would someone critique my site please

[divebuddha]

hi there guys

im new to the boards and wondered if people would like to review my site

ive only had the site up and running about 2 weeks and never done a site before!

basicaly a few pages with photos from my life i.e places and and aqautic life as im into scuba diving

any input would be great, all i ask is be gentle with me :eek4:

http://www.divebuddha.x10hosting.com/index.php

 

[boelectronic]

well, I think your site is good as a person site for yourself, but I don't like 2 things for it:

1. animated picture in home page (site name) is too heavy, about 700 KB, for a user with a limited internet speed it would be a pain to load.

2. you have attached a music file to your page, it about 2.5 MB, it would cause your page load too slowly, more than 5 minutes for a user with limited internet speed...

a standard web page should load in less than a minutes, about 10-20 seconds, so, before posting pages or add graphics to your page please think of size of them to have a professional site.

it's okay if your "Photos" in their own page (photo gallery) takes more than a minute, but it's better your site design don't be heavy and load quickly.

 

[divebuddha]

well, I think your site is good as a person site for yourself, but I don't like 2 things for it:

1. animated picture in home page (site name) is too heavy, about 700 KB, for a user with a limited internet speed it would be a pain to load.i added the graphic logo to give it a more personal feel and msake the page strike out more but a good point uve made

2. you have attached a music file to your page, it about 2.5 MB, it would cause your page load too slowly, more than 5 minutes for a user with limited internet speed... again the music file was put in to give it a more chilled out welcome to the home page

a standard web page should load in less than a minutes, about 10-20 seconds, so, before posting pages or add graphics to your page please think of size of them to have a professional site. in the uk most people use broadband conections so graphic content 99.9% of the time shouldnt cause any issues.

it's okay if your "Photos" in their own page (photo gallery) takes more than a minute, but it's better your site design don't be heavy and load quickly.

again the issue seems to be speed rather than content,im trying to make the most of the bandwidth and i feel by trimming down the content i would lose a certain amount the visual niceaties of the site, the site is purely showcasing photos and experiences with photos so the media has to look pleasant, or i will lose the whole point of the site,but i will take onboard your critique and see where i can make the site work that little bit faster?

best wishes dive buddha (leigh)

 

[boelectronic]

friend, I just said those things because you asked for our opinion and I answered honestly.

I did not said you remove those media from your site, for example that logo rotating or music from background, I just said when you are adding, think of size of them and add them in a better way.

with some trick you can make your page loading very faster:

1. your logo: it's a GIF file, heavy and low quality, there are many FREE programs in internet that can create same animitaion and export it in Flash (SWF) format, you can search in internet and find one of them, and use it to create same animation, high quality and small size, don't you think it would better if you add a high quality animation with 20KB size (for example) instead of that GIF file with medium/low quality and 700KB size?

2. for the background music: there are very very music player in different formats (Flash, JavaScript etc.) which you can add to your pages and let them play your favorite music in user demand, by doing this, you would respect your visitor, have a more good looking and more interesting page.

I hope things I said did not cause you feel bad about me, I just tried to help

also, forgive me about my bad English

 

[divebuddha]

friend, I just said those things because you asked for our opinion and I answered honestly.

I did not said you remove those media from your site, for example that logo rotating or music from background, I just said when you are adding, think of size of them and add them in a better way.

with some trick you can make your page loading very faster:

1. your logo: it's a GIF file, heavy and low quality, there are many FREE programs in internet that can create same animitaion and export it in Flash (SWF) format, you can search in internet and find one of them, and use it to create same animation, high quality and small size, don't you think it would better if you add a high quality animation with 20KB size (for example) instead of that GIF file with medium/low quality and 700KB size?

2. for the background music: there are very very music player in different formats (Flash, JavaScript etc.) which you can add to your pages and let them play your favorite music in user demand, by doing this, you would respect your visitor, have a more good looking and more interesting page.

I hope things I said did not cause you feel bad about me, I just tried to help

also, forgive me about my bad English

thanks for the input friend your input is very important indeed

im currently looking at better forms of media hosting so that the page isnt graphic heavy when loading !

this evening i will look into changing the file formats of some of the more heavier graphics

 

[dqvteatro]

Hi. I subscribe 100% to what boelectronic said. Certain animations are best done in Flash format. They end up being not only much lighter, but they also end up looking much better.

On the other hand, I LOVED the pictures. Some of those are really awesome.

Keep on, pal! Websites are evolving entities, as we all know!

 

[divebuddha]

Hi. I subscribe 100% to what boelectronic said. Certain animations are best done in Flash format. They end up being not only much lighter, but they also end up looking much better.

On the other hand, I LOVED the pictures. Some of those are really awesome.

Keep on, pal! Websites are evolving entities, as we all know!

dont get me wrong i do go along with what boelectronic said and understand that not all countries are as good with broadband as in the uk

ok another question?

which is the best way to change .gif extensions into .swf files?

is there a fast workaround or will it have to be a program like flash?

 

[boelectronic]

which is the best way to change .gif extensions into .swf files?

is there a fast workaround or will it have to be a program like flash?

there are not (at least I don't know) a good program which convert .gif to .swf and improve quality of file.

you have to try some programs which create what you want with a few clicks.
you would find easily with a few search in google, sorry at this moment I could not give an exact link.

 

[divebuddha]

there are not (at least I don't know) a good program which convert .gif to .swf and improve quality of file.

you have to try some programs which create what you want with a few clicks.
you would find easily with a few search in google, sorry at this moment I could not give an exact link.

going to have a look at this over the weekend
ive removed the original sound file on the home page also as it does seem to make the page a little heavy to load , that will do as a start

 

[cheeselog]

I'm not big on the animated gifs. Thats ts a personal preference though.

You have some really nice photos, but they create a lot of scrolling so you might want to think about using a JavaScript slide-show. For the most part they are plug and play.

lightbox is nice, but it uses a modal approach http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/

if you don't like that you can try galleria, I've never used it but it looks pretty straight forward to set it up. http://devkick.com/lab/galleria/


i kind of like galleria more because it uses the lightweight JQuery where as lightbox uses the much heavier scriptaculous/prototype framework

 

[playminigames]

i like the site, but i think that the animated gifs are unnecessary, they are just slowing down the page. Also if you do have a song playing you should make it so if someone is listening to something on their computer they can pause the song.

Good Luck

 

[divebuddha]

i like the site, but i think that the animated gifs are unnecessary, they are just slowing down the page. Also if you do have a song playing you should make it so if someone is listening to something on their computer they can pause the song.

Good Luck

been on a friends computer this evening who is on a slow conection and was like watching paint dry ! so am going to address the .gif that loads up at the start !

im intrested in using the galeria link but havnt got a clue how to impliment thehtml code you get from there site?

so if anyone would be so kind as to explain i would be very greatfull!

 

[patriot001]

Ya Not a big fan of animated gifs But i like the stie

 

[divebuddha]

Ya Not a big fan of animated gifs But i like the stie

all the page gifs has gone apart from the one on the home page and ive left the music short term

ive changed 2 of the folders with a gallery view to see what people think and whether it looks better

if anyone would like to have a look to tell me if im going in the rite direction ur views will be greatfully recieved

both the eyemouth and dorothea (dotty) have been changed

im still looking for some help on installing the galleria link from the previous page ?

 

[divebuddha]

ok most of the pages have now been changed in the photo section and hoping for a little more feedback

from the members

ive used the gallery view on the kirkstall abbey link to see what it looks like but in all honesty i dont like it !

feedback would be great guys

 

[divebuddha]

well after a few months online ive changed quite a few things

and have followed some of the critiques of my site

removing all of the gifs which where taking a long time to load on slow systems

if anyone would like to have another look and give me more advice i would be only too happy to take on

board your poiinters

thanks in advance leigh

http://www.divebuddha.x10hosting.com

 

[divebuddha]

added a few more flash animations around the site to spruce up the look!

im so glad i took the advice of some of the kind members who critiqued my site and removing the animated gifs

again please feel free to pass by and have a look

would be even better if you signed my guestbook!

http://www.divebuddha.x10hosting.com

 

[Awesomexr]

Not really liking the images that follow the cursor, thier not very realistic. To be honest you need to change your site a lot - get a template maybe and work from there. Thats jusy my opinion though.

 

[divebuddha]

Not really liking the images that follow the cursor, thier not very realistic. To be honest you need to change your site a lot - get a template maybe and work from there. Thats jusy my opinion though.

the cursor follower is there for a bit of fun as anyone can have just a normal curser, as for the css ive changed the original completely and at this stage im not willing to change the style sheet

you say i need to change it a lot ! could you give examples as your input is a little vague to say the least

 

[boelectronic]

hey! your site has become so much better, some good changes, as a personal site (and as your own work) you have done many good improvements, Good job Dive Buddha!

of course it can be better too, maybe with get help from a friend who has some experience of web-developing/design?

for example, one of the problems is flash colors and main site theme... the Flashes are very creative and fun, with light colors and your site is using a dark and not creative theme, they don't match together IMHO, you have a great photo collection and those worth enough to make a better site for them.