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Dandee has 6 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on Dandee. Jump to review form?

1. 

   RetroStorm gave it on 24th Apr 2009 and said:

   First Impression :
   My first impression was just like colorful. I love the header, but it would be nicer if you added, like more... maybe brushes are something.

   Layout:
   Wonderful. Very colorful... and attractive. You could have more brushes, or something in the header by the way. I think you should change the 'Dear Diary' section of the sidebar, to something like 'Welcome Message' or something. Your layout and coding is very original. I never seen many layouts like yours. Very unique. I especially like the font as well.

   Content :
   You have some nice content. I especially like the quizzes. Very original. You could add a bit more content because there's like only 2 links in the content page.

   Owner :
   You have a lot on the owner page which is fantastic. Very detailed. You should have a list of 'Likes' or 'Dislikes' or something like that. A picture will also be nice. Are you a camera shy? Try adding a picture to have like more 'YOU' in it.
   Well... you sure have a lot to write about yourself! Awesome, hehe. :)

   .ORG :
   Not much stuff in this page. Try adding like contact information, contact page, plugboard. But a plugboard is actually optional. Hehe. Here are some optional ideas: Ask me and a plugboard. Hope this helps. Also, maybe try to add a few link me buttons in case some one really loves your website and wants to link you.

   Overall:
   You did pretty well on your site. The quiz thing was really original. Good luck to you on your site. :D

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2. 

   Sillyish gave it on 11th Apr 2009 and said:

   I'm not going to say this is the best way to go, but I was playing with your style.css and think this is a bit nicer. Still not perfect, but here's a revised version of style.css that you can obviously play with or disregard or whatever.

   /*
Theme Name: DANDEE&RAINBOWS
Theme URI: http://dandee.org/
Description: RAINBOWS; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple
Version: 3.0
Author: Courtney Renee
*/
body {
text-align : center;
background-color : #F1E6E6;
background-attachment : fixed;
}
#container {
margin : 0 auto;
background-color : #F1E6E6;
width : 720px;
text-align : left;
border : 0px;
}
#header {
background-color : #F1E6E6;
float : left;
width : 700px;
text-align : center;
padding-bottom : 5px;
}
#content {
float : right;
width : 470px;
height : auto;
color : #222;
font-size : 12px;
letter-spacing : 0.5px;
font-family : "Georgia";
text-align : left;
background-color : #F1E6E6;
margin-right: 5px;
margin-left: 5px;
}
#sidebar {
float : left;
width : 230px;
height : auto;
color : #f80000;
font-size : 12px;
letter-spacing : 0.5px;
font-family : "Georgia";
text-align : left;
background-color : #F1E6E6;
margin-left: 5px;
margin-right: 5px;
}
h1 {
color : #f5950b;
font-size : 16px;
line-height : 17px;
letter-spacing : 1px;
font-family : "Arial Narrow", "MS Serif";
text-align : left;
border-bottom : 1px solid #9104c5;
margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;
padding:0;

   }
h2 {
color : #9104c5;
font-size : 16px;
line-height : 17px;
letter-spacing : 1px;
font-family : "Arial Narrow", "MS Serif";
text-align : center;
text-align: left;
margin:10px 0px 0px 0px;
padding:0;
}
h2 a:link { color:#9104c5; }
h2 a:hover { color:#f5950b; }
ul {
list-style-type : none;
}
.img {
border : none;
}
.navi {
margin : 0px 0px 15px 0px;
padding : 0;
list-style-type : none;
}
#header {
list-style: none;
margin: 0; padding: 0;
font-family : "Georgia";
}
#headnavi li {
float: left;
font-family : "Georgia";
}
#headnavi li a {
display: block;
background: #0b7b1d;
width: 150px;
text-align: center;
font-family : "Georgia";
color: #fff;
padding: 3px 0;
}
#headnavi li a:hover {
background: #e6ee0d;
font-family : "Georgia";
color: #000;
}
a:link {
color : #f80000;
text-decoration : none;
}
a:visited {
color : #f80000;
text-decoration : none;
}
a:hover {
color : #1d13e1;
text-decoration:underline;
}
a:active {
color : #f80000;
text-decoration : none;
}
#footer {
margin : 0 auto;
color : #f5950b;
font-size : 12px;
width : 700px;
font-family : "Georgia";
text-align : center;
border-top : 1px solid #9104c5;
padding-top : 5px;
padding-bottom : 4.5px;
clear : both;
}
.meta { font-weight:bold; }
.feedback { margin-bottom:20px; }
p { color:#222; padding:0; margin:0px 0px 20px 0px; }

   Overall, I like the IDEA of the layout, I think it just needs a lot of tweaking, partly in the colours (red text as a default text is very overwhelming; orange on green is... well, kind of ugly), and also in the title - I really don't like how the main title image isn't smoothed.

   This is going to be very hypocritical of me, but I felt that you emphasized too many words on your main 'about me' page. I spent most of the page wasting my energy on BLACK and MUST and LOVE and all the interesting vocal variations that make it EMPHASIZED, and not enough reading.

   You have a broken link in your sidebar navigation: it links to /etc instead of /etcetra

   :-)

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3. 

   Cindy gave it on 11th Apr 2009 and said:

   Hey Courtney, I'm Cindy and I'll be reviewing your site. I use Firefox with a 1280x800 resolution on Vista. :)
   -------------------------

   COMPOSITION: First impression: Very colorful! I like the concept of the rainbow color scheme --- I really do! --- but I think that you can get away with using fewer colors with your text. I'm think it's fine if your title text (DANDEE) is in the rainbow colors, but for the actual text, it's slight overkill. I feel like there should be a better way of coordinating all six (which might be too many colors for a color scheme....) colors here.

   Take your navigation menu for example. You have bright orange text on a green background, which isn't exactly a readable color combination. When I put it under the Juicy Studio Luminosity Colour Contrast Ratio Analyser, it fails because there's not enough contrast. I know you're trying to implement a certain theme here (which is great, because I love it when sites carry a consistent theme throughout!), but you also have to keep in mind the readability! It's also hard to read red text on a yellow background (which you have for your hovered nav. links) because they're both bright colors.

   You should also consider your main text. Bright text is generally hard to read. Those kinds of colors work well with links and bold text because the brightness accents the text (which is purpose of making something bold) so it stands out among the plain text. However, for regular text, you should look into something that's a bit easier on the eyes. Above all, try limiting your text colors (including navigation) to 2-3. Here are a few suggestions:

   - Keep the rainbow colors for "DANDEE" but instead of the light pink-gray, try a dark grey. Make the text a very, very light grey or white. Make the links and headings orange and yellow, since those are the two rainbow colors that pop out well against dark backgrounds. Make the navigation bar background orange or yellow (so it stands out against the dark grey background) and the navigation links about the same color as your dark grey background. For the hover, you could switch the orange/yellow and grey or you could switch the orange with yellow (or yellow, if you chose orange for the original links). By the way, a dark grey at #212121 and your current orange color provide an appropriate amount of contrast. The reason why I suggest dark + bright colors is because light colors like light grey and white are already considered "bright", and if you pair this with bright rainbow colors, it enters eyesore territory.

   - Limit the entire color palette to a select few colors. There are several websites that have a rainbow-ish aesthetic like yours, but they've limited their palette to a few colors. An example of this would be evaded.org, which sticks to two adjacent rainbow colors (blue, purple) and white. I do not advocate monochrome layouts (that'd be the other extreme!). Instead, you should consider paring down your palette to a few (3-4 colors) that complement each other. If you must use lots of different colors, think in terms of gradients (smooth transitions of color), not rainbows! I highly, highly recommend colourlovers.com. You can find some awesome color palettes that will strike your fancy.

   Okay, that said, I'm a pretty big fan of the way you've structured your layout. I love it when layouts are nicely organized, and you've done quite well in this regard!

   - DANDEE would look a lot better if it were anti-aliased text. Usually aliased text doesn't "flow" as well with the layout unless it's a pixel layout.

   - The title and nav. bar look off-center compared to your content. See if you can push the title and nav bar to the right.

   - The block of purple next to your blog entry titles is way too close to the actual title text --- add some padding/margin so the two aren't touching?

   - In your Dear diary sidebar section, it'd be great if you could distinguish "Courtney, on her blogging abilities..." from the "I am proud to say that my blogging skills..." because the lack of differentiation in the text make it seem like one condensed paragraph, when it's actually a personal quote from you. I'd suggest putting a line break and perhaps bolding "Courtney."

   - I would add some padding/margin to the bottom of your content. Notice how close "Reviews" is to the bottom line.

   ---------------------------------------------

   CONTENT:

   Ooh la la, you've got some nice content! And I like how for each section, you start off with a general page, and then you've got more detailed subpages. It's very well-structured and organized, and I like how it's easy to navigate. When I leave your site, I have a pretty good idea of who you are, which is an indicator of the quality of your content. I've written a few things below that I think would improve your content, and if you can find a way to implement some of these things, then I say you've got some A+ content.

   - One thing I love about your sidebar is that it starts off with a personal quote about the specific page. I think it's a really quirky touch that makes your site unique.

   - Courtney: Under "Five Key Facts", you should bold/italicize/emphasize the Who?, What?, etc.

   - Courtney | More: Under your hobbies, "My hobbies are a simple, if not diverse ones. " should be "My hobbies are simple, if not diverse."

   - Courtney | Mirror: "I believe that my smile is my best feature because it is what I get the most compliments on and as for my height it was I am teased about the most." has awkward wording; try "I believe that my smile is my best feature because it gives me the most compliments, whereas my height gives me the most teasing." One suggestion for this page is to put in a photo of yourself. I'm not advocating camwhoring by any means, but it'd give readers a better understanding of your description. Besides, I'm sure you do have a great smile! :)

   - Courtney | Lives: An Event(full) life is a bit tricky, because I almost wrote that you should spell it like Eventful (the dictionary spelling) until I realized that you probably did that on purpose, like "full" of Events. Be careful about that, since people might point out that you're "spelling it wrong". Also, "They are close to downtown Decatur, GA and were just recently built ..." should be "It is close to downtown Decatur, GA, and it was recently built...".

   - Courtney | Schools: "Home v.s Education" should be Home vs. Education or Home v. Education.

   - Courtney | Favorites: For "Books" and "Movies", you should list specific titles like you do for TV and Music! For example, what is your favourite Pixar film? What kind of romantic comedies do you love? (Because let's face it, romantic comedies run the gamut from Bridget Jones' Diary to Knocked Up...) That way, you'll sound less vague. P.S. for Fears and Dislikes, try agoraphobia? ;)

   - Courtney | Atlanta: This is a great idea for a section, because I love hearing about people and their hometowns. It's also a great way to "see" a city through the eyes of a local. However, I felt that you could have done a LOT more with this. Definitely add photos. It's hard for people to get a sense of these places without something visual. And if you have your own photos of these places, that's even better! And maybe consider places that don't easily come to the mind of an outsider, such as good restaurants or shopping locations.

   - Courtney | Cliques: I feel this should belong under the Dandee section.

   - Dandee | Reviews: Maybe it would be helpful if you had the date of the review, so the viewer will know if the review is based on outdated content or if it's fairly recent.

   - Dandee | Listings: You can also shift + click to open a link in a new window or ctrl (Win)/apple (Mac) + click for the link to open in a new tab. Though to be honest, it seems a bit silly to warn people about the links opening in the same window.

   - Whenever you try to access the Et Cetera section from the sidebar, you're taken to http://www.dandee.org/etc, which is the wrong link.

   - Etc | Quizzes: For consistency's sake, your quiz pages should have the same layout as your other pages. And I don't really think you should number your quizzes like Quiz 01; the titles themselves should be sufficient enough. For Quiz 01, the question should read "Doe, a deer, a female deer". Quiz 02 is a broken link (you forgot to add a z to quizzes in the URL).

   - Etc | Writing: The link to "The Nomad" poem is broken.

   CODING:
   I would look into why your layout isn't quite centered, but other than that, coding looks good to me. :)

   CONCLUSION:
   Your content and coding are absolutely well done, and when I had to review those parts, I got an impression that you really took the effort on those sections. Just consider the suggestions that I made for your content, because I think that the little details can really help your site. Now, the main thing I think you should work on would be the colors. I really appreciate the rainbow aesthetic, but you've got to balance that with readability. Think about how your content gets presented --- do those colors really do your fabulous content justice? Definitely take a look at the links I referenced, especially colourlovers.com! Consider toning down your palette -- remember, colors are supposed to attract people to the content, not drive them away! Once you've got that in mind, you'll definitely have something awesome in your hands!

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4. Luscious gave it on 28th Mar 2009 and said:

   Hi, I'm Jenny and I'll be reviewing your site! :D

   The First Impressions:
   Wow, I love the layout...but when I looked at your URL of the site, it has nothing to do with "a lifetime of puzzles." Is Dandee your name? So pretty! :) Anyways, your blogs are sort of short so I suggest you make them a bit longer. Aside from those things though, you seem to have good talent so far. Your spelling and grammar's great!

   The Layout:
   Again, it's very nice and it has nothing to do with "dandee.com". :P I love the colors and everything and the banner is very clever. I would'nt ever think of "a lifetime of puzzles." :) Anyways, when you say you are XHTML, you are wrong. Apparently, there is one error: "ID 'header' already defined," so hopefully you can fix that; your CSS is completely valid! YAY! :)

   The pages:
   -Section Owner- I love the "Five Key Facts" thing! As for the "Overview" I think it's cute about how you said that there is no such thing as a half figure, but if there were, I'd be there ! XD You have a lot of subpages, and that's great. If your site weren't a blog or a personal site, then I wouldn't think it were that great...LOL, that's confusing.
   -Section .Org- "About the Site" should be longer, in my opinion. You should add how long it took to make your layout, how old your site is, and more if possible. Your "History" page is good enough for me since it explains how you started your site etc...
   -Section Et Cetra- Er, I don't think "Et Cetra" is spelled like that...Actually, I don't really know how to spell it so maybe it's right? XD You should add more pages to this section since I think it has a lot of potential. Your reviews are really good since you went into detail about them...well at least the first two are. The first two are long but the rest are pretty short. LOL I'm a BRB/TTYL, if you didn't know what I'm talking about, I just took one of your quizes XD. They're very short though. I love your "Writings"! :)

   Overall:
   It looks alright, but you need a little work! :) 78/100

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   Coupin's Response:

   Thanks Jenny (aka Luscious), thanks for the heads up on the XHTML. I did not even notice it until I read these reviews. (Oops!) I'm happy to see that you like my site and I like the idea about a layouts sub-page. (Fortunately I have only had to layouts for this particular site so I won't have to backtrack too much.) Lol, about the "etc" I had to check too (I am one of the worst spellers, I ALWAYS use spell check) and yes that is the correct way to spell it. :) Thanks again Jennyluscious! (Sounds like a Fergie song, lol.)

5. 

   reeshas gave it on 28th Mar 2009 and said:

   My first thought, this site’s going to be awful xD well, we’ll have to see. The site name dandee.org, I find that cute for some reason. Anyway, I like the puzzles at the top, the time it takes and the Sudoku squares which I love to play! The bright yellow title: a lifetime of puzzles instantly gets me interested, you know because on the site it gets boring every now and then so sites with games are always popular! The index and also the home page are very nicely spaced out, good font, nice contract, good size too. The headers grab my attention for a little while, and then I move on to reading the content. Your dear diary comment serves a bit like a welcome comment you know. The rest of the navigation is absolutely lovely. Nothing crazy or insane because I like simple blogging sites, there’s not much you can add to make them wild and crazy. Your main section is easy to read, and the comment form serves its purpose. Wow on the owners page, not only is there plenty of info on you, but also more on the subpages. Aha, too many links do you really want me to click all of those? Alright I will. I can’t believe you have favorites when everything is so nice to like and hate now and then xD sometimes you just feel like hating everything, other times, you love everything. I bet the .ORG talks about the site, and yes, it does! I’m so smart. Maybe. Sites been open for a while now huh, you’re probably very experienced as well. Alright so finally, the fun part, Et Cetera, I’m already wondering what kind of games you have! Wait, I don’t see any games, wow you have really detailed reviews on those books, I might read some just cuz. And the quizzes page has 2 quizzes that aren’t very interesting. And the INK section has tons of useful writings and some poems. Alright, where are the games, was it all a trick to lure me in because of your site name? oh well, I still enjoyed visiting the site even if it’s just a personal site. The title is very catchy and you can use that to your advantage to lure people in! lovely site, I really liked the colors and the overall appearance! Sorry if this didn’t help you, it was just my opinion on the site so cheer up if you find something offensive, I try not to discourage webmasters.

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   Coupin's Response:

   Thanks for the review Reeshas, sorry that I tricked you with the games. But if I am able to come up with some creative games of my own I promise to add them! And please do read some of the books listed, they were all very enjoyable for me. :)

6. 

   Ann gave it on 27th Mar 2009 and said:

   First Impressions
   Normally I don't like black backgrounds – people either fall into the trap of making the contrasting colours too bright, thus blinding the viewer, or too dark, making the whole thing dark, boring, and difficult to read. Thankfully you have done neither of these things, and I love the overall effect.

   Also love your header. Very appropriate and well put together, with good spacing.
   
   Layout and Blog
   Like I said, you have chosen and used the colours in your header and layout extremely well – bright yet muted.

   Originally I thought the navigation links were a little small, and “blended in” a little too well, but I think the good amount of spacing makes this insignificant. Personally though I still think that just looking at them (not hovering) they look like regular links, rather than the more important navigation links. When you hover over them it's great, but perhaps you could customise it when they are not being hovered over to look more bold, and out of the ordinary.

   The colours in the header complement each other nicely and look well, but when I scroll down your blog and lose the header, all I see is pink (and white and black). Perhaps you could incorporate the purple and yellow a little more into the actual content of your blog, so that it doesn't become mundane once you lose the colour of the header.

   I think you need a little spacing to the left of your “title” (or rather, date) of each blog, (the h1), and perhaps a touch more spacing above and below, too.

   I only just realised that as well as having the date as your title, you also have the actual name of the blog post. To me, it just looks like a regular link – it really needs to stand out more. I don't mind having the date at the top, but if you are also going to include the post title then customise it more (you'll have to change the way your h2 or div class post links look).

   Your permalinks aren't very pretty (/?p=number instead of /blog/title or /2009/03 etc). If you publicise blogs on message boards then it's often very helpful to have informative permalinks such as the ones I've demonstrated above. You use Wordpress, and it is very easy to change them, under Settings > Permalinks.

   You write very well, and interestingly. I liked reading your first post so I scrolled down and read them all. I'll be adding you to my RSS feed, so keep it up!

   It irritates me so much when you write “cmmnts”. Please, putting in a few extra vowels isn't going to hurt.

   You have a lot of categories! I really don't think so many are necessary, since each post is only supposed to go in one or two – tags are what is used to define more clearly what is in each post. You only really need “personal”, “online”, “general”, “rants” and a couple of other more personalised categories for your site.

   You don't write very much on each post so it isn't that noticable, but your content area is quite narrow. I would suggest trimming down the sidebar a little (if it's necessary at all, most people are getting rid of theirs), or maybe even widening the whole container area. I checked with a page where you have written a lot, and it does all look rather squished and long – a sure way to stop visitors reading.

   I really like how on different areas of the site you have quotes from yourself which are relevant to that area in the sidebar. Very effective and a nice touch.

   Yay for your site being validated (although actually you have one tiny error in your XHTML)

   Owner
   Well written and very informative. I like it!

   I don't think you need to link the Overview page (the one everyone will start on) under subpages – especially as it is linked as “Courtney”, which made me think that it was a different page.

   You certainly can write a lot about yourself! You've split the content up very well and effectively.

   On your “lives” page you've stated that you live with your mum twice, in the first and third paragraph. I also wasn't sure whether the “Event(full)” part was a typo or a deliberate pun...

   Ahh, I need to direct so many people to your favourites page, when I tell them not just to list stuff but also to give reasons. Love it!

   Again, not much of an issue this time, but your page slugs really kind of irritate me. I don't find it necessary to shorten them unless the page has a REALLY long title, and if a person is trying to remember a particular page, shortened slugs can be very confusing.

   .ORG
   Not much new to add to the above points.

   I'm thinking maybe it would be more useful to put the “Dandee days” link at the top of the subnavigation, since I am more interested in reading through your site history than the sites you credit. It's your site, you should come first is a good rule of thumb.
   
   Et Cetera
   This page really looks very empty. Could you perhaps split it up into different sections for “reviews”, “quizzes” and “ink”, and then list them underneath?

   The reviews really show how small the content area is. It's nice to have the review down one side and the info down the other, but it looks so squashed and long it's ridiculous and really puts me off reading the reviews. If the content area is that small, it should at least be wrapping around the picture, but I would strongly advise you widen the area.

   I also think you should put each review on a separate page, otherwise the earliest (or latest, depending on how you list them) are likely to be missed out by those who don't want to read through all the reviews. If you have a list of links to each one then visitors can then choose read the ones they want to.
   Are you using a reviewing script, because it looks like you are? If you google the name then I'm sure you will be able to find info from the author or someone else on how to put the reviews on separate pages, if you don't know already.

   It's kind of annoying that the little icons used have backgrounds. I recognise them as famfamfam icons, which don't have the background on the originals, so I'm not sure what's gone wrong there...

   Quizzes – kind of fun, but not much to review.

   Ink – I'm not reviewing your poetry since that's rather personal and I don't feel in any position to review it. However, I do like your range of articles and the way they are written. I really enjoyed the cashier one, and found some quite funny, although I thought that the college applicants one was a bit pointless since you didn't discuss your opinion on the subject and just stated it, along with some facts.

   Conclusion
   I really like your site. You are a well written girl, and the site design is overall very pleasing. However, I do have a few issues with it, most importantly I think the content area. If you address some of the pointers I have given you then your site will be well on the way to one of the best blogs out there.

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   Coupin's Response:

   Thanks Ann for the review! There were a lot of things you pointed out that I did not even notice, so I would just like to thank you for that. I will work on the content area because now as I look at it, yes it does make certain pages kind of squished. And squished is never good! I also appreciate the suggestions for the permalink and the title header, I'll have to see if I am able to make it work. Lol, yes "event(full)" was a deliberate pun, and I will have to correct the double mention of my mom. (She won't like that :] ) For the "Etc" page I have the links like that because each section (reviews, quizzes, and writings) are all in different folders so that I do not have to scroll through too much content when adding new stuff. So I guess the only thing is for me to add more content. ;) Lastly, I'm glad you enjoyed my reviews; I do think there is a way for me to do one review at a time, but as I am use BellaBiblio for my reviewing script there isn't much I can do about the icons unless she comes out with some new customized ones. Thanks again for the review! :)

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