Hi, you may [hopefully] remember me and my first website. It wasn't all that great, but I've finally made a new one. It's still not wonderful, but it's an improvement. Some parts aren't totally finished yet, so hopefully you'll understand. I just wanted to see if people would like to check it out. Please at least visit my forums. Feedback and suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks!

The main site is:
http://www.freewebs.com/vaderscorner/

The forums (which are really great considering they didn't cost me a cent) are:
http://daftvader.proboards28.com/

Thanks again, and hope to talk to you soon!

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[This message has been edited by Daft_Vader (edited March 04, 2004).]

One thing you need to do is change the font of the header image where it says 'Vaders Corner' in yellow.

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To artificial life, all reality is virtual.
HTP

Ya know, would you like me to make you a website? The intro is kinda good, but the site is kinda... eh..

I would be more than willing to help out with stuff on weekends...

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Fear is here, where's the beer?

Thanks for the comments but "eh" isn't very helpful. Several people have told me they liked it. What don't you like about it. Please, suggestions.

As for the font on the header, I don't quite see what's wrong with that. I personally think it's one of the nicest parts of the appearance, but if you think otherwise, please explain your reasoning.

Not trying to cast away your criticism, really I appreciate it, but I just wonder what the two of you are really trying to get at.

Thanks.

Also, the site looks horrid in 800x600, might I suggest (if you haven't already) viewing it in 1152x864 or at least 1024x768 likee it says on the website (at the bottom).

Might I suggest writing it in a resolution more friendly to those with worse monitors/computers?
Many people can't run at a resolution that high. My laptop, for example, can only hit 1024x768. 800X600 is a good resolution to design around.

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"The future is not determined by a throw of the dice, but is determined by the conscious decisions of you and me."
I am addicted to ellipses!!! AHHH!!! ...

I'm running at 1600x1200 and I can see huge blue gaps either side. Why don't you make the tables stretch across the page?

In my opinion the problem is the conflicting colours.

Change the background. The blue looks out of place because it's the only place you've used it. Change the blue to black or even the dark red you used in the centre area.

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WARNING: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF PEANUT!!!
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Some tips:

-maybe try some of the Star Wars "language."

-the chunky, big font needs to be changed.

-maybe try to host some files from friends (like tutorials and 3do)

-change the banner. Prehaps make a new one or ask for some creative help from people.

-Change the big date banner on the main page. Or maybe just make it smaller.

-Possibly add reviews? Thoughts?

-How about a slogan or motto?






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Snail racing: (500 posts per line)
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An exile of the Soviet Massassi Regime

One other thing... your screenshots section consists of a single photo The title is a litte misleading.

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WARNING: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF PEANUT!!!
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Thanks, Cool Matty. However, I do strongly dislike such low rez though. The font looks like it was meant for retirees, and the pictures are all grainy. Plus the downside for people on higher resolutions is it goes to the opposite extreme (everything becomes so small it gives you an eyesore).

And the site doesn't actually look too bad on 1024x768. Plus I checked my hit counter/recorder thingamabob and it said that @ 13% of the viewers had 800x600 so that's not too bad. But you're right - I should make the site more low-rez friendly.

TheJkWhoSaysNi:

First of all, 1600x1200, dang your eyes must be screaming for something bigger than my fingernail!

Mind you, it looks like you're on to the right idea. I just know html from tutorials I've read around the web (mainly HTMLGoodies and w3 Schools) so nothing in a specific class or anything. I don't know very much (if anything) about formatting websites so they stretch to conform to the size of the browser window or the resolution. Maybe you could tell me. [Wait a sec, could i just do it by setting the percentage area for the tables? or is their an additional way, cuz I'm worried that will mess up my formatting - it took me ages to get all the quirks worked out and some are still bugging me like the size of the date headers, which I now have adjusted to look slightly better at Echoman's request ].

As it is, the browser is already not so great on 800x600, if I enlarge the tables even more it will look terrible.

As for the blue, I like it. I think it's a nice relaxing color, and all black as you suggested really does look apalling. Why are you afraid of a bit of color? Maybe it just looks a bit funny cuz you're running in the highest resolution possible on modern pcs.

As for the screenshots page I'm assuming you got the joke and understand why there is only one picture there...

Thanks though . . . now on to EchoMan...
Actually on second thoughts, I think I may wait til tomorrow, I'm getting tired of all this. I should most likely check back tomorrow, so please check back in sometime. Thanks for all the great comments though!

Yes, the best way is using a percentage in your tables, like you already figured out. for example, use <table width="100%" height="100%" > ... </table>



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Most people regard me as the dark and immoral side of Massassi. At least I'm getting what I want out of life.

Sorry, was kinda off the cuff with that.

*goes into constructive criticism mode*

Log in page with Vader mask - roll over links of that size really do not look good. It would be better to have a Jpeg with the word "Enter" on it. That, and see if you can find some font that is more edgy and techno-looking. (As in technology, not dance/rave stuff). Also, look for a font on the net called Aurabesh - its the common imperial written language. I'd change the Enter link into a linkable jpeg with Enter on it, and then have in smaller letters the word "Enter" in aurabesh - it would look slick.

Here is an example:


Pay attention to the lettering. That is what I am talking about, although I think the yellow/gold color scheme would work well for you. If you can get your hands on photoshop, it is a must for designing site graphics.

For the site itself:

Change the font at the top - it really does not go. What I would do is take the banner you have there, and layer it in photoshop, and then type on it. Then you can do some neat things with the letters, like I did in the above pic, like coloring them, giving them bevels, shadows, etc. It gives the site a more professional feel.

For your red boxes in the news categories, make a small gif or jpeg that starts out one shade of red, and slowly becomes a darker shade as it goes to the bottom. Make sure it is as tall as the table for the header (same number of pixels), but only about 10 pixels wide. Then tell your heml to set that as the background for the table (or cell) you use to put the date of your news in.

Then, change the yellow borderlines to a dark grey, and the blue background to an even darker grey (although not black like the main body of your site), and your site should look 100 times sharper than it does already.

/constructive criticism


I hope this helps!

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Fear is here, where's the beer?

one more thing - the reason to avoid bright colors (like your blues and yellows) is that for most people, regardless of resolution, it tends to hurt their eyes and wear on it more. Therefore, people's eyes get tired easier, and they will want to move on from your site. That's the logic behind it anyway.

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Fear is here, where's the beer?

I like it. Intro is awesome too!

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Have a good one,
Freelancer

Wow!!! Thanks guys, this is really the kind of constructive criticism I was hoping for!

Now for a confession that will make most of you writhe - I used MS Paint for all the graphics on my site (except the little imperial symbols)...

I don't think I'm going to get PSP (trust me I'd like too) cuz I'm not very goo d with textures or graphics and plus you have to pay money and if you don't the trial version is finished really quickly. But -Fear- you have great suggestions . . I don't suppose you would be willing to help me out there would you, since you did say you were willing to do an entire site for me earlier. I don't want you guys spoonfeeding me or anything, but if someone helpded out with the graphics and stuff - I'd tremendously appreciate that!

As for the tables and stuff i'll get to wirk on that, but there is one more piece of bad news - my free host server has 50 file limit (that's why some of the pictures are down at the moment) but I think I might know [sinister]a way to work around this [/sinister]! Thanks so very much!

Well after a bit of math I got the table percentages more or less in proportion to one another, but on certain resolutions the site looks really messed up (especially the picture - it looks all stretched and horrible). I'm wondering if I should just leave it's size in pixels for the moment. If you want other sites that have a lot of blue backgrounds, check out http://www.msn.com/ . That's got a lot of blue, and you should see it on 1600x1200 - about half the page is solid blue! If a site that professional can get away with it, why can't I?

A) MSN has a soft blue. Yours is rather harsh.

B)



It shows. I will be more than willing to fork over some graphics to help you out. I got Photoshop, so I should be able to add some nice touches.

What is your email, so I know where to send em?



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Fear is here, where's the beer?

Thanks uber-much -Fear-!

And don't people believe me when I tell them my Email? It's on my site!

As for the graphics? I would really like a collage of vader scenes from the movie, maybe with fades between the pictures (as opposed to the ugly perfectly straight lines I currently have where I pasted an overlap pic over another) and Maybe a lightsaber with the logo text "shooting" out of the handle. (just ideas, this is probably really hard to do, so don't give yourself a major backache at my expense)

Btw, do you need the pixel lengths and widths of my site's tables? How are you going to make the pics a legible size yet equally visually appealing on all resolutions?

If you need the sizes the main header is meant to be 750px wide and 125 px tall.
The side bar with the links is meant to be 150 px wide. If you need any more info, or if you would kindly explain to me how you're going to do this, just say!

Your news headers, how tall are they (the ones with the dates in them)?

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Fear is here, where's the beer?

Oh, you want to fill those up with a pic? Hmmm, I guess that could look good, but don't forget I may have a hard time getting all these files up with that lmit (hopefully, I'll be able to work around it, but it could be a bit awkward).

The main prob with those headers is they seem to be twice as tall as the text that's in them. No matter how I tell their height to shorten, they won't. It's like the text has an invisible barrier preventing me from shortening them. It will let me make them taller on the other hand. How do I change that?

EDIT: Maybe you could check my site Source and look over the tables with the news headers. You could probably figure out what I'm doing wrong.

[This message has been edited by Daft_Vader (edited March 05, 2004).]

Here is the thing - I can fill those up with 1, very small file. Just need to know the height in pixels.

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Fear is here, where's the beer?

I don't actually know what their exact height is. Again, if you could look over the code, maybe you could help me make them shorter, like on Massassi.

Ok, I want you to go wherever in the source it says <td> right before a date, and I want you to add to it, so it says this:

<td height="30" background = "http://www.swg-crimsonstar.com/forums/YaBBImages/catbg.jpg">

I will let you link the image off my site for now. That should improve the headers for the news some.

And in case what you are wondering on what the pic looks like, all it is is this:



And when you need it as a background, that is all you need.


Also, where you have this line:

<body bgcolor="navy" text="yellow" link="red" vlink="red">


Change it to this:

<body bgcolor="#333333" text="#FFFF00" link="#FF0000" vlink="#FF0000">

Hex code gives you more color control.

Finally, where you have this:

<table width="76%" border="1" bordercolor="yellow" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="15" align="center" bgcolor="black">

change the bordercolor to "#666666"

Then save your changes and upload. You should have a much more universally appealing look to the site after those changes, and they go better with the imperial symbols you have up. I will work on some original graphics for you over the weekend.

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Fear is here, where's the beer?

Thanks, the border for the news headlines looks great, but I'm afraid I'm just not going to use that gray. I just don't see how you could think that looks better than the blue. It only gives you an eyesore if you're running 1600x1200 and we're supposed to be trying to find a way to fix that.

Wait a sec, though, if you say you're going to redesign the Imperial symbols, could you make them a light blue, one that matched the background. That would blend nicely. Just wait a sec while I experiment with a softer blue color...

By the way, your site is really cool.

[This message has been edited by Daft_Vader (edited March 05, 2004).]

I want to keep the navy. It looks the best imho. Hopefully we can format the tables and pictures to look their best on a wide range of resolutions.

Thanks for kudos on the site.

If you want to keep the colors but soften them, try this.

for the page background, use "#003366"
for the table background, use bordercolor="#CC9900"

That should soften up the colors for the eyes. Give it a try, and see what you think.

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Fear is here, where's the beer?

-Fear- would you please respond just so I know you're up to date with everything.

If you are going to revamp those imperial symbols (which you really don't have to) could you please make them match the navy background. Thanks!

EDIT: Oops! Didn't mean to be impatient. Yeah, that's a great suggestion for softening the colors, let me try it. Also, you don't need to host that image, I've got it on my server now.

Any idea how you we could make the site more resolution friendly?

[This message has been edited by Daft_Vader (edited March 05, 2004).]

I still don't quite like the new bg as much as the navy but I'll try and stop being difficult and go with the flow.

Thanks.

EDIT: Do you think rounding the corners of the table would be a good idea? I'm pretty sure it would look good, but it would mean more images.

[This message has been edited by Daft_Vader (edited March 05, 2004).]

no good with your image limit. BTW, I think the new blue back looks much better.

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Fear is here, where's the beer?

[This message has been edited by -Fear- (edited March 05, 2004).]

That image limit is now no longer a problem. I've found a way to work around it.

The site looks Ok from what I can see. What is the aim of the site? In other words, why is it on the internet? Is it going to be like your personal blog? If so, it looks REALLY good for a blog. I've seen some that I like more, but it's a well designed blog. As for it being a "high traffic" site, the colors are too harsh. You want to sway away from your personal preferences and go with neutral colors in order to make it easy on the eyes. The blue is still (I don't know if you've already changed it or not) too strong, and at 1280 x 1024 it's got enough girth that if you put it together on one side it would be more than half the screen. You might want to set your table width to something more appropriate. Like say 75%... That would give you a consistent blue border around the outside, but stretch your tables to fit the screen of the viewer.

And the reason MSN can get away with it and you can't is because they're MSN, and they can do what they want. They don't ask us what we think about their design. Otherwise we'd say the same thing to them. It looks horrid.

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-=I'm the wang of this here site, and it's HUGE! So just imagine how big I am.=-
1337Yectiwan
OSC Returns!!
10 of 14 -- 27 Lives On

Thanks, but I don't see how changing the color of my background is somehow going to dramatically effect my traffic. And did you read the about. No one seems to have actually read anything. Because if they had they would understand what the purpose of the site is.

Anyway, not trying to rant, but as for the tables if I make them conform to the screen, the picture gets thoroughly screwed up and hopefully -Fear-'s images will be easily formatted between low and high resolutions.

My computer programming teacher liked it. But no one here likes it. I didn't think it was totally awful. Oh well, hopefully I can improve it...

I didn't say I didn't like it. I suggested some changes. For the most part it's good. You should be glad there are only a few things being nitpicked. My site was decimated before anybody even liked it at all... and now... It's getting mixed reviews..

[edit] and I posted that AFTER reading the about section. It just says the site is a spot for jedi knight and poetry. While these are both admirable topics, I was wondering if you were going to use it to actually post personal information about yourself, showcasing your poetry and your JK levels or what..

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-=I'm the wang of this here site, and it's HUGE! So just imagine how big I am.=-
1337Yectiwan
OSC Returns!!
10 of 14 -- 27 Lives On

[This message has been edited by Yecti (edited March 05, 2004).]

I love your site, it's totally sweet. By the way there is a broken link though, the one at the bottom which advertises the Jedi's Saber.tk It is no longer that, it seems to be http://www.nervecore.org:800/

And this is no biggie, but there's a slight spellcheck error on your main poll: it should "visIt" not "vist".

Just a few things, just thought I'd repay you. Not much but that's the best I can do!

Thanks though, you made me feel better about the site. And yeah, it is also a kinda like a blog. I'm hoping to get a lot of the people at my school to come. I have tons of poetry that I've written, I'm just afraid to put it up on the net.

I don't know if this isn't already apparent, but a main reason for the site is to post other's original poetry.

And I should be getting some new site graphics out of the kindness of -Fear's- heart!

[This message has been edited by Daft_Vader (edited March 06, 2004).]

The site itself serves its purpose, all though you may like to think about a new color scheme for the forums.

I love the 'intro'.

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GhostOfYoda - General doer of stuff.

change the forum colors . . . hmmm.

You should definately find the new forum colors very . . . appealing...


Check them out!

http://daftvader.proboards28.com/

[This message has been edited by Daft_Vader (edited March 06, 2004).]

I'll fix the visit thing. The TJS link will remain. It's a tribute. Those two sites (TJS and OSC) have a long history.

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-=I'm the wang of this here site, and it's HUGE! So just imagine how big I am.=-
1337Yectiwan
OSC Returns!!
10 of 14 -- 27 Lives On

Oh, I thought the new site was them relocated? That wasn't them? I guess someone purchased their domain or something like that then?

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~ Vader's Corner ~

The place to submit your poetical works!