Naruto: Shattered Pieces [8.5/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/nsp/

The next site on the list is a Naruto based RP called, Naruto: Shattered Pieces. This is obviously based off the hit Anime, Naruto.

The AD is rather oddly formatted in my opinion, everything being left oriented, but overall the plot seems to be that in the distant future from the current Naruto timeline. Evil is rising again and it's your job to stop it, or encourage it.

(Note: Even though they have their contacts listed apparently just randomly adding them will still warrant a good cbox conversation.)

Onwards to the review!

First Impression:
One-eyed, Many Horned, Green Tentacle People Eater. The layout is nice and compact and the drop down menus are nice.

The Public Area:
So I've read the AD and the front page at this point and I'm having a bit of trouble connecting the two. The AD talks about how Akatsuki and Akusuna are coming back into power and the uneasiness over it and then the front page changes to a giant climate shift.

(Bijuu's cause global warming, I KNEW IT!)

The Rules page, Oh well this wont take too long there are 3 rules... I mean 3.0! (That's 30 for all you people who didn't understand the significant figures reference there) Most of them more or less make sense but, Rule 2.0, "No run-on sentences", is something that should be common sense. Also I'd like to see the rules organized into section like: General, Posting and Application rules or something like that.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: 0.8 - Oinin is not capatilized while the others are. )

The Storyline, This is what I was expecting coming from the AD... but now I'm wondering what is happening with global warming and all sand and such.

Bijuu, on Rokubi I would suggest reordering "fire creating by lightning, lightning, and thunder" so it easier to read abit. I had thought you said lightning twice before I read it again.

Adoptables, For the Akusuna/Akatsuki you have 2 positions open but 3 Bijuu of the 4 which were available for them.

The Application:
Application guidelines! I was scared for a moment those were more rules. The collapsable applicaitons I like and there is a newer application created to "decrease application time" by combining History, Personality and Appearance in one box. Either way I look at it you're going to spend the same amount of time on those 3 areas because they're still there, it's a good illusion though I suppose.

(Note: NO RP SAMPLE! I don't particularly like RP samples, so seeing a site that doesn't require it is always nice.)

The Private Area:
Layout change! And Kyuubi is watching you from behind the Cbox! I don't have any particular problems with the layout though the right column seems a bit squeezed.

Akatsuki/Akusuna page, generally have the same info on how to join and the requirements and all that good stuff.

Clans page, give you all those nice little details about them and all their nifty things including who the member are. I like this quite a bit. Would have liked it centered on the page though.

Bingo Book, this is also a nice thing. However with this innovation with the profiles I would have like to see you able to turn individual pages for each profile. To make it feel more "book" like. I would have personally loved a cheesy title page on the book for laughs.

Jutsu, overall fine. Again as was with the Clans portion I would have liked it centered.

Timelines, again another feature that I particularly like. Shows who graduated when and important events on the site in plot details as well and member accomplishments.

Honourifics, information on the use of certain suffixes in the Japanese language. For those that choose to use them should use the right, after all.

Forums:
There is quite a bit of forums on here and nice descriptions for all of them. Though again I have a few things. Hotlinks are there to help with navigation however I would have like to see them separate each section more, the headers have a different background but are otherwise no different.

Other:
Memberlist is nice and divided by village and in a table. I would like to point out that in all the "Kage" positions it's not capatalized. "Konoha kage" as opposed to "Konoha Kage". Member profiles are filled out nicely although whatever else was on that page (I assumed music) didn't work for me.

Roleplaying:
From what I read on the site I categorize the RP level on the site to be Intermediate. However I was fortunate to come across an RP where they actually drew out what was happening.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Points.

Overall I didn't have much to complain about the site, everything was nice and thoroughly and THOROUGHLY ... explained. There was alot of text but it was nicely organized. Innovative use of separate forums was also nice to see to get around the page limit of a non-paid site.The plot seemed to lack some originality for me but Naruto is fairly confined on what you can do with it. Again, very nice site overall but I'm still confused on the whole global warming, Bijuu... thing.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Lost Days [5.5/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/bend/

For now I'm trying to do sites of different themes or genres as often as possible which lead me to this site, Lost Days. This is an RP based off the hit Nickelodeon show, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The AD for this particular site, basically is just stating that the story of the show is playing over again and at this point I'm not buying the whole "loosely based off the show" bit. But anyway, at least they put a nice gradient for the text at the top. Onwards to the review!

First Impression:
Left-oriented. The layout as a whole is fine, but I would have like it have been more centralized. It isn't that much of a problem and they tried to offset it a bit by extending an image across the page. The text however still draws you to the left.. at least for the front page.

The Public Area:
The Story, I read it and aside from it being 200 years later it's more or less the same as the original story. The text spread across the whole page is a little disorienting from the front page.

Rules, the first problem I have is the order of the rules and placement of the godmoding and powerplay rules. The first "rule" is actually not a rule but an explanation of the rules page. Another small point is that you say "((Again, look at Ty Lee))" however I have no recollection of Ty Lee being mentioned before. Under posting you say to post 2 paragraphs, 8 sentences total... it's always been my understanding that 8 sentences minimum is ONE paragraph.

("Lightning" is spelled wrong in point 3.)

I generally like OOC rules to come first, then IC rules after. Also this gets rid of the redundancy of essentially having "no powerplaying" in two different locations.

(Spelling/Grammar Errors: "skill" in the fourth point, fifth point - grammar, "person" in Character point 1, "quotations" in Posting point 2)

The Benders, a somewhat organized list of people on the site. However at the top the text is a little wierd for some reason. And also.. you state if you want to know more about the benders go into the private area to look and decide, those pages can't be seen by visitors.

Information page, again wonky text in the first sentence. I'm not sure that encouraging people to break copyright laws is also something you should be having on the main page. Alluding to it is fine, "You should watch clips of Avatar on certain video sharing sites" or something like that. The link to the creatures, that page is deleted AND you probably should have summarized the information on your own and placed in on this page.

The Application:
Normal application.

The Private Area:
FIREFOX ERROR (Edit: ERROR on MY END! VLC PLUGIN FOR FIREFOX) ! Not sure what causes this, but might be something to look into, also layout change! There are no new pages to look at because as I've said even though they tell you to look here, the pages are blocked from view. At least there is what looks to be an upgraded cbox, it refreshes on its own.

Forums:
Giant Text Wall. There are a good amount of forums and descriptions but as I said it's a giant wall of text. The sections aren't spaced out from one another and I'd like to see hotlinks because of just how many forums there are. The headers for each section are bold and a bigger font but I'd like to see a little more distinction.

Other:
For some reason the member list is causing my firefox to crash when I go to there from a member page or going to a member page from there. So something to look into there. At this point I used Internet Explorer for the rest of the review. (Edit: AGAIN, ERROR ON MY PART. VLC PLUGIN FOR FIREFOX)

The member list is your basic listing of information and the profiles are filled out decently.

Roleplaying:
From the posts I read I categorize the level of RPing as Intermediate to High Intermediate.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10 Points.

Overall the site was fine, allowing people to play the Avatar story in their own right and distancing themselves from the Canon timeline. The little problems around the site including the crashing of my firefox (twice) brought down the score a little bit but not enough to dilute the overall impression.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Laurel Hills [2.6/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/laurelhills/

The next site on the list here is called Laurel Hills, a Fantasy/City RP. From what I've read on the AD it's a city RP (there's a nice picture for it also) but of course it's inhabited by Angels and Demons and other creatures and things. This is what looks to be a fairly new site but just as always I'll be nitpicking as much as I see fit.

First Impression:
There's white... ALOT of it... and the eyes, they hurt. The layout would be fine if the colors didn't clash so much, as I said before there's alot of white! The background behind the links at the bottom of the picture is black and the link are purple (after visiting them). Overall this leads to a not pleasant experience mostly because it feels like you're trying to squeeze everything in the middle. Actually the white background is okay, but the link color isn't. Also I'd like to point out that there is no way to get back to the index page other than the back button on the browser.

The Public Area:
Laws are generally okay, I'd like to see them individually spaced and also elaborate on the whole vampire with the singing blood... thing.

Species page, I'd like to see a link back to the species page on the individual race pages. In the Dragon page you list a "Worm" rank... do you mean "Wyrm" ? Overall I'd just like to see more information for each race, you talk about that singing blood thing for the vampires but don't expound on it any in it's page.

At this point I'm a bit confused, so explaining everything in more detail about the races and what each can do and such might be something to look into.

The Application:
There is a little bit before the actual application helping you along with the process and I have some nitpicks here. In the "Other", section of the text you say something about a special abilities page. I saw no page named Special Abilities unless I completely missed it.

The application is the norm, but I'd like to see a little more effort on the application. Drop-down selections instead of typing what you want, and things like that.

The Private Area:
Layout change! Better on the space side, but still not good with the colors, also the left column seems a bit cramped. The default avatar is not working, or isn't coded in which should be added in if you plan on having something like the avatar show up on login.

Aside from that there are no new pages or information.

Forums:
Giant Text Wall, more so than most because it's black on white and the headers from each section are hard to distinguish. The descriptions of the forums are at least fine... but that's about it. Suggesting to add hotlinks to each of the sections, separating the sections a bit bold the headers, and maybe add a bit of color (grey even is fine) to offset the large amount of white just in the forum table.

Other:
Member list is... Odd to say the least, I'm not sure what else to put in there. It's just the avatar and the name in the center.

Profiles aren't filled out fully and the other person on the site hasn't even touched the actual profile page it looks like. At least the main admin put in a nice picture I can look at... *cough*

Roleplaying:
No posts at this time to base my opinion off of.

Rating: 2.6 out of 10 Points.

Why 2.6 you ask, well bascially because the plot is interesting enough to me to pass for some sort of decent roleplay. Otherwise the site as a whole looks unfinished and unpolished. Basically this site needs a good amount of work done. Also the layout is to squeezed in the middle for my tastes and should try expanding it a bit.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

X-Men: School of the Gifted [7.0/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/XSGII/

It's now time to review the next site on my list, X-Men: School of the Gifted, or XSG for short. As you expect from the title of the site this is an RP about X-men, mutants, powers, sentinels and all things X-men-y. I'm treading into hardcore fanboy/girl area but I'm not going to be all nice because of it.

On the AD there are several things to point out, first would be the that there is an FAQ on the bottom of the AD answering some questions about the site. This also leads to knowing if you can apply as canon characters (You can, though originals are encouraged.) Well I guess its time for the main portion...

First Impression:
Meh. The current layout of the site doesn't really do anything for me, it's black on black on black with some grey. While the reason for such a layout is explained in the FAQ (which I beleive should be also on the site), to me it just shows laziness on the admins part.

"I think that the main point of a role playing site is the actual role playing. In addition to the ease of loading due to a comparative lack of images on the site, XSG's layout is clean and simple. Which allows the quality of writing to be highlighted, rather than the layout-of-the-week."

I'm fine with a simple layout and simple colors with no images but don't give me crap on about how you want to "focus on RPing" it's laziness any way you slice it. Just click the premade layout and go. Devil's Pass is a very simple layout but it is a nice layout and it isn't dull. One banner image and simple color changes isn't going to kill loading time off of anyone's computer.

The Public Area:
The Plot, it is the ultimate cookie cutter plot. There is no innovation here at all, X-men VS Magneto VS Sentinels. I'd be fine if I saw even a little bit of originality but I see nothing.

The Rules page, generally it's okay it's nice and organized however I have a few nitpicks that I'm going to point out. Is it really necessary to have a rule stating that new applicants HAVE to start their first thread? Also, I'm sure somewhere along the way in the history of X-Men there has been a genius kid who has advanced abilities for his age. Though I understand why the rule is there it's not unplausible for it to happen.

Ranks, not really a big issue... but I'd like to point out that for ranks you list "X-Men" and in the memberlist everyone happens to be Jean Grey's son, "X-Man".

Restricted Powers, no real issue here except I'd change "Watch List" to something else, like Semi-restricted or something. I wasn't sure what you initially meant with the "Watch List".

By-Product Powers, There's one particular thing I don't understand... this section is all about by product powers and yet you're still talking about how if the primary is on the restricted list it will be declined...

After Applying, I don't like the name, it implies that after you've applied under this link are things you need to do before you actually get involved in the site stuff.

The Application:
First, I've never come across where AR sends out a password prematurely. It might be just in the settings in there- but at least you're given a warning about it.

Generally it's a normal application however I have nitpicks on it.

Second, having an actual word count minimum is something I don't like. Certain sections make it much harder than it should be like describing powers if one has a simpler power.

Third, in the RP sample you use the word "haranguing". I'm trying to figure out if this is a stroke of genius or you really just whimsically decided to put that word in there.

The Private Area:
First thing I noticed, oh well geez that thing I had about simpler powers it tells you to contact admins about it but nowhere does it say it on the application. That little tidbit should be posted in a public area because not everyone browses the private area.

Second, there are 10 "recent posts", which is more than I like especially with a ShoutBox under it.

I see no new information pages so that means we move on to the next section.

Forums:
Giant Wall of Text. There is a good amount of forums with decent enough descriptions, however it's all a giant block. I'd like to see the different areas spaced out and of course with hotlinks directly to them.

Other:
The member list is your normal list but there are also avatars. I don't particularly understand the admin at all, 25 images loading at the same time coming from multiple servers I thought was slower than 1 image which gets cached after the initial load.

Member's profiles are nicely filled which I suppose has to be to reach the word count minimum but overall I have no problems. However I read some profile where the powers aren't really as descriptive as I thought they should be and left some questions to be answered. I'm not going to single out any people but from JUST the profile it left questions.

Roleplaying:
From what I read I categorize the roleplaying on this site to be Intermediate to Advanced. Some posts seemed to have too much going on at the same time and others seemed wordy.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10 Points.

This site... what I can I say about it other than it's completely average though some parts are very nice (Magneto's Posts for example). Nothing on the site really screamed out to me that this RP is trying to be sucessful in its own right. The only stroke of genius I saw was in the application however brief it was. As a final comment I find it ironic that the site encourages originality and yet it's the perfect cookie cutter RP.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Devil's Pass [6.0/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/dp/

The next site to come under my inspection is called Devil's Pass, a RP set in the wild west. A time and place were vigilante's and outlaws scurried across the plains... only to be smacked in the head by a tomahawk.

The AD for the site obviously states the setting and is also a tribute to a site on AG2 called Duke's Crossing.

First Impression:
Looks to be promising. The colors give the wild west feel in a sense, and I also like now the news page is also present here in the public layout. Again I'm a fan where the public layout is the same as the private layout to ease confusion on the member.

The Public Area:
The Setting, this is where I have my first little nitpick. They give you a set of links to wikipedia articles, I'd like to see the staff take the time to summarize those articles and place it in the setting page. The same goes for the fashion links, they could make a separate page or a new paragraph summarizing this.

The Ranks, nothing major to note here just simply that about halfway down the page instead of the names just being bold everything is bold.

The Rules, generally fine however I have a nitpick on rule 4. We're in a western theme here yet you use the phrase "army of ninjas". Stick to the setting of the RP at least and say a group of Native Americans or something.

After Applying page current has no content.

The Application:
Your normal everyday application. Perhaps I'd like a portion to place a "West Style" nickname like "Pit Bull Pete" or something.

The Private Area:
Generally the same layout, however there is a few things I will nitpick at. First, at first I thought the link back to the Index didn't exist but then later on realized it was moved so my suggestion would be to move it to the top. There is a ShoutBox (Not a Cbox!) and other then that, everything is the same. I would have liked the "Online" list under the Navigation section as it was in the Public Layout to make it them look more alike.

Forums:
Good amount of forums with decent descriptions, however even though the headers for each section are defined I'd like more separation so it doesn't look like one giant block. Also I'd suggest hotlinks to the sections as well to make it easier on the user so they don't have to scroll down to each section.

Other:
Members list is generally the list of the basic information, along with the users avatar.

Member's profiles are filled out nicely, with a good amount of information. Some have pictures for their character while others don't and some images are broken which should be looked at by the user. If it's a coding problem then it's something the admin should look at.

Roleplaying:
There are only a few posts for me to base this off of so I cannot give an accurate summation.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10 Points.

The actual setting of the RP and the Wild West theme brings this site over the average edge. With the fixing of the little things and addition of the info on that one page, this site earns the solid rating of 6.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Nihilum [7.8/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/nih/

The next site on the list is Nihilum, a Post-Apocalypse RP. Of course the draw for this site is the human psychology of what people do in dire times of need, and how other people react to what is the new set of arbitrary rules now that society has been changed. And this is what this site feeds off of, the human condition.

The AD essentially says what I just did, however in more "story-ish" words. Also a note for this site is that everything is done in roleplay, there isn't any pre-planning or discussion which is another draw for this site. Also I look forward to having my rating posted on the AD under ticklebear's :) Now... onto the review!

First Impression:
A nice and compact layout. Reminds me of like a newspaper somewhat, I'm not sure if that's what they were going for but anyway I like it. IC and OOC news are both present on the front page which I also like, there is no need to login to see what's new within the site unless there is a particular news article you want to read. One minor thing here, as you navigate the pages if at any point you want to head back to the index page you're going to have to edit the URL or use that back button because I found no link. When you're logged in, you have the links at the bottom of the picture, however those just browsing are out of luck.

The Public/Private Area:
Aside from the normal member things, Forums, memberlist etc. These two are one and the same so therefore I am knocking out two birds with one stone here. (Jello cups for giving me less work. Hey, I'm The Jello Emperor here, not Bonnie Brownie.)

The About Nihilum page gives a good sense of what the site is about if you didn't bother reading the whole AD, once again repeating the finer points of the site.

The Basic Plot page is just that, sticking true to the "back to the basics" approach the site takes. It tells you what happened and it's your job to do the rest.

The Apocalypse page gives you further detail on how the setting came to be and how generally people reacted. (For those of you keeping score, I still have no complaints at this point.)

The Setting page obviously tells you where you're at, I'd like to point out at this point I like how they divided up the information into small sizeable bites instead of creating one giant page and going: Alright here's all the info... now go read it and understand.

I'm skipping now to the FAQ page because I don't have anything to comment up to till this point. Generally the page is fine except for one thing in particular, "fo srsly". Up until this point I had the image of a professional site, taking everything back down to square one to revive the roots of the glory of RPing and then I get hit with that.

Now even though you tell your members to stop nitpicking, this is my job, (okay, not really my job, but a hobby I invest time in) and I've always been a fan of having the FAQ after the Rules page. Because I generally find that questions stem from after reading the Rules and the next place they visit should hopefully answer them.

Random Events, I quite like this idea it gives a sense of spontaneity of any RP in which things can go from one mind set to another. However, I would have personally liked it if users were only allowed to decline and know beforehand of a Red event. Up to orange the Random Event account would just simply post their event and they would have to react accordingly, a more truer random event as it were. People will cater their posts if they know something is going to happen to their character towards a safer RP route.

Example with a Rabid Dog case:

Sue and John are talking while walking inside a building and the random event person shows up for an orange event. They post both accepting but they've now moved their conversation into a hallway with rooms with lockable doors. So now all they need is to run into said room and lock it and boom, safe from event.

The Application:
I love the collapsible applications, and also the two part personality things. A nice innovation on the simple application here.

Forums:
10 IC forums (with nice descriptions), however in this particular case the amount of forums work well because it's one singular city and doesn't make the forums page long enough that I have to play my old record of the scroll bar suffering. There are also hotlinks to the OOC and IC sections. I question the IC section hotlink and there is no "Back to Top" link from OOC but I suppose people can just hit the "Home" button.

Other:
The Member list is a simple list of info, and I have no particular problem with it. Members profiles are nicely filled out in Nihilum's particular style and I also want to point out that while the history can be filled out it is only seen by you. The reason for it is given in the FAQ section and you'll just have to go and meander over there to find out what it is.

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on this site I categorize as Intermediate to Advanced.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10 Points.

Overall a very nice site, things are well organized and the seamless transition so that a public and private layout is essentially non-existent is also nice. Though this site is very nice, it seems to lack a certain something that I can only describe as a community spirit. The OOC posts don't feel like a sufficient amount of contact with people out of character, and it sort of gives the site a melancholy feel.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Cellar Door [7.0/10]*

http://www.acornrack.com/CellarDoor/

UPDATED REVIEW - Feb 05, 2009

The next site on the list is Cellar Door, a RP set in the Afterlife. Also worth noting for the site is that each and every member has a unique ability, emphasis on the unique portion. That's right you alone will have this power to taunt and tease the other members on the site until they're de- ... until they are no longer active!

The AD for the site gives the background story and a simple explanation of a few other things you need to know. While I generally don't go into the realm of nitpicking at AD's, for me the text was a bit small but onwards to the review!

First Impression:
Nice Socks. Overall the layout looks nice the colors meld well and there seem to be nothing out of place. However, when you first go into the site you are presented with something like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, you click a link, which leads to more links, which leads to pages. Afterwards all the links are nicely put in a collapsible menu on the lower left side, I would have rather seen this type of layout from the start. Another minor thing is that the background doesn't perfectly align when it repeats.

The Public Area:
The Rules Page, I have nothing to really say about this portion except for the lack of the common sense rule of God moding, also a slight comment from me at this point. I read through the powers that some of the people have, and some of them seem very God mode or essentially lends themselves to powerplaying. For example... time, in my opinion should not ever be something a user can control.

Wish One, organized very nicely and details out the races (aside from the perfection one) well. There is a picture corresponding to each race and hotlinks to take you up and down the page.

Wish Two, at the top the text is too small for me. And other than that it's a simple listing, so nothing to really comment on here.

All of the Sects are written out well and with pictures to help with the image for the mind. Overall very nice.

The Application:
More or less the same as the others, noting that history, appearance and personality are not in the application to make application more user (and admin) friendly. I'm still a fan of this approach because after acceptance I find it easier for one to get more involved into a story with a character because you're already in as opposed to might be getting in.

The Private Area:
Layout Change! I generally have no problems with the layout, aside from the minor backround image repeating issue as the public layout.

The private pages on the site are blocked from my view they look to be the same as from the public area though. I do have one small nitpick here! One of the member pages is the FAQ- this seems to me more of a public sort of page but other than that there isn't much I can comment on.

Forums:
Good amount of forums with very long descriptions for most of the forums. I personally would have liked a little less description on some of them or at least reduce the word count. The forums themselves are divided up into the sects they are in, and given hotlinks (and subsequent 'back to top' links) for ease of navigating.

Cue the broken record, I'll cut this one short this time. Lots of stuff in the forums means lots of scrolling, hotlinks are there to help though.

Other:
The person who had sent me a message had indicated they knew of a problem with the default avatars not showing up on the members list. I assume this is from the 2nd section down, if I have time I'll look through the code. The members list is divided up into the sects they are divided in and their personal avatars are shown as well. There are also hotlinks to the different member sects which again helps with the scrolling part.

Members profiles are filled out very nicely, good descriptions and such. Allowance for having multiple pictures which brings up a little window to view them in.

(Small note: MPD Psycho Adoptable ... Ichi, Ni, San, She, Go. "She" should be "Shi")

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on this site I catagorize as Intermediate to Advanced. Sometimes it appears the post go on for too long and too many things are happening in a post however in my opinion.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10 Points.

UPDATED REVIEW - Feb 05, 2009

Nice site overall in general though the initial layout is confusing, after a quick run through it is easy to overlook. The few problems I see with the site are that the powers people get borderline the powerplaying line because of what they can do. The line is considerably different or blurred because of the lack of death however it's still there.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Plague of Shadows [3.0/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/soeki_kumori/

Alrighty, on this Sunday night I'll be reviewing Plague of Shadows. This RP is a fantasy based RP with a light elemental side to it, as it so claims on the AD. The main thing on the site is the current war between Light and Shadow with The Watcher being neutral in the conflict.

The AD has just the background story and of course some other things you should know before joining, as well as having admin contacts.

(Side note: As I review these sites, I add at least one of the admins from the site to my AIM list. To see if they have anything they wish to discuss.)

But now, onto the review!

First Impression:
The Layout is... okay. I don't particularly feel one way or another, the colors match well and everything seems to be fine. The front page has a small portion of what is in the AD, and of course invites you to look further into the site.

The Public Area:
The History page gives you a nice sense of how the site feel is, I have no problems with this page except for one minor thing. While you can easily use the back button or hit the logo for the site, there is no "Back to Home" link or whatever.

This is the same on all the other pages so I won't comment on it again.

The Elements page, generally is a list of what the elements do and which category they fall under: Light or Shadow. Not much to comment on because the list is thought out well, and explains any questions I had. I'll this time to point out a small mistake in the writing.

In the Mind Section, the second to last sentence: Telekinesis is also possible, but the laws of physics remain and obstacle. "And" should be changed to "an"

The Laws page, actually has no laws! It has rules, a bit of inconsistency but nothing major so anyway to the actual rules. (Rules start at 0 apparently on this site.)

Rule #1 - Maybe it's just me again, but I've seen people use "god modding" a bit. I've always known it as "God moding". I just assume this is a spelling mistake... however I actually do have a nitpick here, so in the elements page there is only 1 person who controls time- The Watcher and this watcher is... the main admin. In my opinion, this is a direct violation of this rule and should be NPC (controlled by the admins) and the admin should have a different main character to invest their time in.

Rule #5 - It's more like a list, it would be easier to simply create a new section for these rules entirely.

The Application:
At the top of the page there is a mini-guide on filling out the application, the only problem is there is no spacing between them so it's a mini-text wall. Also, if you look at the elements selection there are two elements that don't seem to be on the list: Justice and Illusion.... oh wait, they're different names. Order and Chaos, better names in my opinion but you have to be thorough and change every part where this is.

Next, there is one text box for your RP sample and Character History. Creating another text area for the history is easy... there isn't even any hard coding involved, copy/paste and change the variable.

The Private Area:
NO Layout change! Again, I'm a fan of this. The text links are swapped with image based links which are also nice however the size of the same makes the images seem a little pixelated. Perhaps if they were slightly smaller it would make it look a bit nicer. Also, there is no "immediate" form of communication such as a cbox. I would invest a short amount of time in a cbox or some other form of immedate communcation.

Also, the news page apparently is inverted. The newest news is on the bottom and not the top, this will be more annoying as more news items are posted so it would be in their best interest to change that order.

The other private pages I cannot see (In a drop down menu, by the way) although from the names they seem to the be same as the ones from the public area.

Forums:
There are... ten IC forums which have decent descriptions. Obviously my first suggestion would be to add more forums people need a large sandbox to play in and some other random metaphor. I will say though that the sections are at least separated.

Other:
The members profiles are ... filled out? They are all actually filled out however, not very well... just short phrases essentially fill the fields. No appearance information or history even though the history part is requested in the application. The user information page needs a overhaul so it will contain more detail for each character.

Roleplaying:
I cannot give an accurate estimate of the roleplaying on this site because at this time there are no threads to base it off of.

Rating: 3.0 out of 10 Points.*

Now you may question my rating here because generally it seems like a sub-par site, however I see potential here which is why I give it a higher rating then Wolves Fly. The plot is fairly interesting and it can be used to gather members. This site essentially just needs more detail and more time spent on it. I personally mark this site for Re-review at a later date for this reason (and expect a higher rating).


Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Wolves Fly [2.0/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/wolvesfly/

I've decided to give you a three-fer for today, so here is the third site I'm reviewing today: Wolves Fly! This is I assume a wolf RP and according to the AD it's a Fantasy Wolf RP. (I suppose wolves with wings would be...) Anyway, the AD itself give you some plot for the site and contact information, so onto the actual review!

First Impression:
Alright now to review this... Wolf site? The main picture of the site looks like a dog to me... so is this a wolf site or a dog site? That was my initial reaction, the layout itself is not really a layout just the AR basic thing they give you with some color changes. As for the colors themselves, I don't really like them. The stars background I can deal with, but the black text on a dark blue background doesn't work, and the moon cursor fits with the background but in my opinion is unnecessary.

The Public Area:
The Packs page, is more or less just text describing the packs. I note that there are a few spelling errors on the page.

The Herb page, is a giant text wall listing off herbs. There is no table or attempt to make it organized except for the bolding of the herb names.

The Main Plot page, same as the AD... well almost. While the AD has no spelling mistakes that I saw, the one on the site DOES. Normally it's the other way around since you do it on the site, complete it and then make the AD after everything is finished.

The Application:
While this part of the site doesn't have anything special for the application this actually is probably where I have the most comments at this point. It says at the top that people are not required to fill in all the blank in the application. However... there are 5 or 6 blanks in total and these should all be filled in because of the lack of actual fields to fill.

Also, there is a spot for your rank and this I think actually doesn't need to be there. As far as I see there can be three ranks (At the time of this review) with my limited experience with Wolf RPs. They are: Pack Leader, Pack Member, and Rogue. This can all be settled after they have joined and commited to the site.

The Private Area:
Things are moving.... the text I mean, and it's not exactly my cup of tea. I'd rather have them stationary, but I suppose the site needs some kind of flair. At a quick glance I have no idea what half the links go to and only by looking at the URL did I know that where these links go to. Also there is a clear spelling error in a link... The opening news portion also helped me find the key to unlock one of the question I had, it tells you first off that head to OOC talk for some other rules. So I skipped over to there and what did I find? The Ranks! This is where they are, instead of being put on a general starting wolf info page it's in the forums.

And there are no other information pages so that means we move on to the next section.

Forums:
The forums are a giant wall, at least there is clear indication of where the section start with the green header but other than that its full on text from there without hotlinks to the subsections. There are decent descriptions for the forums and other than that it's the same as AR basic things.

Other:
Member profiles aren't exactly filled out to well, and those that do fill it out it's a few sentences at most. Mostly pictures. Some of the other things on the site I don't particularly understand, such as the moon... chart thing. Maybe it's essential to the RP for something but I didn't read anything about it.

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on this site I categorize as Beginner from what I read. RPing is done in the 3rd person.

Rating: 2.0 out of 10 Points.

Initially I was going to give this site a 3 out of 10, then something had dawned on me. There is no rules page for this site! You can have free for all anarchy here and it would techincally be within the rules. That and also spelling mistakes on the site while the AD was free of them as well as a site that generally appears to be not done.

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Soulmate [8.3/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/cupid/

This next site here is called Soulmate, a City RP but with a twist of course... Soulmates. That's right, on the site there is our loveable friend Cupid, upon joining you gain a soulmate which of course you have to figure out yourself! You can't pay off Cupid... (Well, maybe candy would work?)

Anyway, the AD for the site is short and sweet. I read it over a few times and that's all it really needs, City RP with soulmate twist... no need for fancy plot stories or anything. It works well for this particular kind of site. But I digress, onto the actual review...

First Impression:
The layout is as sweet as candy... and I HATE CANDY!! Seriously though I quite like the layout, it portrays the overall image of the site quite nicely. Nowhere am I bogged down with details like where it's at or other random information aside from being welcomed with a synopsis of the site (which is again on the AD).

The Public Area:
The rules are divided into two sections, general rules and application rules. The general rules are commonplace on all sites but I specifically like the application rules. It defines what is acceptable in your application and what you shouldn't do.

Only one small minor nitpick for me: The use of curse words in the rules page, even if the site were to be rated mature, in the public area of the site things should be parentally friendly in my opinion.

Since this site is not an original idea of the current site owner it is also nice to see that they have given credit to the original author on the Credits page.

The Application:
There is a nice table at the top indicating what kind of characters are being accepted and this is where I have my first nipick. The sexual orientations listed are: Straight, Gay/Lesbian, and Bisexual. Though I understand the use of both terms, "gay" can be used to describe same sex relationships on both genders. Or simply just use Heterosexual and Homosexual in lieu of Straight and Gay/Lesbian.

The Private Area:
Layout change! It's subtle though so it's the same effect if having the same layouts, overall the look is nice.

There is a map of the city that they are currently in, and here is where I have my next nitpick. There are names of roads and certain notable locations, however not all of the streets are named. This would be initially fine except those same streets have named locations (Swifty's, Baxter Cinema, etc.) .

Site Awards, I like this idea. While initially I thought this was where they put all those lovely awards they get (from such esteemed people like myself.... *cough* ), but in actuality these are awards they give to the members of their site. Like how in your high school year book everyone voted for best dressed and such. This is basically the same thing as that, with those who've earned those awards getting customized pictures for them.

Forums:
A good bit of forums on the site, all with detailed descriptions. And again it's time to put on the broken record... With all the forums the scroll bar suffers, while this is mitigated somewhat with the hotlinks to the sections (and subsequent 'Back to Top' links) since the forums are divided into sections the forums can be divided like such as well.

Again a small nitpick here, when you go into the forums to the individual topics. All the topics are in a red background which spans across the remainder of the page with the text in white. All that red hurts my eyes. Perhaps changing the red from spanning across the page to maybe 75 to 80 percent would offset this.

(Note: If you are looking at the site forums hover over the forum section title you are on, and then click! It changes!)

Other:
The member profiles are generally all filled out very nicely some with pictures some without but overall very nice. Here is where I'd like to point out the message alert, it's very nice. You'll always know when it's "Mail Time!" and won't be leaving message laying in your inbox for too long.

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on this site I catagorize as Intermediate to Advanced from what I read. As the rules state, it is done in the 3rd person.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10 Points.

This City RP is definetly one of the better ones I've seen out there, with the soulmate twist it makes for a much more viable and long-lasting RP than those who simply go about daily life. The small little details for the site, such at the PM notification, and the forum headers changing fonts when clicked are nice bonuses. The site community also seems very nice when I was lurking about their Cbox, again overall very nice.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

High Risk, No Return [4.0/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/BleachClan/


High Risk, No Return is a Bleach RP next on the list. This site allows both Canon and Non-Canon characters to interact and develop with the plot. Now as for the AD, its there... There isn't really any thing quirky or interesting to draw anyone to the site it's more or less a list of what is inside.

First Impression:
"Meh" , that's my first impression at this point. The Layout is alright I suppose and I see that they tried to make it blend with the red background and stick with a theme but it doesn't really work for me. Also, there is no text for the front page aside from the default stuff you get from making a site. That should have at least been changed to some random, cookie cutter welcoming comment. The red text on the picture is hard to read which thankfully is only the headers as opposed to the links. Also when you are logged in and you go back to the index page the "You are already logged in." comment is in white and is in front of a white section in the picture, I didn't even notice it was there until I accidently hovered over it. Finally there is a "Links" section, and a "Pages" section, these seems redunant and should be consolidated into one column of links.

The Public Area:
First off, "Stand Alone Appy" if they meant "apply", then that needs to be fixed if they intented "Appy" ... then they need to change it to "Apply". "Appy" is not one of the words I want to see when I'm looking to apply. Layout image problems at the bottom when the page (Rules page, Stand alone app page)

The rules page, on first glance is broken up into OOC and IC rules which is fine. On a more detailed inspection here are a few nitpicks I have:

1. Ships aim your cannons on the starboard horizon and fire on my signal! Cannons again, should be "canon".

2. Telling a potential member to "Go look it (powerplaying/godmoding) up" isn't exactly portraying of a welcoming environment.

3. Use of curse words on the RULES page? That's a big no-no from me.

4. "Everyone has limits" rule falls under Godmoding, therefore is redundant.

The Plot page, is a link (which is not coded correctly, mind you) to a forum which has the plot summarized in a paragraph or two (and is on the AD anyway) ! Why not just copy/paste that thing right back into the page? Short-cuts do not work for RP sites that plan to last for more than a few months.

As for the site wide plot, it's rather weak. It's a fairly common starting point however so no major points will be lost because of it but again, plot is weak because it isn't explained so well.

My suggestion would be to create a mini story out of it, get a creative writer to write something nice. This would be much better than the "Hey, look it happened so deal with it" approach that seems to be the case as it stands.

The rest of the pages, have no content... if I see an AD I consider the RP site finished or at to a point where 90% of the information is presentable.

The Application:
Overall it is the same as the rest with the exception that they add boxes for the Bleach objects. A normal application.

The Private Area:
There is no layout switch between Public and Private which is nice however those things that I said about the public layout still apply here. Red text on the picture is hard to read, also the "Pages" section on the left column has nothing on it. There is no reason for it to be there if no other pages are existent.

There are no new information pages that I see in the members area, so that means we move on to...

Forums:
The recent posts are before the forums, which I actually like a bit. It is where it makes the most sense to be, however, the forums themselves are not so great. the OOC pages are equal to the IC pages more or less, the descriptions seemed to be just churned out to get done as opposed to making them meaningful.

Also the forums are one long list, there are no breaks in between the section. No picture to ease the list, no direct hotlinks to the subsections of the forum, no text size increase to even indicate a different section just a minor background change. Also.. there are some spelling errors in there, I'm not going to point them out.

Other:
Member profiles are ... kinda filled out. Some leave "Will fill in soon!" though this should have been done at the application stage. If it's in the application there is no excuse for it to not be filled.

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on the site is Intermediate to High-Intermediate from what I read. As the rules state, they are in 3rd person past tense.

Rating: 4.0 out of 10 Points.*

Overall it seems like your average Bleach RP, there is a minor plot which will probably evolve over time which has some promise depending on how the admins take it. The main reasoning for the lower than average score is that half the pages aren't filled out and lots of easy stuff that should have been done aren't. For that reason I will re-review this site at a later date when hopefully these issues will be fixed and a review based on its content can be made.


Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

JACFC [9.3/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/JACFC/

Just Another Chocolate Frog Card, or JACFC for short, (which I'm sure many are thankful for..) is a RP site in the realm of Harry Potter several centuries ahead of the canon storyline. The AD has all the needed information one would need for the site, including the rather humorous beginning:

"Your favorite Harry Potter character...

...IS DEAD. They died. And so did all their little friends and enemies. In fact, everyone died- and not a sad, dramatic way, either. Old age got most of them- that's what happens when the wizarding world has moved past Harry Potter's time by about five centuries."

That little thing right there already showed me that this site is going to be well worth any time I spend browsing the site for this review. Now prepare yourselves for my review and watch out for that flying chair! "Wingardium Levio-sa!" (Ahh crap! It's Levi-osa!)

First Impression:
Wow.... simply, Wow. I love the layout, everything is easily able to be read and if you don't like reading white on black well that's just fine because they put a brownish background on the text. This gives it a more scribed feel even though it's the same old text you're reading right now.


The Public Area:
Very nice, everything is all neatly organized . The rules pages is sectioned off into OOC and IC rules and at the bottom is where the application link is to facilitate some sense of actually reading the rules. There is also some more background information to facilitate the general mood of the site which explains some of the finer points of the site itself.

I have no other comments because the rest of the site is up to par with the rules and background information -- very high. However there is one thing I want to point out, the Student Ranks page is very detailed and appealing to the eye, however I wonder why this particular part isn't centered like all the other parts of the site? I took a quick peek at the source code and it doesn't seem that it would be too much hassle to center it.

Aside from that I have one more minor nitpick, the font, it's a bit small for me. That may be because of my screen resolution so this isn't anything major.

The Application:
The application for this site is more or less the general norm, asking for personality, history, etc. etc. Nothing major worth noting or any innovative things here.

The Private Area:
First thing I noticed about the layout, I found a chocolate frog! ..And it congratulated me! I am so special... *cough* . The second thing I noticed is that the layout is still as clean cut as the public area, it's different yet the majority of sites have the layout in this fashion. The Cbox is a staple in many sites now and this one is no exception, it fits nicely however the "Recent Threads" and "Who's Online" is under it so that makes it a bit out of the way. Looking at the layout though, there isn't much else they can put it since they use the space effectively.

As what seems to be the norm, the member pages are super secret information and I cannot access the wondrous info on Hogwarts and the like. However I'm sure the info is all very nicely organized...

Forums:
Ah the forums, again what seems to be the page lengthener for all. There are a good amount of forums with decent descriptions, and these forums are divided up into categories. To facilitate quicker navigation, the site links to the sections which take you directly to that section BUT, the return link to the top (at the time of this writing) doesn't not work because somebody forgot to code out the anchor.

...Which I shall be pointing out on their Cbox so I assume it shall be fixed before anyone decides to actually read this...

Members Page:
Each member is given their own little stub which shows their avatar and some little bits of info. With the amount members they have however, efficiency trumps flashy things on a member list.

Other:
Member profiles I viewed were very nicely filled out with lots of information pertaining to their character. Even those who had not logged in seemed to have their profile nicely filled out, which means the applications are generally very good.

Roleplaying:
The roleplaying on the site is Intermediate to Advanced, generally leading towards the advanced side. As it states in the rules the RP is done is past tense, 3rd person with no unnecessary fluff.

Rating: 9.3 out of 10 Points.
(Note: As I was unable to view the private pages, this prevents the score from going any higher.)

This site is clearly one of the top RP sites I believe to be in existence, and there is no question as to why the site has so many members. When I first saw the site I was immediately enticed to join and that is one of the many things about it which earns this high rating. I expect this site to be one of the few and far between to get such a high rating.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Succession [8.0/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/Succession/

The next RP on the list is a mutant wolf RP set in a world where humans have died off and left the world to the wolves (literally). The teaser for the site is detailed with the full story of the RP along with a quick rundown of the rules and some other do and do not's.

First Impressions:
The layout lends itself to the mood of the site and the actual main picture at the top of the page. The picture also seems to be a representation of a reformed Pangaea after a drastic climate change and great continental shift.

I have no complaints about the public layout, any point where the opacity might possibly create a harder environment to read the text the staff has offset it by bolding the text or by other means.

The Public Area:
The rules page is very nicely organized in an outline format, with quick links to each particular section. This makes reading the rules at least for me much easier since they're organized per section, not numbered individually.

(Small nitpick on the rules: I've always known where you are essentially invincible as "God Moding" not, "God Modding". Generally not a problem, it's explained so it won't be confusing.)

Minor comment about the Aging rule, it says you may possibly get banned from aging your wolf too fast, while I'm not the expert on wolf roleplays in the least this I think is a bit odd. There is no reason I would see why anyone would age their wolf faster, as the aging system is lenient already.
(I suppose if you want to get past the infant stage perhaps the premature aging is plausible)

The Wolf Guide page is also in the same line of organization as the rules, in an outline format and although text heavy, the nature of the RP more or less calls for it if one wants to have attention to detail.

The Application:
The application itself is more or less the same as any other, allowing the lack of a personality or history so one can fill it out after acceptance. There is however, one little thing that draws my attention. On the application it asks you to describe... you.

I question the staff for putting this in the application. This is the internet, land of lies, deceit and false hopes.

The Private Area:
The layout is the same as the public one, which is always a plus as it doesn't disorient the user or any guests who want to check out the site. The news is at the top of the page in a frame and is rather small for my tastes, however with the relocation of the news page it allows for direct access to the forums as opposed to navigating to another page.

The rest of the pages I am unable to access but all the information needed is in the public area for the application and furthering your wolf character.

Forums:
There are quite a bit of forums and also separated into Lands and the IC forums are given nice pictures to go along with the descriptions. The problem is generally the same in all forums, there are so many that you have to scroll quite a ways. As opposed to previous pages, the forums aren't given links directly to the sections as in the wolf guide in its sections.

Members Page:
This site sorts the users into packs (or Rogues if they have none) and it looks like those that are actually in a pack have custom avatars.

Other:
The member profiles I viewed were filled out rather nicely, and the profile itself has a nice layout. Overall very nice.

Roleplaying:
The level of roleplaying on the site is intermediate to advanced, leaning towards the advanced side in terms of length. There is no unnecessary fluff in the posts and all posts are done in the 3rd person.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10 Points.

This site overall is very nice, having an interesting storyline to go along with their roleplay. Overall I have no major slights against the site, however for me it lacks a certain aura that would draw people in. Rather this is the sort of site you'd love if you're looking for one of this genre.


This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Blood Lust [8.5/10]*

http://www.acornrack.com/Blood_Lust/

The second RP I'm reviewing is a vampire, modern slave RP called Blood Lust. While the teaser doesn't effect the score in anyway I just wanted to point out that the teaser does its job well. The plot has a nice twist to it and even though I'm sure it probably has been done before, those same little twists make it original enough to attract a good member base.

First Impression:
The layout, I like it. The colors are nice and attribute to the dark, vampiric nature of the site and the layout itself is simple, yet very neat and organized.

The Public Area:
The Rules page... or rather the Laws page is very organized, I very much like that the staff can count and they have TWO golden rules, and.. there are TWO rules! The rest of the rules are divided into OOC and IC rules which are nice for quick reference, however I have 2 small nitpicks on the rules.

1. While the organization of the rules are nice, there is so much text that the rules page is fairly intimidating.

2. The little analogies used at the end don't work for me, taking jabs at Michael Jackson: that's a no. And don't try to fit a circle in a square? I did it, it's called inscribing.

(Small nitpick: no pictures from the caste of Twilight, fairly certain it's supposed to be "cast")

The Creatures page, lots of text again but nicely organized so at least it looks nice. Lopsided amount of information on Lycans and Vampires compared to Humans, but that's not too much a problem. Now for the small nitpicks:

1. Humans being the most powerful beasts: Not true in the slightest, Lions, Tigers and Bears (OH MY!) are clearly stronger beasts.

2. Though it states 'gifted humans' have abilities always of mental nature, it seems kind of vague. Powers that involve mental nature include: Pyrokinesis, Cryokinesis, Telekinesis, Mind Reading, Mind Control etc. etc. Perhaps a more defining term would be more suited (unless this is the intended reading of the rule).

3. In the vampires section it is clearly stated that vampires have Mental/Psychic abilities. While it seems that the vampires are more limited than the humans it is infact the opposite that they have the same limitation. The slash indicates "or" so it is read as: Dark Gifts are inheritable and always of Mental OR Psychic Abilities. In essence you've used more words to accomplish the same thing in the humans.

I have no problems with the Lycan section, it seems to answer all questions of how these are to be portrayed.

The information on the location of the RP is something the rest of the site should take after, short and to the point. While long descriptions are nice at times before joining it might be easier to keep things light and to the point and in the members area have all the heavy detailed descriptions.

The Application:
I really like that the availability for each position is posted on the page, and the application itself is rather straightforward. For all the text and the information of the site, the application is the odd one out here. Though it makes complete sense, there is no need for someone to think up a character history and personality and such only to be declined because their RP level wasn't as high as desired.

The Private Area:
The layout is also very nice and everything has its own little place. I have no complaints, all the links are nicely organized and any clutter is taken care of because of the links across the top of the page.

Forums:
There are a good amount forums for the site but yet again I have a few small nitpicks. With all the long descriptions for the forums it elongates the page and there is a rather simple code to have separate pages for the forums by means of arrays. This solve more or less the few nitpicks I have but otherwise I have no problems.

Members Page:
Just wanted to point this point because, I love it. It's all separated by user level and you can see avatars of each individual which are all pictures of their respective character on the site. Very nice.

Other:
Members profiles are very nice, probably due to the time they have to construct it because it is done AFTER the application is accepted.

There is quite a bit more information in this area and the length is fine since you're already comitted to the cause at this point. I DO have a problem however with the font, it is quite small and with all the text you need to read it's troublesome.

Role Playing:
The level of Roleplay on this site is as it says in the rules, Intermediate to Advanced - though most that I've seen are more towards the Advanced level. There is no unecessary fluff, and each post contributes to the furthering of the RP.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Points.

Overall a very nice site, there are some minor things here and there which I think might be explained in the FAQ however, from the perspective on somewhat solely basing their opinion on the public area those issues still need to be addressed. While there is quite a bit of information one needs to process for the site, everything looks neat and organized enough so it doesn't become too large of a problem.

This Site has the Jello Seal of Approval!

Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

Windriver Valley [4.5/10]

http://www.acornrack.com/windriver/

This website has the honor of being the first of many site reviews that I hope to bring to this website. Now without further ado the review which I'm sure, at least one person, is waiting for.

First Impression:
Well, the front page is rather bland... the single picture in the middle with the horses is nice but it is too small and is disproportionate to the rest of the page to create any real impact on me as a whole.

(Note: This will not effect the score, however on FireFox3 the front page layout doesn't work so well, the mouse disappears from site and it's rather hard to navigate. Internet Explorer however works fine which is what the majority of this review is being based on.)

Truthfully I did not even notice the "Menu" was there until I accidentally hovered over it to reveal the rules, and apply page.

The Iframe for the rules/apply page doesn't align into the image where I assume it's supposed to be. While it isn't too big of a deal, it's something I want to point out. Also, the background image itself interferes when reading the text.


The Rules:
The Golden Rule... this indicates that there is one main rule that has high priority over all the others, yet there are quite a bit more from what I see.

"Respect your fellow players, respect the staff, and respect the site. Keep swearing limited out of character, and be mindful of others’ feelings. There should be no god-moding or power-playing in any post (unless agreed upon between players). "

1. Respect your fellow players.
2. Respect the staff.
3. Respect the site. (I don't personally know how you would disrespect one, but I digress)
4. Limited swearing when OOC.
5. Be mindful of others feelings. (Redundant, this should fall under respecting others)
6. No god moding or power playing (unless agreed upon beforehand)

The rest of the rules seemed fine, I'm not too experienced in the ways of horse RP so I assume all the rules here are the norm. I will say that I did have trouble reading throughout till the end because of the confined space and interference from the image like I stated before.

The Application:
Nice and simple, the only problem I have with it is that it says "rank" ... Now I'm fairly sure I've read through all the material on the front page and I don't remember any instances where you define what rank they should be. I even went back into the rules page and searched for rank and those findings brought up each section in the rules but none which contained information about the ranks themselves.

Into the Site:
First thing that comes into mind when I enter the members area of the site, "Whoa! Layout change!" Also, the particular layout is too wide for my screen and have to use the scroll bars and I'm not a fan of the colors. While generally it seems I'm not missing anything just the sight of those bars plants the thought that I simply might if I don't check. The recent threads section is somewhat out of the way, being under the cbox and I didn't know it was there until I had to scroll down on the forums page.

Forums:
There is a good amount of forums with nice detailed descriptions of each and that creates a problem itself. While it's nice to have all those long descriptions, my scroll bar suffers from going through looking for what I need to find. Other than that issue everything seems nice.

Other:
Members profiles seems rather nice for the ones I skimmed through, some had too many images for my taste and the background and writing text seemed to clash on others. But overall seemed good. Any of the member pages were blocked from my view so I am to assume at this point that all the information needed for the site has been properly explained.

Roleplaying:
The RP's that I looked at seemed to RP at an intermediate level, though most seemed to me a bit word happy to me. Describing every nuance and little thing distracted me from the point they were trying to get across, while others RP'd at a different POVs,(1st person to 3rd person) which also distracted me from trying to understand the whole thread. Truthfully I kept reading one persons post throughout one of the threads I looked at because it was the only way I could understand what was happening without having to read through 5 adjectives per object and it accomplished everything it needed to do without any fluff.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10 Points.*

This site didn't have anything that drew me in that I might even consider on joining on. While initially it would have an average rating of 5, the little problems here and there along with the layout and what seemed be some lack of information for ranks brings the score down to a 4.5.


Reviewed by: The Jello Emperor

The Introduction

First of all I'd like to say welcome to my little blog, while normally I would create a new Acorn Rack website in which to hold these reviews. It came to my mind that just using a simple blog would be both easier and less time consuming on my part because I don't need to fuss with layout creation.

The main purpose of this little blog is to rate and review the many RP's out on Acorn Rack. There are many RPs out there and obviously not all of them are as "user friendly" or as well thought out than others. In the blog posts following I would like to try to create some sense of order and review each site appropriately and give them a rating.

I'd like to personally say that I'm going to RATE sites, not rant on every little minute detail. I don't really care if you're using 12.375 font and I think it should be just 12. I don't care that your colors are cliche and have been used on every Dark RP out there, what works... works. Finally, I'm only generally going to write what I think is necessary (Unless I give a warning and feel bored at the time...) I'm not going to always say "Woo there are names on the member list!", everyone knows that! I want to provide good general criticism without harping on superficialities.

As for the rating system it will be a culmination of several factors and be done on a 10 point scale, with 1 being the absolute lowest, 5 being average, and 10 being the model of perfection people should model future RPs after. I reiterate, a score of 5 is not BAD nor GOOD, just average.. this isn't school grades we're talking about. Expect the majority to be 3-8's, with 1, 2, 9 and 10 being extreme outliers.

Every so often I shall institute a Score Review, at this time all sites rated prior to the date shall be re-looked over and their scores may have a possible revision. This is to ensure to get a more accurate score by eliminating any prejudice that may be had at the time or personal issues. Note that a Score Review is not a full review, so if there have been changes to the site it may not be noticed.

For the comments I include I would also like to point out that I will try to be brutally honest, beating around the bush is not my style and (generally...) I am not trying to be rude or mean-spirited or anything like that. Also the paradox which is reviewing, I will do my best to leave my opinions at the door (mouse click?) and review things only from a practical standpoint.

For now I (The Jello Emperor) am the only reviewer, but as time passes I hope to add others who will aid me in my quest to bring order to the chaos in Acorn Rack.

I've been personally involved in the RP scene for at least 10 years by creating, managing, and helping others on projects both in the times long ago on AvidGamers and now Acorn Rack.

Note:

I will try my best to be as comprehensive and thorough as possible. While I may not correct every spelling mistake, harp on grammar and whatnot, I shall try to do so as overall it adds professionalism to the site.

Also, if you are the owner of the site I review and feel that I need to re-review it (due to changes to the site feel free to contact me in someway.)

Contact Information:
AR2 Screenname: Jello Emperor
AR2 Forum Thread: AcornRack Link
AIM: TheJelloEmperor
MSN: TheJelloEmperor (at) hotmail.com
Yahoo: TheJelloEmperor
E-Mail: TheJelloEmperor (at) hotmail.com

At this point this is the only way to contact me, I will try to check on a daily basis however for messages.