And the Winner Is... Sailormoon Sites
  October 2001


worst banner
lsfhorses @ Geocities.com

http://www.geocities.com/lsfhorses/junipertestpage.html


Here's Why:

  • Direct links files
  • Layouts are difficult to read
  • Comet Cursor
  • Profiles crammed in tiny scroll boxes
  • Actually encourages others to direct link by giving out "codes."

Positives About The Page:

  • [looks in air for a while] ummmm... err... [shrug]
     
   Nominated by: Windsenshi

Comments:
CereCere

Whoa, I've been staring at the computer screen too long today. Everything looks like a total mess! Er, oh wait. It's not me, it's the site!
The site has a way too busy background with text on top that's not a great colour to read against either. This is especially considering that the background has a large piece of yellow in it, and the text is in yellow. I would get rid of that background. That would really help this site in two ways: not only will it make it easier to read, but it will help get rid of stolen material! Yes, once again, the background, and all the other images, happen to be stolen by direct-linking off other sites. The one on the front page happens to be from www.onewingedangel.com.
Now, it's one thing to steal by direct linking, it's another thing to promote it to others. This page features a "My Free Stuff Codes" and a Gallery Section which just about turns my stomach. The "codes," as she likes to call them, are actually snippets of HTML code you can copy and paste from her site to get a background to show up on your site. Guess what? The images listed in those codes? They don't belong to her; they are not images stored on her site. Every one of them belongs to mamoru.net. As for the Gallery, she says, "Hi, take any pics you want!" but once again the pics are not hers to start with. They are all direct-linked from various sites.
Let's stop and reflect for a second here. With all of this direct-linking and promotion for others to do the same, you'd say it's quite obvious this person doesn't realize what she is doing is wrong. Well, it IS wrong. It breaks the Terms of Service of most hosts, and it costs those who pay for their webspace (like onewingedangel.com and mamoru.net) money. The one thing that comes into my head though is with Geocities' lovely new bandwidth limit, I wouldn't be suprised if direct-linking, which seemed to be on the decline lately, will pick up again. That will happen just so Geocities users can save on bandwidth.
As for the character descriptions, they cover the senshi, Tux, and the cats. They are very short descriptions, but that's not the real problem here. The descriptions are all crammed into small little Textarea boxes, and they areaccompanied by yet more direct-linked pics and yet more encouragment for others to direct-link them. "Oh, and if you want any of the pics, email me... and I'll send you the code."
This site really needs some more work. The owner needs to realize direct-linking is wrong, that you have to save images to your own webspace and give credit to other sites when credit is asked for. She doesn't even have a links page to the sites she uses images from. Also, she needs to get rid of all these Textarea boxes. Textarea boxes are only for interactive online forms. They are not meant to be used to display information in. They are for your visitors to type in and submit it somehow, like on guestbooks and email. Displaying information in them just makes it difficult to read and is quite unusual.

VesVes

I don’t believe it’s unreasonable that someone who has been using computers as long as I have would have a pretty good idea of what software she wants on it. That fact makes it all the more annoying when programs keep trying to invade my machine like a virus. Comet cursor? Useless eyecandy. Quicktime just so I can listen to your midi? I prefer the CD I’m listening to, thanks.
The scrolling text doesn’t win any points from me, except for keeping me in suspense for a few seconds since I caught it at "My love" and I had to wait to see who it was. Why not put it as a banner at the top center of the page?
I won’t go on and on about how the images are direct linked. Instead I would like the point out how difficult it is to tell those images apart from the background. My eyes are swimming at the collage of pictures. This is especially a problem at the bottom of the gallery page where the various sizes of the images have your eye scrambling to distinguish them from the background.
I went next to the "Free Code" page. Quicktime once again asks to install. Noooo. Then my IE was brought crashing down (including a warning to restart the computer). Bravely, I reopened IE and dug deeper into this site.
The character page has more large images. The character descriptions are shoved in tiny scroll boxes. Haruka's is a good example of what you'll find there. "Hi I'm (list of every secret identity which is no longer a secret I guess). I like to play sports." Wuh? So do a lot of other people. What's your point?

JunJun

Do I want to trust material from Comet Cursor? *clicks no* Do I want to install new Quicktime features? *clicks no* Okay, that's two things from the start that I don't want- horrible Comet Cursors and auto-starting MIDIs. Ditch both. The third indication that this site isn't going to work out for me is the huge background with "onewingedangel.com" still on it. It's called a wallpaper, but it's meant for your desktop, not your website. Direct-linking it gets you more points taken off. The fourth thing is that obnoxious marquee going across the screen. You don't need it, and I can't think of any time when you'd actually want it anyway. The text is too large, it's yellow, and it's hard to read. All the images are direct-linked, as is the MIDI.
The gallery is a joke: there are no thumbnails, so everything is its actual size, the background is too large again, all pictures are direct-linked from about six sites, there's yet more MIDIs (the same one is embedded twice), and the fact that the owner says you can take all the pics you want makes me pretty upset.
The Codes page makes both CereCere and me sick. "Hi! Here's how to direct-link to other people's sites and steal their bandwidth!" Another huge background is on this page, and for some reason there's a webring code that hasn't even been filled out. I don't understand why you'd use code for a ring you haven't joined.
I don't know what's up with the character profiles page, but it's the type that screams, "I've never seen Sailor Moon in my life except for maybe the dub! Oh, and I also need to learn HTML!" Here there's more direct-linked, huge pictures for each sailor, another MIDI, and horribly dumb profiles in those teeny textarea boxes. The profiles follow this format: "Hi, I'm (insert all possible forms and names of the soldier here, including dub names!) and (insert inaccurate info or something basic here!)"
October birthdays has the same formula as the other sites and just lists birthdays in October, including the owner's.
It's always a good sign when a site crashes IE. That's what "My Babble" page did. It was probably the doubly embedded WAV, or maybe it was the huge pics slapped onto the site, all courtesy of about five or six different websites, or maybe my browser just died when it read "Let us pray for the people lost in the tradgidy." underneath the ChibiChibi picture.
The site has a lot of issues. It is horribly designed with lots of embedded music and direct-linking and huge picture and bad information problems. And it's supposed to be a shrine to Kakeru, but there's basically nothing about him other than the owner talking about this supposed "book" she is writing in which "Kakeru was premoted to be in" and becomes her lover or something. Last time I checked, you can't write books with other people's characters in them without getting their permission. Anyway, the summary of Kakeru basically amounts to a few basic things, then "bladieblah," then her going on about her book and having cats.

PallaPalla

Here's a little game: find how many things are wrong with this background. I can think of four things off the top of my head: 1) it's not a background, 2) It's waaaaayyy too busy, 3) The text is hard to read against it and last but definately not least, it's stolen. Direct linked, even.
Whenever someone direct links a background, you have to expect troubles ahead. This site delivers. The galleries are full of direct linked pictures, and to make things worse, you're invited to take all the ones you want. If you think that's bad, check out the "My Free Stuff Code" section. This time, not only are you invited to help yourself to more direct linked files, you're even provided with the code! Oh, if you're wondering, the background on this page is, like the one on the main page, direct linked. The "charactor" descriptions page has more direct linked pics, and what little information there is is crammed into tiny text boxes. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. The other pages are also, you guessed it, littered with direct linked images. Even the banner she implies she made is direct linked.
Once you remove the stolen material, what you have left is a little bit of information on Kakeru, if you find it (it's after the links to the subsections on the main page). Not much to say about it, except it shouldn't be hidden on the bottom of the main page and it's so basic it's hardly even worth typing down. You may as well have a shrine to SailorMars and say nothing else than "Her name is Hino Rei. She's pretty and she has fire power." Under the information on Kakeru, there is a paragraph describing a story she is writing, featuring a character named after herself and Kakeru. And that's it. You're done. Nothing else here. This site is not worth your time.



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