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Site Name: Solitude
Owner: Shanyu
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 22nd November 2008
Site Name
I like the name Solitude. It’s simple and easy to remember even though your URL is a little difficult to remember. Good choice of site name, and it really suits your site from what I can see.
Coding and Validation
Your coding is valid, congratulations. You can run your site through the W3C Markup Validation service to check. While this is a positive result, you do have a few warnings, mainly due to your Cutenews entries. This is a little snippet of your coding:
... t/cutenews/data/emoticons/happy.gif" /><br /><br />Anyways, on to the changes...
See those trailing backslashes used in image tags and break tags? They’re not needed in your doctype (which is HTML 4.01 Transitional), and are only used in XHTML. This might not be able to be avoided in Cutenews, but as a warning don’t use it on other pages. You want to keep those pages valid and with as little warnings as possible!
You have seven errors in your CSS, which you can check here. Most of them are to do with your scrollbar. Coloured scrollbars are a no-no – they only work in Internet Explorer and can cause problems in other browsers, and as you can see, your CSS. It’s best without them – not everyone will be able to see them, as Internet Explorer isn’t the most common browser anyway.
Other than that, very good job on the validation overall.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
Your site looks great in most browsers according to Browsershots.org so well done on that!
Navigation is clear, not a problem there. The back/reload/next links are nice, but generally they are integrated into people’s browsers and is not needed.
There is a really big issue with your main text. It’s not too small or anything, it’s the colour. It’s way too light, making your text very hard to read. I have to highlight your text to read things properly. A colour like the colour of your links is more readable and is much better. Even black would be a nice colour, as there is black in your header image. Try it out; it doesn’t look that bad.
Layout
Well done on having the layout centered. I like the peachy colours and the serene mood the layout sets. The content and sidebar are set nicely – I like how the sidebar is not aligned with the content, it’s quite unique that way.
There is black in your layout image, which stands out when I look at your layout from a glance. It’s in stark contrast with the peachy-pink, which is why the black should be included somewhere else in the layout. I suggested to make your main text black, because this would balance out the colours and make the text more readable, and obviously make the layout a little more appealing.
Focusing on the layout image, it’s lovely and I like the sparkle effects. The faint text in the background is nice. I think ‘Solitude’ could have been darker or emphasised more.
Your CSS isn’t too bad. I like how you’ve maintained the colours but some are too light. The double-underline links on hover are a little annoying because on an image, they slightly dodge the text and content around it.
Content
Contact Form
Good job on adding the Frequently Asked Questions here.
way where should be way.
Link Exchanges
Well organised!
Links Exchanges should be Link Exchanges
that has should be that have.
Links In
You will like should be You would like
link to either should be link to.
Links Out
This should be renamed to ‘Credits’.
Softwares should be Software.
Site Information
Nothing wrong here. 
100×100 Avatars
These were very nice, but a few of them had a little too much detail and didn’t look as appealing. Remember that simple is best.
Desktop Wallpapers
These are all quite nice, it’s great you offer them in different sizes as well.
Premade Designs
All these layouts are beautiful and I love the variety. They are all made very well and I can definitely see visitors using them.
The only low point with these is that a lot of them use only one main colour in the layout, which can be monotonous, and the effect can be a little hard on the eyes.
I suggest in future to make ones that use a range of colours. I see anime is obviously something you like so I won’t be making you change that; but your site won’t be appealing to non-anime-lovers, obviously.
Transparent PNGs
All your transparent PNGs don’t open. They come up with the following error:
Could not execute query : SELECT * FROM pngs WHERE dl = ’78′ ORDER BY dl ASC .Unknown column ‘dl’ in ‘where clause’
and the number “78″ changes to the number of the PNG.
None of this All images are copyrighted to their respective owners stuff, please. Credit the owner of the image properly, with a link back. I don’t see the point of these; they’re basically like cut images that aren’t even your own. They would be popular with some visitors though, I’m guessing.
Originality & Creativity
I didn’t see much originality here, but definitely some creative and well-made things that were obviously worked hard on.
Organisation & Errors
A very well organised site. The only errors were the few spelling errors and all the links to the PNGs.
Overall Comment
Shanyu, you have a lovely site here and all your layouts are amazing. The only flaw in them is that they use too much of the same colour. You need variety!
While I’m not a big fan of anime myself, your site is a great source for those who love anime, and your premade layouts are definitely your forte.
I don’t have many suggestions except to use more different colours in your layouts, make your font size more readable and fix up those PNG links!
