Sailor Earth's Sailor Scout Page: http://members.spree.com/sip/senergy
Sailor Earth's Sailor Scout Page is a general SM site with emphasis on contests and fan-produced works. The site is very basic in some respects, not so in others. The overall feel of the site lends itself to the basic-like feel, with links with underlines, and bordered pic links. However, in several places, pop-up boxes are used, and use of script boxes is a bit more than what you would find on a basic site. I like the idea of running lots of contests, and unlike most other contests, where the winner gets a web graphic, in the current contest, the prizes are such things as a Sailor Moon T-shirt, or a video. While the idea of the site is a good one, its execution in places needs work. If I were the webmaster, I would rid the page of the popups. First, they are annoying, esecially once you hit the BACK button to return to the page and the popups jump out at the viewer again. Second, by adding the material in the popups to the page itself, it might make the site look better. I am not sure how I feel about the site store being on the front page. My instincts tell me that with a well-planned page for it, the store can be moved to its own section. The message it sends now is, "Welcome to my page! BUY THIS!" The site has a scrapbook of anime images of the Sailor Moon series. The author says, "**All of these Images are my very own. Scanned in and edited by me!! This part of the site will grow as I come into contact with more images *^_^* " The problem here is that US copyright laws might not agree with you. This is a debate that has been raised before. Does derived work from someone else's work belong to the original artist, in this case, Naoko Takeuchi, or the derived artist, in this case, "Sailor Earth". If you are not sure, then you should fault on the side of caution. However, since in this case, she is not using the statement to ask that people give her credit, perhaps it is best that the statement be dropped. It is liable to draw flames. There is a large cache of WAV files on the site, and while the descriptions for the attack clips are fine, in the other sections, the webmaster gets a bit opinionated, which means that you have to actually click on the file and listen to it before you decide whether the clip was worth the effort. I believe the site has potential. Right now, it needs a bit of work. Artemis' Score: 4.3
Wow. I was just thinking the other day, "What ever happened to those Java popups that I used to enjoy so much?" and what's the first thing I see on this page? Not one, not two, but THREE! Alright, enough sarcasm for one day, let's get serious. **Dramatic Music** What's this? The site is best viewed in Internet Explorer, EXCEPT for a "Netscaped" based game. Wierd. What does the webmaster expect visitors to do? Use two different browsers to surf the site? Come back again in a different browser? For some, including me, that's too much work. But hey, I'll do it now because I'm reviewing it. Right, now I'm using Netscape, now lets' open up Internet Explorer…Amazing there's not one bit of difference at ALL. Now let's get beck to Netscape I HATE IE! **personal trauma**. Now just a side note (what isn't in this review?) pretty much all sites work in IE but that doesn't necessarily mean a site is "best viewed" in that browser. Now the layout on this site is very simple and would basically even work on a version 2 browser. The only reason I can think of as to why the webmaster wrote his message was because he saw it on a great site somewhere else and thought it looked professional. I'm not trying to be mean, I could be wrong but the message is pretty much pointless on most sites that I've come across and is only worth putting up if your site is ONLY viewable in IE. Personally if your site can only be viewed by one type of browser that puts it in my bad book but anyway... I'm on the main page. Hmm…another no no. While Amazon.com is a great place to find SM products and can provide content for some sites, placing your "shop" on you main page is just asking people to go there instead of looking through the rest of your site. I'd suggest creating a section just for your visitors to shop. Something else worth mentioning is the fact that I actually missed your entrance graphic because of your "shop". You should definitely move it. Also take your guestbook off this page as well. How do you expect someone to give you helpful criticism when they haven't even seen your site yet? While you're at it clean up the rest of the main page as well. I'd find a new server with fewer banners. TWO banners on a page? You can do better. Try Crosswinds.net, they don't use ANY! Move the contest somewhere else too. Wow, and I'm not even in the site yet! Here I go! Hey, a fan made graphic! Way to go! We definitely need more of these around. Original too. I'd fix it so all of the sites title is on it though. It'd free up a lot of space too (no pun intended, see background) Hmm. I'd try using the "align=middle" tag in your tables to even out the menus, and why only seven planets? Well that's not really that important I guess. Okay, lets' go into the games section (which I thought was more than one area by the text I clicked on) . Another popup! Nooo! Has it occurred to this webmaster that everytime this page loads the script pops up? It's actually pointless as well. We all know what the "Scouts" favourite colors are. Loose those buttons as well. Try making your own graphic buttons or even text links would be better. What the heck is Gesture Info? Needs explaining. Test your knowledge? Damn! I just wanted to see what the area was! Now, I'm bombarded with Twenty-Three popups asking me questions! You really should tell people what they're getting into before they enter this site. These java scripts are WAY out of control. Sorry but it's true. Why not try placing the info you use in the javascripts ON your page. Your amount of content would be tripled! Hey, Mad Libs! I LOVE Mad Libs! And looky! It's actually an ORIGINAL take on them! Hey, you get two points for being original. I love that in a site! Hilarious! Mad Libbing the SONGS of Sailormoon. Great results too! The Contest! Cool this site actually has GOOD prizes! Sensational! How rich is this webmaster? Check this out for the prizes and there's already many great entries so you better hurry! A Fan art gallery with, *gasp* fan artworks I haven't seen before, and a fair amount of them too! This site must be popular! Also check out the past contest winners for some REALLY good fan art! (This site actually grows on you after awhile! And I'm yelling way too much!) Cool gallery. Did you make these images yourself or get them from another site? Haven't seen some of these before which is a plus. Thought you'd like to know though, you can link the buttons to the images themselves you know, or if you're going to imbed them on HTML pages, add the height and width tags to make them load faster (so the pages have a purpose). This review is taking far too long. I'll have to speed up. You need a Rei profile, um..What the heck is an "Avatar"? Lots of little pics? Seems pointless. Some info is definitely needed in most sections and, oh, no! Multiple midis? What were you thinking? I had just moved past the java popups and now, midis? Wait…what happened…my browser just froze. No biggy, probably not your fault... "RESTART!" Okay, let's go back to that Avatar page with the insane amount of midis. Funny it froze AGAIN. *Pulls out hairs* I'm blaming you for this one. I'm not going back there again. Let's keep going... Woh, excellent WAV selections! I'm having a serious download frenzy here! Where did you get them? Make them yourself? Info please! Great selection though! Hey an animated story for Sailor Earth! Well done here too! Ironic how you have a graphic saying, "Wait 120 sec" when if you didn't have that graphic there the downloading speed would increase dramatically. Too bad the animation isn't longer though. Overall this site actually isn't that bad. It just needs to be cleaned up and have some common sense used. In many cases simply taking the popups off and placing the info on the pages would do the trick while in others some redesigning is in order. Fix up what needs to be done and I can definitely see this site rising to it's full potential. Diana's Score: 4.5
Overall Score: 4.4 |
