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Ringet Loris
Originality: Misty Moors is very much your typical, stereotype Redwall club. Neither part of its name is original – there are a few “Misty” or “Mist” clubs around, and a couple of “Moors”. Most of the activities are not original, however, one contest took my attention. This was to write a story using basically all the heroes throughout the Redwall series versus any villains that you like. I haven’t seen much like this before. Also, the webmaster has an unusual character. Iggersen (Iggs, Igger, Iggypiggy, Iggsypoo) is a platypus – he is the first of his type I’ve met in the ROC.
However, there are some unusual features at Misty Moors, notably a Wishing Well. I don’t know whether your wishes will come true, but it’s worth a try!
Creativity: Iggarsen has used a banner designed expressly for Misty Moors by one of his members, Congrat, as a background. This is very effective and creative. A lot of Igger’s own work is featured on the site. Unfortunately, the activities for Misty Moors are again your typical Redwall club features and they don’t require anything from the member that they couldn’t give at most other clubs.
Updates: Misty Moors is not updated as frequently as possible. There are many opportunities I know of when Iggarsen could have updated – because he was online - but didn’t. Because of this, now his members only have ten days to participate in one contest – and many people do not check their email during that time.
Navigability: The links are laid out in typical style for most webpages:- at the left hand side of the page. There is no problem with this, as it is obvious where they are and thus you have no trouble finding your way around. All the links to areas of his site work; there are no broken links that I could find.
Effort: Iggarsen is still very much a novice in the art of web site building, but he seems to put his all into Misty Moors. He had no help in the actual building of it, although he did have help in some of the activities – suggestions from his friends. He has great hopes for the future of Misty Moors and if he keeps on plodding onwards, he should soon achieve them.
Activities: Unfortunately, the activities at Misty Moors are very much your typical Redwall club activities. There are stories, poems and riddles to write and read, and contests to enter. A PALS has just began, but that is all. Poems, stories and riddles have been gathered together in a very effective way, in collections called “Igg’s Big Book of…”.
Achievement: The site has not yet fulfilled all of Iggarsen’s ambitions, but it is certainly an amazing achievement for someone who has never built a website before. Apparently it just came to him on a whim, and he started building it. Misty Moors has only been online since August 12th 2001, so he has done very well in his first 5 months.
Initial Impression: The front page is very well done. When you see the banner, you think “Wow, this site’s gonna be amazing! I’d really like to see what it’s like!”. However, the banner takes a while to load up, and the text is in white on a white background, so you can only see the red links straight away. Not many of the places have inventive names, so that is a bit disappointing. But I would still explore further…
Legibility: Apart from the problem with the slow loading of the banner at the start, everything is clear and easy to understand. You can find your way around easily, and Iggs never talks to you in circles. At the moment Iggs is having problems with the forms for joining, but this is clearly explained to the members-to-be, and apologies are made. Iggs hopes to sort this out soon.
Atmosphere: Misty Moors has an excellent atmosphere right from the very first word. It is a goodbeast club, so there is good humour all round, which is harder to find in vermin clubs. Also, the message board is very lively and the members will talk you to death if you’re not careful. They are all good natured and will help you with ~almost~ anything. But beware if you’re looking for escape routes – you can’t get away from them (for long)! There are no vermin rivals or goodbeast allies.
Viewer Appeal – 71% http://home.earthlink.net/~brucebumgarner/ Misty Moors is owned by and copyrighted to Iggersen the Platypus.
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