SITE REVIEW: BloGate

hi,
I've written a little application to download all RSS news from blogs on the internet, and these articles are displayed on the final page so everyone can read them,

the address is http://blogate.bintrash.org/

this is only beta version and if project will have some usage I will move it to new domain,
so you can register your blog too
why did I create this site? Every blog-server has his own main page to dispay new articles, but if somebody have his own blog, the only source of visitors is google, or another serach engine, "friendly webs", .....
the engine which downloads articles is in development, so sorry if there is a bug and your site can't be loaded, there is a little chance and it can happen:)
after registration, I'll check the web and after that, it' added to database, so don't worry if you are not on the title page immidiatelly

what are your opinions?

Well, it looks good in the plethora of browsers I so enjoy putting sites through (Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Maxthon 2, Firefox 2, Opera 9, Netscape 9, and Lynx), and both the CSS and Markup validate, so there are a few major pluses right off. I'm impressed that you've got it valid even with the content pulled from other blogs/sites.

The design is great - clean and simple without being too stark. The colour scheme works well, too - the grey and white backgrounds compliment the oranges well, and the oranges and reds in the logo, text, and banner photograph look great together. It has a very... errr... RSS-ey(?) feel to it, which fits with the content - I like it.

Design-wise, the only thing I would change is the white-faded area with the "add your blog" text over the banner image. I wouldn't have it fade to white, as it does. I'd keep it a slightly transparent white all the way across - enough white so that the text is easy to read, but not so much so that it obscures the image itself. I don't dislike the way it is now, but personally I think it would look better that way.

Everything was easy to use - the navigation, the search box, the "Add Your Blog" form, the "Subscribe to Our RSS Feeds" page, and the Language page - and worked great. It might look a little more uniform if the Subscribe and Add Your Blog dialogues appeared the way the Language Selection did - on the page you are currently on, above the content - but it's not really necessary, as it works fine now. Its just a personal thing.

The "Set your language" option confused me a little. I figured out pretty quickly that it was to limit blog entries to ones made in a certain language, but at first I expected it to display the site in another language. You may want to add a note explaining what you are selecting a language for, to avoid confusion.

I noticed that some blog entries contained a <iJJ> tag, which displayed as just a tag. It didn't bother be a whole lot, but it might be something to look into.

Also, I'd consider making the [...] at the end of the post excerpts link to the full post. I realize the post titles already do that, but it would be nice (and sort of make sense) for the ellipsis to link too.

Other than those few things - which I'll admit are partly just personal preference and nitpicking - I couldn't find anything I didn't like. It works great, and looks great. Two thumbs up!

I like your idea and think it's could be more useful when more content added. btw, what's the mark <iJJ> meam?

Noob warning, as in this critique is coming from a newbie ... so you know.

Don't have a lot to add to the detailed comb-over Hob Bramble gave, but I'll say it enticed me sign up two of my blogs and click on one of your Google adds, so you are doing your job well (getting people to sign up for the service you are offering, and monetizing the site). The only suggestion I would have would be to have a way to break down the categories further or search for specific content.

Nice idea/site.

thank you all for your opinions, special thanks to Hob Bramble,
so I'll try to fix <iJJ> and [...] errors,

maybe the "Subscribe" and "Add Your Blog" dialogues will be displayed as "Language bar", but I don't want to do that because of possibility to switch JS off, but I think, it's not so big problem so I'll probably code it according to your post

2 moreetan: I hope that more content and blogs will be there soon , but I have problem - how to spread information about this site

2 ClintonR: yes, I'll do something with searching function, but there is a problem, this project was made in a short time, (2 weeks) and I'm 16 so I need to go to school too , soon I'll have some time again

sorry for my English and thank you again for written ideas,
I look forward to read another opinions

So ...

There's a new version of BloGate,

+ blog profiles (example-> http://www.blogate.org/blog/20/bintrash+org/ )
+ user profiles (example-> http://www.blogate.org/user/javo/ )
+ blog tags
+ forums
+ improved RSS/ATOM feedreader
+ lots of more

Any ideas? opinions?

Feel free to join our comunity and help us grow

looks empty on my eyesight.. Add more content

I like the layout a lot... but like I said in some of my previous reviews... not a big fan of the content font. I am a big font guy and usually like to see Serif fonts for content. But that is just me.

-pk