Any input on my site?

[robp]

Hello,

I finally got around to re-launching my site, and was wondering what you thought of it. The url is WiredStart.com. If anyone is willing to critique the site, give some comments,feedback etc, that would be awesome.

Thanks.

 

[Specialist]

Damn that's one GOOD website!
It's great!

 

[Unsickle]

Good page. You need a favicon.ico

 

[perry]

Nifty feature I like on some websites, link your logo on the top left to the front page.

If you can get rid of that webtrendslive.com thing, do it. I guess it's some sort of stats program. Your webhost should have stats, you don't need another one. Just adds clutter.

I like the fixed width table, but maybe make it 600 pixels wide. Try setting your monitor to 640x480 and see if you can see the full page w/o and left-right scrolling. 640x480 doesn't mean the browswer will be 640 wide. You have the scroll bar on the right which takes up a little room. IMHO, left-right scrolling is BAD.

On http://www.wiredstart.com/index.php3?page=about, clicking the privacy policy at the bottom leads to a 404 page. After you fix that, make a custom 404 page that either redirects to the front page, or to a page that says "Page not found, contact sysadmin or choose these things."

 

[alferret]

great site ther robp, and a great idea for a site aswell takes the hassle out of lookin. had to bookmark it definently gonna be using it.

 

[XL]

Thats a cool a$$ site.

 

[thirdkind]

Nice site. Has some cool news in there. I like the look too.

About the width, horizontal scrolling is bad, but 640x480 is dead. While variable width is my personal preference on my own site and on sites I visit, if you have to make it fixed, 800x600 is fine. Yours is a site geared toward tech-savvy users. What kind of tech head runs his desktop at 640x480? If they are running at that res, they either need a new monitor or new eyes.

 

[perry]

I can't find the exact stats right now, but you'd be surprised how many people still use 640x480. Something around 20-25%. For a tech site, maybe it isn't so bad, but to cater to the entire web audience, designing for a 600 pixel screen is a decent idea. If you cater to only people running 800x600, you are knocking 20% of your audience out the picture right at the start. Not a good thing, especially since this site appears to want to make money (with the banner ad on it).

 

[thirdkind]

It's closer to 10-12% actually.

Check this article out for the pros and cons of going with 640x480 vs. 800x600.

Like I said, this site seems to be for a technical audience. Designing for 640x480 is really a waste of browser space.

 

[Blain]

Here's some advice I doled out earlier this morning. Of course it's MY viewpoint.

Things a slick web site should have...

1. Three "GOOD" price search engines.
2. Three "GOOD" regular search engines.
3. Up-to-date and exhaustive review linkages, (hardware, software, consumer products of all kinds).
4. Up-to-date coupon and discount code information, for (hardware, software and consumer products of all kinds).
5. A "well regulated" BBS. Along with a small section dedicated to exposing scammsters, by moderator ONLY. That avoids people "jumping the gun" to slam others.
6. A page dedicated to variuos downloads, viewable by registered members only. Hey, there has to be some incentive to sign-up with the place.
7. A very cool and fast loading back ground. No background music (unless it's cool).
8. An up-to-date news headline scroll.
9. An interesting theme.
10. A good fast "chat" area for registered members only.

 

[robp]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I will definetly take them under consideration.

Anyone else ?

 

[han888]

nice job robp, can u make one for me?

 

[loup garou]

Very cool site. Just one thing though...is there any way you can get a short summary for each of the news headlines? It would be really informative and would help to separate the bulletted items. If you can't do that, you might want to space them out a bit. They're kinda tight in there. Other than that, I like it. Very clean, organized, and easy to navigate. Try not to lose those qualities as your site grows. They're almost as important as content.

Blain, don't you think that's a bit much (a coupon page?) at the moment? It sounds like you're describing anandtech, and it looks as if RobP is just getting started. And a background? As in a picture? yuck. I won't even comment on the whole background music thing).

 

[Yeeny]

Very nice site robp! Makes me realize how pathetic mine really is.

 

[Blain]

No, not pictures... wallpaper.
And I do think it's a bit much. But for a "slick" site, it should have it all!

Sort of like having the power of a 1970 454 Chevelle SS with the fuel economy of a 1995 Geo Metro.

 

[robp]

han888, how much $$ do ya got j/k.

 

[Ian Cunningham]

WOW! Great site! Its bookmarked here

How did you manage to get the headlines from other sites?

Ian

 

[robp]

Ian, I wrote a script to parse html and grab specific information inside the html (headline and url).

 

[3putt]

Very nice site

 

[PhaZe]

Yea nice site..
I like the layout.

I might change my page to look like that.
my page, planetxa