Demontales: REVIEW 052

Ah, the blog style website, how I enjoy them! Demontales is a fairly young site having only popped up last October put already its found its feet. The logo/banner is strong even if I don't really "get it", it does look a little out of place with the color scheme of the site but it doesnt discract from the content too much.

The content itself is tabloid and some days that just what I want. What is nicely different about this site is that it also features a forum which while its nothing new its not something you see attached to many blogs. As for the forum? Well it seems to be thriving especially given its age. Its not often I add a site I review to my main bookmark folder but I cant help but think that Demontales will throw up a few stories/videos that I might otherwise miss. This site doesnt really have anything that needs fixing - I'm sure its doing exactly what the owner wants it to do.

THE PARANORMALIZERS REVIEW: 8/10

PRAI: REVIEW 051

And off we go on the first review since the new site was launched!

Paranormal Research Association of Ireland, sounds official.

So I guess I'll start with the design of the site and move onto the content later.

First off .... someone please do something with that banner! Its on nearly every page and looks like a poor quality scan of a poor quality print of a poor quality screen shot - seriously people this is your identity! Its not a particularily nice logo to start with but you can barely read the tagline "Truth through Science" and thats the bit I actually do like.

They have some well taken photos dotted about the site but personally I dont like how they are positioned i.e. centered amongst the text with not effort to uniformally format them. The gallery section is also a bit of a let down as it has very little content for a group thats been going since 2004.

The main scheme of the site is fine, bar some poor graphics the overall look does come across as professional. The sheer amount of text on the site makes it appear like an official body. So with them apparently leaning towards the official/professional/scientific side of the paranormal scales here is what really makes it hard to bare:


What is with these graphics? They look as if they have been poached from a few different sites with now consistancy of style, they are so out of place.

With all the text and little in the way of photo/video/audio it really looks like a case of all talk no action? A good read of the site clears that up as they do appear to have done a fair bit, unfortunately as a visitor we dont get to see the fruits of their labor.

There are alot of pages within the site and maybe its busier than it needs to be? Some of the links are broken such as the links off the merchanise page and the guestbook.

The site does seem to have a good forum and there's some pretty good discussion on it. The thing about forums though is that they are the product of all the people who use them not just the site owners - so they cant really take credit on that.

If I was to give a few simple points of advice they would be:

• Fix the logo/banner
• Frame the pictures used and get some uniform size style were possible
• Look at who fonts are used on the site i.e. sizes, colors. Choose a set font (size, colour, style) for headers, subheaders, body copy and captions.
• Look at the site map - too many pages.
• I spent so much time scrolling on this site, a simple starter paragraph for long bodies of text with a "read more" button means its not so hard on the eyes.
• Stick with the template of the site, I actually like it.

So that might seem like a harsh review but I only picked so much because I think it could be a very good site.

THE PARANORMALIZERS REVIEW: 5/10

Additional note: I have to ask about the logo .... what is that form? Is it meant to be a candle flame type thing?

NEW SITE, NEW REVIEWS, NEW BADGE

Ok so with the new site up and running the requests for reviews are flying in ..... which means I have to get my ass in gear!

The old review badge I used to ask people to put on their sites was pretty big so I'm replacing it with the below 152x26 pixel graphic. Its nice and neat so I'm hoping to see people put it on the blogs/sites.


Linking it to the main blog, your review or the main site at www.paranormalizer.com are all perfectly fine.

Have a good day,

Earl

UPDATE: NEW SITE

So why have I been so quiet the last month? I hope the answer is obvious and that its been worth the trouble!

The new look site is coming online in the next couple of days and above is a sneak peak.

A few changes have been made to how it works and a few inactive sites have been dropped. The blog will change soon too but nothing big.

Anyway the main change in the workings of reviews etc is as follows:

Sites scoring 7/10 or higher will receive a banner ad on www.Paranormalizer.com as well as priority listing over on the review blog. We see this as a way to both reward sites for their good work as well as give those site who have just fallen short something to aim for. All sites reviewed are listed as text links in order of date of review.

Would love feedback and look forward to reviewing a few sites I've had waiting around.