Please critique my blog!

[j333f]

Feedback on site

Hi guys,

It would be great if I could get some feedback about my blog. It's pretty much in its final stages, so please check it out!

http://www.j33f.exofire.net

Still to be done:

Different background?
Header logo changes on mouseover?
Better flickr integration?

Thanks!

 

[leafypiggy]

I like it. Except for that it took about a minute to load/resolve. But that could just be the server.

Not digging the Chinese though. That violates x10's TOS but your site isn't completely in Chinese, so I think you are all set.

There isn't much of a background to begin with. I'm on my iPod touch, and I only see about 7px of a grey background. So I'd say no, don't change it.

The header logo should NOT change on mouseover. That's just too much effect. Maybe everytime the user loads the page, sure. But not on mouseover.

And, seeing as I don't know what flicker is, I'll say I can't review that part. sorry!

Thanks,
Neil Hanlon

 

[freecrm]

V Good from my point of view.

Just a small thing - there appears to be an issue with your .css (as per my attachment) in IE6...

But there are always problems with IE6 right?

 

[zer0ne1337]

I really liked your sites layout and the theme that you are using.

Regarding your question on using a different background, i think the present one is very good and you don't need to change that.
Regarding the header logo its pretty good, and its your choice if you want to improve it more
The FlickR integration is cool too..

Just keep one thing in mind, in the process of making the site visually more attractive don't make it slow while loading. Visitor's don't like that!

 

[j333f]

Thanks for the comments guys!

As for the top post, I wrote it in Japanese for practice, as I am currently studying the language. I'll remove it if it violates TOS.

So far, the biggest issue seems to be the load time. Any tips on reducing this? I know it's pretty image heavy, but is there a way to reduce load time without reducing the number of images?

As always, feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

[leafypiggy]

nah. I don't think it violates TOS. if your whole site was in Chinese, yes. But I think you're fine.

You could always pre-load the images using JavaScript or CSS

 

[byite]

The design of your site is very clean and the posts are laid out in a nice structured style making it easy to read over them quickly, I think that the background colour is fine as it doesn't detract attention from the content of the site but I would change logo - it just looks a little plain, try and put some colour into it even if it's just a small strip of orange or something. At the bottom of your site there is a section that is dark Grey that I think should be lighter; keep the menus dark but change the background to the same as the rest of the site of maybe just a little darker than the rest as you need those buttons providing links to the recent and popular posts to stand out more.

Apart from the things that I would change, I like your site and its design - well done.

 

[Coldfirezz]

Rating: 9/10

Great simple design with a lot of content. The only thing I did not like was the long load time. I would also suggest changing your Favicon to suit your site. Best of luck.

~!Coldfirezz

 

[ichwar]

So far, the biggest issue seems to be the load time. Any tips on reducing this? I know it's pretty image heavy, but is there a way to reduce load time without reducing the number of images?

As always, feedback is greatly appreciated!

You could try Smu****! to reduce the size of your images with out reducing quality. It does a great job!

Also, I think there is a way to have the browser check the cache for any data that is in it before reloading the entire page. But I'm not sure how though... So, unless someone else here knows what I'm talking about, I guess that wasn't too helpful.
Edit:
Ok, here's the url that I tried to give you above, but the forum editing software took part of it out. Argh!

Just take out the three dashes: http://smus-h-i-t.com/