Pokémon Squared

Pokémon Squared

It may be a big mistake to advertise with only about 5 pages of content, but...

Pokémon Squared is a brand new Pokémon fansite dedicated to bringing a slightly more creative experience than your average fansite. It only opened about a month ago, and I'm working to get more content up ASAP.

Questions? Comments? Criticism?

Re: Pokémon Squared

It seems like you have pretty solid content, although there's not very much as you already know. The only issue I really have is with the layout - it's a cool idea, but using that same grassy sprite background for everything causes it to all kind of mash together. If anything, I'd suggest doing something to make the content area stand out a little more.

Re: Pokémon Squared

So far, I like it! This has potential to be a very great fansite. However, I do agree that advertising with only a few pages of content was a bad idea...you should update often and add some new sections.

Re: Pokémon Squared

Excellent. I agree with Oddberry about the grass thing... maybe it would help to use a different sprite for the top portion. I really like the idea of the sprites for the layout. Your site is mostly mistake-free and the headers for the updates are certainly organized. I also like that you've put the Coming Soon information onto a separate page rather than creating broken links as seems to be the fashion for Pokemon fan-sites.

Certainly, you should keep it up. Good luck.

Re: Pokémon Squared

The spelling and grammar are at least reasonable, which makes it immediately better than most of the sites on the web, and the xhtml and css are actually valid for bonus points. (I actually clicked through the links. They are valid.)

But why are you explicitly putting bullets before your menu items when you can just as well use <ul> and <li>?

Re: Pokémon Squared

I liked the Pokeball quiz. I took it and the result was pretty accurate (Timer Ball). I've seen worse layouts, and you've already received some good advice on that anyway. I must say, one of the things that really caught my eye was the logo in the corner. It was small, but still pretty cool. You could stand to make it bigger, logos can be pretty important in identifying a site.

I noticed you put back to top links at the bottom of your articles. This isn't really necessary for articles that are shorter; it's not difficult at all to get back to the top. You have some good ideas for new content, so I'll be sure to check back once you've updated a bit.

Re: Pokémon Squared

Your site has a lot of potential. I see no mistakes grammar- and spelling-wise, your content is solid, and you've got a pretty good layout. However, I do have a couple of suggestions:

First, get rid of the bullets on your nav menu. They're distracting. However, if you still want the bullets, putting them it manually is stupid. (X)HTML has two special tags just for bulleted lists: <ul> and <li>. You can even use them if you don't want it with bullets, using CSS:


Then the bullet code:


Second, on your PokeBalls page, it would help if you had pictures of all the PokeBalls.

I think you could choose a better font for your nav headers, as well.

Re: Pokémon Squared

Don't you think the menu should be up near the content? I think it's better then having to scroll down every time.

Good job, though.

Re: Pokémon Squared

That seems to be IE brain damage. It works in Opera and Firefox, in any case.

But anyway, if you don't want to read it, why would you be on the page?

Re: Pokémon Squared

Yeah... that's IE6 brain damage exclusively. It works just fine on IE8, and presumably on IE7 though I can't actually test it there. Unfortunately, I can't figure out a way to fix it (nor could I test said fix even if I had one 'cause my only source of IE6 was finally updated). Besides, you should upgrade anyways - or just get a new, non-IE browser =3

Point taken about the bullets, and since just about everyone I've asked agrees that the content needs to stand out more I'll add a different tile behind the content when I have time. Probably later today.

And I was thinking about adding pictures of each Pokéball when I made that page, but then I realized that would mean hand-spriting all of the Johto Poké Balls. I might do it eventually, but getting more content is a considerably more pressing issue at the moment. Or I'll just wait until I can get the HG/SS sprites ;)

Anyways, thankies all~

EDIT: changed the content background - finally found a tile I'm happy with =)

Re: Pokémon Squared

i must say, the layout is very nice... cool idea. nice site. (i suck at giving crits so)

Re: Pokémon Squared

you misspelled 'much' in your pokéball theory

I like the layout, creative at least. The blue part's a bit flat, though; Maybe you could add rocks or a few Pokémon?

The content is solid, I like it. It's like being given half of a really nice snadwich, though: I want MOAR. But I'm sure you'll fix that.

Re: Pokémon Squared

(separated pieces with dashes to make this easier to browse through...)

Well, you could argue that it's nice to get some constructive comments on how things are going so far before you really polish it up. You don't want to write a lot of theories and quizzes and then find out that no one's interested in something like that.

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The layout is very creative. It might be a little too simplistic, though. You don't want to make it really busy and detract from the actual content, but I think it could look nice with some more art. Maybe some flowers, houses (maybe next to each section of the menu?), islands in the water... Extra pieces like this could potentially be used to include secret or exclusive content. What I do when I'm considering new pieces for the layout is to put it in a div, rather than editing the background images themselves. In this way, you can move the new parts around the screen without committing to anything (and without constantly re-uploading to see how it really looks on the site).

It would be cool to see a style switcher in the future with variations on this theme. Still using the overworld map, but with different seasons or colours. When creating new styles, you can just do recolours, but it's more interesting if you move stuff around, like a top bar on one layout when the normal one uses a sidebar. Style switchers decrease your chances of alienating people because of a particular feature of the main layout that they dislike. I think it's uncommon for there to be so much space to the left and right of a layout, for example, so it's likely strange to some people, and you could fix this by creating an alternate layout that fills the page.

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The fav icon is pretty simple, but definitely a good idea to have one. Very easy to implement, and make your site stand out in a crowd of bookmarks or tabs. Also great that you've got your own domain, a dot com automatically looks more dedicated than a long url at some obscure webhost somewhere (and naturally makes the site easier to remember and revisit).

A specialized cursor might be something to look in to - strange cursors can be annoying, but a human or Pokemon one could work with the layout. It would be almost like walking around in game.

The news page is sort of dull. Individual updates don't really stand out so much. Maybe you could give them some kind of border? Additionally, you should definitely consider creating an archive for old news in the future. If you don't personally like to look at the history of your favourite websites, that's fine, but it's an easy source of potentially interesting content to anyone who does.

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Existing content is currently a little lacking. Theories are a great way to customize the site, but once a person finishes reading them, there's nothing to keep them coming back. They might bookmark it if it's really interesting, but they won't necessarily keep checking the site, particularly since existing updates look infrequent.

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Quizzes are good as interactive content that appeals to a large audience. However, they're best if the options are more varied. You have several options per question, but they don't represent much of a variety of people, and all use a similar style of speech. For example, on the first question, all the answers look like they could be from the same person - someone who isn't very interested in work and doesn't particularly want to do it. At the very least, you should have something for people who really like working and getting things done. Also, the last question has "procrastinator" and "lazy", which are essentially the same thing. "What is your transportation method of choice?" has a fast option twice, "If you had to cook a meal for some friends, what would you make?" has the option for an easy meal twice, etc. People are most interested in quizzes where they can easily relate to one or more answers. Nice twist on the Pokemon world quizzes though. If you do some more quizzes, definitely try to come up with more uncommon ones like that.

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Consider renaming your "Coming Soon" page. It looks like a page that doesn't exist yet, as opposed to a to-do list, especially since you don't have that much content yet. Affiliates are really small. If they're not important to you or to your site, then that's fine, but otherwise you should move them somewhere else. You could use one of the empty blue corners for this. "Non-Pokemon" could also be renamed to "Other" or something, because it gives the impression that your site isn't too focused on Pokemon. And the validation information probably isn't interesting to a general audience, so you could put it on it's own page under Sitely or make the buttons less obtrusive.

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Totally doesn't work in old IE (like other people have said, the sidebar falls to the bottom of the page). You could put in a piece of coding that suggests you upgrade your browser if it detects one that you know doesn't work.

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Lastly, you really should create a system for user input. All the web hosts I've used make a guestbook fast and easy to implement, and it's apparently also relatively easy to add a chatbox. You can use a pre-made one until you learn how to create your own (if you want to). A user friendly interface for commenting on the website makes your visitors feel valued, creates incentive to come back, and makes it easy for you to show them that you're still around by replying to comments even when you don't have anything to update.

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It looks pretty good so far; creative layout, interesting content, and user friendly.

Re: Pokémon Squared

I agree about upgrading the style at some point but not necessarily using a styleswitcher unless it uses PHP. JavaScript styleswitchers sadly do not work always.

Your layout is great, I'll admit, but I'll also agree on perhaps adding some flowers or something to it. This is a good idea. ;)

The "What Pokeball Are You" quiz is a very good idea. :)

go go go go go go go go xD

Good luck with this site. Perhaps once I get my Pokemon site together I'll ask to affiliate. It looks good so far :D

Re: Pokémon Squared

I agree about upgrading the style at some point but not necessarily using a styleswitcher unless it uses PHP. JavaScript styleswitchers sadly do not work always.

Click to expand...

Well, obviously you'd only use a styleswitcher that worked...

If you just "upgrade" the main style, then you're suddenly giving all your visitors a completely different style that they're not use to and may or may not like. If the old style was good enough to keep on the site for a while, it's probably good enough to add to a list of styles. There's no reason to get rid of old content unless it can really no longer serve any purpose.

Additionally, having different usable styles makes you better able to attract more visitors. If your main style is dark text on a light background, for example, you'll alienate anyone who only likes light text on dark backgrounds (either because of simple personal preference, or eyesight, it doesn't matter), and vice versa. If the only reason a sizable sum of people don't visit your website is because they dislike your style, this is easily remedied. Another example is top bars vs sidebars. Many people dislike one or the other and will feel wary about visiting websites that use the wrong one. This is perhaps more difficult to fix if you're use to making one kind of navigation system, but you'll still attract a larger audience by doing your best to make the site appeal to everyone.

I don't know how to use styleswitchers yet, so on my "site", I make a new folder for each style. Example.com is the main style, and Example.com/newstyle, Example.com/fishstyle, and Example.com/examplestyle are all different styles (only, you know, with my actual domain and style names), and then the main style page has links to those other styles. It works, but it's not fun to make completely new pages and new sub-directories for new files. Only pro is that it's friendly toward old browsers that don't necessarily support the kind of styleswitcher I'd end up using, but if you're being cross-browser, there are clearly styleswitchers that don't have this issue or go around it (see: tCOD).

It's about appealing to a wider audience, which is what a successful website aims to do.

Re: Pokémon Squared

Browser compatibility is not a problem at all with styleswitchers unless the styleswitcher is JavaScript. In JavaScript, it can be arranged so it works in any browser. :)

Separate directories is extremely inefficient lol.

Re: Pokémon Squared

Peter Shadeslayer said:

Browser compatibility is not a problem at all with styleswitchers unless the styleswitcher is JavaScript. In JavaScript, it can be arranged so it works in any browser. :)

Click to expand...

If it's only a problem with JavaScript, then it's probably better if she uses a PHP styleswitcher, especially since if the page URLS are any indications, Pokemon Squared already uses some PHP.

Separate directories is extremely inefficient lol.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's only reasonable if you don't have many pages.

Re: Pokémon Squared

Ooh, It looks very nice. ^^

However, the different PokeBall links confused me. xD I thought I was seeing the same link, but that wasn't the case. Perhaps you should change around the wording.

Also, I think your #sidebar h1s have way too much padding, and it looks spread out and awkward to me. Why not reduce the page a little, so it doesn't look so far away. The links and the header don't need to be onto of one another, but a little closer wouldn't hurt anyone.

Also, your Egg Groups theory, is a little off. When you say that "All Pokemon evolved from Ditto", you're kind of going against both Pokemon and the laws of natural mating. If everything evolved from one thing, they'd all be able to mate. Also, Pokemon clearly states that every Pokemon originated from Mew (Well, it says Mew has the genetic structure of every living Pokemon) while Ditto merely can change it's genetic structure to mimic any Pokemon.

Re: Pokémon Squared

However, the different PokeBall links confused me. xD I thought I was seeing the same link, but that wasn't the case. Perhaps you should change around the wording.

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Oh, I didn't even notice that when I reviewed the site. You're right, that could be confusing. Possibly less so once there are more links, but they may as well be changed. "Pokeball theory" and "Pokeball Guide"? "Ball theory?" "Ball guide?" "Guide to Pokeballs?" "Theory of Pokeballs?" (any of those depending on how short they need to be to fit)

Also, "Pokeball", "PokeBall", and "Poke Ball" all seem to be in common use, with mixed capitalization. I personally prefer it as one word - you don't have to spell it that way, but you might consider doing so on the sidebar, just to make it look more compact.

On a related note, "What Poke Ball?" is a little odd. Maybe "Which Poke Ball?"

Also, I think your #sidebar h1s have way too much padding, and it looks spread out and awkward to me. Why not reduce the page a little, so it doesn't look so far away. The links and the header don't need to be onto of one another, but a little closer wouldn't hurt anyone.

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You mean the space between where the dirt ends and the first link begins, right?

They could be closer together. I think the main problem with changing it is that the sidebar looks longer this way, but when the site has more actual content, it won't really matter anymore.

Also, your Egg Groups theory, is a little off. When you say that "All Pokemon evolved from Ditto", you're kind of going against both Pokemon and the laws of natural mating. If everything evolved from one thing, they'd all be able to mate. Also, Pokemon clearly states that every Pokemon originated from Mew (Well, it says Mew has the genetic structure of every living Pokemon) while Ditto merely can change it's genetic structure to mimic any Pokemon.

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Well, the egg groups are unreasonably large...

Evolution doesn't work that way. If a creature evolves too much, it's no longer similar enough to its ancestors to breed with them. Unless you assume that multiple areas with life spontaneously appeared (or that multiple were created), all life on Earth would be derived from an original common ancestor.

You could consider dog breeding to be similar to what you'd normally think of when you hear the word "evolution" - this is a case where they are still close enough to breed.

However, there are other species that have common ancestors but can't mate. For example, it's a popular theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs; that certainly doesn't mean that if we brought them back, that a chicken could have a baby with a pterodactyl.

Additionally, apes/monkeys share more than 90% of their DNA with humans, so clearly we have a common ancestor, but there's no such thing as a monkey-human hybrid.

Anyway, if it technically says Mew contains the genetic structure of all Pokemon, then so does Ditto (which is why they can both use Transform). So if you can easily imagine Mew to be the original ancestor of all Pokemon just because of that, you should at least consider the possibility for Ditto.

Re: Pokémon Squared

I think "The Origin of PokeBalls" might work well.

Also, unless you're talking about billions of years, if everything split from Ditto, they'd be able to mate, just like if when humans began to evolve. A man possibly could impregnate a chimp, but it's illogical, disturbing and probably not true all together.

But, anyways, I just though the wording on that page was a little funny. :L