Slow!

The Webmistress — Fri, 11 May 2001 15:54:59 +0000

It really is far too slow to load, there isn't anything there that should take that long. Have a look at your graphics and think what you have on there that's taking the time to load. Make the page load quicker, don't tell people that they will have to wait!

Personally, I would make the "Welcome to the......" & "Start your week....." images smaller. I don't like the link buttons either. The scrolling text is annoying as you have to wait to actually tell what it links to and they just look big & brash, plus you should try to fit them all on one line. It looks like they should be but the "Free fun" one has slipped!!

I agree with dmwhipp, you should have such a long scroll down just to see a counter!

Checked it out

dmwhipp — Fri, 11 May 2001 15:37:18 +0000

Reading some of the previous posts, I can see you have already made many of the changes recommended by others. I just viewed your site like the clean white background. Is the scrolling text on the buttons really necessary? I would guess it contributes to the slow loading and I would prefer just plain text buttons - I don't like to sit and wait to figure out what I need to click. I like the funky text logo, but it could be a little smaller. Incidentally, I really like your "museletter" logo. Move the hit counter up. You sure don't need to scroll for that. You are definitely on the right track.
Deborah

P.S.
I am glad you got rid of the music - I can't STAND pages that force me to listen to music while I visit!

disaster-master — Wed, 02 May 2001 07:13:08 +0000

Well, First of all....what is the point of the site? I feel you should give it more direction, change the font on the logo. It is too crowded. Do something about the "click here to.................................ENTER" thing. Maybe you should add some navigation and get rid of the background.

I did laugh at a few of the jokes.

disaster-master

mairving — Tue, 01 May 2001 16:28:23 +0000

Allow me to say "Excuse me". Oh well I got it half right.

Megan — Tue, 01 May 2001 02:12:37 +0000

Ahem, let me rephrase that:

Quote: You're lucky we are two of the nicest people here ... and the best looking.

mairving — Tue, 01 May 2001 00:06:10 +0000

You're lucky we are two of the nicest guys here ... and the best looking.

WoW

quietinthecorner — Mon, 30 Apr 2001 23:39:49 +0000

Thanks to both of you. I am glad I asked, because now I have some real direction.
quiet

Megan — Mon, 30 Apr 2001 16:01:44 +0000

Problem no. 1 - too many ads. They're annoying and detract from the content. If you're not making any money from them, get rid of them.

Problem no. 2 - too much scrolling. That text you've got on there with the rainbow look is way too big.

Problem no. 3 - where is the site? Is there a navbar somewhere? Where is the content? Oh, I see, there's an enter button there, but it't shaped like an ad and is surrounded by other ad looking things so I'm not quite sure what to do.

Problem no. 4 - now that I'm inside, I'm trying to find the content, or some sort of navbar, but there's all this stuff bouncing around, I can't focus on anything. Text is different colours and different sizes, I can't read anything (don't center text either - makes it hard to read). I'm just going to leave...

Moral of the story - look at what other sites are doing. Really look at them and think about what they are, and more importantly, aren't doing. You don't see patterned backgrounds anymore, or chessy animated gif's, or sites with random colour schemes with no nav bars or logos of any kind.

mairving — Mon, 30 Apr 2001 15:20:24 +0000

You did say Brutal.

It needs work. These things I hate:

popup windows
irritating music
senseless animated gif's
smiley face background
an Enter button (well hidden I might add)
scrolling messages
fonts that are too large or too small or too funky.

A site can be fun without being irritating. Cut down on the irritation factor by removing at least 4 of the irritations that I listed above. My suggestion is to get rid of the music, scrolling messages, enter button and smiley face background. So with that in mind here is the direction that I would take to fix.

Develop some type of logo to put at the top. Underneath that logo put a navbar with links to jokes and other categories on your site. Every page that loads should have this on the top. if you insist on the smiley face background, consider creating a table to hold all of your content. Make it about 75% of the screen size, so that smiley only shows on the edges. You may consider categorizing your jokes and creating links for them. That should get you started. Look around and see how others do it. I ran across this site the other day. It is fun, has a message and I thought very well done. It shows some of what I have been talking about.

My aim is to offer you some constructive criticism without hurting your feelings not to trash your site.

Megan — Mon, 30 Apr 2001 13:11:03 +0000

Link doesn't seem to be working for me.