CSS || images || 800x600+ || NS4+ / IE4+
2003-06-13 - silentxwords

first impressions
older.html: White background, loads fast but leaves me with a "javascript error" message in the status bar. Red outline of section on left containing archives. Navigational links below that.
entries: Do not match archives layout (at all). I'm starting with 030601_77.html

general aesthetics
Errrrm. Black background, which is fine, but grey text on the darkish side, and I have to turn up my brightness to see it clearly. Not good. Looks like Verdana at 11px and custom kerning. It would look so much better if I could read it without fiddling with my monitor first.
-2.5 points

layout
Visually appealing except for the poor contrast between the text and the background. Can't see a design credit so I'll assume it's self-made.
0 points

user-friendliness
Fair: the bar of the scrollbar is defined and the hover cursor is a hand, but the hover effect is to turn the light grey link to black, so it disappears. Grrr. And yet again all links are the same colour. *cries*
0 points

navigation
Nice and simple: buncha links on the right, forward and back navigation under the entry. Back is called 'fairytale' and forward is called 'liar' - a nice personal touch. :) Hmm, except it looks like the "next" link has been hardcoded to always point to index.html (gonna tear out my hair right now).
0 points
2.5 bonus points

continuity
Fairly regular updates, frequent multiples.
2.5 points

comprehension
Yeep. Inconsistent capitalisation, many apostrophes missing, very colloquial grammar, several common mistakes ("anymore" is not a word - it's two words, dammit)... I can follow it, but it's jangling my nerves.
0 points

content
Rather cryptic. Seems to be written to one person in particular - her mother? Or maybe many "one person in particular"s. As in maybe this is a repository for unsent letters... hard to tell. Anyway, plenty of emotion comes through, although most of it is angry and negative. Then again, nothing wrong with that. Expressing yourself is good, regardless of what you're expressing. Quite poetic, on the whole. If I forget that I would prefer coherent narrative it's actually very engaging. :)

I hate how predictable you are. Its my last day here then IM LEAVING. please realize this. I want to be down so low that when i fall theres no where else to go, where the tide cant rush over my head because ive already drowned beneath it & only the dead corpse is left.
ring

I want to hurt you like you hurt me. see how it feels to wake up and know that youre a worthless piece of shit. you go to sleep crying thinking that tomorrow is just another day to stare at the clocks; another day to feel empty & wish you were whole. But guess what? We're all feeling this way. We're coughing up our guts and not caring, we're smiling because we have to, not because we want to.
probably nothing

5 points

contact
Email and guestbook, but the status bar shows custom mouseover text so I have to view source to find out her email address, and she's disabled right-click... grrr.
2.5 points

link back
Yep, on the reviews page.
5 points

extras
Hit counter in the template.
2.5 points

my comments

I don't mind in the least if a person chooses not to capitalise, but if you make that decision, be consistent. And if you did in fact make this layout yourself, please do something about the link colours - having them both the same is a serious navigational hazard. And pleeeeease fix that "next" link. If I click a "next" link I expect to go to the next entry, not the latest one. Other than that... I like your output. :)

Archive structure is non-existent - everything going back to February 2 is on the one page.

scores
Total negative points: -2.5
Total positive points: 17.5
Number of neutral scores: 4
Final score: 65/100 plus 2.5 bonus points

moo review