I teach at a middle school, and I regularly have my students read and evaluate work done by their peers. Most of the times, those evaluations take the form of written comments to the author of the work. I take grades on the ability of the evaluator to offer appropriate and constructive criticism. I would not allow a comment such as “that is the ugliest site I have ever seen” in my classroom. In fact, I make it very clear that a comment like that will receive a failing grade. A comment like that, even if it is explained later, is just asking for a response in kind.

Just my opinion.

Look, this is not the usual forum for proving feedback to a site owner; It’s more of a conversation with friends. I would never make such a statement in a formal setting. When macournoyer asked, “…what don’t you like about it?” I was polite and gave specific example of what I thought needed to be modified. I even pointed out a couple of things that I liked about the site. To say I’m “bad ppl” just because I offered my opinion is childish.

I won’t visit the site again nor will I tell my friends or co-workers about it (did I mention that I’m a professional application developers? Actually, I’m a Application Team Lead). If someone mentions the site to me I’ll reply that that site creator is a jerk.

I wash my hands of the whole situation.

Just my opinion.

I’m sorry I sound like someone who doesn’t accept critisism. But “the ugliest site I have ever seen” is not the kind of feedback that helps making a website better.

I’m glad my reply can make ppl like this be reluctant to return to the site.

My site is driven by user feedback since day one, almost everything you see in there was a user suggestion. And I’ll do all I can to keep bad ppl off the site.

Just a friendly suggestion macournoyer — when you get feedback such as “the ugliest site I have ever seen,” take what you can from it. Perhaps what Cory said was exagerated a bit because there has GOT to be an uglier site out there, but the point behind that comment is that the look of the site is keeping him from using it. Take that and then ask yourself, “what can I do to make this more visually appealing for more of my users.” I know how hard it is when someone has critisized your hard work, but try to realize that first impressions are important and that was Cory’s. Ultimately it’s your site and you can do what you want, but perhaps there are others out there who share Cory’s opinion and would be more inclined to return if it were a little easier on the eyes?

I’m glad my reply can make ppl like this be reluctant to return to the site.

My site is driven by user feedback since day one, almost everything you see in there was a user suggestion. And I’ll do all I can to keep bad ppl off the site.

And criticizing CoryC’s own personal site was a step over the line.

CoryC wrote:

First of all the code samples have a black background which makes it hard to read. I would have thought that the background would be white/off-white or even gray. Maybe it would match the most common development environment for the programming language. For example C# would look as it does in Visual Studio.
Next, the titles are in a large, bold font. Even the font-type is unusual for a web site.

I like the concept of the site. I even like the navigation. In my opinion it needs a face lift.

I personally find Visual Studio theme very ugly. I’m a TextMate user and I love black background for coding.

I doubt verdana is an unusual typefont for a website, it’s used on most websites, it’s even used on this site, come on!

I guess we just don’t have the same tastes as I think your site (myrssreader) looks like it was made by a 10 year old kid.

Also, I won’t put any other login method then OpenId, I beleive in that technology, and see it as a filter.

Hey, you asked me for my opinion. If you’re going to run a public site get used to criticism. As for my “made by a 10 year old kid” site, I didn’t ask for your opinion nor does it matter to me. The template was from a Microsoft started kit. Fact is, my site is nothing more than a test bed for to try new coding techniques.

If I was trying to build a community site, I would listed to the feedback from users. Think of RefactorMyCode as the communities site and not your site. If you do that then it will be around a lot longer.

If you’re going to solicit feedback then don’t get upset by what other have to say. The opinion I expressed were my own; I didn’t ask you for a rebuttal.

The fact is you’re site displays has A LOT of black. It looks like it was designed by a anti-social teenager that is upset with the world. Not exactly the look one expects from a “community” site.

First of all the code samples have a black background which makes it hard to read. I would have thought that the background would be white/off-white or even gray. Maybe it would match the most common development environment for the programming language. For example C# would look as it does in Visual Studio.

Next, the titles are in a large, bold font. Even the font-type is unusual for a web site.

I like the concept of the site. I even like the navigation. In my opinion it needs a face lift.

I personally find Visual Studio theme very ugly. I’m a TextMate user and I love black background for coding.

I doubt verdana is an unusual typefont for a website, it’s used on most websites, it’s even used on this site, come on!

I guess we just don’t have the same tastes as I think your site (myrssreader) looks like it was made by a 10 year old kid.

Also, I won’t put any other login method then OpenId, I beleive in that technology, and see it as a filter.