Reviews :: Sailor Tiger's Grotto
The dealio
Name: Sailor Tiger's Grotto
Owner: Alex
Reviewed: February 6, 2008
Category: Excellent
Type: Bishoujou Senshi Sailor Moon fanfiction
Reviewed URL: http://www.mau.sailorchristmas.com/
Current URL: http://www.mau.sailorchristmas.com/
Layout
I'm greeted with a splash page, and I can tell you RIGHT NOW this owner knows some stuff about coding for cross-browser compatibility. The splash page is very simple and easy to read. It gets right down to business, too, with an enter sign, and below that, a list of requirements. I applaud the webmaster for this. "Simple, yet works" is a perfect way to describe the splash.
The main part of the site is also designed similar to this, which makes the site very cohesive. Across the top, the enter image has been expanded to go across the screen. It features an otaku senshi (Sailor Tiger, I'm assuming) and the site name in easy-to-read letters. Below that, on the left, is the navigation. All the links are seperated by subject into boxes, making it very easy to find what you're looking for. On the right is the actual content. Headers are used to divide the content into sections. And stretching across the bottom of the screen is a short disclaimer and some credits, as well as proof that this coding has indeed been validated-which also validates the "Any browser" requirement on the splash.
The whole site is in a scheme or orange and gray, which works very well. The header and disclaimer are gray, and the stuff in the middle is orange. The background is white, and the text is black, making it easy to read. My only complaint with this layout is that when you mose over the links, they turn a very bright shade of yellow, which is a little jarring. There is also no link to the main page, which may seem trivial, but as the disclaimer is located there, is really important for this site.
Overall, this is a really excellent layout. The webmaster deserves a cookie for designing this so well. *hands over a virtual cookie*PS: Writer's Wall? ROFL. I agree.
Written Content
This site credits itself as a fanfiction site, so I'm hoping to find a lot of written stuff. Let's go find out.
The first things I'll hit are the profiles. There are currently ten of them. A little nitpicky note: Hawk's Eye also has the 's at the end. The only one who doesn't is Fish Eye. Anyways, I'll move on.
The profiles are on fan characters. They're arranged nicely and contain basic statistics, but a lot of fields are left blank on some, and others could be elaborated on. What does Abenti Galger dream of doing? Why is Medousa Tanis afraid of falling in love? These sort of things really help reveal a lot about a character.
The fanfiction story currently has 3 chapters. The chapter titles make me snigger. The stories open in a new window with a similar layout, which I think actually works quite well. It's not the way I'd do it, but it works. I'd love to take more time to read the story, but right now I'll skim through it. I can tell you that the grammar is pretty much correct, and that it seems like an interesting story. This is going on my "Read At Some Point" list.
The history section contains short histories on some characters. They're fairly interesting to read. Other then a few grammar and spelling errors (across is spelled with 2 C's in Mau's profile), these are okay.
There's nothing in the Crossovers section. The webmaster apologizes, but it's slightly annoying. Moving on...
There are two poems, and I ejoyed them both thoroughly. The Did You Know section contains little facts about the story and characters. In the last one, wrote should be "written", but otherwise, this is okay. And thanks for not making her boyfriend Tony the Tiger ^.^;
The Bloopers made me giggle. I'd love to steal that idea for my in-progress LotR/SM crossover ^.^; The Cutting Room contains the old version of the story. I like the new version more. The word "Negaverse" makes me shudder in disgust.
That's about it for written content. Some of the grammar and spelling could be given a quick once-over to nab a few random mistakes, but otherwise, I'm pleased.
Media
Next we head over to Media. Being that this was a fanfiction site, I wasn't too hopeful, but there is some stuff up.
The gallery is arranged by character or item or misc. All the images are cropped into uniformly-sized thumbnails, and open in a new window. This earns MAJOR brownie points with me, because although people say "thumbnails are bad", I think they're quite good *coughs* However, some of the thumbnails are cropped in rather random spots, and are in need of re-cropping. The images themselves are made by a variety of artists, and thusly, range in quality, so I can't say much there. However, they're all of a fairly good size, and all the links seem to work. Links to the artists' website are also provided, which is really cool.
There are a total of 8 songs on the soundtrack page, with 6 up for download. Here's the catch: They're all midis. Midis are fine...if you want to channel the 90s...or are designing games. However, since these are up for download, and aren't used as cheesy background music, I am slightly forgiving. But is it possible to get non-midi versions?
Overall, not much for media, but it is a fanfiction site. The great thing about the media is that it's all arranged well, works, and is of a fairly good quality. I think the biggest improvements that could be made would to re-crop a few thumbnails that are cropped weird, and to try and get non-midi songs. One rule I keep for cropping is to always show as much of the face as possible.
Miscellania
And now I come to the end of my time spent at this site. Let's look for random other stuff.
The quiz results are from personality quizzes. I'll probably take a few of those later. I love personality quizzes. The cliques/listings are arranged nicely, and the link back buttons are arranged by size. My suggestion with the buttons is to put the smaller ones on top; they're the ones people usually want more, and it makes a nice "pyramid" effect...rather then an upside-down pyramid effect. The site's also won a good amount of awards, and they're arranged nicely, too. Yay! The links also have the nice organization I've seen throughout the site.
The updates are split into three sections-"Updates", "Old Updates", and "Oldest Updates". I understand the first two, but not the last. So I clicked on it...and discovered that updates used to, apparently, be written in a "diary" style. Okay. But you could still put it on the Old Updates page...I imagine a link saying something like "Really Old Updates this way" could work.
Things to Do...a to-do list for the webmaster. I need one of those...>.> <.< The FAQs are, again, arranged nicely, and each have their seperate page...with a back button! Awesome! A variety of ways to contact the webmaster are also included.
One thing I like about this site is that everyone that needs to be credited is credited at least once. For example, the link to the site where the webmaster got the pawprint brush used in the layout is in the disclaimer. It's very professional, and good ethics.
Well done!
Outcome
For the final outcome of this site, I'd say it's a very good site, and it's entertaining. However, it has a few minor problems which need to be ironed out before it achieves an above-excellent quality with me. The biggest problems are probably grammar/spelling and the thumbnails in the galleries.
My work is done here. This site wins an Excellent, hands down. *hands webmaster another virtual cookie*
This was the first review, too. Woohoo!