Nak tulis pasal Redmummy kena la letak header dia kan? HAHA.

Say what? Another entry of Redmummy? WTF man, you’ve already reviewed her whatt? You got a crush on her meh? You got fetish for somebody’s wife meh? *I can hear some of you screaming something along this line*

No, no. I am just trying my luck in entering her contest. This is my first time I bother myself with blog competition, so gimme a break will ya? She offers a Hugo Boss perfume as the grand prize and I am just bored and need some reason to update my own blog. And no, please don’t break my lovely girlfriend’s heart by saying I got some weird fetish for married older woman. I am so in love with my current girlfriend and I am very happy with our relationship (p/s: kalau menang barang-barang pompuan nanti I bagi u ye sayang? ).

So the blog entry is supposed to comment or review on her blog and not herself. On the another entry I openly said that I am impressed on her success, so I guess that’s disqualified because I talked about her as a person. Let’s talk about her blog as a..website. Plus, I am an IT technical person. Commenting on blogs and websites are as easy as eating peanut.

Here’s my constructive feedbacks on Redmummy.com as a website. Let’s start with the negative things first (no hard feelings eh kipas-susah-mati Kak Red ):

1. The blog is goddamn slow to be load.
2. Too many ads, widgets, and other things cluttering the sidebar and not pleasing to the eyes.
3. Comments are enabled on almost every pages, even when it is not necessary.
4. WordPress backend system is not updated.
5. Due to #2, the navigation of the overall sites is moderate (not easy; not so hard; but still some learning curve needed).
6. WTF with the two icons at the bottom (left and right) of the screen?

I am going to elaborate more on the negativity of the website from the IT technical guy point of view (aka geek eyes), which in return might make you feels like I am sabotaging her websites or something. NO. This is for her improvement that can be done. Yes, I will still mention the good bits below, because credit needs to be given where credit is due.

Alright, here’s the positive things:

1. Consistent writing have ensured steady and rising traffic.
2. Redmummy is like a cult for the women now. Topic covered is highly related to the general community.
3. WordPress are being utilized properly; things like Sticky posts, pages, nested comments etc are being used.
4. Contents are writen in funny and light mood. Very nice and suitable for light reading.
5. Interactions between the writer with readers are high. Most comments are being replied.
6. Integrations with Facebook and Twitter are sufficient.

I believe the positive points are more on Kak Red as a person and it plays an important part on making her blog a success. I won’t comment much on her positive points then, because it’s already written in the previous post. Belen aa sket, 1 entry positif-positif, 1 entry kutuk-kutuk skettt..

Elaboration: Negative #1.

Aiyoh ashterix (ini laki Kak Red tu haaa, admin Redmummy), why la so slow to load the web? I used a Maxis broadband and the time taken to get it fully loaded is nearly two minutes – what’s with all the pictures, backgrounds and everything also in image format. Tak masuk ads atau widget loading time lagi tu!

Using WordPress, I would recommend that you explore the cache plugin or something to reduce the load time. Seriously, check your website on Alexa for the loading time. I check it just now and here’s the screenshot.

Very slow meh! Haiyooooooo!!! You really need to plan for web expansion – maybe bandwidth need to be increased or you need to have your own dedicated server to host Redmummy.com?

This brings me to the second point.

Elaboration: Negative #2, #3, #5 and #6.

I’ve got to say this – there’s too many ads and the arrangement is not good. First time users who read this blog can easily be confused or lost their way navigating the blogs. Since Redmummy.com is a popular site, I’ve got to compare it to similar websites – and I thought JustKhai.com is more or less in the same category of entertainment websites.

But the ads, widgets, and sidebar arrangement in JustKhai.com is much more.. pleasing to the eyes, so to speak.

And what’s with the comments on every pages? I think on the Red Index page (the archive page) or the About Red / Red on Media, no need to enable the comment box lor! You’re using WordPress you can disable it lorr~ *facepalm*

The function of pages are to enable separation of information based on the category you set. Usually, not all pages need to have comment boxes. For the archive page or “About Me” page, usually people don’t put the comment boxes because usually not many people commenting on that. Then why lor not disable it? It just looks… unprofessional in some way.

That clutters of ads and widgets and boxes where it is not needed lead to the explanation of reason #5 – it doesn’t give readers a pleasant experience surfing it. Sure, your contents and your writing have attracted your own cults, but for those who are new to your website, it is not easy.

You called an archive page as Index page. In web programming, index page is usually the home page. Oh well, the point here is – it takes time to be familiar with Redmummy.com.

And yes, I am annoyed with those two boxes at the bottom of the page – the Twitter and Facebook icon as well as the GBM icon. If I am surfing at the office (where my monitor resolution is bigger), it doesn’t bother the eyes – but try to view it in 1024 x 768 resolution. Kacau siot nak baca entry, tibe tibe ada kotak bergantung-gantung kat bawah tu haaa!

Elaboration: Negative #4.

I don’t want to talk about family security or the risk involved in exposing your family to the world. I guess Kak Red has already taken enough counter-measure to ensure her family’s safety while being able to talk about them in her blog. But from the web security point of view, I don’t think she has taken enough measure.

People can easily get her WordPress version by registering to the WordPress (even though you don’t need to register to comment the entries).

People can easily see that her WordPress are not being updated as of recent.

People can easily finds vulnerability and then try to hack the blog.

Kak Red, jaga-jaga weiihh. WordPress 2.9 tu da lama tuuuu.

Call me paranoid. After all, who wants to hack a blog? Well, people are unpredictable. I have been hacked once. Just for the sake of learning or for fun, I am not sure. But the risk is always there. Why laaa you don’t upgrade your WordPress? Kang menanges tengok blog tu kena hack kang. Sedangkan blog saya yang takde orang baca ni pun pernah kena hack Kak Red oi!

*Huish tengok tengok dah 1000++ words dah aku mengarut? *

Alright, I don’t wish you to puke reading this post. For the good thing, I’ve already mentioned it in the previous post. That post by itself have more positive things that amazed me on what blogs and normal people can achieve. So, click the link to read the good side of Redmummy – as a person, and as a blog writer.

P/s: Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get – Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds.