Feb 26
I woke up this morning to find the following email (after the cut) waiting for me. I’d stumbled upon MyDesignAward in the past, but never bothered submitting my site. Since I was invited, I thought why not give it a shot? After submitting I realized that the email was probably some sort of advertising scheme 
The email (grammatical errors are not mine):
Congratulation!!! Our design community and MyDesignAward giving you a Design Award! Thank You for you AWESOME Job! We love your site - it’s AMAZING and we want add yoursite into awarded design category. You need to create account and add more information about your site and yourself, so more people can contact you! Get more traffic and more clients.
I checked back a bit later and discovered the following comment about my site:
I hate everything about this site. Colors, invalid code, and especially that ugly girl/queen graphic.
I don’t mind the negativity — everyone’s entitled to his/her opinion (even if it’s wrong 
jk) — but DO NOT accuse me of having INVALID code! I go the extra mile to ensure that every single page is valid XHTML/CSS. I also write clean, semantic code and try, to the best of my knowledge, to create an accessible experience. I’ve even gone as far as validating old entries dating back to 2003! (I’m not finished, mind you.)
Feel free to leave your feedback (positive or negative) and, if warranted, put that commenter in his/her place regarding my code 
Chien Yee (Quote)
I put up a comment there for you
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 12:25 pm
Jordie (Quote)
That person’s got shit coming out of their ears… I think they took one look at your site and decided that they didn’t like it (which, in itself, isn’t so bad — I’m personally not into the cutesy scene, although I do like the format of this layout), but couldn’t come up with any actual criticisms, so they just threw in the invalid code comment to make it look like they knew what they were talking about. Fucking jackass.
While we’re being anal though, you do have one warning on the validate-o-matic results page for this entry, but it’s just something about conflicting doctypes. The actual code passes validation with flying colours…
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 12:28 pm
Louise (Quote)
Put it this way. Your website is what I aspire too
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 12:41 pm
Jem (Quote)
What a dick.. that’s all I have to say on that matter.
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 12:45 pm
Tracy (Quote)
What a jerk. What makes him/her think that anyways? Pfft.
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 12:50 pm
Ashley (Quote)
What a dork. I hate when people say things that aren’t true. And yeah, everyone might not like your color scheme, but there’s no denying your site is super well designed.
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 1:39 pm
Becka (Quote)
Your site rocks and you know it. I love the design. It’s wonderful. You can’t please them all.
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 1:42 pm
Ashley (Quote)
By the way, that website is so stupid! It loads really slow, and when you click the links that say “Visit it” under a site, it opens a page with the actual person’s website in a tiny frame at the top. And they don’t even send you an award? You have to go and choose which ugly award you want and get the code for it? Seems like it’s run by a bunch of people who can’t spell.
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 3:14 pm
Holly (Quote)
o.O If this person “hates everything about your site”, why on earth are they visiting you!?
*pokes them with a stick*
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 4:51 pm
Hannah (Quote)
Erg, that would just piss me off. I left you a comment on MyDesignAward :3
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 5:25 pm
Melissa (Quote)
I’m not impressed with that “design award” site at all. At least fix the grammar in the spam emails.
But um…I wonder how that person supposed it was invalid code? Maybe they tried to validate it against some weird (and unstated) doc type and didn’t bother going by true standards. Lame and it really boggles my mind, lol.
I highly admire your CSS skillz, Bubs, I always have. Anyone who says otherwise obviously doesn’t know a single thing about considering what it takes to make a creative layout design…it can get super complicated (in a good way)!
Oh yes, and were you seeeeriously asking me what you were in my bento photo on Flickr?? I thought it was obvious… ;D
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 6:58 pm
Aisling (Quote)
Wow, I am offended *FOR* you!! Lol. What a jerk. You rock. *inflates Bubs’s ego*
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 7:08 pm
mendifae (Quote)
WHAT???!!! Is that person blind/on drugs/crazy? I LOVE your layout… so I’m gonna chalk their crappy comment up to the fact that they are extremely JEALOUS and want to tear you down because of it…..ugh!
No worries Bubsy, I still idolize you! LOL
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 7:48 pm
Christine (Quote)
It’s clearly just someone who’s green w/ envy. All it realllllly means, if you’ve reached the status of super mega awesome coder extraordinaire ~-~ and that people will now try to being you down. ignore them!!! you’re every kind of awesome and everyone knows it ! i left a comment for you too *hugs*
Tue Feb 26th, 2008 9:15 pm
Ramsha (Quote)
Obviously people have forgotten that it is considered common sense to make sure and back up something if they’re going to say it and it is not an opinion, which validity is not.
Wed Feb 27th, 2008 2:08 am
Melissa (Quote)
aww *gives you a hug* don’t let that dunce get to you, we all know you go that extra mile and we love your website so F them.
The least they could have done was givin constructive feedback. In this case it just sounds like a bunch of childish jealousy.
Wed Feb 27th, 2008 3:15 am
Sammy (Quote)
wow…what a douche bag!! i would have blown a gasket if someone said that to me, and no, my site probably isn’t coded 100% correct but damn, how rude is that!? they must have said it out of pure jealousy, because your site has always been a fave to MANYYY people
so yeah
Wed Feb 27th, 2008 5:48 pm
Vera (Quote)
Well I’m not too fond of this layout (not into cutesy stuff), but it’s certainly valid and semantically coded… so that person definitely has no idea what he/she is talking about.
All in all, from a technical POV this layout is very well done, I’d never have the patience to pull off so many details.
Wed Feb 27th, 2008 6:29 pm
Rebecca (Quote)
I totally agree Bubs - your layout is horrid. (Just kidding!! I love it :D)
Advertising schemes are getting sneakier these days. Fortunately, it’s the crappy grammar that gives them away haha.
Wed Feb 27th, 2008 6:43 pm
Kaylee (Quote)
Some people don’t know what they’re talking about. I seriously love the structure and all the little details of this design!
Lol @ the email, though. They do need to put more effort into their spam!
Wed Feb 27th, 2008 9:17 pm
Trixie (Quote)
I think they did it just to be mean, your site looks great and is very original
I don’t ever submit my site for things like that, I like it and as long as you like your own site then that is the only thing important.
Thu Feb 28th, 2008 5:47 pm
mendifae (Quote)
off topic but I wanted to let you know I got my package and my card! I love the note pad and the little frog cracks me up! Morgan has been trying to steal it since I opened it! LOL
Thank you sweetheart!
Thu Feb 28th, 2008 8:41 pm
Jenny (Quote)
I am to lazy to validate anything. But my site usually is. Unless a plugin I’m using screws it up. But you’re site is perfect in my opinion. I love the theme. It’s adorable and way more awesome than anything I could come up with.
Fri Feb 29th, 2008 10:43 am
Evan (Quote)
I just want to say you’ve got nothing to worry about. Yours is one of the squeaky-cleanest sites on the web, from each sentence to each line of code.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but in this case, they ARE wrong ;-).
Mon Mar 3rd, 2008 9:41 pm
Me, Myself and I! (Quote)
Hi, I’ve seen ugly websites, but your’s NOT one of them. It’s very organized and works fine. The details are sweet and original. I’m a freelance web designer and despite I’m not very good (yet! lol) I don’t criticize others, not very ethical. Bad comments are from envy newbies lost in CSS coding. Don’t worry about it and keep up the excellent work!!
Warm Regards, Me, myself and I
Wed Mar 19th, 2008 5:28 pm
Sarah (Quote)
Well, it seems somebody needs their eyes checking. Maybe it was a troll? I added a comment for you. I love your designs, they’re amazing and I’m sure they inspire many people.
Fri Mar 21st, 2008 6:09 am