Constructive Criticism

[fullmontez]

I have a website that is in progress. Its main function is to let my friends & family view pictures and learn about what's going on in my life. Its fairly basic right now but I'd like to know what people think. I use notepad to code everything myself with the exception of the BLOG for which I use nucleus.org's PHP scripting. All comments will be appreciated.

http://www.fullmontez.net

[Dark Dragon]

Cool..while I didn't browese the site it is very simple yet nice to look at.

However might I suggest making the text under the Merrill Lynch Bull bigger..y'know..where it says Contact Info and all..it is a wee bit tiny....other than that I like the Balck and blue and the rollover link is neat too.

However on the rollover I was thinking you may wanna make the grey color on the mousover event lighter simply because to may be easier for all monitors to see it...like an #F0F0F0
or #F8F8F8.

At any rate it is good

P.S..I like your Thundercats Avatar...twas a cool show...

[PeOfEo]

Here is what I do not like about it
#1 no doc type, this throws the browser into quirks mode
#2 page transitions, I really do not like these, they slow down my surfing.
Besides those two major things I guess it is alright. You might want to consider ditching a table based layout and moving to css.

[Jona]

First, as PeOfEo said, you should have a DTD (document type definition, also known as a doctype) as the first line in your HTML code. (See the link in my signature for a list of valid doctypes.)
You need a character encoding. Assuming you're American, you can use us-ascii, utf-8 or the Western Europe one, iso-8859-1. The code, which goes in your HEAD tag, is as follows:


<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">


For your LINK to the external CSS document, I'd suggest using this in its place:


<meta name="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<style type="text/css"><!--
@import url("css/index.css");
--></style>


I would suggest you validate your HTML code (once you have done the above suggestions), with the W3C validator (http://validator.w3.org/) and fix any errors that it reports. (If you have trouble doing this, just ask for help. There are many here willing to give of their time to help you out, as it is for the betterment of those who browse the Web.)

I would suggest using CSS (http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2) for your layout, rather than tables (see the WCAG 1.0 (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/)). Again, for help, you only need ask.

Your JavaScript function uses document.write() to display the image. For the approximately 13% of users who do not have JavaScript enabled, they will see no image. So put an image in its place and change the SRC of the image onload of the document.

You should use the following code for your bookmark link:


<a href="bookmark.html" onclick="addbookmark(); return false;" class="email">Bookmark this page</a>


The return false; part of the code stops the user (who has JavaScript enabled) from going to the bookmark.html page, but those who do not have JavaScript will go to the bookmark.html page. On the bookmark.html page, you should have some text saying "how" to bookmark the site and its URL. If you prefer, use document.write() to display the link itself, that way those who do not have JavaScript will simply not see the link.

Since your background is black, I'd suggest changing the colors of your links to be a little brighter, as they may become difficult to distinguish for many users.

Also, please try to keep your layouts basically the same. There are about four different layouts on your site. (I'm not talking about colors or images, I'm talking about the structure of the page and where objects such as text blocks, images and navigation links, are located.)

[J]ona

[MotherNatrsSon]

The red text on the links page is very hard to read.

Other than that it is ok.

MNS

[fullmontez]

Thanks for the input from all of you. I knew there were things that I needed to do to make this better and you guys have pointed in me in the right directions. I'm glad I joined this forum.

[Aronya1]

I don't know how you have the time to put a website together! Keep your head down & come home safe.

[TomDenver]

I recommend a sans-serif font, especially for your body text (which is somewhat small). Sans-serif fonts tend to be easier to read (especially in small print).

[Jona]

Originally posted by TomDenver
I recommend a sans-serif font, especially for your body text (which is somewhat small). Sans-serif fonts tend to be easier to read (especially in small print).

Actually, it's the opposite for dyslexics.

Quoted from http://www.madeforall.com/tutorials/dyslexia2.html
Fonts
A good rule of thumb is to avoid serif fonts; they are scrappy and harder to read on the web. Fonts that under tests seem to suit dyslexic and normal readers are MS Trebuchet and Comic Sans. These fonts are standard on Windows computers and have a smooth, distinguishable faces and wider letter spacing. Verdana and Arial also seem to be very good choices for the web. Of course, not everyone has these fonts installed, (not everyone uses Windows) so specify sans-serif as your last resort font in your style sheets.

Use relative sizes as opposed to fixed sizes to keep control over the text size in the hands of the reader. Also try to avoid ridiculously small fonts. If you can hardly read it, chances are most other people can.t. Why would you do that?

Try to avoid italics. Italic letters lean over sideways, and are used in books to emphasize a point. However, when seen on a computer monitor, they are hard for a dyslexic person to read.

[J]ona

[Aronya1]

A good rule of thumb is to avoid serif fonts

That means use sans-serif

[Jona]

Originally posted by Aronya1
That means use sans-serif

Sorry 'bout that... misread... :rolleyes:

[J]ona

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by Aronya1
That means use sans-serif I never heard about the dyslexic (sp?) thing lol. I use it already and I am too lazy to change, oh well. Eh they could just delete the font in their font folder and then it would move on to the next one in the families I listed. ms sans serif, arial, helvetica... arial is next in the line up, got anything against that font?

[Jona]

Originally posted by PeOfEo
I never heard about the dyslexic (sp?) thing lol. I use it already and I am too lazy to change, oh well. Eh they could just delete the font in their font folder and then it would move on to the next one in the families I listed. ms sans serif, arial, helvetica... arial is next in the line up, got anything against that font?

Arial and verdana are easy to read as well. Notice a difference, though. Sans-serif and serif are two different fonts (although probably the best way to go would be with a much smoother font)...

Sans-serif
Serif

[J]ona

[PeOfEo]

sans serif is pretty :D

[Aronya1]

Just for clarification:

A serif is the little end pieces on a text character, like the little line on the top or bottom of a capital " I ".

Serif & sans-serif aren't fonts. They're just instructions to the browser to use a font that either uses those little end pieces, like Times New Roman, or doesn't, like Arial.

PeOfEo,
FYI - If you specify serif or sans-serif first in your list of fonts, the way you did in your post, the browser will use whatever is its default serif or sans-serif font, no matter what other fonts you list.

[PeOfEo]

style="font-family:ms sans serif, arial, helvetica; font-size:11px;"
ms sans serif is a font though. I mean serif and sans-serif might not be but I thought ms sans serif was. Thanks for telling me more then I ever wanted to know about 'serifs' thought ;) That might be useful someday but I better not talk about it while I am on a date or it is sure to creep out whoever I am on the date with

[MotherNatrsSon]

I think it is french actually

sans = without

sans arc= without a bow and arrow

MNS

[Aronya1]

PeOfEo,
You are right about MS Sans Serif being an actual font. And you're welcome re: the serif lesson. I better not talk about it while I am on a date or it is sure to creep out whoever I am on the date with
Depends on whether she wears a propeller cap or not...


Actually, I think the word serif goes back to the middle ages. The ruling class had all these people working for them, basically as slaves. They were called serifs. The number of serifs you had determined your status. If you didn't have any, you were sans-serif... Is anybody buying this?

[Jona]

From http://Meriam-Webster.com/

Serif
Etymology: probably from Dutch schreef stroke, line, from Middle Dutch, from schriven to write, from Latin scribere
Date: 1841
: any of the short lines stemming from and at an angle to the upper and lower ends of the strokes of a letter

From http://Meriam-Webster.com/

Sans-serif
Etymology: probably from sans + modification of Dutch schreef stroke
Date: 1830
: a letter or typeface with no serifs

Well, you have the right idea anyway, Aronya. :)

[J]ona

[Aronya1]

Sans-serif
Etymology: probably from sans + modification of Dutch schreef stroke
Date: 1830
: a letter or typeface with no serifs
I think a "typeface" was originally a feudal land baron...

[Jona]

From http://Meriam-Webster.com/

Typeface
Date: 1887
1 : the face of printing type
2 : all type of a single design

;)
[J]ona

[PeOfEo]

Who reaserches this kind of crap? How is this the least bit relavent into todays world besides the fact that we use these little buggers in some fonts to make them ugly. The people who dug up all the facts about serifs and determined that they were used for rank back in the day, those good people at meriam webster, are real losers, thats very bad comeing from me!

[Jona]

We were just discussing the origination of the term, PeOfEo...

[J]ona

[PeOfEo]

I know that but I am talking about how lame the people at webster that you quoted are :rolleyes: THIS TOPIC IS SO BOARING*, AND THEY WRITE ABOUT IT! AHHH. If I had to work for a dictionary or encyclopedia place I would knaw my legs off.

[nkaisare]

Peo, you not interested in the history doesn't mean others aren't. The language gets richer and evolves all the time. The poeple who study the evolution also make a significant contribution. We now have a fair understanding what kinds of terms (words/phrases) are here to stay, and what terms are just "in vogue" for a short period.

A general rule of thumb is that serifed fonts (Times new roman, Georgia etc) are good for the print medium while sans-serif fonts (arial, verdana etc) are good to read off the screen. The serifs help in distinguishing one character from the next, hence making it easier to read; screen renders letters in a "rectangular" manner (pixelated manner), hence sans-serif are easier to read off the screen.

The names "arial", "Times New Roman" are specific font names; the names "serif", "sans-serif", "monospaced" and "fantasy" are generic font family names.

Dyslexia is more widespread than you would like to think. In fact, there will be several people with dyslexia browsing this very board. Why would anyone delete a font from their font folder; they may simply override your choice of font; better still, they may just stop visiting your site.

I realize that some of your comments were in lighter vien. I just wanted to clarify a few things in case others reading this thread think on the same lines.

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by nkaisare
Dyslexia is more widespread than you would like to think. In fact, there will be several people with dyslexia browsing this very board. Why would anyone delete a font from their font folder; they may simply override your choice of font; better still, they may just stop visiting your site. If it was a font that caused them problems a person might just simply delete it and then it would no longer cause them problems right? I mean sans-serif isnt a font but what I was saying if someone could not read one font, by deleting it the browser would then go on to the next font or move onto the defaults. I do not use sans-serif anyway, I use ms sans serif. I compared sans-serif (In an html file) to ms sans-serif and they look quite differently, sans serif is smoother and is less decorative while sans-serif seems to have more, not serifs but take the letter y for example in sans-serif it has more of a curve to the end of it and in ms sans serif it does not, also the letter t has more of a trail to it then ms sans serif in sans-serif.... About the language part at the top, I know some people like to study langauges and not everyone hates studying english or any language for that matter. I mean that is pretty obvious because not everyone at dictionary companies have chewed their legs off out of boardom :)

[TomDenver]

This is a serif font (Times New Roman)

This is a sans serif font (Arial)

As you can see, Times New Roman is much more difficult to read, using the same font size. Look at the first "T" in this post. Notice the lines hanging down from the left and right side of the top of the "T"? Also the horizontal line on the bottom of the "T"? Those are serifs. They are evil. We must destroy them!

[PeOfEo]

They are needed on the letter I though because without them it looks like a 1 or an l in some fotns, that is what gets me all the time when I am using j creator I have to get right up by the screen to read it

[spufi]

In your <img> tags, define the width and height attributes. This will save you from having a layout that shifts around as the page loads. Use the alt attribute just incase your images don't display then something does.

Here's part of what you wrote on your site.

"I apologize for the brief hiatus. The Hadjis were fired last week because they wouldn't give us any information to lead us to find the guys that were firing the rockets at us. Regardless of if they knew who was responsible or not they were fired indefinitely. In the meantime that meant that all of their jobs would need to be filled by soldiers. I got 'selected' to do the laundry.
<br />
<br />"

What you really want to do is use a <p> tag before the text, and a </p> tag after the text. This will give you the seperation between paragraphs. Multiple <br> tags should never be used.

[Aronya1]

Originally posted by spufi
In your <img> tags, define the width and height attributes. This will save you from having a layout that shifts around as the page loads. Use the alt attribute just incase your images don't display then something does....

I guess this thread has reached critical mass. Looks like Spufi just exploded.

[Aronya1]

Peo,

The stuff about serifs determining your social status was totally tongue-in-cheek. The land barons had 'serfs,' not 'serifs.' But Hey! Who am I to question? Maybe if you can come up with a way to add even more serifs to the letters of the alphabet, you can improve your social status, even today!

[fullmontez]

Thanks again to everyone that posted. While I did learn way too much about serif vs. sans-serif fonts knowledge is never a waste.

I'm looking into the following:

Doc-Type Declarations
CSS Layout {wow...this is so much better, it'll just take a little getting used to}
Defining my images

also, thanks for your concern Aronya

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by Aronya1
Peo,

The stuff about serifs determining your social status was totally tongue-in-cheek. The land barons had 'serfs,' not 'serifs.' But Hey! Who am I to question? Maybe if you can come up with a way to add even more serifs to the letters of the alphabet, you can improve your social status, even today! Hey I don't know, I know about surfs but I thought you were talking about maybe sir knight person spelled his name with three little turds comeing off of the t or something. I did not know what you were talking about, nor did I care enough to think twice about it lol. Like I said that stuff would make me chew my legs off if I had to study it. I am not a history buff.

[Aronya1]

I felt the same way about DOS, when I had to study it, but now I'm glad I did. And that limp hasn't really caused me many problems...

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by Aronya1
I felt the same way about DOS, when I had to study it, but now I'm glad I did. And that limp hasn't really caused me many problems... Ok you lost me, limp?

[Aronya1]

Originally posted by PeOfEo
... Like I said that stuff would make me chew my legs off if I had to study it.

Come on, man. It spoils the whole joke if ya have to explain the punchline!

[Sux0rZh@jc0rz]

mr 14 year old semi psychosis patient got it first try.

Peofeo is a little slow though... (points at his icon, wondering why it is running FAST and not a whee bit slower)

:D all in good fun peofeo. calm down.:D

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by Aronya1
Come on, man. It spoils the whole joke if ya have to explain the punchline! EXPLAIN IT! I will still laugh i promise...

[Aronya1]

Didn't you read my last post?

You said you would chew your legs off if you had to study history, etc.

I said I felt the same way about studying DOS, but the limp doesn't cause me any problems.

OK, pay attention here...
The limp is caused by having chewed my leg off. Get it? Say yes, even if you don't.

[PeOfEo]

yes :confused: tehehe?... I get it now.

[Aronya1]

Uuuuugggghhhhhhh....... :)

[Sux0rZh@jc0rz]

wow talk about humor deprived.