REVIEW REQUEST: web-friend.com

Some small observations

you need to check your site (mostly index page) in mozilla and opera, the text from the left column disappears under the flash intro button - is unreadable in mozilla. the dhtml menu doesn't work in opera.
The 'short' flash intro is 112kb which seems to have no purpose.
The whats the difference pop up is way to much reading for a 'what is'
You have way to many different styles in your sites, textured, colored ... try keep it the same throughout or people will think their at different sites (I didn't look at the enhanced version) also noticed the question in your FAQ about it.
You have the 'home' link opening in a new windown from some pages - gets old quick
You have a lot of pages on your site and it's a bit of a maze, maybe try break the site into sections more instead of combining the lot into one thing, or do the opposite and combine the site more.
You need a 'why I should join' page, what perks are there, i notice you say you dont have a newsletter, so what apart from links do you get? and I also saw somewhere about a 'paid member' ??
Some of you pages are really long, offer 'top' links and/or offer more links at the bottom.

The 'enhanced' page has a iframe that only goes half of the screen and a quick time something at the bottom that wont load (in mozilla), in Opera the iframe has no scroll bars so if you didnt know it was an iframe you wouldn't know to scroll down using your mouse wheel or arrow keys (once you click on it. again only half page width
your 'updates' page is black with dark grey text with no returning links
the site info page is iframe with black background while outside section is grey

You have a lot of 'thrilly' things (javascript fade in, fixed backgrounds, iframes, flash ...) when you don't need to.
remember, just because you can doesnt mean you should.
little bit of fine tuning should be sweet as.

Welcome to TWF Ched. I can so relate to never being done and always learning.

Now on to your site. A couple of things that I noticed right off is the look and feel of your site isn't consistant. While going from page to page, I sometimes felt like I was on a completely different site. If you are planning on making changes to your site, consistancy would probably be one of the first things that I would recommend.

Also having your navigation consistant throughout the site would assist visitors in finding their way.

Looks like you have collected lots of good info over the years. It just needs a little organizing. (i am a good one to be talking...LOL)

Oh, and thanks for reviewing some of the other sites here in the critique forum. It is very helpful to have new eyes poking around.

Sonia

wow .... talk about turnaround time. Thank you busy and disaster very much for your input. VERY very good suggestions. I will work on those details over the next few weeks. I know the consitent theme thing is very important and all - and I started using some css stuff to help with that, as mentioned - I will work on that.

I could go into a longwinded "my site is this, or was that" thing, but I'll spare everyone the chore of scrolling through that kind of crap.

It's tough to be objective about your own site, and that's why I came here (hey.... Google says webmaster forums is number one when you search for "webmaster, forum" ... lol)

Anyway, thank you very much for your feedback, it does help.

Ched

looks like a personal site ... I am dizzy trying to find anything.

1) I like the roll-over effect on the sun for the flash movie....but why is it in the middle of the main page?
2) When I first hit "Enter" on your main page it did not enter, then I scrolled down to see the choices....there is lots of space and then some of your selections are off my page and forced me to scroll down.

I found the navigation site map to be very confusing. however I will give your site a 10/10 if youve been to the Filly Corral in pittsburgh! -Josh

Thanks all very very much for the input - it's more valuable than you can imagine. disaster mentioned the consistency thing - and that is SO right on - and the whole reason I'm trying to learn some css stuff.

The other browser stuff that busy mentions is a very valid point. To be honest, since 75% of my traffic is IE 5.5 or 6 I don't concentrate on that issue as much as I probably should - but with time being a big factor, IE is where I put my concentration. I do run a current version of Mozilla, and an old 4.7 version of Netscape to look at things sometimes - but I don't put much effort into that area of it.

Andy mentioned that it still looks like a "homepage" - and that's the reason I joined - I want to move the quality of the site up a notch. I don't always have the time I'd like to work on the site, but over the next few weeks, rest assured I will work on getting it up to snuff.

I was sad to hear that the sitemap was confusing - but I think I realized that in the back of my mind, and needed to hear it from an objective standpoint. Tkx jha. I WILL work on that. (As far as the Filly, sure I've munched down there - lol. I don't eat downtown often, but that's a for sure place to chow down. And I even have a friend named "Josh" from ............ naaaaa....... couldn't be.

Anyway - thanks all for the input.

Ah meeting two more people from the burgh in one week. How nice.
-dk

1. Whenever I see "enter" on a site, I expect to click that link. You should make an "enter standard" and "enter advanced" otherwise some visitors may click the non link and just leave thinking the site isnt completed.

2. sems alittle too spread out

3. maybe a better BG color?

Hi ched,

The grey on grey did not do it for me (far left navigation). It makes me want to NOT read it... its not that it is hard to read, just takes "work" to read it. (I recommend you make the text blue or some other colour).

I think you should focus more on the membership aspect of the website and move most of the stuff in the middle on an "about" page.

The site map was SWEET!! I have actually bookmarked it because there is some cool stuff there. The download link has some useful stuff for me all on one page... by why the sudden shift in design?!?!? I prefer the blue text on marble grey/white.

The enhanced site is neat (wish I could create something like that) but I did prefer the html version. Thank you for letting me choose.