WPR: Don't submit your site to the shame
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Do you like sending your website to be reviewed at a WPR site? Do you expect that the person in charge of that said site has at least some fairly good knowledge of the Internet and the various "ins and outs" of HTML/PHP/design, before they start reviewing your site?
My answer to both of those questions is, Yes.
Yes with a capital "Y".
I'm pretty sure you feel the same way too. Unless you have low standards and don't care about the quality of the review you receive; you're ok with that fact that some young 13 year old is churning out reviews, faster than you can click that "submit" button.
I love receiving reviews. They help me to improve my site, fix any errors or just generally give me some useful tips that I can take and learn from. Criticism is fine as long as its constructive and isn't just some person typing for the sake of it.
This is an example from a site that reviewed Georgina's site, Heartdrops (refer back to my blog on web design dos and don'ts). Georgina offers her own reviews on her site which are concise and well written. Why on earth she put her quality site in the hands of this inexperienced person I will never know.
This is the final summarising point that the "reviewer" gave about the site Heartdrops:
Ick. This whole review reeked of opinionated rubbish and spelling mistakes galore; similar to the example I gave above. There was nothing constructive with the above quote. I'm sure Georgina didn't want people to "obbessed" (I think you meant, obsessed) with her layout. She designed it to be aesthetically pleasing and to show her personality. This reviewer seems pretty close-mined.
This reviewer however did admit that their English wasn't that good, but celebrity layouts?! Doesn't this person realise that using and redistributing celebrity images is illegal; you don't need to be good at speaking English to know that. That is just plain ignorance.
The reviewer also complained about the layout at the beginning of her review, stating that one of her "scripts" should have been used. I then proceeded to click on the link to these so called scripts and to my surprise I found, wait for it, more stolen celebrity images!
I would have thought that "scripts" would have meant pre coded layouts but this above monstrosity just shows how stupidly hopeful I was being.
That site was just one example, but there are many other sites doing exactly the same thing.
When a reviewer like this shows that they are clearly not internet savvy (they didn't even declare a Doctype), would you honestly expect to receive a decent review from them. All you are doing is submitting your personal site to a lame WPR site that is going to stick your review on "coming soon" for about ten weeks, shove all peaceful reasoning in a blender and make a mockery of the English language.
Well, I'm sorry but I just can't do that to Kihugs and I hope you will be careful when picking who you want to review your site.
Ask yourself these questions:
How long has this said reviewer been "reviewing" sites: Are the experienced or have they just set up their ".co.nr" domain?
What is the quality of the reviews they give like: Are they clear and well spoken or would their spelling and grammar make your English teacher cry in the corner?
Are they nice: This is a pretty broad question but basically, are they stingy with the marks they give? Are they constantly giving out low scores without any justification? Do they stink of "I'm only doing these reviews to promote my site" BO?
If the answers to these questions were all negative then run away from that site. Fast.
However not all reviews are bad and if you join sites such as Review me you will see how reviews can be done fairly based on a point system. Also there are many good sites that offer reviews as their owners invest time and effort into each review.
So don't let this article put you off reviews at all, just be more aware of what makes your site not worth "submitting" to the shame (pardon the pun) of a badly put together review site.
All opinions expressed in this article are my own. Thanks to Gerogina at Heartdrops for creating a great site. :)
My answer to both of those questions is, Yes.
Yes with a capital "Y".
I'm pretty sure you feel the same way too. Unless you have low standards and don't care about the quality of the review you receive; you're ok with that fact that some young 13 year old is churning out reviews, faster than you can click that "submit" button.
I love receiving reviews. They help me to improve my site, fix any errors or just generally give me some useful tips that I can take and learn from. Criticism is fine as long as its constructive and isn't just some person typing for the sake of it.
This is an example from a site that reviewed Georgina's site, Heartdrops (refer back to my blog on web design dos and don'ts). Georgina offers her own reviews on her site which are concise and well written. Why on earth she put her quality site in the hands of this inexperienced person I will never know.
This is the final summarising point that the "reviewer" gave about the site Heartdrops:
Overall, everything looks good, Im not as obbessed with oyur layout though, a celebrity or a design could be better for the next one maybe?
Ick. This whole review reeked of opinionated rubbish and spelling mistakes galore; similar to the example I gave above. There was nothing constructive with the above quote. I'm sure Georgina didn't want people to "obbessed" (I think you meant, obsessed) with her layout. She designed it to be aesthetically pleasing and to show her personality. This reviewer seems pretty close-mined.
This reviewer however did admit that their English wasn't that good, but celebrity layouts?! Doesn't this person realise that using and redistributing celebrity images is illegal; you don't need to be good at speaking English to know that. That is just plain ignorance.
The reviewer also complained about the layout at the beginning of her review, stating that one of her "scripts" should have been used. I then proceeded to click on the link to these so called scripts and to my surprise I found, wait for it, more stolen celebrity images!
I would have thought that "scripts" would have meant pre coded layouts but this above monstrosity just shows how stupidly hopeful I was being.That site was just one example, but there are many other sites doing exactly the same thing.
When a reviewer like this shows that they are clearly not internet savvy (they didn't even declare a Doctype), would you honestly expect to receive a decent review from them. All you are doing is submitting your personal site to a lame WPR site that is going to stick your review on "coming soon" for about ten weeks, shove all peaceful reasoning in a blender and make a mockery of the English language.
Well, I'm sorry but I just can't do that to Kihugs and I hope you will be careful when picking who you want to review your site.
Ask yourself these questions:
How long has this said reviewer been "reviewing" sites: Are the experienced or have they just set up their ".co.nr" domain?
What is the quality of the reviews they give like: Are they clear and well spoken or would their spelling and grammar make your English teacher cry in the corner?
Are they nice: This is a pretty broad question but basically, are they stingy with the marks they give? Are they constantly giving out low scores without any justification? Do they stink of "I'm only doing these reviews to promote my site" BO?
If the answers to these questions were all negative then run away from that site. Fast.
Don't even think about clicking that button.
However not all reviews are bad and if you join sites such as Review me you will see how reviews can be done fairly based on a point system. Also there are many good sites that offer reviews as their owners invest time and effort into each review.
So don't let this article put you off reviews at all, just be more aware of what makes your site not worth "submitting" to the shame (pardon the pun) of a badly put together review site.
Remember: Your site deserves the best.
All opinions expressed in this article are my own. Thanks to Gerogina at Heartdrops for creating a great site. :)
11:25 PM
3
comments
Another example of a well made personal layout would be 
