of [anything] that would make it hard to . . .”
“This saves valuable loading time because [there] is less for the viewer’s computer to load. The more pixels, the longer it takes. So the best thing is to make it as small as possible and repeat.” The last two sentences gives information that could easily have been assumed by the reader after reading that first sentence.

For Part 1:
“For the particular layout I’m coding, I[’m] referenc[ing] from a song [that] the band [in] the layout is of sang.”
“So don’t assume that all [the] code[s] you see [are] correct. ”

Aelyn’s tutorial on Hue/Saturation shows a clear understanding of the tool and uses “straight to the point” sentences. It is a clear read, and sounds like a good tutorial to follow if someone wanted to learn how to use it.

Corrections:
“If you increase or decrease this[,] you add or take away color from the shade respectively.“
“With the settings above I managed to change the some of the blue to a darker duller purple.”
“Now that we have a non-distracting background, the other color that I want to tone down or get rid of [] is that yellow light that’s [shining] on him.”

The first paragraph within your tutorial on Basic CSS can be seperated into smaller paragraphs. You should seperate it because then it isn’t threatening for visitors to read it. Most people prefer reading short paragraphs anyways since it gives the illusion that the article will be a shorter read. It also helps seperate your ideas into sections.

Within your description of class and ID, I find your information is misleading. For your content, you say if its something you will only be using once per page, you should use and ID. If you use more often in the content you should use a class. I understand what you are trying to imply, but I think you should explain it differently. You should day that an ID styles a container, while the classes style the portions within the container that the ID creates.

That isn’t true, though. If it was, you would have to have a div id to have a div class. If I wanted a div class, it would HAVE to be inside of a div id. That isn’t true; you don’t have to have a div id to have a div class. And, vice-versa, you can have a div id inside of a div class. What I said is right: You use id if the div type is only used once and you use class if it is used more than once. (source, source, source, source, etc.

Corrections:
“It is like the break code in [CSS].”
“In the first entry, since a background color is provided, that is also [so it will be] shown[. H]owever, unless the image is not working (was not uploaded, is in the wrong spot, etc.), you [will only] see the color.”
“So, if your content area might possibly stretch[es], it is best to define a background color. “
“As you [grow] in your designing, you will find which you prefer and. . .”
“By [D]efault links are underlined, so that can help, but some people (myself included) remove the underline.”
“If you want to know if something works or if you’re doing it right, try it out. If it doesn’t, try to figure out why. See what does work. ” The striked out sentence was just added drabble. It wouldn’t effect the paragraph if you removed it.

In the tutorial on HTML, I think its a pretty good introduction to coding. However, I do spot some things that could be corrected.

Corrections:
“Keep in mind that even if you don’t try to memorize it, you gradually [learn] it. ~.o”
“By itself, it really doesn’t do anything but, without it, [there is no shape].”
“Though the imaging is what you see the most, coding is what holds it all together and, without it, [the layout] is incomplete. “
“It holds all the coding of the page and you close it by, at the end [by] adding the [</html>] tag[. This] tell[s] the browser that the html portion of the page (in this case, the entire page) is complete.”
“Right now, this tag will be your first[. L]ater on, we’ll add some more technical coding before it. “Later on, when we cover CSS, you will learn how to customize these values to your needs and stylize the paragraphs to your needs. “
“It can also be [stylized] with CSS, which you will learn more about later on.”
“It is good, however, because you can [stylize] it with CSS and it tells the browser (and search engines) that the text within it is a quote.”
“An added benefit to the blockquote [is that] it has an added feature.”
“Though it is not required and you can edit/set them up in any way you please[.] it is a basic structural definitive that h1 is the largest and h6 is the smallest, in size and importance, and that each in between lowers likewise.“
The striked out portion was basically repeating what you already said.
“There are three types of lists that you can use[:] Ordered, Unordered, and Definition.”
“In most cases, the defaults of the lists are [fine] and won’t need to be edited with CSS[. Al]though, as always, it is [optional].”
“So it helps when you have a list that you might be editing and moving around[. F]or example, [if you have] an alphabetical list of your CD collection.”

To me, in “Creating a Website” you talk alot about yourself. Because of this, it tends to come off as more of an autobiography rather than a lesson. I understand that you are using yourself as an example so you can give your insight on having a website. However, constantly using yourself as an example makes the article seem uneventful and maybe even predictable. There’s a reason why teachers often tell their students not to use personal pronouns (I, you, etc.) Even though using them is okay (since alot of people tend to use “you”), they shouldn’t be constantly repeated. Try using more examples, aside from yourself, so that the reader can get a grasp of what other people feel on the topic.

I also disagree with your second paragraph. I know you’re saying that because many people start out weak and unable to properly code or tweak images. But I believe that people need to learn somehow, and sometimes starting off with a graphical website is one way to do that. I know that a portion of people get a kick out of displaying their work publically, which makes them want to work harder so they can do it better. Therefore I suggest that instead of saying “don’t start with a graphic site” I think you should say something like “if you’re going to start out with a graphic site, start with one major specialty such as icons.” Something along the lines atleast.

Corrections:
“I am just now starting to be ready to have one, and I started out just over three years ago.”
“It takes a lot of work to start a site, and it would be less overwhelming if you [focused] on one thing. “
“I can now type those with ease, but the first five to ten times, it was confusing.”
“First off, pretty much anyone can make a website[. A]s long as you have the will to learn, and are willing to practice and do the work to grow, you will do fine.”
“Before you begin, I have one of those aforementioned opinions to share[. However,] to me, however, it is fact. “

Avatars
I know these were created by different people, so I won’t so much comment on technique. However, I want to point out that some of the images that people are using are of low quality (either that, or the icon itself was low quality). I mostly see this on Padme’s icons in which she features photography.
Also, on a lot of Ayii’s icons on the third page, because she probably sets her textures on “Lighten” it makes the whole icon really light. I advise her to use a black layer on overlay (play with the opacity) in order to keep the icons’ focus.

Wallpapers
Most of these are well done in terms of aesthetics. However, I fear that some of the “busier” wallpapers might be bad for displaying icons on. I tried them on my desktop and it looks like the hardest ones to display visible icons on is “Callis Warrior Queen” and “Saya Otonashi Blood+”. To later people who submit their wallpapers, you may want to ask them to try out their wallpapers on their own screen so that they know whether or not the icons will show up legibly.

Hosting
I’m kind of confused as to why Hosting is underneath “Web Design”. I think it would’ve belonged under the “Site” section or possibly as one of those rainbow links at the top or bottom of your layout, since I don’t think it completely falls into any of the categories you have right now.

Moving on to the actual written content, I find your third paragraph to be kind of corny. I am referring to your fairy and evil spells things. It just sounds unprofessional, especially when you are talking about a subject such as hosting. I think basic wording would do the job better.

Eh. It lightens the mood. And my hosting isn’t professional, anyways. It’s me lending space to other site owners. Without it, all of the information can get sort of blah, blah, blah.

Corrections:
“Pretty much anything if it adheres to the above[. W]hether it be a personal site, creative arts site, graphics site, or what[ever] you [suggest, I will host it].”
“However, I noticed that in some cases they went ignored[. Please recognize that] they really are here for a reason.”
“[Especially] if you’re closing your site, moving, etc., let me know.”
“You need to know basic HTML and CSS and have somewhat decent design skills[.} enough to [M]ake your own layouts for [your] site.”
“If they want [to be] hosted or sponsored, they can apply here like you.”

The artist index seems to be fine. However, I’m curious about why you make Inspiration a required field in the submission profile form. To me, it doesn’t seem like its absolutely neccessary to have an inspiration. I think leaving the required fields with the name, email, and about me page is enough.

Submit
One thing I have to comment on this submission page is that you don’t accept Pop-up layouts. I understand that they have grown to be obsolete, but maybe you should include a more specific and sensible reason about why you don’t accept them.

I hate them, they annoy me, they are obsolete, they use javascript which I hate and which doesn’t work for everyone. Take your pick. *shrugs* I don’t go that into depth on my submit page as to why or why not for these things; it’d get too long. If I re-create my FAQ, I’ll add that, though.

Also, I’m curious as to why you don’t tell the submitters that they have to give credits for wallpapers and avatars. Why not ask them to include them and then create a seperate credits page that includes credits for these items? Either this, or you could require people to insert their credits within their profiles.

They’ve always included them in the comments field.

I suggest centering the Submission Form link since it tends to look like a header due to its size. It would make it stand out clearer.

Corrections:
“Any length of submission is acceptable[. H]owever, if the piece is very long, try to break it up into sections or chapters for navigational ease.”
“Four resolutions are available, and you can submit versions for any of them [. If] you want, [you can even do] up to all four.”
“Please don’t take it personal[ly] if I don’t add your layout(s).”

About
This sentence needs to be reworded since I don’t quite understand what you were trying to say. “girl named Ebony somehow found my little site, then christened “Skye’s Own Little World,” and asked if she could have her poems on my site as well.” Other than that, I think it was a pretty decent about page.

Corrections
“After four years of being on the web[,] Skyefairy.net has become my largest project, a long-term hobby, a learning experience, and a possible career idea.”
“It all started in late 2002 when I created a small Angelfire site dedicated to poetry[. I created one] because my friend[,] Siya[,] had an Angelfire site of her own.”
“SF has gone through many incarnations over the years, ranging from my first self-made layout in January 2004 [(which ]featur[ed] Amy Lee[)] to what you see today.”
“I tend to revamp and improve [SF] often because I love th[is] site and always want to keep learning and growing.”

About Skye
I believe this sentence also needs to be reworded since I also don’t get it. “She loves kids and her pet cause is getting them involved in the arts in any form.” I also notice that within your “Likes” part, you tend to repeat what you have already stated in your “About Me” portion of the page.

Correction
“Besides literacy, developing creativity and imagination is, in her opinion, one of the most important things children need to learn.”

Contact
In your paragraph beneath the header, you say to follow the link at the bottom for submission. Instead of wording it this way, I suggest saying “fill out the form and then press the submit button”. That’s easier to understand.

Links In/Out
Surprisingly all links are active. Which I applaud you for. Managing a large Links Out page isn’t easy to do. The Links In page also looks fine.

I use it as my favorites and visit those sites frequently; helps cut down on dead links.

Daoine Affiliation
I find your affiliation page well thought out with pretty good wording (aside from mistakes here and there). I have no further comments on it, aside from possibly making the “apply” link down at the bottom as big as how you make it on the “Submit” page.

Corrections
“In the past I’ve either not had in-depth information on how I feel about affiliation[. Either that,] or I’ve linked to old updates that listed the details.”
“To replace both of those, I decided to write out [a] page [where] all of th[is] information [can be found.]as a quicker reference and a page that is just, all around, easier to get to.“
“But, to be specific since all of that is pretty vague:”
“I like a lot of sites but I can? put all of them there[.] so I keep my expectations high in order to keep the number reasonable.” The striked out portion was already stated within the sentence that came before it.
“So, to sum it up, don? be afraid to apply because of what you?e heard[.] if you really do want to apply.” The striked out potion wasn’t needed and just created a run-on sentence.

Layout Archive
I suggest renaming this section to “Past Layouts” since when I saw it, I thought it was going to be a collection of layouts up for download. This is because some designers have taken to calling their premade layouts section a “layout archive”. Renaming it to “Past Layouts” would eliminate the confusion.

I find the description for Daydream to be incomplete since it doesn’t really have a concluding sentence and is much shorter than your other layouts’ descriptions. Try adding a little more to it.

Corrections
“It was my first layout where I [focused] more on aesthetics with CSS rather than images.”
“Many said it was very different– and, at times, too different–from my “old” style[. B]ut I like it [this way] better.”
“I had been going through a block and one day [and I] started working with some images[. After awhile, everything] just started to click.”
“This is one of my favorites of the layouts that I’ve made[. L]ikewise, I’m suprised that it only lasted a month and a half.”
“Some of my favorite things about it was that it featured fairies, featured artwork, everything flowed, that the images blended into the content area, and the positioning of the h1 tags.” The “featured fairies part” was cut out becaue you stated that in the sentence before.
“It took [me] a while for me to get inspiration for this layout, mainly because the last one didn’t come up to my standards[.] and I felt [like] I needed to make the next one (this [layout]) amazing to make up for it in my eyes.”
“About halfway through creating it, I realized that the girl looked strikingly like [how] I pictured my favorite character, Grianne[. She’s a person] from my favorite series of books, Shannara by Terry Brooks. After that, I finished the layout with that in mind, dedicating it to her.”
“The text faded into the top are quotes from the first book she was featured in, [and they described] her. The quote on the bottom [was] written by me about [and showed] how her story ended six books later. I was very happy with this layout and, likewise, it stayed on the site for just over three months. “
“I’ve always prided myself on actually creating layouts, working with and editing the images.”
“I tried to create a feeling of a timeless dreamlike place that was very different to what we know and very unreal. “
“Blue is my favorite color and this is my first time using it in a long time on a layout[. F]or me, it is a very hard color to work with.”
“I also revamped with this layout, introducing a horizontal navigation[. T]his was to expand the content room so that visual submissions would have a larger display.”
“Yet, at the same time, I tried to make it look as if I did nothing to the picture, because I wanted simplicity[.] and at the same time, [I]f people think that [was] how it originally was, I did a good job at editing.”

To Do List
I notice that the whole first section is struck out. I’m assumming that means it was already done. If you finish with a portion of your list, instead of striking it out, just take it off completely. Its useless information if its already been done.

Some of my online friends had been following my to-do list. I left it there a little longer so that they could see what I had done, instead of just knowing that all of it had been done.

Credits
Under the Brushes you say “Annika” but I believe the full name of the site is “Annika von Holdt”. You also may want to take a look at “Digital Beauty”. When I click on the link, a blank page shows up. A dead link, perhaps? Aside from those two things, the credits page seems to be okay.

Corrections
“Rather than just have the link here for the duration of the time up [a short time], the purpose is to forever credit and help visitors find quality sites.”

Terms of Service
A very well written terms of service on this page. It definately shows that you spent alot of time thinking about how to write this, and the specifics/details are good.

Corrections
“The owner assumes no responsibility and shall not be liable for any damages, viruses, or anything else that may infect your computer equipment[.] [This includes damaged] property on [your site] account of your use of the site. ” I’m unsure if that was what you meant with the second sentence.
“If reported, stolen (or allegedly stolen) material will be removed [depending on further] investigation.”

In terms of content… Understandably, Skyefairy’s strong point lies within literature and by what you imply, I assume that the designing section of your site was added recently (when compared to how long Skyefairy existed before it). My tip is to encourage visitors to add more wallpapers and tutorials so those sections will have an equal amount of content, as compared to other sections of the site. Also, I believe that the layouts and avatar sections can have a bit more variety in terms of style. This can be achieved through asking/encouraging new designers to create them so there is a larger diversity within the styles.

I encourage visitors to submit everything. I take what I can get. I feel it would be presumptuous of me to specify certain, particular things when the truth is that I’m happy with what they submit. Wallpapers, tutorials, and avatars ARE new so that is why they’re smaller. I stink at wallpapers and avatars, though, which is why I haven’t contributed. I have been working on adding tutorials to that section, however, as you can tell by the fact that I’ve written all but one of them.

In terms of writing… You have a knack for condensing alot of information into one sentence, when it is easier to understand it in smaller sentences. Remember, the best type of writing style is one that everyone can understand. In fact, studies have shown that people who use shorter and clearer sentences prove to be more intelligent then than people who use bigger ones. With this said, I suggest re-reading some of your stuff before posting it. Ask yourself if you could rephrase your work so that it is in a simpler, but clearer form.

Are you saying that I’m less intelligent because I use larger sentences? Regardless, it is how I was trained to write in my college writing classes. They jammed it into my brain; it’s not that easy to change.

Also, I notice that you have a habit of repeating things you’ve already stated. If you said it once, don’t say it again. Most likely, the visitors heard you the first time and don’t need to hear it again.

To quote my college professors: repetition for emphasis. You’d be suprised what goes in one ear and out the other.

Final Impression

In terms of your writing, I suggest looking over your typing and looking for words or phrases that you could remove and still have your sentence make sense. A simple sentence structure is better understood by readers since it quickly gets the point across. With your gallery, I believe that you hold a substantial amount in each section aside from the wallpapers, and possibly the tutorials section. I suggest increasing your submissions to those sections if visitors aren’t contributing to those parts. I believe that your layouts and icon sections can have a little more variety in style. Those are the main points. If you improve those, than I think Skyefairy would be set. Good luck with growing with your site, as well as completing your “To Do List”.

Thanks