Cybus Factory

Info

Site Address: http://www.freewebs.com/cybusfactory/

Web Host: Freewebs

Run by: Anthony (Juoo)

Opened: ?

Review

Info; Cybus Factory is an Australian Doctor Who, Star Wars and The Clone Wars site, but is mainly just Doctor Who. It features many pages and guides, which include news, reviews, DVD and TV schedules for Australia!

Owner

I think we can presume that the owner lives in Australia, and they work hard in getting information on Doctor Who from the country. As it's not the main homeland for Doctor Who, this must be more difficult, but there are a variety of different guides and information sections on the site. The owner seems to talk in the chat room and on different pages politely to the visitors, and the site on a whole, due to this, proves to have a friendly atmosphere.

Layout

The layout for Cybus Factory is very simple, and looks good for the site that it is. The main colour is a grey, with the title of the site always at the top of the page, pages displayed to the right, like a sidebar and the main part to the left of that. Everything is marked pretty clearly, so you shouldn't find yourself getting lost. A point I might make, apart from the Tardis is the vortex in the top right-hand corner of the page, there isn't a lot of colours. Although, there are in all the main sections of the pages, to help display information, but apart from that, there isn't much. If this was made a little better, it would help in attracting the site's visitors. Another thing is the little, well, as sort of ghost-like thing in the top left of the page. I don't know whether this is just an advert, and you can't change it, but it's a little annoying!

News Updates

Well, I don't live in Australia, and don't keep up-to-date with any news down there, so I don't know if the news is accurate and correct. I assume it is, as it does all look good, and they probably don't get as much news as we get. I also don't know how regular updates to this news page occur, as there are no dates shown. From what I can see, there are some great posts, with latest ones being on DVD news, so no trouble there.

Spelling and Grammar

There doesn't seem to be many mistakes in spelling, apart from a few, with a few wrong spellings of characters names i.e. in the review page, but nothing too major. The same goes for the grammar, and everything the site puts up is planned and structured pleasantly.

Pages (with highlights)

Well, I can't really say pages are a highlight to the site. More like they are, because on Freewebs you get a homepage, welcoming you, but then the pages are the main thing, and the links to them are presented on the right. Apart from the homepage, there are seventeen different pages altogether, with eleven for Doctor Who, two other, plus a couple for links, chatroom and such. I'm going to pick out a few highlights of these pages;

Reviews; The reviews posted on the page of the same name, are fantastic. They are not too long, not too short and the owner is honest about his thoughts on an episode or a DVD release. A wide variety of different products and episodes make up the review section, and they are enjoyable to read. Each one comes with a picture, and gives a rating out of ten, and I must say, a lot of episodes from the fourth series of Doctor Who have scored very highly.

Podcast; Together with Alex from Doctor Who Down Under, there is a monthly podcast, called the 'Australian Doctor Who Podcast'. When this kicks off soon, which it should, I'm looking forward to listening to it, and I hope it's good! On the page is also an FAQ, if there is anything you don't understand or need to know.

Schedules and Release Guides; On a few pages, there are release guides for DVDs and other Doctor Who Merchandise, plus a schedule for the next episodes of all three shows to be broadcast in Australia. This is wonderful for all of you who live down there, and I hope it proves useful. It is all laid out very neatly, with different colours to show different things.

Eggs in Time; A fabulous feature for the site, which has a list of all the hidden features in Region 4 DVDs, is the Easter Egg page. The owner has clearly put a lot of work put into finding them, as they are all hidden. I'm sure a lot of them though are the same as Region 2 DVDs, that you can buy up here in the UK. Another page has a load of information on the magazine series, Battles in Time, and also has information on the Bloopers and Mistakes of the magazine itself! This is quite funny, and you can see if you had spotted any.

Quiz and Other; Take the brilliant quiz, all about Doctor Who. It has three sections; Easy, Medium and Hard, evidently getting harder as you go on. What can you score? Are you a true Who fan? Take it and find out. It's great! The three other pages are a links page, guestbook and chatroom. The links page features a fantastic list of Doctor Who resources, with many fansites as well, complete with a pretty picture of the site to go with it. Sign the guestbook, to say that you have been on it, and remember to comment, plus, if you have the time, you can chat to the owner and other visitors in the chatroom. All the pages are excellent!

Other Features

Banner; There isn't a banner, as such, for Cybus Factory, but it has the title of the website, and brief statement telling you what the site is, and a picture of the Tardis in the vortex. There could be a bit more colour to the whole thing though.

atts key suggestions

• A bit more colour to the site. As I've never seen how you can do Freewebs, I wouldn't know what to do, but it's just a suggestion.

Note - these are only suggestions, which you may or may not want to take into account.

Overall

Cybus Factory is a terrific site for all you Australians out there, with news, reviews, magazine and DVD news, you won't feel bored too easily, so hop along to this fantastic site now, and see the wonders it beholds!

Rating:

Word Count: 1102