Hraefn

The link on the first page doesn't seem to work for me. :cries:Anyway, I'm pretty satisfied with Gmail just the way it is, but I certainly won't turn down any tweaks. I hope that website (or one just like it) comes around again.Oh! And I almost forgot... I also have quite a few Gmail invites to give away. Just drop me line if you're interested. =^^=

No problem — I'm glad I was able to help. =^^=After looking around the web, it's become apparent that many people have had this same problem. Apparently Zone Alarm isn't that intuitive and user-friendly. Glad I don't use it myself. =^^=

Well, I already was rather dubious about IE7 ever since I heard of its coming, and this beta version still hasn't changed my mind. Of course, I'm a Firefox user, so I'm rather biased on this issue. I am willing to try to keep an open mind, though. Mozilla's Firefox has undoubtedly revitalized the browser wars and has arguably become the browser to beat. Netscape met that challenge by unveiling a sleek new browser with Netscape 8. While it still isn't enough to pull me away from Firefox, it does have enough new and innovative features to get an admiring nod. With what I've seen of the previews of IE7, though, it appears as if Microsoft is trying to equal Firefox instead of trying to one-up it. Of course, this is still the beta version, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. I'm not holding my breath, though. There's one thing about IE7 that I'm leery of. I've heard reports that IE7 is to be for WinXP only. If true, it's going to be a huge boost for IE's competitors, especially Firefox. Not a problem for me, as I use XP Pro, but what about all those Win2K users out there? Not to mention the fact that many, if not most, companies also use Win2K, which means Microsoft will have a lot of disenchanted businesses on their hands. A bad move on Microsoft's part. If there's any feature I'm waiting to see in Firefox's competitors, it would be extension support. That's the one thing about Firefox that, for me, raises it above all other browsers. But will Microsoft ever open up enough to allow enterprising amateur programmers to write extensions for IE? Doubtful.

Until you say otherwise, I assume you're using IE to browse the net. If so, try to check your IE settings to see if IE is set to show animated images. You can find the setting under Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab. In the Multimedia settings, make sure that Play animation in web pages is checked. Restart IE if you've made any changes, then try to view the gifs again. If that doesn't work, then it's possible that there may be a setting in either IE or your firewall (if you have one) that blocks animated images, although that's unlikely if you haven't had that problem before. This problem may also be registry related, so updating or repairing IE can reset you registry settings so the images will be shown properly. As a last resort, you could try downloading a free alternative browser like Firefox. If viewing animated gifs works on Firefox (or whatever browser you choose) then the problem's definitely with your IE. Of course, you're not using IE in the first place then I'm just shooting my mouth off. =^^= In that case, further details on the issue would be appreciated. Edit: Silly me, I forgot that you had Zone Alarm. >_< Anyway, open Zone Alarm, go to the Privacy Tab and click on the custom button. Make sure that the option to block animation is turned OFF. Hope this works! If not, then tell me (in detail) and I'll see what else I can think of. =^^=

Well, you did ask for an honest critique, so here's my short list. Note that I'll only be listing the major points of issue — at least, those that I consider major. Navigation menu — I would suggest using a more compact navigation menu style, especially considering that you have a lot of links in your navmenu. Also, having most of the links in your navmenu visible when people first view your webpage would be a plus, so saga's suggestion of making your navmenu horizontal is a good one. The point here is to give your visitors as much information as possible about your webpage's content in the first glance. Another suggestion I have about your navmenu is to have the links to external sites open up in a new window or tab by setting the link properties to target="_blank". The links in question are the ones to the official GW site, and those to your old and new forums. That way, even if your visitor clicks those links, they won't be leaving your webpage. I also suggest changing your "Contact Us" link on the navmenu to link to a page with your contact information or an email form. Using a direct mailto link on the navmenu can get annoying especially when we click on it by mistake and then having to wait while the email client loads. Theme consistency — Keeping the theme consistent throughout all the pages on your website would make your site more aesthetically pleasing. As your site is still a work in progress, the current inconsistency is understandable, but it's something to keep in mind for future updates. Speaking of themes, I would also suggest scrapping the current FrontPage theme and using something of your own design — or use a web template or have someone design the page for you). FrontPage themes are great places to begin learning about what you can do with HTML, but to be honest, they don't look all that great. You don't need to do a complete overhaul, though, if you do decide to switch themes. Keep a beta version of your website which you can work on while leaving the current one available, then make the switch when you're good and ready. Embedded music — This is a big no-no! Picture this, here I am peacefully browsing the web while listening to some quiet instrumental music, when all of a sudden something loud blasts out of the speakers. My first reaction? I'd close the damn webpage that's making all that noise faster that you can say "Microsoft". Actually, I'd close the site even if it's playing Beethoven's Sonata — and so would most people. To be honest, sites that play music are just plain annoying that most people wouldn't bother standing around even to see if the site content's worth anything. Five or so years ago embedded music was all the rage and sites that played music kept popping up like daisies. Things eventually got so bad that most folks just turned their speakers off, which prevented people from listening to music that they wanted to hear. Nowadays, such sites are rare, and it's generally considered among the websurfing community that putting embedded music into webpages is bad manners. Music that plays without the viewer's say-so turns most people off, and that drives away potential visitors. If you really want to put music in your webpage, I suggest turning the auto-play default to off and giving your visitors the option to play the music if they want to. That way, everyone wins. Maximize screen real estate — I've noticed that, on the main page, you have quite a bit of blank space on the right side of the screen. Most probably your theme was designed for a lower resolution. That's great in theory, but for folks with higher resolution screens, it would be a waste of screen real estate. I'd suggest trying to make your webpage adaptable to whatever resolution your visitor is using. Also, you might want to consider moving the ads from the bottom left corner to the right side of the page just to use up that blank space. Whatever you method you choose to use is up to you. Cross-browser portability — One thing you might want to consider would be to eventually make your website cross-browser portable. To do so, I suggest scrapping any IE-only scripts and trying to make your site as W3C compliant as possible. If you can, try to view your site using different browsers to see how the final result would be. All in all, though, your website is really a pretty decent one. While there is room for improvement, it's not a bad attempt at sitebuilding by far. It definitely has promise. =^^=

Eh, I wonder why this thread hasn't received any activity lately? =^^= Anyway... To continue the list, here are some extensions I use. ColorZillaOfficial description: Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies. Comments: Ideal if you want to know the hex code for that nice little shade of blue on that webpage. Duplicate TabOfficial description: Allows you to duplicate a tab, or to merge windows. Comments: No more copy-and-pasting URLs. =^^= Tabbrowser PreferencesOfficial description: Enhances control over some aspects of tabbed browsing. Comments: What, the official description ain't enough for you? BBCodeXtraOfficial description: Adds BBCode/HTML/XHTML commands to the context menu. Comments: Perfect for forums without code buttons at the posting screen. MeasureItOfficial description: Draws out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage. Comments: Seems pretty self-explanatory. ChatZillaOfficial description: A clean, easy to use and highly extensible Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client. Comments: For those who don't want to bother with mIRC (or other progs). Download Manager TweakOfficial description: A modification of the Firefox download manager that changes its appearance and allows it to be opened in a separate window, a new tab, or the sidebar. Comments: Really useful in preventing the download manager's annoying habit of popping up with every download. Kinda redundant if you're using FlashGot, though... SessionSaverOfficial description: Magically restores your last browsing session. Comments: A must have! It restores all the tabs from your last browsing session. And more, it also restores your tabs in the event Firefox crashes. Undoubtedly one of the best extensions for Firefox! LinkificationOfficial description: Converts text links into genuine, clickable links. Comments: Again, no more copy-and-pasting URLs. mozImageOfficial description: Allow you to browse image on your local machine. Comments: Turns Firefox into an image browser, but redundant if you already have an image browser like ACDSee. You know, I'm not sure why I have it... MR Tech About:AboutOfficial description: Adds about: options to Help Menu. Comments: For those too lazy to type the about: options in the address bar. Includes stuff like about:config, about:plugins, about:cache, about:buildconfig, and etc. ChromEditOfficial description: A simple user profile editor. Comments: Pretty useful stuff if you know what you're doing. The only other things I have that I haven't listed are Adblock, Flashgot, and Web Developer. Others have already mentioned those. I also used to have Gmail Notifier, but it's rather useless for someone with multiple Gmail accounts. I also used to have an RSS feed reader, but didn't find much use for it. Anyway, I'm currently looking for extensions suitable for an amateur web developer myself. I already have the Web Developer extension, but I'm wondering what else I could use.