I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted...

Benign Vanilla wrote:

 > Posting a critique request makes me cringe, but after lurking here a bit I
 > have noticed quite a few people on this group are quite knowledgeable, so
 > I've decided to bite the bullet and ask for some feedback.
 >
 > Be gentle...
 >
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.iheartmypond.com</font" target="_blank">http://www.iheartmypond.com</font</a>>

Clean design.
The major links are where I expect to find them.
The search box is where I expect to find it.

It looks too much like a link farm. It took me a while to determine what
the site was about, and that you had original content.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

Scott Bryce wrote:

 > It looks too much like a link farm.

<AOL /> for sure. Other than that I like the site.


--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://JustThe.net/" target="_blank">http://JustThe.net/</a>
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol.TakeThisOut@JustThe.net
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol RemoveThis @JustThe.net> wrote in message
news:cogk2q$dh7$3@ratbert.glorb.com...
 > Benign Vanilla wrote:
  > > Posting a critique request makes me cringe, but after lurking here a bit
I
  > > have noticed quite a few people on this group are quite knowledgeable,
so
  > > I've decided to bite the bullet and ask for some feedback.
  > >
  > > Be gentle...
 >
 > Sucks donkey nads! heh, heh. Actually, not bad - loads real quick, looks
clean.
 > I didn't check the HTML for validity, though.

I'd expect we have a few tag issues, and I know we are not 508 compliant.
The site is built on ASP driven by a DB, but we periodically publish a
static version to help load times, and cut down on the dataload. I think our
parser utility (in house tool) is not rendering everything perfectly.

BV.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

"Scott Bryce" <sbryce.DeleteThis@scottbryce.com> wrote in message
news:10qnlm71gen3270@corp.supernews.com...
<snip>
<font color=green>  > > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.iheartmypond.com</font" target="_blank">http://www.iheartmypond.com</font</a>>
 >
 > Clean design.
 > The major links are where I expect to find them.
 > The search box is where I expect to find it.
 >
 > It looks too much like a link farm. It took me a while to determine what
 > the site was about, and that you had original content.

Thanks, any suggestions for improving that? What would clarify it for you?

BV.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

Benign Vanilla wrote:

 > Thanks, any suggestions for improving that? What would clarify it for you?

2 things. Either one would do it. Both would do it better.

1) Come up with a one or two sentence description of what the site is
about and put that under the top link bar.

2) Find a less link-farm-like format for the link directory. Calling it
something other than Link Directory might help.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

Benign Vanilla wrote:

 > Posting a critique request makes me cringe, but after lurking here
 > a bit I have noticed quite a few people on this group are quite
 > knowledgeable, so I've decided to bite the bullet and ask for some
 > feedback.
 >
 > Be gentle...

<g>

<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.iheartmypond.com</font" target="_blank">http://www.iheartmypond.com</font</a>>

Ack!

1.
<http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A//www.iheartmypond.com/>

2.
<http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?profile=css2&warning=2&uri=http%3A//www.iheartmypond.com/>

3. Remove comment marks from CSS [ <!-- and --> ], actually, move CSS
to external file.

4. You do not need to repeat "font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial,
Helvetica, sans-serif;" for every style. Use it once in the body { }.

5. Drop Verdana.
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/webmatters/verdana.html" target="_blank">http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/webmatters/verdana.html</a>

6. You specified no background color. My teal default shows.

7. Specify font sizes in percentage, not pixels. Use font-size: 100%
for body, and perhaps slight variations for other than content text,
maybe 90% for legalese. With your microfonts in pixels, IE users will
not be able to resize them so they can read it.

8. I think I see improperly nested tables in there (which means older
Netscapes won't display it) but I can't be sure due to the complexity
of it all. This page could be done with <div>s and no tables.

9. Horizontal scrollbar with my browser at 800 px wide.

That should keep you busy for awhile. The Rams-Packers game is
starting so I'll see ya later.

--
-bts
-This space intentionally left blank.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

"Beauregard T. Shagnasty" <a.nony.mous.RemoveThis@example.invalid> wrote in message
news:UIQqd.26711$Uf.6550@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
<snip>
 > That should keep you busy for awhile. The Rams-Packers game is
 > starting so I'll see ya later.

You have no idea. LOL. Thanks.

BV.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol.TakeThisOut@JustThe.net> wrote in message
news:cogrng$fmu$1@ratbert.glorb.com...
 > Scott Bryce wrote:
 >
  > > It looks too much like a link farm.
 >
 > <AOL /> for sure. Other than that I like the site.

I'll have to work up some content to meet the suggestions y'all have
proposed. I am not famaliar with the term link farm, but it sounds negative.
LOL. We have a combination of off site links, as well as our own content, so
I guess I need to make that more clear.

I've also begun cleaning up some of the source to fix some of the issues,
proposed by some of the other posters in the thread.

Thanks all for the feedback.

BV.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

Benign Vanilla wrote:

 > I'll have to work up some content to meet the suggestions y'all have
 > proposed. I am not famaliar with the term link farm, but it sounds negative.

A site that contains nothing but off-site links. They are often
formatted the same way you have formatted the Pond Directory section of
your site. They may also have advertising and a search feature that you
can use to search the web. They exist either to sell advertising, or to
provide incoming links to sites in an attempt to improve their ranking
on Google, or both.


 > LOL. We have a combination of off site links, as well as our own content, so
 > I guess I need to make that more clear.

You need to do something that will make the overall purpose of the site
obvious at first glance. You have to read through a few of the links to
find out that they all have a common theme.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

Benign Vanilla wrote:
 > "Steve Sobol" <sjsobol RemoveThis @JustThe.net> wrote in message
 > news:cogrng$fmu$1@ratbert.glorb.com...
 >
  >>Scott Bryce wrote:
  >>
  >>
   >>>It looks too much like a link farm.
  >>
  >><AOL /> for sure. Other than that I like the site.
 >
 >
 > I'll have to work up some content to meet the suggestions y'all have
 > proposed. I am not famaliar with the term link farm, but it sounds negative.
 > LOL. We have a combination of off site links, as well as our own content, so
 > I guess I need to make that more clear.

It's not negative if that's the look you're going for. But if you intend to put
up content, put content there instead of a bunch of links.

 > Thanks all for the feedback.

Always happy to impose my opinions on others :-p

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://JustThe.net/" target="_blank">http://JustThe.net/</a>
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol RemoveThis @JustThe.net
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

Benign Vanilla wrote:

 > Posting a critique request makes me cringe, but after lurking here a bit I
 > have noticed quite a few people on this group are quite knowledgeable, so
 > I've decided to bite the bullet and ask for some feedback.
 >
 > Be gentle...
 >
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.iheartmypond.com</font" target="_blank">http://www.iheartmypond.com</font</a>>
 >
 > BV.
 >
 >
The page actually looks good, but:
The sources you model your markup from are very, very old in web years
-- ("so five minutes ago" as a VALGOL coder might say).
Look at newer sources and learn about CSS and doc types.
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://w3.org" target="_blank">http://w3.org</a>
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.webstandards.org" target="_blank">http://www.webstandards.org</a>
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.alistapart.com" target="_blank">http://www.alistapart.com</a>
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.realworldstyle.com" target="_blank">http://www.realworldstyle.com</a>
--
mbstevens
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.mbstevens.com/bc.html" target="_blank">http://www.mbstevens.com/bc.html</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

"Scott Bryce" <sbryce DeleteThis @scottbryce.com> wrote in message
news:10qo06hbm95c72d@corp.supernews.com...
<snip>
 > You need to do something that will make the overall purpose of the site
 > obvious at first glance. You have to read through a few of the links to
 > find out that they all have a common theme.

Our design came out of the concept that someone that finds the site, was
probably looking for it, and knows what it is. That thinking appears to be
flawed.

BV.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted... 

"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol.TakeThisOut@JustThe.net> wrote in message
news:coh1bk$h89$2@ratbert.glorb.com...
<snip>
  > > I'll have to work up some content to meet the suggestions y'all have
  > > proposed. I am not famaliar with the term link farm, but it sounds
negative.
  > > LOL. We have a combination of off site links, as well as our own
content, so
  > > I guess I need to make that more clear.
 >
 > It's not negative if that's the look you're going for. But if you intend
to put
 > up content, put content there instead of a bunch of links.
<snip>

Our site is a comprehensive collection of pond/water garden related topics,
links, photos, etc. So content is strewn across the directory. The look idea
was to be a sort of "search engine for pond info".

BV.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: I cringe as I post this, but opinions wanted...