PetShopGirl's Reviews
Sarai: Okay, Becky, I really thought twice about talking about this website because I do admire Rhiannon, deep down. But sometimes, you have to practice tough love.
Becky: Yeah she’s great, I love her Webmasters Behaving Badly articles, but enough is enough.
Sarai: I want to just talk about the color scheme, real quickly here.
Becky: Yeah and then I’m starting in on the bevels and gradients.
Sarai: The main problem with this layout is not only that it is blinding, but that all the colors are saturated to all fuck.
Becky: Pink, cyan, lime green and orange aren’t really good colour choices. And when I say they aren’t good colour choices I really mean to say they blow. Blow hard. The rule of thumb when choosing colours states that you should only have one bright accent colour. No more than that because then the layout will become visually confusing.
Sarai: I understand how lively and happy it looks, I do. But these colors just aren’t wise, man. And I have to come clean once and for all – I hate these colors.
Becky: They’re default colours that’s why! I can see what she’s going for, it’s that kind of hippy trippy colour scheme that wouldn’t be so bad, if it were pulled off correctly.
Sarai: I agree. You need an accent color, a base color, and a highlight color. Those are the rules.
Becky: Then you can have up to two extra colours if you want to, they usually need to be neutral colours though.
Sarai: I remember the first version of this layout. It didn’t have so many colors in the navbar, and the website name didn’t have a gradient background. I could stomach it. But then she just kept piling on, and on. And now we have gradients up the hoo hah and beveled buttons.
Becky: The problem now is that we have to contend with the flowers in the background as well as 50 different gradients then a whole lotta beveled… things.
Sarai: If you look closely at the flowers at the top… they don’t match. In saturation or just in color, period. Yellow and cyan? Lime green on hot pink? Light pink with light orange? It just doesn’t go.
Becky: No they most certainly don’t. I could stomach them if they were a neutral colour with a reduced opacity applied over a texture or a solid colour (perhaps with overlay or soft light), but this is ridiculous.
Sarai: I think I speak kindly when I say it’s just Too Much. You wanted to talk about the bevels and gradients?
Becky: Then you have a white bar with a green to transparent gradient going over it and on top of the green gradient there’s big black text. Then it just hops right on over to the blue nav bar that has a pink to blue gradient when you hover!!!!!!
Sarai: Yeah, it’s not cute. =/
Becky: Yeah I did. I hate them. I hate them so damn much Sarai. They don’t look good, they look chunky and fucking ugly and I hate them.
Sarai: In my gradient article, I also talked about starting a gradient with white and then gradually ending with a strong color, and I remember strongly advising against it.
Becky: Why not use subtle shading or a nice border? Why must you go all the way and bevel the hell out of something then use gradients on top of that?
Sarai: I don’t know. I remember this layout used to say Web 2.0 and the bevels just brought it down so many notches.
On the left navigation list, the hover is a gradient image, and it does not match the headings, which are orange.
Becky: I’d like to remind everyone of KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid.
Sarai: Orange does not go with blue and pink. Ever.
Becky: ‘Sup colour theory.
Sarai: Not only that, but the hot pink link color is not easy on the eyes.
Becky: Ideally pink could be used as an accent colour, but pink should not go directly on blue or vice versa. Ever seen blue on red (or red on blue)? Yeah that same rule applies to the lightened red (pink) and blue.
Sarai: And it’s a shame because the content is really good. I just wish I didn’t have to force myself past the layout.
Becky: Her links are actually black, the headings are hot pink.
Sarai: I was talking about the nav list on the left. If you hover, there’s hot pink on the gradient. Under the orange.
Becky: Oh I see, she changed that then because the last time I could bring myself to hover it was yellow and red.
Sarai: Yeah there’s been many changes to this layout.
Becky: If you scroll down you can see that the images are surrounded by lime green borders. Why? You have so many bright colours up on top why do you need to throw some more in around the images?
Sarai: Oh I see… I don’t know. And then you have more colors in the blockquotes. It’s just one huge mesh of rainbow colors.
Becky: The header has pink with lime green links on top of it. Striking much?
Sarai: I’d also like to talk about the subpages and the anchors at the top that just seem to run together. I suggest padding on the right and left of these to balance them out. Maybe centered text?
If you’re going to have anchors, stay consistent. Some sections aren’t separated by the |.
Becky: Yeah stop being lazy and put an “|” in between each and every word! And don’t link them, it looks sloppy.
Sarai: Has she ever mentioned why she doesn’t use a CMS? Unfortunately I don’t see any archives…
Becky: Yes I do believe it’s because she doesn’t want to deal with comments (my memory may be a big foggy).
Sarai: Well you can always switch those off.. Oh I see the Archives now. I retract. They’re done manually. That must be a pain.
Becky: She started archiving some of her posts, but I’m not sure if she continued doing it. Comments aren’t the only advantage to using a CMS, you also have the ability to use categories and archives with built-in RSS.
Sarai: Tags, and also stats are built in with a lot of them. If you don’t want something bulky like Wordpress, you could always use Flatpress, a great light weight alternative.
Becky: Even if she doesn’t want to manage her entire site with a CMS I’d still recommend one for the blog. If not then she needs to shape up and do everything a CMS does because people, aka me, expect a certain level of service these days. A blog without categories? Archives!? OH THE HUMANITY.
Sarai: It also comes with an RSS feed!
Becky: I’m a Textpattern girl myself, but I don’t care as long as it isn’t Cutenews.
Sarai: Or Greymatter.
Becky: Or Wordpress.
Sarai: All in all, I just think this needs a revamp. Something a bit easier on the eyes and a lot less cluttered. Maybe the visitors can suggest some things.
Becky: Yeah I’d like to see a more neutral colour scheme (and Verdana, I love Verdana for text) as well as a better archiving and category system.
Sarai: If she wants help with a CMS, I’d gladly give it. Especially with Flatpress, since it’s so easy to use.
Becky: I’m the one to go for, for Textpattern support! I’ll give you a cookie if you use Textpattern ;)
Sarai: Texpattern whore.
Becky: Piss off.
Okay as fun as this has been I have to go listen to NSync because there is nothing more fabulous than NSync…. Except perhaps House (brand new tonight at 9!).
Sarai: … You do realize your credibility just went out the window.
Oh who am I kidding, I’ll go with you.
Becky: No it did not you Aly and AJ fan.
Sarai: SHHH. BECKY!
Becky: Oh sweet. BRINGIN’ DA NOISE, BRING DOWN DA HOUSE…
Comments
Wow. I’m kinda angry that people who claim to be friendly with Rhiannon are jumping on the bandwagon to tell her what’s wrong with her site because one or two people had the balls to do it first.
If you have a problem with someone or their website, tell them directly. Don’t leave a comment elsewhere. It’s really impersonal, especially if you’re friends with the person in question.
I personally commend Rhiannon on trying to improve her website even if it resulted in this.
Wow, who died and suddenly made you two queens of layouts?
I can expect this from someone respectable but this is just dumb.
If you want to help improve her, the best way is to not trash her, but maybe give something called constructive critisism… it’s like telling her what she could do in a nice way and at the same time telling her good points, but not being an all around bitch.
Kari · Oct 26, 03:44 PM · · Permalink
Uhm, excuse me Nellie but I hardly see how what I wrote was unacceptable. I recommended a blogging platform. I love Rhiannon, all I did was recommend one thing.
I didn’t say ANYTHING was wrong with her website, I just gave her a link to something that may help her manage her blogs IF she wants.
Next time support your accusations, thanks. I mean, I like you too but that was slightly uncalled for in terms as to what I said.
Dicle, as the screenshot indicates, that email was sent on June 10th and is relevant to another layout I had up…the green/pink/blue striped one that I put up after the pink collage layout that I’d had up for over a year. The layout you were referring to in the email was definitely too bright on some peoples monitors (not mine) which is why I took it down 3 days later. But…the layout in question wasn’t my current one you see now, as that was only put up sometime in July. Apart from at IP I haven’t received any bad feedback about the layout at all, although around 50% of visitors stated that they preferred the brown in a poll I conducted last month. I’ve also received good feedback from Bobbi-Lee and Lil who are, unlike us, professional graphic designers. Bobbi-Lee and Lil would not lie to me and I’ve always taken note of their feedback in the past – it has been negative sometimes and that’s why changes are occasionally made – but my current layout has only received positive feedback from these two.
PS – if you can bring yourself to plough through my non-CMS powered archives, July 4th’s blog in the archives announces the new layout at the time, which is my current one more or less.
I hope you’re not trying to make out you emailed me about the layout then, when your screenshot and my blog archives proves otherwise. A layout in the past, yes, but not this one.
I don’t see how you can give Rhiannon criticism about her layout when in fact, this layout that you currently have (IP) is close to giving me a seizure.
At first I really disliked Rhiannon’s layout, but over time it’s grown on me, and i’m not even a huge fan of bright colors, so that says something.
I don’t see how Rhiannon’s site is “something that’s wrong with the internet”, so to speak. I think there’s a case of the green eyed monster here. How about instead of making bullshit bitching blogs, you try and rival Rhiannon and prove in your own website that you can do better? That would make sense… no? So far I see nothing of the sort.
skyla-leigh · Oct 27, 04:54 PM · · Permalink
the thing that strikes me when you said that “Yes, yes we’re obviously jealous of Rhiannon’s super layouting skills and so we’re going to go ahead and flame her until we feel better about our fat, narcissistic, bipolar selves” is that it’s probably true.
but, you know, whatever, if that floats your boat, then go ahead and make an extra cut on your arms for me.
skyla-leigh · Oct 27, 10:24 PM · · Permalink
I want to see where exactly you’re being bitches. No, really show me. Either I’m blind (well my glasses are size -3.0), or you have some hidden text that everyone has to highlight click their heels and say some magic word.
I think I mentioned before, that while I do agree with the point of your articles, I don’t like your approach. Be harsh, mean whatever… but most of the time it tends to degenerate into who can come up with the better insult: you or Sarai.
This, on the other hand is a brilliant and extremely helpful article. Some people are just hell bent on antagonizing you, so they do… regardless if you did or didn’t insult the webmaster in question.
If all your articles were like this, I really wouldn’t have anything to criticize you.
Yes Mallory, we’re backstabbing Rhiannon by offering criticism towards her layout (instead of just making fun of her stupidity like we did with you).
I can feel the searing heat of that burn through my monitor.
Not.
((You’re getting rusty. Try to be moar originalz, kthx. I saw that coming from about twenty five miles away.))
And hold up, now you’re calling Rhiannon stupid? You didn’t even realise that, now did you …? So now the ((Unconscious)) truth speaks.
And I’m sorry, but that truth pretty much screams jealous backstabbing to me. :]
[quote]Sarai and I are ttly respectable… I think. Sarai are we respectable? Yeah we’re respectable. And don’t call Sarai dumb! She has a mental disorder.[/quote]
Hm, firstly, to be off topic for a second. Would spelling out “totally” break your fingers? Seems so.
Secondly, I read this article, and didn’t find it at all offensive. I think you guys did offer some constructive criticism. BUT I do have to agree that you two went about this the wrong way. If you too do adore Rhiannon as much as you claim, and are in fact her friends, then you would have just emailed all this to her..not publish it online. To me, your Internet Police site is fine, but not a place to put friends on. I do agree with some of your points about her current layout, but also know that she’s trying, and really she’s has the right to not give a shit about what anyone says. It is her space, that she pays for. She has worked extremely hard on making her website as accessible as it can be. That’s all I have to say.
Stephanie · Oct 28, 10:52 PM · · Permalink
^ You say it’s okay for Becky and Sarai to criticise people harshly, but they shouldn’t do it to friends? Why is that? Why is it okay to mock and ridicule people you don’t know but it’s not okay to criticise friends publicly? Don’t strangers have feelings? Don’t they get humiliated and angered the same way a person who happens to be your friend does?
IMO, either you do it to all or you do it to none. I personally would side with “none” but that’s just me. However, to say that it’s okay to criticise people publicly as long as they aren’t your friends, seems really elitist and nonsensical to me.
Hm, perhaps I should have included that. When I that what they said about this specific article, wasn’t offensive..but I don’t think people should correct others’ websites unless they submit them for a review. I apologize if that was unclear before. When I say that Becky and Sarai’s site is fine, I mean that they are aloud to do so, but, I don’t agree with it, and think that it’s really shitty to publish something like this about websites where you don’t even know the people, or especially if they’re your friends.
Stephanie · Oct 29, 03:35 AM · · Permalink
This website shouldn’t be called internet police, it should be ‘e-bitching’
Honestly if you dislike Rihannon’s layout tell it to her directly. Her current layout isn’t one of my favourites but I still love her site, isn’t the actual content of the site more important than the colour scheme and if it has a commenting system?
Or have you to become elite layout queenies and need to live off e-drama. Try being more constructive and stop over reacting and bitching about someones colour scheme.
Uh, what exactly is wrong with this post? Becky & Sarai aren’t being rude. They’re actually saying some pretty sensible things (and I agree btw). It isn’t backstabbing – how is saying that someone’s layout is too bright backstabbing? Are they going to go and slit their wrists because they’re so hurt?
Oh, and the “who died and made you two queens of layouts” thing is really, really sad. It’s called having an opinion, and when I last looked you were allowed to do that, queen of layouts or not.
If they’re your friends doesn’t it mean that you know them? Also what’s with this idea that a webmaster and his/her websites are the exact same thing? Also Rhiannon has PSGR for entertainment – you can’t even come up with the person site argument in this case.
To answer your question, no. It means that Becky, Sarai, and Rhiannon shouldn’t do IP and WBB. But sure, they are allowed to, but I don’t agree with it. I meant to say, since perhaps it wasn’t clear enough, that people like Becky, Sarai, and Rhiannon shouldn’t publish articles about what other site need to approve on and such, and should tell the webmasters in an email or something, in the case that they don’t even know the webmasters, and/or they especially shouldn’t publish articles concerning their friends sites.
Stephanie · Oct 29, 11:24 AM · · Permalink
I think its good that someone is FINALLY speaking out that rhiannon is nothing but a hypocrite.
everyones defending her simply cos shes some arragont brat who cant take it that people are finally ganging up on her, cos of course she loves doing that to other people.
Juliette · Oct 30, 10:07 AM · · Permalink
Okay, I love Rhiannon’s site, have been visting it for over a year and have communicated with her over her Q&A page. Speaking of that, I find the page quite easily on the eyes and all the colours go together. It’s called a ‘RAINBOW’ colour scheme, duhh.
Besides, every website doesn’t need to be some cutesy, pretty, perfect site. I mean, I don’t see anything extremely bright and nice about this layout that you’ve got.
Even though you made Rhiannon have a layout change (Which is AWESOME, by the way, Rhiannon), there was nothing wrong with the once she had up, anyway. And all youd id was talk about her layout. What about her amazing content??
I just think that you need to think about all these things before posting it.
Courtney · Oct 31, 04:23 AM · · Permalink
Err… why are all of YOU getting involved? I disagree with some things, but Sarai and Becky are just doing it because maybe they want to shout out their opinions – and they have every right to do so.
Connoroo ;D · Oct 31, 01:48 PM · · Permalink
RHINANION SUX ASS!1!! SO DOZ HER LAOYUT N EVERY1 HOO IS DEFENDIN HER MUST B RLY DUMB LOLZ BAI
Yeah..we all must be dumb, even though you seem to be the illiterate one.
Stephanie · Oct 31, 02:26 PM · · Permalink
Dear god, what are the idiot commenters going on about now?! Compared to the other reviews, this one’s really quite mild. Becky and Sarai gave tons of pointers and even REASONS (Gasp! The horror!) for their verdicts. I’m sure the ladies held back on their acid tongues a bit for this one (tell me I’m right hehe).
So stop acting like immature potheads, yes, potheads and go drink some eggnog.
I need a new insult.
And some gingerbread cookies.
Hi…I was kind of expecting PSGR to be included here at some point…
I’ll definitely be keeping your advice in mind when it comes to my next layout change, but as far as commenting goes, it’s not a matter of ‘not wanting to handle them’, I just…don’t usually want them. Occasionally when I’ve actually blogged about something that could warrant feedback I’ve allowed comments, but in general no, I don’t have them.
When it comes to archiving my blog entries it’s no hassle – I just paste the page into a new file and link it up. I would never go with Wordpress mainly due to all of the horror stories I’ve read about it, don’t know anything about Textpattern, Greymatter is ancient, and I don’t like Cutenews. Haloscan is tacky too of course, but it’s lightweight and that’s why I use it.
Anyway, thanks…I think ;)
Rhiannon · Oct 24, 02:00 PM · · Permalink