Some Close Runners Up... Sailormoon Sites
  May 2001

Here's some sites that came close to being called to the "Worst"...

worst banner

Page: Negasis Tokyo
URL: http://www.geocities.com/mistressdarklight/
Creator: Mistress Darklight
Nominated by: Galaxia-tachi

Comments:

CereCere

I almost want to sing the loading song here, but it's not that bad. If I had my old 33.6 modem right now, I'd might be singing away, but I'll save it for later.
You do have to wait for a quite large image map to load before you can go anywhere one this site. A tip whenever you use large images maps, provide alternate text links somewhere below the image map, so those with slower modems do not have to wait forever. Yes, there are still people around with old 28.8 modems. I notice the owner is already preparing a new layout for this site, so I hope he/she keeps that in mind while putting it together.
For the most part this site a villains shrine, with all of the info and materials only focusing on them. The subpages each start with large images which contain not only character pictures, but more image maps, and intro text to the sections. There's no need to put this much information into one image. Text is just that, text, and whenever possible it should be typed in, not put in an image. Use tables with your images and text to create layouts that are faster loading and do not need only one image. Someone once told me, "an image is a graphic, and text is text". That's all there is to it. Other than that, the layouts here are okay.
Where this site falls short is in the info department. There are a lot corrections to be made. The info on Neherenia is very confusing. From what I can tell it seems to mix info from SuperS and Stars, in the wrong order, into one paragraph. In the info about Zoicite, we have this quote: "Zoisite is, and forever will be A BOY! Now that we have that cleared up...Zoisite was the 3rd general sent out to rid Beryl of the Sailor Senshi. Her job was to find and capture the 7 Rainbow Crystals..." Ummm, wait, didn't the site owner just demand Zoicite is a boy? So why did the owner go on to say "her job"? There's also Kunzite who, "controled the Doom and Gloom Girls", ummm I don't think so, seeing he died before they showed up. Then there is, "he died with one hit from Sailor Moon's Cresent Wand", well it was actually his own attack that killed him, which Sailor Moon only deflected defending herself.
It goes on and on with several other little mistakes that I'm sure the others will also point out, but I think all of them could be fixed with a careful re-read. The humor section is a good section with some original stuff. Overall, I'd say this site could be pretty good if the info is cleaned up and fixed, and all of those large image maps are replaced with something that loads a bit faster.

JunJun

These guys are already working on a new site, I'm going to be nice and really critique their new site, however, a lot of the bios on the new site so far are from the old one. So to help them out with the new site, I'll point out some of the problems with the bios on the old one. Makes sense? Okay, as long as you're still with me.
Anyway, First off, the bios are filled with spelling and grammar errors, I'm not going to harp too long on that as we have all been there from time to time. I only mention it because there are many "everyday" words that are misspelled and could be caught by a spell checker. Moving on to the Dark Kingdom, or as they are named here, the Dic name, Negaverse. "Beryl also managed to kill Princess Serenity and prince Endymion which drove Queen Serenity to kill herself when she used the Crystal to send the Negaverse to Earth (moron bleach blond..now we know where Usagi gets it ^_~)." Err, yeah, she sent everyone to Earth, and made the ultimate sacrifice. Let's cheapen it by calling her a "moron bleach blond". Maybe it's an attempt at humor? Then there is Nephrite, who supposedly screwed everything up due to his love for Naru. Wait a second, Naru? I thought we were talking about the "Negaverse", hence we are talking about the dubbed version. So why all of a sudden is it Naru and not Molly, but we are still talking about the "Negaverse" and "Negaforce"? Then there's Zoicite who's a guy, but works in Dic's Negaverse, but in Dic's Negaverse, Zoicite is a woman. See? This is why mixing english dubbed terms with original Japanese terms, names, and sexes does not work. It just gets confusing and difficult to follow. Oh, remember I wasn't going to say anything about the new page? Well I cheated a bit and took a peak. Someone may want to check into why Neherenia's picture shows up for Nephrite. Sorry, but I couldn't let that one go without mentioning.
Then there is a few other things worth pointing out. In yet another example of original/dub mixing gone bad, Cooan is not the oldest of the sisters, she's the youngest. Yes, the dub calls her the oldest at one point, but in the original were the name Cooan is used, she's the youngest. So Catsy might be the oldest in the dub world, but Cooan is the youngest. Black Lady: "Everytime Sailor Moon and the scouts called out to her she would snap and blow them against a wall. At one point they had fixed her, and had little ChibiUsa back, but WiseMan went into her head and pulled Black Lady out again." Ummm, is anyone else disturbed by how these sentences are phrased? "Snap and blow them against a wall", "they had fixed her", "WiseMan went into her head..." You get the picture. It goes on and on like this. Give it all a good re-read, fix the annoying Dub/Original mix-up and a few other things.
Then there is the image gallery, which I notice they are currently using the same one for both the old site and the new one. Anyway, they demand to have credit for any images used from their archive, saying you have to say where you got it, and who owns it. At the same time, they credit another site for providing them with most of their images, ask you to visit them, but they don't link them from that page. So let me get this down, you credit Negasis Tokyo, but they credit another site where they got them in the first place. When really you should be crediting the site where they got them. Also, you have to say where Negasis is in your credit, but they don't say where Moonlight Reflections are. Now how's that for a double standard?

PallaPalla

Wait wait wait... Cere, you say there's an even worse loading one than this? Eep.
[goes get a drink and comes back]
Ah, there we go. Hmm? I thought this was a villain focused site. You wouldn't know from the image used, but that's pretty minor I guess. At least it's Sailormoon, which is better than some other SM sites.
First sign that the info has some problem: it's all supposed to be from the original Japanese, but the first section is for the Negaverse rather than for the Dark Kingdom. Right away, you can expect a bit of confusion.
The "Negaverse" section itself has several spelling mistakes, including Metallia's name, and refers to the NA dub. The info is also from the dub, having the negaverse basically come out of nowhere rather than being from Earth.
In the section about Zoi, it becomes even more apparent that the owner of the site is more (coughonlycough) familiar with the dub version. Like Cere said, after telling us that Zoi is a boy, the site owner refers to him as a girl, using her and she rather than him and he. The reasons given for Beryl's anger towards Zoicite are not the right ones, and even the king's (called general here) mission is poorly explained.
The info about Nephrite is no better, it seems more inspired by fanfics than by the show, claiming Nephrite had a crush on Naru for a while that caused him to think of nothing but her and to fail in many plots because of that lack of concentration. Once again, the mission is poorly explained. Like Zoicite, Nephrite is accused of having been sent mainly to get rid of the senshi, which is not the case.
Cere already pointed out the mistakes made in Kunzite's profile, Jadeite's profile is just as bad. Thankfully, it's short, because just about every sentence is wrong. Oh! And in case you're wondering, the info about the Doom and Gloom girls is also wrong.
The info on the aliens is not as bad, but it is very shallow and certainly doesn't portray the duo and the tree very well. There are also many mistakes and dub only info on the other sections, but pointing them all out would take a few pages, so I'll stop here, except for those lovely tidbits:
About Sapphiro: he dies a whole episode sooner than Demando. That doesn't qualify as a lot sooner. Also, he only confesses affection for Esmerodo in the dub.
About the Ayakashi sisters: Cooan is the youngest, except in the dub. About Rubius : I do think Esmeraude killed him out of her own volition and that Wiseman had nothing to do with it.
About Tomoe: Sailormoon never really fixes him. The Daimon that had taken over his body is defeated by Uranus and Neptune and the next time he shows up, he's himself. About Neherenia : try to make out with Mamoru, wanting a harem of men... huh?
This site needs some serious proofreading, and a bit more research wouldn't hurt either. Okay, make that a whole lot more research. Most of the info is wrong, mostly because it was written carelessly and because it was based on the dub while pretending to be based on the original.


Page: SAiLor MaRs
URL: http://sailormarsisthebombs.tripod.com
Creator: ?
Nominated by: Bao

Comments:

CereCere

Whoa, guess I can take my glasses off for this site. Some really oversized red text on a white background. [takes them off] ACK! [puts them back on quick] Great, a background that actually manages to make that giant text hard to read. Let's see red text, on a mostly red background, yep that makes a lot of sense. Toss in a MIDI you can't turn off and you get an assault not only on your eyes, but your ears. I would get rid of the background, and use the image on some other page, but just as one image, never as a background. I would also suggest adding a MIDI control somewhere on the page so visitors have a choice if they want to hear the music. For info on how to do that visit this page. One more tip, make your link colours different than your text colour. You don't need red everywhere, Mars also has another colour, purple.
The images page is one big page, with full sized pics, without any thumbnails. Whoa, hello, I should have seen this coming. They were also all stolen by direct-linking from various sites, including SailorJupiter.com, senshizone.hypermart.net, bsc.edu/~elmannin, www.angelfire.com/anime/ranmaandsm, and www.geocities.com/Tokyo/6140. Now excuse me while I try to get "I Wanna be a Star" out of my head. [runs screaming] Make it stop!
The info section is pretty simple, only listing attack names, but many of those are mixed up between the dub and the original names. Oh yes, yet another MIDI playing over and over.
The opinions section is just that, opinions, so I won't say too much, except there's yet another MIDI! Wait a sec, I'll bet... yep, all those MIDIs, they are all stolen from SailorJupiter.com.

JunJun

Red on red makes JunJun's eyes bleed! Well not really, but it does make them strain a lot. After taking a peak at Palla's and Cere's reviews I turned my speakers off for this site.
The images are all over the place, full sized, and stolen! All three strikes in one. Then the info is only a listing of attacks. Usually we expect the re-used over and over stats list, but this one actually manages to do less. With dub and original mixing all over the place too.
Direct linking all over the place, no information, save yourself two minutes of your life and avoid this site.

PallaPalla

Hmm... tip number one: red on red just doesn't show. It doesn't matter how big it is, it's still the same colour and it doesn't show. If you are really dying to use this pic, fade it or put the text in a white table or something. There are many ways. Another thing you should do is to actually have the pic on your site rather than direct-linking it from amazon.com. As for the midi, have mercy on our souls and give the option to make it stop, and get your own copy rather than direct-linking it from another site. Direct-linking is nothing short of stealing, not only the file itself, but the bandwidth. It slows down both sites and can put the site you stole it from in trouble for excessive use of bandwidth.
[desperately looks for the links in hope to get rid of the music]
[Enjoys the silence while the image gallery loads up]
AHH!!!!! Now, it's I want to be a Star!! I don't wanna be a star, I want to be out of here!! I wonder where this one is direct-linked from... ah, same as the first one.
The image gallery is a bunch of pics thrown together, full size, in no particular order. All are direct linked. It's just beyond me why you don't just link sites you like, rather than steal their stuff and direct link their files. I'd rather not just assume you're a shameless thief who wants all the credit for the work of others.
On to the info section... first off, saying Rei dislikes her grandfather is not exactly objective. If you really are convinced of it, at least try to give some evidence. When listing the attacks, stick to the Japanese or English ones, but don't mix and match (especially within one attack like for Mars Celestial Fire Mandala), it's just confusing for your visitors (although it's also a little bit amusing I must admit). By the way, it's make up, not mark up. The transformation and attack phrases for Stars are just plain wrong.
Finally, opinions. On a Sailor Mars shrine, would you expect opinions about Rei? WRONG! This section is just comments on the CWI dub. Not greatly insightful ones at that, but the site owner did call them opinions, not essays, so no real complaints there I guess.


Page: Sailor Moon System
URL: http://www.sailormoonsystem.homestead.com/
Creator: Sailor-Shell
Nominated by: Sailor Eternity

Comments:

CereCere

Great, nothing on the page except a few pics and a "Click to Enter", no title, no browser requirements, no different versions to choose from, just "Click to Enter". There is no need for a completely useless splash page such as this one. [marches around with a sign reading, "Down with useless splash pages"] If I didn't have to review this site I would leave right now. I mean what's the point of this page? To show off a few images? Couldn't those images serve the site even better as part of an actual index page with links to all the sections on it? Or how about in an image gallery? A splash page like this just wastes time.
So in we go, ummm... [insert face faults here] Another splash page! More wasted time! I also notice this splash page is yet another use of Lycentia's pink layout with a yellow Sailor Moon. Hey, I told you it was pretty common. There is no credit given to Lycentia for the layout, and it also has a messed up Sailor Moon theme MIDI playing in the background with what sounds like gunshots going off every now and then. This makes things kind of funny. You see there is a little javascript of ChibiChibi floating around the screen with a balloon. I sit and watch wondering when whoever is shooting at her is going to hit that balloon and send her falling.
So we try to head in again...[click]
[Whips out the guitar, and quickly a few Lemures appear with instruments]
Heh, Lemures, now how's that for a punk band?
Loading, loading, loading...
How much stuff is on this page? I've now wasted almost two minutes with this site and I have yet to see any content. I can't even click the links yet, because they use a javascript which makes me wait for all of them to load, and there are a ton of things loading here. Javascripts all over, animated gifs, layers, a midi... you name it, this index page has got it. First rule of webdesign, keep it as simple as possible. Make it nice to look at, yes, but how you make it look nice is by not over crowding a page. When I look at this page, everything is coming at me at once. It's confusing, and overwhelming, both to me, my browser, and my little dial-up modem.
As for content, the character info is just the basic stats based on the dub, the images are all placed within a Homestead slide show gallery, where you have to click next and back buttons to move through them. Not really that bad, but it does make you click through all of them and wait for each to load, rather than loading up thumbnails of all the images at once, and then picking which ones you wish to view. It just wastes more time.
By the way, I also noticed as I jumped back to the index from the subsections, the links sometimes don't work. The javascript is not only annoying, but it also must be buggy. I would suggest getting rid of it as a first priority, links must work. Broken links only leave you with a broken website. Use good old reliable plain text links with the standard A HREF tag.
In it's present form, I can't recommend this site to anyone, I wouldn't be suprised this will crash some people's browsers, as it occasionally caused mine to pause. There's also way to many things that waste time, and not enough good solid content to make up for that wasted time.

JunJun

Click once, click twice, see a bad javascript, and watch my browser crash!
Okay, lets try again, and there it goes again. Well, that's it for this review, two crashes are enough for me.

PallaPalla

Ooooo a splash page! [click]
Ooooo another splash page! With music!
[whips out a kazoo and dances around while playing it] It's a splash page festival!! [click]
Aaaah! Music again!
Seriously, when you want a midi on your page, allow the visitors to shut it up. What are you trying to do, drive us nuts?
Now that the layout is finally loaded up, I can't say it was worth the wait. You could easily make it faster by not having the links fade back and forth between two colours. It's not only useless, it doesn't actually look that good either. Also, the way your page is now, there is way too many things that are outside what first looked to be the main layout. It makes it look like you just piled up the stuff under it.
Hmm, I clicked on home to check if it brought me back to the splash page (thankfully it doesn't), and the page was unable to reload properly, even after several refresh. I had to go back to the splash page and click enter to get the javascript links back, and even then, some wouldn't load back up. See, that's why you should avoid useless javascript: more often than not, it's buggy.
Anyway, let's go see something special about SailorMoon. Not very special, I must say. Just a short profile and a slide show style picture gallery. I don't feel like sitting through the slide show, I clicked enough to get here as it is. Back to the main page, as there is no navigation on this subpage. All the "special somethings" are of the same type, with a few info mistakes thrown in for good measure, along with a broken link for Mars. Some of the characters don't have a picture gallery, at least not in working order.
The other subsections, the ones linked through those fading scripts, aren't really worth your time either: boring stats, overused animated gifs from Nintendo games, more slide shows that take forever to load, and a collection of midis.
This page could be okay if the owner gave up on having a fancy page loaded with stuff and just organized what she has better. And while you're at it, rewrite the special sections to get rid of the mistakes or if you can't tell what's right from wrong in them, research or give them up.



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