Sie haben eine Biene in deiner Damenslipeinlage

[Merlin]

I figured I'd be nosy and poke around. Seriously, I feel like I'm in a time warp. The layout, etc hasn't changed at all. I feel sure the populous has changed greatly since whenever I magically vanished off the face of TFF. <(^_^)>

I know my life has changed quite a bit since then. I won't go into that at the moment though. Aww, why not? Because my dear padawan, I cannot stay up all night long anymore. I live in the real world now and just realized what time it was. I'll go into more juicy details later, if anyone is interested---. O.o

And finally, yes the title is completely random. I came up with it a few hours ago and felt like using it for something.

edit: I just discovered the unsolved bugs are still here (along with the virus banners). *sigh*

[Andromeda]

Long time no see Merlin! It has been a couple years at least I think. I'm figuring that you've finished up college/university at this point and have an awesome job or something.

But I doubt you're too surprised that the forum hasn't really changed since you've been gone. We tend to stick with what works so long as some of the old vets are stubborn enough to deny change. ^^;

[Zargabaath]

So you lived in an imaginary world before? What was the name of this land? Are you a faerie or any other mythical creature?

Your leave, apparently, has been long and now you return from your exile. TFF welcomes you with open feet.

Also, Raistlin > Merlin.

[Furore]

Welcome back.
Take anything decent back with you from the real world?

[Merlin]

So you lived in an imaginary world before? What was the name of this land? Are you a faerie or any other mythical creature?

Your leave, apparently, has been long and now you return from your exile. TFF welcomes you with open feet.

Also, Raistlin > Merlin.

My username comes from a type of falcon, known as the Merlin, not the fictional character. It was all part of my diabolical social network mind game experiments.

In other news, I graduated from college like 1 1/2 years ago and have been working for SRNS, which is a subcontractor for the DOE at SRS. Heh, if all the acronyms we use were in a book, it'd be thicker than a dictionary. I do a wide variety of internet/intranet programming for different customers. It's mostly Java-based stuff, but I also have been developing in Adobe Flex as well. It's a pretty fun job since I get to do so many different types of tasks, so I never get bored. One day I could be writing a servlet and the next I could be hardening an app against vulnerabilities.

As for the real world, it is definitely different than college life. I honestly have less free time than before, which is ironic since I worked 40 hours plus went to college full time. I live on my own now, so my free time is consumed doing remedial chores. I can't complain though. Being single is so stress free.

In FF news, I quit FFXI sometime at the end of last year. Alexander was so slow that I got fishing up to 100 while trying to set up parties. It got to the point that the only way to get EXP in a party was to level sync in Qufim. I had better things to do with my time. On the other hand I am looking forward to FFXIV. It looks pretty cool so far(other than the fact that some of it is rehashed elements from FFXI).

I just finally beat FFXIII, but that wasn't because it was taking me forever. I've been doing a run through the whole FF series. I was busy finishing up FFVII: CC at the time. I eventually took a break from my 100% completion of every game from FFI-FFXII to beat FFXIII. I still need to get 100% completion on it though. I hate how you have to beat the story before you can work on most of the side-quest stuff. It is such a turnoff. But that would be digressing.

And that is a quick summation of my life as it is now. I don't feel like writing an essay today. <(^_^)>

[Andromeda]

Well the level cap increasing 99 on FFXI might revive people's interest in doing exp parties. I'm still debating if I want to go back and do that, but I'll probably wait to see what sort of abilities and traits are given at those levels.

Either way, hope to see you on FFXIV then at the very least. We'll start at the beginning like last time, though I don't know if you were there before I was or not.

Sounds like you've got a nice job. It is always good to be able to have plenty of different tasks to do. It certainly does make it less boring to be able to do that. One of the reason I think I liked leading a team than just being on the team. Leading gave me more things than I could do in a day. So I was never bored.

Will you be sticking around with the nagging desire to fix everything that is still broken or bad in the forums? Or just enjoying a relaxing visit? Or you planning on departing fairly quickly?

And for the new members that don't know Merlin, he was an admin many years back. Afterward, you mainly did a lot of behind the scenes work fixing problems with the code or what not. Certainly did wonders for the place.

[Merlin]

I'm amazed nobody has commented on the title yet... XD

I wouldn't mind giving this place a much-needed face lift. The actual site needs to be taken off of life support and revitalized. I wouldn't be able to do it alone. There is waaay too much content that would need to be converted/updated/added, etc.

As for the forums, I would investigate different software. vBulletin® is corporate bloatware and outdated. I haven't really looked in detail at version 4, but from what I saw it was just an even more bloated version of 3.5. It looks like Jelsoft is trying to convert vBulletin® into the next Facebook or Twitter... which I disagree with. Bulletin Boards are collaboration tools, not social networking tools. They are two different kettles of fish. I feel sure there are probably better solutions out there... maybe even open source solutions.

But like I said, I wouldn't even begin to imagine doing this by myself. A team of people working a couple of hours a week on it could get something awesome happening here.

On another subject, how's the RP world doing? Is it still dead in the water?

[Andromeda]

Yeah RP is possible deader than when you left, but I'm not sure if that is really the case. It has its ups and downs. I run the annual Ball to promote RPing as well as show off casual RPing to try to get people to see there are other things than just the hardcore that the vets and me are known for doing, that tends to scare away would be recruits. I've also been busy trying to get a job and before doing my job so I haven't been able to do a lot of the work that I have wanted.

And this is quite true that it would require a significant effort by a coordinate team to update and clean up everything on TFF and site. We just don't have a dedicate group for that. Until we have dedicated people to do something that like I'd suspect it will probably stay as it is. Though speaking of dedicated people, Fuzz apparently hired (?) a person to be our marketing guy. He is around and more visible than Fuzz, but that doesn't take a lot. ^^; Not sure what plans he has since he only joined recently, but we'll see.

Loco is less visible these days than in the past, he's the lurking admin now I think even if he is the main admin still. Part of it is I don't think anyone wants the job. >.>

And don't worry I've already got your lucky charms, Merlin. ^^

[Meier Link]

Welcome back Merlin. It is good to see you again even though we didn't get the chance to really talk a whole lot in the past. Maybe that will changee this time around haha.

Anyways, I took an offer from Fuzz a while back to do some updating to the game content on the main site but seeing I have a new kido I have had a little trouble getting around to it.

I still plan on getting to it in my free time but as of right now it is very scarce so I feel your pain about not having enough hours in the day.

Hope to see you around the forum. Happy posting.

For some reason it feels really generic and odd saying the last to lines to you hahah.

[Storm]

Welcome back to the forums!

Yeah, the RP forum is dead, except for the odd one or two roleplays going on. I was thinking about starting up a new RP a while ago, but never got around to getting any good ideas. I'm much better at joining RPs than creating them, as if I do come up with really good ideas I become selfish and want to write my own story with them!

A team for cleaning and updating the site sounds good. I would happily offer assistance, however I am about as useful as a pancake in a tree for anything really techincal! I can just about cope with very basic HTML coding, but I haven't done all that much to do with web. I wouldn't mind doing anything that is pretty easy to learn however. I do need all the CV/ portfolio things I need over the next few months (yay job hunting).

Nice to see you around again, even though I haven't really talked to you during those mere 4 years that I have been here! ^_^

[LocoColt04]

I wouldn't mind giving this place a much-needed face lift. The actual site needs to be taken off of life support and revitalized. I wouldn't be able to do it alone. There is waaay too much content that would need to be converted/updated/added, etc.

Fuzz just brought on a new guy that he works with by the name of H4rry to help along with that -- if you're serious about jumping back into the dev side again, you should get together with him.

As for the forums, I would investigate different software. vBulletin® is corporate bloatware and outdated. I haven't really looked in detail at version 4, but from what I saw it was just an even more bloated version of 3.5. It looks like Jelsoft is trying to convert vBulletin® into the next Facebook or Twitter... which I disagree with. Bulletin Boards are collaboration tools, not social networking tools. They are two different kettles of fish. I feel sure there are probably better solutions out there... maybe even open source solutions.

I don't disagree. I know a lot of people will whine and cry about the loss of so many completely useless features (groups, etc.) -- but it's easy enough to get over that... cut out groups, and maybe people will post in the clubs forum again? Or anywhere in general? You're right about vBulletin becoming more and more like a social networking site... since the groups were made available for public use, I've noticed the upward trend of posting start to slope downward again.

You mention open-source -- I am still a fan of SimpleMachines. It's incredibly stable and far more flexible than vB on the design front. I spent weeks at one point playing with all of the options and building all kinds of designs just for fun. If someone else would handle the graphical aspect (fresh banners and such), I could easily take the work and put it into something sharp. From the administrative side, it has fewer options, but there are a lot of modifications to compensate for that.

Loco is less visible these days than in the past, he's the lurking admin now I think even if he is the main admin still. Part of it is I don't think anyone wants the job. >.>

While I admit I am more lurky than posty these days, I am still around at least three times a week with special exceptions when I really can't get online because I'm swamped with whoknowswhat (or too immersed in insertgamehere). I'm quite the adult myself these days, what with management and a live-in girlfriend and all that stuff. Girls require a lot of attention. :3

As for the little side-note on RP, as much as I want to write, I just can't find a thrilling story to grab me.

[Che]

This is some of the nerdiest stuff I've read in a while here. <3

Sup Mer-dawg?

[Merlin]

It's about time we fix that toilet save point. TFF is stuck in 1999 methinks. I'll start a separate thread about that though. I wouldn't want to derail my first topic back---.

In more related news, holy #%@!! Che is here. Now to see if anyone actually got the reference in the first sentence.

[Fuzz]

Hey Merlin!

Always good to hear from you and I am glad all is well with you and your endeavors. Nope, no time warp my friend, TFF is just the way you left it, with the exception of some new content on the main site, SEO, and some new social media things. Although the front end of the site doesn't really change, I try to keep the backend updated and keep the site in good operating condition. With that said, there is A LOT of work to be done on the main site - and even these forums....

I think Andro nailed it on the head though... we just lack the dedication and commitment from a team to really get down and dirty on revamping the site. I know both you and I have honestly tried to do things in the past, but life just keeps sneaking up on us. I have a full time job, run a business, play in a band, and now have a kid! But I always have TFF on my radar and will always be something I want to get back into seriously.

I am just fortunate that we have the tight knit community that we have... full of loyalists and veterans! No other Final Fantasy community has that... plus it makes me proud that this site has been up for 11 years - it is INSANE – and for crying out loud – CHE IS BACK!

I say we start fresh and assemble a team or start a new discussion in the staff forum. Oh, and H4rry has been helping with mainly marketing, social media, and helping with some SEO - he is the man though. Plus I know most of the people that have posted in this thread have either helped or expressed serious interest in helping.

I like your outspoken attitude and demand for change though, so I welcome your ideas and even hands-on development if you wish. Shoot me an e-mail, as that is the best way to get a hold of me these days. ([email protected]).

Is the title to this thread in German? Possibly about a Bee in your panties?

[Merlin]

Close, but to be specific, it is: "You have a bee in your pantyliner" Actually, it should be "Du hast". I screwed up the grammar. Oops?

I'm working on setting up a forum for development stuff. I'd stick it in another place, but I want it to be blatantly obvious and hard to miss. /sarcasm

[Che]

I went to Babel Fish to translate what the thread title was, and they translated it directly as "They have a bee in your lady slip insert". I was confused, so I let it alone.

Fuzz, boy or girl?! Congratulations!

[Merlin]

Well online translators are notoriously bad at grammar. Google Translate (translate.google.com) seems to be the best I've found... but it still butchers stuff. "Sie" has two meanings depending on context. In this case, it is "you" (not personal). Technically I should have used "du" since I used "deiner" (your - personal). In any case, "Sie" also means "they", but not in this context.

So, basically I screwed up the grammar but your translator screwed it up 10X worse. ^_^ (Although, lady slip insert sounds a lot more dirty)

If you are interested, you can actually listen to it. It sounds pretty funny: http://translate.google.com/#de|en|D...menslipeinlage

[LocoColt04]

In No More Heroes, you save by sitting on the toilet...

[SOLDIER #819]

Hey Merlin. Good to see you around. I had always wondered what edge of reality you had phased off to.

This forum needs more German.

[Merlin]

In No More Heroes, you save by sitting on the toilet...

Well you can be happy to know that they stole that idea from TFF. We came up with it. Damn I knew that idea should have been patented.