My new site! MyStylesheet.org

I've never liked the normal wiki layout. It just seems odd how it handles data, but it is appropriate to use a wiki for this site. The logo seems a little odd to me, too. What are those kids looking into? Are they drinking something? It doesn't seem clear to me. It took me about 5 seconds to figure out what the page was about, that first paragraph takes care of that .

If I used user stylesheets I probably won't contribute them at the site, yet (pretending that I don't know you). The reason is because it is still pretty small and not well known. That is the hard part about a community type site, no one wants to contribute anything until it is big, and since no one is adding stuff you either have to add it yourself or entice people to add stuff (contests, money, backlinks etc).

The statement about advertising isn't a turnoff at all, since 99% of the people who go to your site are going to be webmasters, I think they will appreciate that.

I think you should add some articles about how to use user stylesheets on FF and O. I for one don't know how and I would assume I'm not the only one. Your site would be a perfect home to articles like that.

P.S. If you ever submit to digg let me know

EDIT: Now I see that you have articles that tell you how to use them, maybe add those to the sidebar. I can't believe I missed them.

Although I like the logo because it is simple, it does however kind of remind me of the MSN icons. Maybe inspiration was drawn from there, I don't know. Regardless, are you planning on using this logo in anything else? I.e, business card? If so, the logo may not look so nice if it were to be reduced really small.

At first, when viewing the site, it was a little unclear what the site is for but, it's good that it was explained - many sites don't do that - maybe add a little sentence on how to use the styles?. You did ask not to comment on the layout however, I can't help but say that the orange background colour used for the navigation does look a little out of place. Maybe another colour would be better?

Is there anyway of having a preview of what the style looks like before a user uses it? That would be quite helpful. To me, it is annoying wanting to try something that seems really promising but not being able to actually see if it is or not.

Thanks for the feedback guys

Renegade - some of the styles do have screenshots in them. I haven't done all of them yet, although I want to leave some out deliberately so potential contributors don't assume that they have to do them too.

Inspiration on the logo was drawn from some open clipart people which I sort of modified for this. They're supposed to be holding stylesheets. I can see why that wouldn't be obvious though. I'll see what I can do about that... the main thing I was worried about with the logo was that it was too overtly multicultural.

I'll put the how to links onto the front page - thanks for that tip!

ETA: I kinda think that submitting my own site to Digg is a little spammy. It would be cool if someone else did it though

I was a little bit confused when I first viewed the site, I thought it was offering style sheets for me to use, not to use for other websites. The text describes it in a techo way but still leaves you a bit confused, this sentence "User stylesheets allow you to customize the look of a website by applying your own Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) on top of the stylesheet created by the site designer." if you just added one word it would make it more understandable, add 'another' to ... look of another website by ....
Because I didn't understand the concept I didn't want to click on any of the links as some were sites I know and dislike using, but it would be in my best interest to view those stylesheets.

The logo reminds me of being studied, 3 people with clip boards grading me on what I do.

I think the site will take off, the idea is really good (until they change the layout which could mess things up) and given time will get a cult following for sure I would probably use them but I wouldn't contribute as I'm not smart enough - I see tables (as in the lil boy saying I see dead people)

although I like your logo, i feel its a bit confusing, so ill ditto on renegades comment on this... also the tagline is a bit cheesy. Pretty much all the suggestions above are spot on, so ill add a more unique one...

You could try putting large texts or graphics that explains what the stylesheet is for... a webmaster might not need this, but a regular visitor might not know whats it for... as busy mentioned, try emphasizing what the site or the stylesheet is for... it needs a 3 seconds catch to know what the site is... good job anyhow...

I have been digging around, as i always do when i find new places, hoping to recover the holy grial of free CSS. I like the idea of a wiki page first of, and i like the overall layout of the page(s).

The icons are similar to the msn icons, but that doesnt really clikc to me unless its mentioned.

keep it up megan!

No offence ment but the logo just seems a little childish. I really dont care for the "Artice Button" covering the word welcome. I do like the word on advertising and I think webmasters will like it. I think the more content you have the better. Just dont take everything I said to heart, because I am just learning. Good luck with the site.

Rick

The layout is well known, so many people will understand it. I didn't like the logo, I think it should be something more techie. Even though I am new at this I test it out and its good. I would add more incentives to register as a user, like newsletter, rss, good stuff that would not be available unless you sign up. So thats it for now if I think on other suggestions I would let you know.

I like the site as well although I do think the logo should be more techie since it is for webmasters.

I like the concept and the site in general.

I'm not a firefox fan and use IE mostly so your top menu is obscuring the title.

other than that its really professional looking - the sort of site I hope to be able to do some day.

Just as I go through the page...

The logo seems just a bit childish to me... (heh, childish...children...get it?). Seriously though what are the kids reading... and why are there kids reading?

Perfect opening paragraph, I now know exactly what it's about and how it benefits me.

I definitely dig the idea of featuring styles on the homepage. It would give me a lift into where the styles are, as I sort of expected to see a link under Resources. Took me a second to hunt down the link.

As far as advertising, I would say definitely not a turn off, especially to your audience. I would however have it read "A word on removing advertising with stylesheets", as at first it did kind of turn me off because I thought it would talk about you guys accepting adds for preferential placement in the list or something.

Just as a usability thing, I tried clicking Random Stylesheet a couple times, first time I thought it didn't work because it took me to the home page, after a couple more it took me to a page that just said "Welcome to My Stylesheet", then a repeat, then some new ones. You may want to see if there are any parameters you can set for this in the media software.

I would definitely talk to some geeky forums and see if you can't get a link in there somewhere.

Overall, a good implementation of a wiki format, and a great idea. I especially like how you spiced up the traditional wiki colors, and this is definitely something I might use in the future.

That's definitely posted in the wrong thread - where is it supposed to go?

Thanks for all the feedback on the site. I'm trying to think of what else I can do with the logo. I do want to provide sort of a fun and friendly look and feel to the site. Any ideas? I haven't got much time to work on this site, unfortunately.

Megan;205785 wrote: My new site is finally ready to go (well, pretty much...). It is an open source, user contributed repository of user stylesheets for use in Opera, Firefox, Safari, or any other browser that supports them.

Here's the link:

http://www.mystylesheet.org

A few questions to consider:

• It is based on a wiki format - does this seem odd to you? It was just easiest for me to set up since I don't do programming myself and it works for what I need. I don't plan on making any drastic changes to the layout so don't bother commenting on that
• How do you feel about the logo?
• Do you understand what the site is for? Do you understand how to use the styles?
• If you used user stylesheets, would you contribute them here? If not, why?
• Is the statement about advertising a turn off at all? I'm thinking I should highlight some good styles on the home page as well...
• Are there any sites you regularly visit but hate the layout of? I'd like to make some more stylesheets that might be popular. What are the most common problems with sites you visit? (my stylesheets are ususually making the width flexible and increasing the font size).
• Any ideas on how to target users of alternate browsers? I am planning on emailing the makers of the Firefox and Safari plugins, and seeing if I can get the link in the Opera community somehow. Are there other places where these people would hang out?

There are some bits that are missing still, like the privacy statement and a few other wiki pages.

The fact that you are using wiki format, is making your site very easy to use.
I did not have problems understanding what the site is for in the first 10 seconds of looking at it.
Good job on that front.

I'm not sure about your choice of colors. You might want think of some other "theme".

The logo is simple, a bit childish but that is ok.

I'm not sure what happened to the main box, right closing line, but it is not showing in Firefox.

Though i don't see any use of it myself