PSGR is a solo effort by me, Rhiannon, a 23 year old from New Zealand. There's a lot to explore here, so take a look around and have fun!
Name: Raymond
Site: Cest-Ma-Vie
Review completed on: 21/12/06
SPLASH PAGE
No splash
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
It's hard to form a first impression of your site when I've been a regular visitor since you submitted back in October. I really enjoy your blogs, they're always interesting and they make me laugh, and you always include cool pictures. So, let's just skip this first impression, okay?
LAYOUT
This took a while to load, but not due to the image size, as it has been sized quite reasonably and I don't think that anyone would experience any problems with in terms of hindering loading time. Rather, I think it is all the images you include in your blog, or the "Myflashfetish" music player embedded at the top of your sidebar. Is this on auto start? I don't know, because once your layout loaded I manually stopped your site loading, otherwise it would have gone on forever!
There's nothing wrong with your layout as such, apart from the fact that it's a celebrity layout. I see celebrity layouts around from time to time, but I've noticed lately that they're finally going out of fashion. People are starting to realise the significance of copyright violation as well as the fact that celebrity layouts are usually just, well....meh. The amount of people turning away from cliched celebrity images is growing, and people are choosing to display layouts that contain random patterns or designs, original photography, or even pictures of themselves. I have to admit it was disappointing to see that you've got a band layout up here, but going by your Past Layouts section you've always relied on celebrity images to adorn your site with. Your blogs are always full of high quality pictures, why not use one for a future layout? You went to Thailand recently didn't you? Well, I bet you've got more than a few ideal pictures that could be used here, instead of The Killers! Be different, man! Celebrity layouts belong on fan sites, so that's where they should stay!
A side note: I think there is something wrong with your Extreme Tracker, because it's only displaying one hit a day, and you get quite a few blog comments and I've been to your site a billion times throughout this review, so something's up with that.
CONTENT
The Owner
Looks like there's a decent amount of information here, which is great to see. I don't know about you, but these sections are always my favourite to explore, and the more information there is about the webmaster, the better.
Cool that you're from Malaysia. I've been to Malaysia actually, not sure if you knew that. I went to a city called Johor Bahru, just across the border from Singapore. In your "Basics of Me" factfile, you say that your eye colour is black...is this a typo, or are they actually black? Wow...
My Story - "Borned at 19th August 1984" should be "I was born on 19th August 1984." Also, in this section you haven't made a space between the full stop at the end of your sentences and the beginning of a new sentence. For example, "I am Leo and my chinese zodiac is a mouse.My family consisnt of 4 members.My dad,mum,sister and me.My...." It makes things appear a little untidy, so be sure to use the space bar after each full stop! I'm sorry that you've had to do a degree in Economics when you really want to be a fashion designer...I hope this dream of yours becomes a reality for you! I'm also sorry that in the past you were depressed about the way you look. If it's any consolation, I've not met a single person who is happy with the way they look, so you're definitely not alone. I'm glad you're more confident with yourself now though. Ah yes, you also mentioned dieting and how you're going to start it up again soon. I hope you don't mind if I give you some tips? Just like me, you love food right, but you want to lose weight? I used to be a lot bigger than I am now, a few years ago I was around 62kg and right now I'm around 40, because I lost a lot of weight. I'd always wanted to lose weight, but I didn't want to exercise, starve myself, or eat healthily! Booooring! So I just cut down the amount I ate. Still eat what you want, but in moderation! After about three days or so, your stomach will have shrunk, and you won't be able to handle as much food as you would have beforehand. That's how I lost weight anyway, I know everyone is different and this may not work for you, but at least try it and see how you go.
Find Me - you've listed several ways in which people can get a hold of you, including a .Mac address. What's it like having a .Mac account? I know you have to pay for it, so I don't have one. I did when it was free though, but that was in like, 2001 lol. Also, the link you've got for "Disturbed MB" is incorrect, you've left out the R.
Random Fact - this should be Random Facts, because you've got more than one fact listed here. You've spent over 10,000 ringits (sp?) on cds and stuff? Wow...that's what, $4,060 New Zealand dollars!! Whoa mama! One word for ya Wayymond - Limewire. You obviously like music then - well, that's a bit of an understatement - so how about adding a section here about all the bands you like to listen to? That'd be cool.
Site
About this site - at the end of this section where you've got "1024 x 768 screen solution", change solution to resolution. Also, watch your "i's" here, I always has a capital I, it's never lowercase if it's by itself.
Disclaimer - how come you've got ~ instead of using full stops? Remember to use the space bar here as well...
Past layout - this should be "past layouts" because you have more than one past layout featured here. You've got quite a few past layouts displayed here, most of which depict someone called Elva! Who's that? A Malay popstar? On version 12.0, you've got the details as saying "10 September 2006 - Current" although since your Killers layout replaced this, it should be 10 September 2006 - 13 December 2006.
Reviews - the text links for "Time After Time Review" and "Glass Heart Review" should both have S's on the end. I believe Glass Heart Reviews is inactive, in fact the site doesn't exist anymore. Ha, I remember telling one of the staff there that she was conceited...(review #96), whoopsies. I think it was because she went on about having massive boobies and then she put up a picture of herself and her chest represented that of a surfboard. Dunno.
Awards - I like the way you've opted to display these, by way of text link to the award as well as the award site. Hmm...were you in the "award scene" mid-late 2005? I think I remember seeing your name in various nominee lists, did you have a blogspot site called azioray?
Credits - looks like you've covered everything here, good job.
Portfolio and Gallery open in new windows, so I won't be reviewing these. Just a thought though - in your navigation perhaps you could indicate that these links are external.
Ask Me
Not a hell of a lot that I can say here...is this script powered by WakScripts? It looks like it...and I think you're supposed to leave the link at the bottom, and you haven't dude! I know the site is defunct but I still think you have to link back? I used to have a Waks Ask And Answer but I removed it due to reading about security issues, and I'm not comfortable using scripts at my site (as you can see from my crappy "Freedback" forms) so I removed it. PHPAskIt is highly recommended as being a secure Q&A script.
Plugboard
You may want to log into your plug-board account and remove some of the broken links here, as well as removing the double up pluggage of "La Petite Service" or whatever the hell that button says. It has been so crappily done that I can't even read what it says, probably some bilingual mumbo jumbo.
Exits
Link Me - a good selection of 88x31 buttons, but don't forget to add some of different sizes (88x15 or whatever it is, 100 x 35 etc) so that your visitors can have an increased variety.
Nothing more to say here, all your links are arranged tidily and that's the main thing, right? You could always add list tags <li> at the beginning of each link to make them look even more organised. I see you've exchanged links with a guy called Amirul...I wonder if this is the
same Amirul who I've reviewed twice, once under the name Amirul and then under "Venus".
SUMMARY
For the most part my review of your site has been enjoyable, but I think there are a few things that you could fix up in order to improve your site. I realise that English is not your native language, but all the same try and watch your grammar, in particular adding "S's" on the ends of certain words. Remembering the function of the space bar is also recommended - remember you want to be presenting your information as orderly as possible. It was slightly disappointing that there were only two real content sections here, being "The Owner" and "Site". You could always come up with a Visitor section, where you could stick the Ask Me and Plugboard pages as well as adding some extra visitor content of your choice. As it is now, your site sort of falls in between the Personal and Blog site categories, it's neither here or there. A personal site typically offers owner information, site information, AND visitor content, and the latter is something that Cest Ma Vie currently lacks.
Your layout has been presented well, but the subject it depicts was of a concern to me. I encourage you to move away from the celebrity layout scene and try and develop your own personalised style. As I mentioned earlier, this shouldn't be hard for you as you have tonnes of wonderful pictures you could incorperate into a layout. You can design well, but it's a matter of what you're designing, do you get what I mean?
I wish you luck with everything - I'll definitely be popping back every now and then to check out your progress. You're a likeable person, and this shows in your blogs - now it's time to concentrate more on your content as well as your presentation, and then you'll have the whole package!
