ColdCast - The New Social Content Sharing Domain!

[PcGeniusProductions]

I have recently finished a brand new project which has been in development for the past few months. I have just released it to the public, and would like to request a review.

 

I have optimized the code as much as possible, it is nearly 100% standards-compliant, and the robots.txt file has been modified for maximum efficiency.

 

Any feedback would be great! Thanks in advance.

 

ColdCast - Make your Mark

[nrg_alpha]

Here are my thoughts:

 

I really like the visuals.. very clean, light and lean looking. The icons are nice, and the colour scheme works very well.

 

- The markup validates (only checked home page). Nice to see that CSS validation however is another story.

 

- I am examining the SEO integration.. and I am surprised that you don't make use of the <h1> tag (as you only use <h2> tags). Should pick the single most strategic place and use it. On a side note, the meta tag keywords is not worth much these days..

 

- Could shave some additional weight off of some images through Yslow's smushit. (for the home page, I say a small amount of 1.32 KB that could be saved. Nothing serious). Might be able to shave off a few across all pages (forums page can see a savings of ~ 5.29 KB for example).

 

- Some related graphics can be merged into css sprite sheets to reduce some http requests and file sizes..

Example, the following can be merged into one:

http://www.coldcast.co.uk/images/icons/set4/100/9.png

http://www.coldcast.co.uk/images/icons/set4/100/1.png

http://www.coldcast.co.uk/images/icons/set4/100/5.png

 

Same for images like:

http://www.coldcast.co.uk/themes/acquia_marina/icons/tnt_icon_14.png

http://www.coldcast.co.uk/themes/acquia_marina/icons/tnt_icon_08.png

 

you can read more about site optimizations over at Yahoo's Best Practices page.

 

Over all though.. very nicely done! I like it! Clean and simple.

 

 

 

[fabrydesign]

Seems like those big images on the home page should be links. There's a huge thing that says REGISTER but I have to search for a little bitty link off to the side.

[PcGeniusProductions]

Hey guys.

 

nrg_alpha:

Thanks for your review, very detailed. Come to think of it, I never actually validated my CSS, slipped my mind completely. As for image compression, I believe that could be a good idea. As you said, it aint a lot, but it will add up if/when I get a lot of users.

 

fabrydesign:

Thanks for bringing my attention to that, I was so wrapped up in getting the site done that I did not go back and perfect anything.

 

Also... I should say that a logged in users sees a completely different side to the website. The homepage is totally changed and everything is on display and showing off to its full extent.

 

I know how much of a pain in the a!ss it is registering at a website, and even worse when you're probably not gonna use it, so I created you guys a test account to take a look at the logged-in homepage.

 

TestUser / password

 

Thanks for all your feedback! Very much appreciated!

 

PS: Please let me know what you think of the logged-in homepage, I'm quite happy with it.

[nrg_alpha]

Thanks for providing a temp account username and password.

 

- To be honest, I'm not fond of the the large firefox3 download image button I'm greeted with on the home page when logged in. Whether it's an ad or just you guys wanting people to download / use Firefox, it feels like advertising. Either that, or almost being suggestive that 'This site works best in firefox' kind of thing.. in either case, I would consider removing that IMO.

 

- Right beside that is the totals of articles, blogs, forums, etc.. They almost feel like they should be links.. and I question if there is a better way to give logged in users those numbers, as that whole horizontal area is wasted space IMO.

 

Other than that..looks good to me.

[PcGeniusProductions]

Thanks for the feedback! Funny you should say that, the firefox banner is there simply out of my personal choice. We needed something to "temporarily" fill that gap, and that fit the criteria. Another guy on the team says it's an eyesore, so I reckon it wont be missed when I do remove it.

 

Thanks for the feedback! And you know, I have been considering making those stats into links, but wasn't sure if it was a good idea. Now I know it is, i'll add them right away. Thanks for the feedback

 

I am about to remove the test account. From now on please use these details to access the site in test-mode.

 

Test-Drive / coldcast2009

 

http://www.coldcast.co.uk/page/test-drive

 

PS: The link is explaining what the Test Account can do.

[PcGeniusProductions]

**edit - ignore **