Five Best and Worst Websites

Five Best Websites

KawaiiKakkoiiSugoi- I actually found out about this website the other day. In Japanese, kawaii means cute and this website definitely is cute. The colors are perfect and appropriate to the name of the site and the content that is posted. The navigation is also simple to use, which I really would like on my own website. Everything is separated in terms of content and it is organized perfectly.

http://www.kawaiikakkoiisugoi.com/

AllKPop- It took me a while to get used to the new layout of the website, but this layout seemed more organized than the other one. For starters, I like that it has the past seven days feature on the site. You can click on a date and go view the articles posted on that day. It saves the time of you trying to search for a certain article. Also, all the follow links are placed together on the right of the site. I like everything to have their own section, and AllKPop is a good example of that.
http://www.allkpop.com/

OtakuJournalist - I did a mini presentation on this site in my COM 302 class. The site has changed dramatically and it works. I like how simple the website looks. There isn't an influx of graphics and buttons on the site, which I would use on my website.
http://otakujournalist.com/

La Carmina - La Carmine basically has my dream job and her blog is very nice. I love the graphics and artwork that she has on the banner. It's aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
http://www.lacarmina.com/blog/

TokyoFashion - Some of the sections on this website are a little cluttered, but I like how they arrange their photos in the photo section. It's an organized way to show pictures, and can be used for other media.
http://tokyofashion.com/

Five Worst Sites(yuck!)

Craigslist - Even though Craigslist is a well known and used site, it's absolutely hideous. The only colors I see are blue, black and white. The colors make the website looks bland and it makes me take the site less seriously. Also, the personal section is only in black and the blue is really obnoxious;it's pretty bright and ugly in my opinion.  Another thing is that the words are all cramped together. The sections looks like they have no space whatsoever; it makes it less organized.
http://buffalo.craigslist.org/

The Big Ugly Website- This site lives up to its name. It's absolutely hideous, I don't even know where to start. First, there's a multitude of random colors and graphics. The background is an ugly bright yellow. The font is not consistent at all. It's just a big, ugly mess.
http://thebiguglywebsite.com/

Xanga - I used to blog on this site when I was younger, but I never liked the design for it. It's boring and bland and it's not exciting. Nothing makes me want to stay there for no more than five seconds. The bar on the bottom is annoying and pointless to me. I'm sure a lot of people just exit out of it and never use it. Also, the boxes on the bottom look weird. I feel that the advertisements should be on the sides instead of in ugly boxes on the bottom.
http://www.xanga.com/

AnimeCrazy - This is a good anime site, but the website design is quite ugly. There are sections that shouldn't be on the front page. They should be in their own sections on the top of the page. The organization is sub-par, but it could be improved on more.
http://www.animecrazy.net/

Misspheonixrightxxxx.piczo.com - Ew, just ew. Especially putting Phoenix Wright's name to shame and spelling it wrong. The background is neon green. All the content is aligned to the left and it's compacted together making it hard to read. Also, music plays on this site and it's loud and annoying. There's isn't even an option to turn it off.
http://mizzpheonixrightxxxx.piczo.com/?cr=3

Five Organizations on Twitter

AllKPop- AllKPop is interesting to me because I check the site daily for news on Korean pop culture. It's not the best site as far as being unbiased and providing factual information (in a nutshell, translators have screwed up a lot in the past and there are certain groups that they tend to favor), but out of all the other sites this is the best one. If I followed AllKPop on Twitter, I would definitely find the news faster than just from scrolling through the site. It seems like they post the articles on Twitter links as well.

Sally Hansen- Sally Hansen is an organization/business that sells beauty products. The most popular product would have to be nail polish, and I absolutely love collecting nail polish and doing nail art. I would follow the Sally Hansen page for special coupons and information about new nail polish colors and products.

FUNimation - I love anime (no, that does not make me a nerd), and FUNimation is one of the sites that I watch my anime from. They air a bunch of animes on their Youtube page and also sell many titles in stores. I would follow this organization to find out about new animes coming out and news about anime in general.

Sanrio - Sanrio, the home of Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty is my absolute favorite out of all the characters. Sanrio also sells a lot of Hello Kitty and merchandise of other characters such as Chococat, Cinnamoroll, and many others. I would follow this Twitter for sales and information about new products that they're coming out with.

Influenster - Influenster is a fairly new organization that I found out about from my aunt. The site sends you free, full sized items in a box called a VoxBox. You don't always get a box each month, they only select a bunch of people at random to receive the boxes. In return, the site wants you to give your honest opinions on the products. It's a win win situation right there.  I would follow this Twitter for hints on the items in the boxes. Also, to hear more news about the site since it is fairly new. It would be interesting to see what they are planning to do and how they are going to continue as a organization/business.

Here is my Twitter link:
https://twitter.com/#!/PriorCom336

Blogging vs. Microblogging

To me, microblogging has more freedom than blogging. I've done both and they are very different, but similar.
One microblogging site that I frequent everyday is Tumblr. Microblogging doesn't really require any thought at all. For example, you can simply post a picture or a quote or reblog a post without any thought. Tumblr is more of a collage of ideas and pictures for me, since that is what I post on a regular basis. You're going to have your Tumblrs that pertain to a specific topic, but basically you can do whatever you want and no one really cares, except your followers to an extent.
Blogging on the other hand, requires a little more thought. I think from my blogging experience, I put a lot of thought into my blog because I wanted people to read and like what I had to say, so I put more effort into it. I would edit a lot of my posts to either add more or change some of my words around. For my Tumblr, I really don't put that much effort other than my theme layout. Everything else that I post, I could really care less. For blogging, it seems like you have to care more and put thought into your words. Either way, you still want people to see your blog at the end of the day.

Microblogging is different from social networks because there is less socializing on microblogs to an extent. On microblogs, you have followers but it's not as personal as Facebook. Plus, I believe that Twitter posts can be seen by anyone unless you protect your tweets. Another difference is that on microblogs, information travels faster than Facebook ever could. It's a little hectic because sometimes when I'm on Tumblr, people will purposely post things just to either gain more views or just to troll the heck out of everyone. It's hard to decide what is facts and what is fiction when it comes to microblogs.

I have used Twitter before, but I don't use it that often. The first time that I made a Twitter account, it was in my COM 303 class. We had to make a Twitter account and then we had to find some newspapers that had Twitters and write a summary about the things that they posted on there. We also had certain beats, or topics, that we had to cover for the whole semester. My beat was the alumni association at Buffalo State. For another assignment, I had to follow at least five people who were associated with the alumni association, and find a couple of events that they were planning throughout the semester to help me with some story ideas. We only used Twitter for a couple weeks and then we never went back to it.
I sometimes use that Twitter account for international fan voting for Mnet Countdown (where all my beloved K-pop stars perform) and to follow celebrities that I like. I rarely go on it, but when I do I use it for those purposes.

Facebook Groups

After going through my original post and finding that three out of five did have Facebooks (they didn't have one when I checked the sites), I did The Western New York Linux Users Group, Speaking for Animals, Inc., and Georgie's Bakery and Cafe. Here are the group links:

Western New York Linux Users Group:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/391508810878611/

Speaking for Animals, Inc.:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/251852594908946/

Georgie's Bakery and Cafe:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/392519780758780/

Communication and Facebook

Communication is essential for a successful Facebook group and event page. Even though it literally takes no more than five minutes to get your page up and running, it really isn't a "good" Facebook page unless you start to generate some communication with users, such as feedback.
Facebook basically runs on the people and the communication that users have with each other. Without users or an audience for a group or page, a Facebook page is literally dead. Although you may spend a lot of time working on making your Facebook group/event the best that you can, the users really keep the page alive and running.

Also, pictures, music, etc. can help keep communication alive on a group page. I feel that adding pictures and other media to your group or event keep Facebook users interested. It also makes them stay longer in the group. No one wants to see a dead group on Facebook. If you don't have at least something with your group page to catch their eye or don't take the time to keep it up, users are more apt to become bored or uninterested with your page and never come back. For Facebook, it's not that hard to forget about a group or page. You just move to the next one. It also makes your page less legit and unprofessional if you're not consistent with keeping up with the group page. Sometimes, it shows people that you're not as serious to keep up with the page if there isn't anything on there.

Events also require communication between users. If you're trying to plan an event, you need to invite people to that event. Facebook is a great way to inform your friends or users of events, especially if you don't have the time to do it the old fashioned way. Nowadays, more people utilize Facebook to get events out to the public.

Facebook Post

This is my Facebook link:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003609649556&ref=tn_tnmn

1. I've been a long time user of Facebook, but when I first started out, I didn't really give it a chance. I thought that it was just another Myspace because it basically had all the same features on it at that time. I think once everyone else was getting on the bandwagon, I started using it more and more. Honestly thinking about it, it's still not the best thing out there. I feel that many people take Facebook way too seriously and it can cause some serious drama at times, even though it is a great communication tool.

2. For Facebook, I honestly use it to play games the majority of the time. I'm a little less obsessive about some games, but I still play them on a regular basis (level 146 on Sorority Life that'll tell you something!). The games can be a huge distraction unfortunately. I also post statuses and photos from time to time, but now it's become more on a monthly basis. I try not to post something stupid like, "I just went to the store and bought a carton of milk." A lot of people do that, and I just think it's annoying and stupid. Usually, I'll post something funny or something that everyone can relate to. Also, I use Facebook to see about events that are happening around campus or if my friends are having get togethers. I'd rather them just text or call me, but Facebook is a good way to communicate those type of things if you don't have time to do that.

3. Three other uses for Facebook are games, sales, and linking to other sites for accounts. As mentioned in the previous question, I do play a lot of games on Facebook, which I think is a good and bad feature. The good thing about it is that most of the Facebook games are pretty fun to play and they're free. The downside is that some of your "friends" don't play Facebook games, so it's hard to complete some challenges that the game gives you. Also, some features do cost a ridiculous amount of money. It's tempting at times, but I would never pay real money for any Facebook game.
The second use is sales. Facebook is actually a great way to get exclusive coupons from your favorite stores. I don't really have the time and money to shop all the time, but if you're looking for a good sale from a store, the store's Facebook is a great place to look. PR also comes into play for sales. Brands have an opportunity to become more popular through social media because consumers are more likely to be impressed by a company if they have a good liking on Facebook.

The third use is linking other accounts. Some sites have the option to link your Facebook account to a site or use your Facebook as an account. It saves me the trouble of making a new email and setting up a password when you have the account right there.

4. I think that the professor wanted use to create separate accounts because this account could be used for future purposes if we choose. All you would have to do is change the name (if you have to) and use it for your professional Facebook or whatever you have to use it for. Also, I think that the professor doesn't want to use our personal accounts to interfere with the school project. It would be a little confusing, especially if someone has a lot of "friends" on Facebook. It would be kind of hard to keep up with statuses and everything.

5. Facebook is not private to me. I try to make my information private as possible, but I feel that people can still see what you post, no matter what because some features aren't blocked as well as others. Plus, people can get around anything these days. Also, Facebook has the tendency to change their settings all the time so it's also uncertain to me what privacy and account settings are actually in affect, especially if you do change them and a message pops up stating that your profile isn't private is discouraging and annoying. Another factor is the advertisements. The advertisements do follow you around, and even after I've signed off of
Facebook, it still follows me around.  All in all, a Facebook is only private if you take the initiative to control what you post.

6. The five rules of etiquette that I believe are important are: 1. Do not post personal information such as phone numbers, addresses. You're just setting yourself up for someone to get all your information, and people use that to their advantage most of the time. 2. Don't use Facebook as a personal diary. Save it for your notebook diary at home. No one wants to see it on their wall all the time, plus it's just unprofessional. Future employers take it into consideration if they're trying to hire you. 3. Don't start drama on Facebook. It makes you look immature and stupid. Plus, if potential employers find that on your Facebook, no one will probably hire you or it will make you look bad in their eyes.  4. Don't post embarrassing photos of yourself. If you don't even want to see them in real life, then don't put them on your Facebook account. Plus, those pictures
might come and haunt you one day. According to the article, "Examining Students’ Intended Image on Facebook:“What Were They Thinking?!" discusses how users, especially younger users post pictures and
statuses, but don't take the time to actually think about what they're posting or who could potentially see your pictures and statuses. 5. Don't spam on Facebook. It's unprofessional, immature, and it clogs up your wall and everyone else's wall.

7. Personally, I have never had an awkward moment from something that I've posted, but I have had people try to add me on Facebook for "other reasons" or I simply don't know or remember the person and that does become awkward for me, especially since I don't know how they found me in the first place. The article "A World I Don't Inhibit: Disquiet and Identity in Second Life and Facebook" by Stuart Boon and Christine Sinclair says it best when it says, "Facebook seems to encourage us to create essentially false communities of superficial relationships". Many people feel that just because another one of your Facebook "friends" are friends with you, they think that it is okay to add you as well.

Organizations Without a Facebook

   1. Neighborhood Legal Service, Inc
The organization's goal is to help people with low incomes and disabilities. There are a variety of services that are provided throughout counties in New York State such as, Erie, Wyoming, Orleans, and many more.



    2.   Choco Logo Confectionary Design
Founded in 2005 and located in Buffalo, NY, Choco Logo is a business that creates logos on chocolate. According to the website, Choco Logo provides "private labeled chocolates and popcorn, custom made candies for charities, and logo gifts for corporations". The company also creates their own chocolates as well.



   3.  Western New York Linux Users Group
Founded in 2008, the goal of this group is to show people in Western New York the in's and outs of the computer program Linux. The organization welcomes beginners to advanced users to this group. The meetings are also free to attend and open to the public.



4.     The Door
The Door is an organization in New York City that provides young people ages 12-21 with an opportunity to reach their goals by conducting young services for them. The services include health care, GED, tutoring and homework help, computer classes, English Language classes, etc.



5.   Speaking Out for Animal, Inc.
Speaking Out for Animals, Inc is a non-profit organization animal rescue and rights group in Clarence, NY. The organization rescues abused and strayed animals, especially kittens and cats. Speaking Out for Animals, Inc also provides care for the animals by giving vaccinations and other vet care to ensure the health of the animals. The goal of this organization is to stop animal suffering once and for all.

My Video Experience

At first, I was a little taken aback by the two words "group project". I think everyone can say that they've had their fair shares of bad experiences with group projects; I know I have. I think that this was one of the best group projects that I've been in. Each one of us had some good ideas, and we worked together very well. There were no problems at all really. We even hung out after some of the shooting and ate lunch together. It was really fun getting to know these two, and if possible I would work with Katherine and Anthony again.

It was my first time ever using I-Movie, and I was a little intimidated before starting to use it. Before this class, I've never used a video making program. I found that one I got the hang out it, and read through the tutorials provided on the blog, it was really easy and simple to use. Everything was pretty self explanatory, so I didn't have many problems. I did have a tendency to look at my group member's videos and compare them to mine, but I think I did an okay job for my first time using the program.
The hard part was probably editing because there were shots that I wanted to keep, but had to take out because they either didn't fit or didn't make any sense. Also, the importing the bigger files were a pain because we were working through multiple USB's. We had to wait a little while before the files were transferred. I felt bad for Professor Pabico because we had to wait for the files to transfer on the USB's and we were keeping her behind. On the other hand, it was scary knowing that something could possibly happen to our footage if we didn't take the time to wait for the imports to finish loading. After this experience, I'm pretty comfortable with using I-Movie now.

As far as the shooting went, I think that the group shooting went very well. We didn't really have any problems getting any of the shots, and we got enough footage to use for the group and for our self portraits if we needed it.
For the self portrait shooting, it was hard shooting myself because I would have to sometimes hold the camera with one hand, and describe what I was holding in the other. Other times, I used my window sill. Another problem was the lighting. I think in some shots it was just really dark, but that's because of the lighting in the dorm rooms. It's not very good, so I had to sometimes use my desk lamp for some extra light in my shots. For the reading shots of the book and the manga, I had to get other books and stack them so it would capture my face. Also, it was kind of hard to come up with ideas and how I was going to execute them. It looked good in my head, but on screen some of them didn't look very pleasing. I kept the idea of the index cards because I thought it was a good idea and it was something unique. I did edit out a lot of the cards though, due to some of the changes to our idea. I was trying to figure out ways that people will understand my self portrait, but at the same time staying true to myself and showing what I like to do to escape from reality (the main theme of our project).

I believe that video can be a good communication tool because it's more visual in a sense. Viewers can get a sense of what you're trying to convey in video compared to writing or photography. Sometimes, it takes a while to get the big picture in writing and photography.

From Katherine's post, I saw that she uploaded the video on Vimeo. I'm not sure if she uploaded it on Youtube yet. As said in my Youtube vs. Vimeo blog post, I think Vimeo outweighs Youtube by a lot. Although Youtube is great for getting a lot of views, I like the smaller community and the video quality of Vimeo. Hopefully, our video doesn't get taken down because of the music, but I think that it looks really good.

Youtube vs. Vimeo

I'll be honest, I usually spend my time watching videos on Youtube. It's really the only video site that I use on a daily basis. On the other hand, I've never really heard of Vimeo before, maybe because it's not as popular as Youtube. After reading the four articles, I would definitely say that Vimeo is better than Youtube, but both video streaming sites do have their pros and cons.

Youtube is known for being the largest and most popular video hosting site out there. Hundreds of thousands of people log on and watch videos on Youtube daily. This leads to my first pro: popularity.
Youtube is a great way to basically market yourself or your business. More people are likely to view your videos since the company is owned by Google. According to the article, "YouTube Vs. Vimeo: Which Video Site Is Best for Business?" by Don Powers, Youtube videos are indexed in the Google search engine which increases your chances of your video being seen.
Another pro is that for Youtube, getting an account is very simple and free. Everyone likes free things, right? The things that I like about the Youtube account layout is that each section is categorized and shows all your videos that you've uploaded and/or watched. It's a good feature when you don't want to go through the search bar and try to find all the videos that you uploaded or viewed within a certain time frame.

Now for the cons. As said in most of the articles, the Youtube player can get very ugly at times. It's really annoying when the little boxes come up on the video where people want you to click on other links. Another con is the advertisements. I understand that the site has to make money someway, but the ads can be annoying. It doesn't happen all the time with videos, but for some of the ads you can't skip them which is a negative. Now I'm noticing that the ads are a little bit longer that usual, especially watching longer videos or episodes of a show. It reminds me of the commercials on television.

Moving on to Vimeo. I think that Vimeo is better than Youtube. For one, the video quality is excellent. It doesn't look grainy, like how some Youtube videos look on the screen. The other feature that I like is that the bottom bar disappears after a couple of seconds. It's less distracting than Youtube, where there are a bunch of little buttons that you want to click on.. The last pro is that more viewers are likely to watch your videos because it's a smaller community. It's better to have viewers who actually stay and watch your videos, than watching a video by a user and forgetting them all together.

For the cons of Vimeo, I would say the small community. It would be harder to make your videos get more exposure, making it especially harder for businesses to get exposure to their company. Another con is the upgrade price. If you want to upgrade your account, it's $59.95 a year. To me, that seems way too expensive , even though the quality of the videos are really good.

All in all, I think that Vimeo is better in terms of quality and a smaller community. But, if you want your videos to get more exposure, I would choose Youtube. As I said earlier, both video sites have their pros and cons.