I have always considered myself to be a fair, honest (and sometimes even blunt) person. In order not to deny my true self, I will have to state here, openly and directly, my opinion. When searching for a review-site to review Zwinkyness, I stumbled upon certain websites that surprised me, shocked me, freaked me out and nearly gave me a stroke. What is up with reviewing standards nowadays? Where has the capability of writing long, thorough, in-depth reviews gone off too? Are certain people just so thick-headed or has anyone got the recent idea that he or she, even though incapable of creating any decent webdesign or website, has the right and knowledge to review other peoples websites?
Forgive me to come up with some examples that might shock you. I warned you. Take a look at Emo Reviews. Close that website down and ban its owners from the World Wide Web, please. This review-site offers by far the worst layout I have ever come across, lacking everything (web standards, an actual design, valid coding, cross-browser compatibility) and looking like it was done in about five minutes. How can a webmaster, who is unaware of the fact his layout is a total failure and a disgrace for the webreviewing gang, ever decide to run a review website? What has the world gone off too? They should keep people like that as far away from the World Wide Web as possible. Have you ever heard of the word ‘design’? (And then I did not actually say anything about their reviews yet…which mostly involve the words ‘I hate…I hate’ .
Moving on to a website that offers a somewhat more decent layout, but chooses to completely ignore the point of web reviews. My dear friends, I invite you to take a look at this review over at Silence Reviews. Apart from the fact the reviewer advises someone to create a coloured scrollbar (When is everyone finally going to understand coloured scrollbars are INVALID CSS and work only in Internet Explorer and are therefore totally unnecessary, overdone and plain horrid?) she actually gives advise regarding how the reviewee, Amy, should name her pages too. No, apparently we can no longer give our ‘webmaster pages’ the name of the actual webmaster; we must name it ‘about me’. And, this is truly the most creative and useful thought ever: do not call your page Competitions, call it Contests. Perhaps it is my knowledge of English lacking, but the last time I checked those words were two synonyms.
Moving on, the reviewer has totally ignored any spelling errors made during the entire review. Notice the spelling of, what should be “preview” and “remember”. Apart from the fact we, webmasters, no longer have the right to name our pages whatever the hell we want, we also have to abide by the fact that, even though we may not find it necessary, anyone using our content SHOULD link us back! Lets throw away freedom on the World Wide Web, destroy the statue of liberty of all webmasters and refrain ourselves from making any decisions about our own website and the way we handle things all together!
Since they are so damn hilarious and lack any reviewing skills, here is another one over at Silence Reviews: Shinning Heart Review. Apparently, according to this reviewer, freewebs does not support PHP, divs or tables. Maybe I missed out on something here, but what exactly have divs and tables to do with php? Last time I checked, all you needed for those were a bunch of HTML-coding and preferably some CSS.
Perhaps I am old-fashioned, a web-guru or an insane standardista, but I always thought reviews were about other things than what I have seen around. What bothers me the most is that these wanna-be webreviewers, who put together a review in a matter of seconds, DEMAND a link back to there website. Please excuse me for being so blunt, but why the hell would I link you back if you spend five times talking crap that is completely useless, sometimes even plain wrong and just a waste of my time? Here, I’ll give you a couple of more review sites you can laugh at: Bubbly Chica writes reviews of at maximum ten lines and demands to be linked back in a visible area on a website (I think she probably is talking about a navigation bar. I’m amazed people even DO link her back sometimes. Has the IQ of half of the Internet’s population dropped below zero?), SR Reviews has unreadable content (I don’t need glasses, yet I cannot read it so I doubt anyone can, without hurting their eyes incredibly), Toxic Kiss claims to give the BEST reviews out there, yet her design made my internet connection hide in shame and me cry in despair (not only is the colour hideous, it also takes approximately ten minutes to download) and features, of course, STOLEN pictures (lets all head over to whatiscopyright.org and sue her).
I will try to be as clear as possible to the owners of all sites mentioned above in this article. Please, in the name of all that is right and good and nice on the World Wide Web, close your review sites down. You cannot review websites for the sake of it. Either your review site itself sucks (awful layouts, invalid coding, only working in IE) or your reviews are short, meaningless and totally pointless. No, I do not hate you. No, I am not just some bitch who wants to hurt your feelings. This is an advice to you. I am saving you from eternal doom here. No, you do not have to listen to me (no matter how much I’d like to, I am not God) but for your own sake, you better should.
Reviews should give valid advice. They should talk about valid coding, tidy CSS, cross-browser compatibility, different screen resolutions, text-only versions of the content, originality, usability, accessibility (at least make sure the fonts are readable!) and things along those lines. The reviews you people currently give are pointless. “I like your layout, especially the colours. Well done!” is of no help to anyone. And please, stop demanding people to put a link to your website up. Rather spend your time writing reviews with some content: webmasters might be more eager to link back to you then.
I will end it here, but there is a lot more I can say about clumsy review sites. Maybe you can expect this article to have a part 2 in the near future.
Sorry, the articles regarding accessibility had to be postponed for a short while since I really needed to get this off my chest.
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:58 pm
you stupid dumb as bitch your site is so ugly fuck u bitch, hoe ass stupid ass bitch ROT IN HELL YOUR NOT GOD GAY BITCH YOUR SITE AIN’T SHIT IT’S UGLY AND MEANINGLESS AND SO IS YOUR LIFE U HAVE NOTHIN BETTER TO DO THAN TO POINT OUT FLAWS ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE’S SITE WHAT ARE YOU FREAKING 25, GET YOUR BUTT OFF THE COMPUTER AND DO SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE WITH YOUR LIFE INSTEAD OF VISITING KIDS AND TEENAGERS WEBSITES TRYING TO MAKE YOUR STUPID ASS LOOK GOOD BIIIIIIIITCH, BITCH, UGLY ASS STUPID ASS BITCH! FUCK U ROT IN HELL.
January 2nd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Hehe. You don’t know how funny I think this is! Hilarious. So glad someone noticed my interesting, drop-dead-awesome article and decided to hold a bitch-fest over it. Guess you can only call your work good when someone calls you bitch approximately twenty times because you simply stated your opinion!
For one, I’m not 25. I’m wondering how old you are, since your spelling and your lack of any good insult makes me believe your age ranges somewhere between 3 and 5 years old. If you may have had the time to do some research rather than flaming someone horribly, you should have figured out that I am 17 years old. Which makes me belong to the teenager category, however a far more developed teenager than you will ever be. I don’t know how old you are: apparently the email adress you entered seems to be a fake and nonya.com is not a domain name at all. This makes me thing even less of you: you are too chicken to enter a real emailadress? Haha, you thought I would flame you or spam your mailbox? Apparently spamming is more a thing you would do.
I wonder, if perhaps you are the owner of one of the websites I appear to have insulted terribly. In case you are, I am sorry you got so offended over what simply is a review of a review website. If you are not, I don’t know what you are getting so terribly uptight about. Review websites are meant to help people forward, by giving them decent advice; not by telling them things that are in fact useless and meaningless. You can call my website ugly, but at least it is accessible, validated, usable and readable. It was even child-friendly until you started using bad words. Do you even know what they mean: bitch, hoe, ass? Since you made it look terribly much like a song. (Hoe stupid ass bitch from Roses by…I forgot their name now).
Anyhow, if you would have given me any valid reason why what I just wrote in the above article is wrong and why I should not go and give my opinion about websites that give THEIR opinion about other websites, then I would actually listen to you. Now, I’m just laughing at you. They give invalid, inappropriate, overrated opinions about websites, they claim they are “the best review website” out there and I’m not allowed to laugh at them because the advice they are giving other people is in fact, not valid, causes security flaws and has no use whatsoever? I’m saying that if ANYONE claims they can review a website and even DEMAND to put a link up to their review site for giving said review, they better do a good job at it or else, they’re asking for a good rant against them. And that is what I have given them. Now you can go cry and whine to your mommy or keep calling me a hoe and a bitch, but I don’t fucking care.
Have a good night.
January 2nd, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I have not come here to have a “bitchfest” unlike Nonya who seems to be about 7 years old. I have come to give my honest opinion on what you have just posted. I find some of the reviews to be quite harsh. Some of these sites are horrid sites, but some I feel are not as bad as you make them out to be. I actually requested a review from Toxic Kiss a few weeks ago. The colors of her site are a little loud but who ever said that was a bad thing? The loudness goes with the persona of Ashley Tisdale. But as you’ve stated you have the right to your own opinion, but next time you could be a bit gentler. It would also be nice if you e-mailed the owners of the sites you mentioned a link to this article. If your true purpose is the inform them of flaws in their site.
January 2nd, 2008 at 10:19 pm
You know you are probably going to get a lot of bad comments
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:49 am
yeah, this is super stupid..Ur site isn’t that hot either, u shoulden’t bash other ppls cause your bord with your own life. It’s like ur trying to be…funny?or something? idk but its really rude and lame.
My site for you:
Getting A Life: A skill Morgan doesen’t have.
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:03 am
Hehe, Heather I find your comment very funny. I do have a life, quite a busy one even. And it’s “doesn’t” but I’m sure that was just a typo.
I know this might sound harsh, MsBigBag but they are also my honest opinion. I am glad there are people such as yourself who can respond to them in a gentle, mature but honest way. I was actually hoping to get some feedback on this one, because I am looking to find some review sites that I find decent and give good, thorough reviews. So far I have not come across any yet, but on the other hand I stopped my search as soon as I reached the review sites mentioned in the article. It made my heart skip a few beats, if you get what I mean.
I am not saying any of them sites are bad: Toxic Kiss, for example, is nice for a personal website. But for a review site, it lacks things. The giant banner featuring celebrities (which is against copyright law and which a reviewer should know) takes about five minutes to load on my connection. That is horrid: I never said the banner was not nice, it is just that, as a reviewer, you should know not to create stuff that takes that long to load. In my opinion, most of the websites mentioned in the article are NOT bad, they just do not qualify as review sites. I did not even come across one of them who checks for code validation or cross-browser compatibility…and that means something. And yes, MsBigBag, you are probably right that I should email them. I will do it after finishing this comment.
Heather, I am not bored with my own life. I did not try to funny. You can understand my reaction when I was searching for a decent review site that would do an in-depth, thorough review of Zwinkyness and came across those. My number one problem with them sites is that they require a link back. For what: a five minute’s work? No, my site is probably not the greatest one out there. I never stated that. But my site is a personal website: it does not need to be flawless. Review sites are meant to state an example to the www-community and those sites simply did not do it.
Perhaps it is rude that I “reviewed” them sites without letting them know. Then again, if you create a review site and state you give “The Best Reviews Out There” that is asking for trouble. One day someone is going to fall over that. And that person happened to be me.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:36 am
You know, this makes sense … I think your absolutely right Morgan, for the others read it again and give an honest comment. People are allowed to state their own opinion, especially about websites who do the same thing to other people’s sites.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:11 pm
I’m the owner of Toxic Kiss and one of my visitor gave me the link to your site. I’ve read your article and even though it is harsh I do agree with some of what you said. I do however think that you could of stated you opinion about the sites in a nice way. On my site I state that it’s only my opinion. They don’t have to take it because it is their site and they can do whatever they want. I never said that I’m a professional reviewer, this is something I do as a hobby. I give my opinion to people that ask for it and they choose whether to take it or not.
As for my layout I like the color it might not be your favorite color but it’s not your site, I like colorful layouts and yes it is illegal to use celebrity pictures, I know that but was it necessary to write “lets all head over to whatiscopyright.org and sue her”. I’m not good at making layouts from scratch and I don’t want my site to have an awful layout, (even though you think it already does) that’s why I make my layouts with celebrity pictures it’s the only way I know how. I didn’t know that my layout took 10 minutes to download, on my computer it loads fast maybe it’s your computer that’s slow.
To say that we all should close are sites it quite mean, just because you don’t approve of them doesn’t mean we should close them. Some people might not like your site and tell you, you should close it down. Would you? I don’t think you would. I also don’t take seconds to do a review, I take hours to look through the site and express my opinion. I review it from a visitors point of view. The main thing a visitor looks for in a site is the content and the way it looks not about the different screen resolutions. Of course if the coding and css is a mess and noticeable we will let them know. We also can’t be so harsh on our reviews, if people think your mean and spread the word no one will want to get a review from you. You think telling someone “I like your layout, especially the colors. Well done!” is pointless, but to the webmaster of the site it might not be. To read that someone likes your layout and tells you well done makes the web owner feel good about themselves and their site.
To answer another of your questions I require a link back for promotional reasons. You require a link back if someone uses your content, why do you do that? I’ll end this comment by saying I like my site just the way it is. I don’t care if one or one million people don’t. It’s my site.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Even though you were giving your opinion, you did not have to go out and bash others sites like that. SO WHAT they don’t give the best reviews, MAYBE they wanna do it as a hobby because it’s something they ENJOY doing. MAYBE their reviews actually help some sites. SO WHAT if it doesn’t fit YOUR criteria, then hell, GO find a damn site that does!
You could have gone about it indirectly because the way you did it was just wrong. Okay, so none of them took a course on “REVIEWING WEB SITES” (if that’s even a course to take). A review is simply an opinion others give and things they point out that could possibly make someones site better or to give them tips.
If you don’t like the site that doesn’t mean you have to bash them like that. But I’m not going to be like you and bash your site on mine because I’m not low down and dirty like you. I could rant on on how you “lack the certain DESIGNING skill” BUT everyone has something they like to do as a hobby but may not necessarily be a got damn EXPERT in, damn get a life, stop trying to point out other’s weaknesses and focus on your own, rant about how you need to get better at designing and work on your site being such a bore.
All I’m saying is just because you don’t think they’re the BEST it doesn’t mean you have to do that, so get over yourself.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I’m glad you replied to this article
And I’m glad you replied in such an honest, open, responsible, mature way. This was, in fact, mostly the point of the article: to have people discuss about ways of reviewing and different review websites in a mature way.
The thing about “lets all head over to whatiscopyright.org and sue her” was me being sarcastic. I have no interest in sueing anyone for using celebrity graphics when half of the Internet’s population does so. However, I still think that is inappropriate to use it on a review site. If your website had been a personal website, then fine. Personal websites are not meant to give the right example (they are meant to be personal…) but review sites are. In my opinion and although you seem to have quite the fan club (which is a nice thing, and it’s always nice to know people support your site) your site does not give the right example featuring a layout made of copyrighted images. I do not even think your layout is awful: it made me frustrated because it takes ages to load on my computer.
Here is another thing, you say “perhaps it is because you have a slow computer.” That might as well be true, but it is not the right intention for a reviewer. Websites should be accessible to anyone, whether they have a really fast or a really really slow connection. If an image loads slowly on someone’s website, it’s the OWNER of the website who should deal with it, not the visitors. And, on the other hand if you would care to change your graphic from a .png into a .jpg, it would load about ten times as fast. That way people with slower connection could get to your website easier.
What I just did here is what I would like to see more on your website and on the others I spoke about in the article. Helpful, honest information. Your reviews do talk about images, colours and content, but they do not go in-depth about spelling errors, code validation, cross-browser compatibility. Surely, you can think your reviews take hours and I’m sure you are trying your best: but what happened to Web Standards along the way? It does not matter if someone’s content is nice if it is unreadable for a visitor because he is using Firefox and said person’s content is only readable in IE. It is a reviewers job to point such things out. Saying “a visitor does not care about different screen resolutions” is wrong. A layout might look amazingly well in largest resolutions but be unreadable in 800×600 screen resolution. Visitors will not, never go and change their resolutions (or perhaps even their screen size) because they cannot properly view a website. That is simply something visitors never do. You say you put yourself in the shoes of a visitor: but I don’t think you do so completely. You imagine yourself as a visitor, but you do not think about other, somehow disabled visitors (with slower connections, people who cannot read small fonts, people with smaller screen resolutions.)
It is in my opinion that until the point a reviewer (and I am talking in general here; it was never my point to flame only you, I was trying to state a general opinion and I excuse myself if it came over as a bit of a witch hunt towards the sites mentioned in the article) is aware of the benefits of validation, cross-browser compatibility and colours that are not too much alike, he cannot really think of the benefits of all users on the World Wide Web. 20 percent of nowadays Internet population uses Firefox. IE is used by about 70 percent. If nobody codes for both browsers, either 70 or 20 percent of the visitors will be left out, since we all know IE requires certain hacks other browsers do not. And what is a website without visitors?
(I’m having dinner now, follow-up after that)
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Hey, I just want to say I do reviews as a hobby and in my spare time, I’m not an expert or whatever. If they don’t fit your standards I can understand that but I think you could have gone about it in a different way, you could have maybe done it indirectly just speaking in general about the topic. I actually do help some sites, if I (and the other sites) don’t fit your standards you should find a site that does, but it doesn’t mean you had to do this. I just point out basic things and give helpful tips. Different people have different approaches when reviewing other sites and I’m one of those people that just has a different approach, but I don’t go dig down into a lot of details because like I said I just do it as a hobby. People can read my past reviews and be able to determine if they want to be reviewed by me or not, if so good if not then they can move on and find a site that they think could give them a great review. My entire purpose for my site is just for a hobby, something to do in my spare time, like I said. Sure, great you can point out things, but I’m not going to change it because you don’t approve of it, if you don’t like it, that’s just you, not my problem, move on to the next site.
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Back to Jane.
You know, it is not a reviewers responsability to make someone feel “good” about their website. Webmasters in general get enough ass-kissing (note: it’s a bit of a sharp term, but I really mean all those people saying “nice layout” or “great site” or something along those lines; of course not all those comments are ass-kissing but you could in general refer to them as that) so that they do not need it from reviewers. What is the use of a review if all you get is people telling you how great your website is, without adressing potential flaws? It is not the job of a reviewer to do said things: there are enough other people out there who do that. Also, I cannot possibly imagine someone who would submit a review if you already know all you are going to hear is: “Your website rocks. Wonderful layout.” Sure, it’s nice for self-esteem, but it’s not what someone really needs.
Perhaps honest, truthful and sometimes harsh reviews will scare some visitors away. But what you will have left at the end of the day, are people who really want their website reviewed thorough. People who want to know how nice their webiste REALLY is. They will appreciate your honesty, your bluntness. Mature, adult people who can take some criticism will be able to do so too. After all, what is a review of any help if a reviewer cannot be completely honest about how he feels about said website? Are you not in a way, betraying your visitors trust by “prettifying things” and saying something is “somewhat nice” while you actually want to say that it’s plain horrid? Perhaps it is meant to be nice, but it is in fact a way of lying, if you look at it that way.
BC, perhaps I could, but I’m a strange girl. When I write articles about anything, I always feel I have to show proof of what I am saying by providing links to example websites or articles that related to mine. Let me state something about your website: surely it is your hobby and I love the personal part about it. I don’t like the review part of it. I really like your design, but your reviews are too short. Surely, this is all my very own opinion (this is, a personal website, so I believe I am quite entitled to an opinion). I never said anyone there is not a good webmaster, they are just not good reviewers. Again, my opinion. However, please do not feel like I am attacking your website, I am mostly pointing out stuff I have against your reviewing approach.
You are right when you say you have a different approach to things and it is your right to have so. Surely, but I do believe that getting into details is something a reviewer SHOULD do. The thing I have with your review style, is that it all feels like it is lacking something. Details, probably. Now if you did not require a link back for a review, I would probably not even bother. But you do. You said it yourself, reviewing is a hobby for you and by reading your reviews, I can honestly say I do not think it takes you hours to write one. So why are you so desperately requiring a link back? For popularity reasons and such too? Do you not believe that if someone gave excellent, in-depth and thorough, useful reviews people would link back to you naturally?
What bothers me the most, as I probably mentioned before, is that I know if you all did more effort your reviews could be tons better. Mostly, this article rather than a put-down was supposed to be a way for everyone to know how it can be better. Surely, you may be good enough for a minority of web users (those who give no damn about standards, for example) but there is a whole lot of web users you are cutting out by limiting your reviews to what they currently are. Would improving the quality of your reviews not help improving the quality of the websites you are reviewing? And is that not exactly what a review is for?
To me, it seems you both rush things a lot. Shorter reviews, nothing in-depth. Sure there might be other reasons: it is just a hobby, you have little time, but I feel like you are all too quickly to end a review and begin a next one. You know: quantity above quality, whereas more in-depth reviewers probably prefer the opposite. I know there are other ways to review websites and it simply frustates me that people, who could do a way better job if they put more time and effort in it, refuse to do so.
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I’m co-reviewer on Toxic Kiss Reviews and I honestly thought this was aweful of you to write a whole story about review sites without informing anyone you were doing so. The line you said abotu suing someone, I iknow you said you were being sarcastic but you can’t tell on the internet.
I read through your reply and people make layouts to fit *their* screen resoultion. I make a guess when I do mine because I know every Tom, Dick and Harry have a different screen size then I do. It may load faster if it’s a jpeg file but that is a terrible format for another on a site.
As been said before, we are not professional reviews. This is hobby. People sign up for reviews because they want our opinion and we give it to them the best way we know how. My suggestions are that next time if you’re going to write something abotu a site, inform them and write it in a nicer way.
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Okay so the article upset me. Excuse the errors.
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:22 pm
It’s your opinion, it’s fine, sorry you feel that way, but I’m still not changing. It would be different if I asked for a review from you about my reviews but I didn’t. Like you said, your site your opinion, so it’s fine with me. I really hope you find a site that fits your standards though, yours are pretty high.
But I just want to clear up the fact I don’t take seconds to do a review if anything I don’t start on it immediately right after the other. On average it takes me anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes. But it doesn’t even matter, it’s not that big of a deal to me as it is to you. Anyways, I appreciate your concern.
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I agree my standards might be pretty high. I don’t know, as I say all the time about myself, I’m quite the Standardista. I’m a sucker for validation, accessibility and so on. As you said, there will probably be people who will settle for less and will really appreciate your reviews. Mostly this article is directed at people who are a bit like me.
Offending people, as I said before on this site, is not my main goal here. As a matter a fact, is it not my goal at all. People who kind of know my writing style, know when I’m being sarcastic. I can understand that you cannot really read that on the Internet and therefore can take things more seriously then they are meant to. And why is .jpg a terrible format on a website? I usually use it and things look fine using that. When doing large graphics as at Toxic Kiss, using .png is really disastrous for people with slower connections.
I am not sorry about writing this article: I am in fact glad that it somehow got the discussion started that it should. I do wish to state again I did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Whoever thinks it was awful for me to write this, should mature. Perhaps it was not nice and I agree I should have informed you all first (the webmasters I mean then) but I did not. I was planning on doing so, but you got here before I got the chance too. As BC mentioned, my standards concerning websites and stuff ARE pretty high. I know that: I ask the impossible from myself and others. But I cannot help it, that if I come across a website stating it “Gives the Best Reviews” you will have a reaction from me. It is in my nature: I question everyone and everything.
The thing is, you could all easily forget my advice and continue reviewing the way you do. Forget all about this article: go and do things your way. I’m fine with that: I wrote it to get my frustration out for lack of any review sites that meet my requirements of “good review sites”. BC stated it: you people did not ask a review from my side. I did not review your website, else I would have gotten more in-depth. I just stated what it was that drove me away from your websites. I feel as if I am entitled to do such things, then again I do acknowledge I should have let you people know. Thing is, I never thought people would make such fuss about the websites mentioned in the article, but rather began discussing about what is wrong with certain review approaches nowadays. I believe that was a wrong vision of my side, and this discussion really went a wee bit another way than I thought.
The thing is, at the end of the day: who am I? I’m merely a girl stating my opinion, who has incredibily high standards for everyone. When this discussion is over, those websites are still yours to do with as you please. In my opinion, you people do not qualify as reviewers. But since people actually DO get reviewed by you, it must be that to others you do. However, there are people out there who are just like me and who will think: what about standards? what about validation? They will probably dislike your review style either and perhaps they will not be (wo)man enough to state it openly, but someone has to stand up and ask them questions.
My hatred and stress lies mostly towards the entire reviewing community (or alas, those websites I have come across lately) for not being up to the standards I would like to see. It feels like a real turndown for me. However, I did not want to hurt you people’s feelings and again apologise. Empathises should have relied more on the content than on the example, but I can see why people could take it the wrong way.
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I want to point out my excuses towards Blogger (who is apparently too scared to give out his/her real url, which was the reason why the comment ended up in moderation in the first place) because his/her comment was kept in moderation for so long. I simply looked over it earlier. It is added now.
Blogger, I am sorry to mention to you that the thing I have with reviewing sites is that I want them to be an example to me. Those mentioned in the article (as well as tons of others) simply are not. They might be to others, but they are not to me. When I can openly state her that I think POTC sucks (which I do not, because I love POTC) and not get blashed/witchhunted/attacked for it, why can I then not state my opinion about websites who state their opinion about other peoples website? I’m missing some logic here.
Oh and please, write your article about how I lack designing skills. I would love to read it. We’re the Web 2.0 : celebrities are out, simplicity is in. Perhaps someone is a little behind in their Internet history.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:40 am
yes, but it was VERY rude of you to just go and talk trash about peoples sites and bring down their confidence, when they didn’t even ASK for a review.
And then you were reallllly harsh and that makes the site owners embarrassed and your making people not want to come to their sites when their sites are good.
And you must be pretty bord and cruel if your willing to go and do this kind of thing to people. If someone came to my site and siad “click this link! they mentioned bad things about ur site!” and I go and read this that would be a horrible feeling and what if that happened to you!?
You should keep those things to yourself.
I’m just taking up for these people who are nice enough to go around and do good for people and you are just willing to hurt them. There is a nicer way to give a review!
And if these sites were as bad as you SAY, then no one would order from them…duh.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:52 am
No one who is like me would order from them. What I write in my weblog is perhaps not always directed at the entire Internet population, but mostly counts for people who are like me. I would never order from them. I find it devastating to find out the only review sites out there are sites alike theirs, unfortunately not going in-depth enough for my liking.
Apart from the fact I said “they should all close their review sites down” I do not believe I was that harsh. Surely, one can overreact on said things too: I believe reviewers need an open mind for reviews, else: how would they be able to review any person’s website? Of course, this review was not asked for. However, it was not a review. Suppose it would have been a review, the article would have been several pages longer, that I can assure you.
If anyone made a bad remark about my site, I doubt I would feel that bad about it. As they already mentioned before, a site belongs to ONE person (or more if co-operated) and if that person finds the website to be good, the entire World Wide Web may claim different but it won’t make that much difference anyway. I disagree about having to keep those things to myself: this is my weblog. As I stated before, it is not my intention to harm people. This article was just wrongly interpreted. The websites stated were supposed to be examples of how I think one SHOULD NOT review or how a review site definately not SHOULD LOOK. One can agree or disagree with me, but that is why there is always room for discussion on a weblog.
As I said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. This is mine. Surely, people find their review sites good. Certain people. But, just because some people find them to be good, why should I have to agree with them? I do not find them good. I cannot lie about that and why should I? Why, for God’s sake, should I have to keep said things to myself? Liberty of speech counts on the Internet too, you know.
January 4th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Hey, I’m a person who likes visiting Jane’s site(s) and reading her content and reviews but I’ve got to say that I agree with you on a lot of points. I ordered a review from Jane a month ago and I noticed in my review that it didn’t mention anything about my coding. Yeah I check my sites on five different browsers and on a Mac but I wanted to make sure it looked fine and loaded well on OTHER people’s computers(ie XP, linux; I use a Vista). However her review never mentioned it and the only thing she mentioned for my layout is that the colors went well together, well that was something I already knew.
I understand that these people do it only as a hobby and aren’t serious about it but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t take your advice instead of saying that is was wrong of you for mentioning their sites like that.
I don’t think it’s wrong of you to mention their sites without e-mailing them. So what if they worked hard on it? What about people who make movies, tv shows, and books? Did they not work hard on their projects? When was it okay to review those things without “asking for permission” but not a web sites?
Anyways, in an earlier comment you mentioned that you were looking for decent review sites to review. And I know one: http://www.petshopgirlsreviews.com/
Rhiannon’s reviews are extremely honest, if she thinks something looks terrible she’ll go out and say it; she won’t sugar coat it for you.
Someone else mentioned that if someone reviewed your site in a “mean” way, you’ll start losing visitors(or something along those lines). Like I said above, Rhiannon’s reviews are honest and they seem harsh a lot of the times,yet her review site is very popular and has a HUGE pending listing. Obviously she isn’t losing visitors for sounding mean is she?
Anyways, I’ll stop here before my comment gets too long.
P.S. I apologize for any spelling or grammar errors that appear on my comment!
January 4th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Thank you. Basically the fact anyone can review a movie but apparently not anyone can review a website unrequested was one of the reasons why I did not email the owners in the first place, and only decided I should maybe have done it after MsBigBag pointed it out. I just thought I did not have to bother, since this article is not a bitchfest or something at them and their websites were only used as examples. But seeing how much it affected them, made me think perhaps I should have done so. I don’t know: it is not that much of a big deal afterwards since they did find out anyway.
I am glad you agree: this proves to them all that there are actually people out there (other than me
) who do want reviews to be more in-depth and who do check their websites in different browsers. I deeply wish they would have taken some advice I have given in this article (or at least listen to it) but if they don’t: it will not be my loss but theirs. As I stated out already, it is their website to do with as they please. I pointed out some errors, if they do not care enough or are perhaps not responsible enough to fix them, it is their loss.
Thank you for the link. I took a quick look at Rhiannon’s reviews and perhaps they are what I am looking for. I noticed for one that the layout is far more userfriendly (so by seeing her website I know she knows the drill) and her reviews appear to be a lot longer and more in-depth than those I came across before. Thanks again.
January 4th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Hey, no problem! I really do hope that they at least think about what you said and take some of your advice and if they don’t, then it is their loss.
And yeah there are people who care about accessibility and in depth reviews. All you have to do is follow the links from other people’s blogs(who care about the same thing you do)
I remember when my site was a ‘design’ site and it had celebrity images on it, I’d find many articles similar to this. Instead of thinking “they’re mean!” I’d think “They do have a point”, so it’s because of articles like these that I started validating my coding and not using copyrighted images.
However I never commented the articles but I bet that there are people reading it and taking your advice.
January 4th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Oh yeah, and I’d love to do link to your site!
January 5th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Well, like you said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I’m still not happy about the whole situation, but I just want to let it go
:]
Other than this, you have a good site.
January 5th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I hope so Zatanna. After all, there is no point writing articles when no one reads them or learns anything from them.
I have put your link up, btw.
Thanks Heather and I agree that this is a good time to let it go and end this discussion here. However, if anyone feels like they have something more to say, they can go ahead, of course.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Hello Morgan I am just posting to let you know that I am now a reviewer at Toxic Kiss and maybe you could order a review from me. If you want to see an example of my reviews go to my mini site at
http://loveunchained.com/tkreviews
Hopefully my reviews are the type that you are looking for.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 pm
First, I would like to apologize for commenting late on this article (since I did not find it until today) even after it was stated that the discussion for this article should have already been closed. I do not wish to bring up any flames from either end, but I felt as though I ought to say something.
First, whether or not you felt like everything you said was the honest truth (and I don’t deny that the sites listed could’ve used serious improvements), you chose to state your opinions in a rude and disrespectful manner. Blunt as you may be, you are the one who decides how you want your tone to come across. Unfortunately, you chose to come across and rude and arrogant, thus all of the negative comments.
Second, I find this article to be demeaning and rude, even if it’s truthful. You’ve gone on about how these sites need to improve and how the reviews lack any real content, yet all you’ve done in this article is blurt, “THEY SUCK! THEY SHOULD BE SHUNNED FROM THE WWW!” How is that much different than the review site that consists mostly of “I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!”? Where are your advice to these fellow WPR owners on how to improve their sites?
I’m having a somewhat difficult time finding the right words to say, as I am probably turning out to be quite hypocritical at the moment. I also rant about WPRs on my blog, although, unlike you, I take the reviews and tear them to shreds rather than the actual site itself. You need to understand that whether or not you’re right, there’s a good and bad way of going about and getting your opinion across.
Also, make note that whether or not you intended to “bash” said listed sites, you did. It’d only be natural for the owners to come and defend the site they’ve put effort into (whether or not it was a lot of effort is a different story). Your negativity reminds me of my younger days and I’d advise you to begin thinking about a more positive way of getting your points across.
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Oh, don’t worry about commenting late. Your opinion was very valuable and I do not mind talking about it some more.
For starters, perhaps I did not really tell those sites how they could improve themselves in the article itself. However, if you quickly run through the comments, I suppose I did offer them some ways of help: change your image header to another format, go more in-depth, learn about accessibility and such. Also, in my article, I did point out that I find their reviews to be short, useless and not in-depth enough. I do not really feel the need to express to them sites any further how they can make their WPR sites better. This article was not meant to be a review of their sites. I agree that if one feels the need to review their websites or their reviews for that matter, the article should have focused more on the actual issues and offering ways of improvement. This was not the reason for the article, so I do not really think it lacks at that point.
I think as if you might have interpreted the article the wrong way (I may be wrong though). I did offer some helpful tips for them to get better WPR’s: longer, more in-depth reviews, keeping accessibility, validation and such in mind, but it is not my intention to hold their hands until they have finally learnt to cover all those things. If one wants to learn accessibility, google is the fastest way to find related articles. If they want to improve their designs, they can always follow a tutorial. I could have pointed out more where exactly they made the mistakes they, according to me, made, but why should I have to? This was never meant to be a review of any of the website specifically. They simply served as an example to get my point across.
You are right when you say I was rude and disrespectful. But I have this thing to be disrespectful (and probably tactless) towards people who claim they are able to review a website, but lack valid coding or accessible design (and so on) themselves. Further on, when I wrote the article I felt very frustrated. When looking for decent review sites, they were all I found. And to me, they seemed not to give out any valuable reviews, which angered me. Another thing is that, although I came across a lot of other review sites that were below the levels I would have liked, but did not mention them in the article. I could give tons of more examples, but I did not, because I thought it was enough already. It was never my intention to bash those website alone, the reason for this article was more of a general cry to the reviewing world in its whole: learn more about the new web standards and web 2.0 before you open a review website! I do hoped I was getting this point across by writing the article, but in the end it got a little too personal for people to see the entire picture I was trying to sketch.
Yes, so this might have seemed disrespectful and rude, and I do thank you for your tips (perhaps I should be a little less negative about things in general) but it was something that should have been seen more in the general picture than on those cases alone, therefore I do not think I did not give them enough information on how to improve their websites. If they would have liked to know more about certain things I briefly mentioned, they could have asked and I would have gladly explained it more thoroughly. But they did not, nor did any of them actually wanted to take my advice, which I thought would happen in the first place anyway.
As said, the discussion I wanted to get going with this article was: why is the reviewing community unaware of things such as web standards, accessibility, etc. and what can be done about it? The websites mentioned served as an example. Perhaps this was a bit disrespectful, but without any proof of WPRs lacking professionality, the article would be pointless. I did give my words of advice, but you might have missed them (as they all seemed to have done, unfortunately):
All they had to do was it look it up in Google to know what it all meant. Unfortunatley, they did not, and I do believe that is their loss.
PS: However, for the general public, I will try to be more positive in the future. I can see why it could have sound demeaning to some people, and to the owners of the websites.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:33 am
We all understand that us, human beings have their own opinions and points of views. We also have the right to posts our opinions online. (Hopefully, we all understand that everything online is personal domain.) So we shouldn’t expect anything. From flames to compliments.
At least Morgan has the full understanding that she doesn’t expect everyone to agree with her opinions. As I recall, this is a blog site and the webmaster can post whatever they want. Although the article may hurt people’s feelings, it doesn’t exactly mean that Morgan is a mean, cruel person. But we all expect that we should all be careful of what we say (write) since this is a public site.
If we want to debate over this article filled with opinions, consider it useless and a waste of time. Morgan is just expressing herself in her own blog. It’s not a matter that would seriously affect the whole world like a terroist attack. (Hopefully, you understand what I mean.)
Our lives are different. Our actions are different. Our perspectives are different. Somehow, people fail to understand that. And those who do, they will end up ruining their reputation and possibly would slowly fall into the shadows.
Readers, if I am not making any sense, my point is that we shouldn’t say other opinions are wrong. No opinion in the world is right or wrong. We all may disagree but please understand that opinions have their own paths. You may feel free to flame at the author but remember that none of your points will change the reader’s way of thinking towards “poorly” runned review sites.
Sorry for giving out this boring lecture and posting it on this site but it’s something that could be useful in the future.
For your information, I am the writer of the two reviews from “Silence Reviews” that you have noted. I definately see your point but please refrain from blaming the entire staff of that site since they are the ones who give out quality reviews. One mistake from a staff member may ruin the site’s reputation.
Pardon me from not making any sense but I hope that people will understand that there is nothing wrong with stating an opinion that may hurt others but we all have the right to do so. We all want a friendly internet community and that is very clear.
Have a good day.