jackpf Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 Hey all, Just thought I'd post my site up here and get some feedback and stuff. http://www.jackpf.co.uk I'm not really sure what it's about...a bit of a forum, a bit of networking, a bit of music, a bit of blogging...I wrote it all myself, so don't be too harsh & it's not completely finished yet. Oh, and before anyone says "it's too black" or "too dull", I haven't made this site for commercial use, it's just a bit of fun. Besides, I like black Anyways, feel free to comment/critisise. Thanks, Jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILMV Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 It's too black and it's too dull , regardless whether the site is for commercial use or not, if I came across your site I wouldn't stick around to find out about you, and dare I say it neither would anyone else. - The flowing white stuff underneath means I cannot read the white text - The links on the left are way too grey, which makes them difficult to read - The difference in colour between your links and your content is insane, it makes your site look uneven It's all about the design IMO, your blogging / cms app your making doesn't have to be ground breaking, but your design doesnt appeal to me at all. If you are going for the dark/hacker/gamer look, there are plenty of themes available for you to use, or for you to get some ideas from. Also: "Tbh, it changes whenever I get bored ", when you get a good design / layout, stick with it ILMV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackpf Posted February 27, 2009 Author Share Posted February 27, 2009 Thanks, I appreciate your input. Yeah, the only reason it changes frequently is because I can't find I style I think is perfect. Tbh, it's an improvement on the old one though. I'll have a look around and change the color of the nav links. Cheers, Jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chmpdog Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 I liked the black & white design. Although I would recommend removing the bar at the bottom and moving the text away from the thing at the top so its readable. Good stuf, although needs some tweeking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackpf Posted February 28, 2009 Author Share Posted February 28, 2009 Thanks. Although...what bar at the bottom is that? And yeah...Idk, I thought it looked ok the way the title sort of merged in with the background. I shall experminent. Thanks, Jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSuperHero Posted March 1, 2009 Share Posted March 1, 2009 Hey There...I use to love building stuff just for my own learning pleasure, or just about me period...I still kinda do...I feel where your coming from, I can relate...but I think your site layout is uneven... i would probably recommend establishing more of a header that stays constant across all your pages, something more than the bg image you have going at the moment...I dont know...im usually against using templates...with my current project im all about building content first then diving into design...:-) anyways...not to bad... Just wondering what career options are you looking into for the future ? i noticed somewhere on your site you posted somehting along the lines of you could have been doing something more worthwhile.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackpf Posted March 1, 2009 Author Share Posted March 1, 2009 Yeah, it's just a bit of fun. I'm not really sure what you mean by uneven... And I thought the background was ok, but considering no one else does, I've introduced a "custom skin" feature to my site. You can choose a skin that I've made, or make your own style sheet. It's bottom right of the homepage if anyone wants a go And yeah, I love computers- I'll probably do something with them as a career. What I mean by I should probably be doing something better with my time is that I have GCSE's very soon. I should probably be revising rather than making websites and posting on forums Thanks for your input. Oh, if you mean uneven because the blog section has a different navigation section, that's because my blog is completely separate to the rest of my site. I did that on purpose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFilmGod Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Your html code isn't semantic. <li> should only contain inline elements. Block elements such as <div> or <input> should not be inserted within a list. It's simply illogical to nest such code within a list. Do not use <div>'s to style text. jackpf.co.uk should be in a <h1>, <h2>, or <p>. Why are you using inline styling? Unless it's an extreme case/scenario, you should strive away from inline styling. The entire website is very unappealing. I recommend - The Design of Sites - Patterns for Winning Designs. It's a terrific read, and it'll help you a lot in designing very appealing website designs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waynewex Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 In my opinion, black is far too easy. From a customer viewpoint, it's not that positive either. Test yourself by trying to bring some colour into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackpf Posted March 3, 2009 Author Share Posted March 3, 2009 <li> should only contain inline elements. Block elements such as <div> or <input> should not be inserted within a list. It's simply illogical to nest such code within a list. The only reason I have done this is so that I can hide certain elements, then display them with Javascript. And the reason I have used inline styling for the homepage is that I change it so often it's just easier. As for the rest of your points, I will take them into consideration In my opinion, black is far too easy. From a customer viewpoint, it's not that positive either. Test yourself by trying to bring some colour into it. And as I said in my first post, it's not commercial. It's justa bit of fun. Besides, I like black. However, since black isn't everyone's cup of tea, I've made a "custom skins" located on the bottom right of the homepage. You can try it out if you want. Thanks for your input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFilmGod Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Why can't you you hide elements that are not nested within lists? Simply use javascript to trigger the display property to none. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackpf Posted March 4, 2009 Author Share Posted March 4, 2009 Because it's easier, it's valid xhtml 1.1, and it works. Why change it?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFilmGod Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 Because it's easier, it's valid xhtml 1.1, and it works. Why change it?? Does that mean its okay to code using tables? Tables are valid, but it isn't semantic. Semantics go a far way in improving google search engine rankings. My 2 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackpf Posted March 5, 2009 Author Share Posted March 5, 2009 Because it's easier, it's valid xhtml 1.1, and it works. Why change it?? Does that mean its okay to code using tables? Tables are valid, but it isn't semantic. Semantics go a far way in improving google search engine rankings. My 2 cents. Well, it depends what you're using tables for. This forum uses tables, because it's logical to do so. And I don't believe using tables or not really affects your page rank... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ionik Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 There is nothing a div cannot do that a table can, there is a lot a table cannot do that a div can. With that said, there is no reason to use tables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 And I don't believe using tables or not really affects your page rank... Don't shoot the messenger, but according to the book Building Findable Websites, apparently it does. There is a chapter dedicated to web standards, and in particular a section on 'The Right and Wrong way to use tables'. In it, the author states that there are two likely reasons for the effect of tables on rankings: 1) tables increase code to content ratios, and 2) sites with large complex table structures makes it more time consuming for spiders to crawl through. There are many benefits to css including being cachable (if used in a separate style sheet - tables cannot be cached, as they are intertwined within the (x)html document) to ease of maintenance to mention a few. In any case, in this day and age, I would leave the functionality of tables to tabular data, and leave site layouts to divs / css. Obviously, content will be what drives rankings the most (so this is not to say that if a site uses tables for layout, it's rankings will tank like the Titanic or anything like that). But for layout purposes, well structured, clean light weight divs (without falling into the trap of catching 'divitis') and some nice simple css is preferable. A link to clean table construction (even going so far as making additional recommendations to your table as far as accessibility and abbreviations and the like are concerned) can be found here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackpf Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 I completely agree- CSS is much more versatile, quicker, and generally better. My site is almost completely pure css. The only place I've used a table is on my forum, which I attempted to make with CSS. I decided to use tables instead because it's incredibly difficult to make divs look the right size and be able to dynamically expand regarding its content at the same time. Maybe I'm just not good enough at CSS, but I found tables to be much easier and the better choice for my forum. The forum is here if anyone wants to take a look. I'd be happy to take critisism/improvements on how I could use css instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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