Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
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Originally Posted by
Bias reduX
Maybe a compromise. Instead of grouping two generations together, group them separately. That would make it easier to see what was posted in and what wasn't, but still consolidating the forums.
I think that's what Loco's original idea was. He isn't all-or-nothing like me, haha.
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Originally Posted by
cyanosuke
Yeah, I'm guilty. :o
...
I don't agree with bunching the arts and musics, though. I think we should expand on those. I think maybe if good art were displayed more often, people would think we're cooler and more populated than...well, than we are.
How about putting all FFVII related fan-art in with the FFVII forum...
To each their own. :) You joined later on, but we had a similar debate on ID back in late 2010. We have the exact same issues being brought up and the exact same solutions for them are. I'm just jaded because people can't see that. =P
As for fanart... I think people usually post their fanart in their own threads, right? If we had a thriving fanart community with lots of people drawing stuff for every FF that'd be something to do... but as it stands people rarely do it. Fanfics are about as rare, and music is even rarer. And we'd still have to have another forum for works that aren't related to FF and the like, so we wouldn't really be consolidating at all.
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Originally Posted by
Michael Swayne
This is why there's "New Posts" in the bar at the top of the screen. So you don't have to spend time with useless clicking and scrolling. And there's also the "Today's Posts" in the Quick Links Drop Bar (also located at the top of the screen).
These are both search queries and bandwidth hogs. Further, the fact that I have to use a search to easily navigate the forums is a problem. I should be able to easily see that there is a new post from the index. As it stands, having to scroll through each and every forum on the index to find the few new posts TFF has in a day (or week) is silly. It's like finding a needle in a haystack.
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Originally Posted by
Michael Swayne
The way things are right now make things easier for newer members to join in on everything at TFF.
I disagree. I think that it makes it harder.
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Originally Posted by
Michael Swayne
Having forums grouped together would make things look cleaner on the outside, but if a person is wondering about whether Final Fantasy IV is a good game for example....
This seemed like an issue to me at first, but around half of the most recent threads are well marked. Many make a habit of it regardless of whether or not the threads are categorized into forums, and people will adapt once the forums are reorganized. An admin or mod could probably fix up two pages worth of threads in 10-15 minutes easy.
I realize that you don't like the idea of consolidating the FF forums, and if this were 10 years ago I'd understand, but as it stands we have as many forums as we have new posts on some days. The board layout has changed little since I joined, but the number of posts we have is small fraction of what we used to receive. If there weren't search functions, I'd have an easier time navigating 4chan than here. It's really sad.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
Honestly, it's a very intimidating looking layout, with boards for everything, sections, subsections and the like. It looks far more bureaucratic than an internet community should. Sure it's easy to navigate, but I feel like if things can be streamlined, it could be easier.
Hell, even going back to the S and N generation layouts could work
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
I don't think we need any consolidation of any of the Final Fantasy subforums. Really, what is clearer than having one for each 'number' of the series (each one containing relevant spinoffs and remakes). That is the most logical. However, if consensus is tending towards some kind of consolidation, I think a split by generation (i.e. type of console) is the most sensible.
As for merging ID and GC... I'm in two minds. I agree with Pete in another thread, who said:
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Originally Posted by Pete
My only concern with with combining them is that serious threads can easily get sidetracked into bullshit threads. The concept of ID may be a bit condescending, but I like the idea of having an area where you can have a mature debate without the threat of it getting derailed with memes and general shenanigans.
But at the same time, I want nothing more than for more people to participate. While I still think that comes down to having members who aren't going to bite people's heads off in subtle ways (which is why I mooted 'better' moderation as a solution), as well as an interesting array of topics, I feel like we should perhaps try something new. As S was saying, we could experiment. If it doesn't work out, just revert.
Sorry my opinion isn't any clearer than that.
If we don't combine them, and need a new name for ID, I like Dranzer's 'Agree to Disagree' name the best. Topical Discussions sounds like the topics have to be recent news. They do not, and TD sounds even more like political discussions than ID.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
My only problem, and it's with TFF in general is that anytime a truly thought provoking thread comes about in GC, and it gets a slew of well written responses, it gets tossed into ID. And through no fault of his own, people are intimidated to get into debates with people like Sasquatch.
It could be any number of reasons, but people back away from that forum, mostly because of the precedent of past threads, with lots of fact finding, mass quoting and the like. It takes effort to make truly good posts, and people will get called on their statements.
I think in a roundabout way, I'm trying to ask, what can we do to make ID more friendly or less intimidating, without losing what makes ID great? Alpha, I think we're very much on the same page with this.
Like I said before, I like the idea of each game having its own section, but it'd be great if we could make them all into 3 major groupings. Nintendo Generation (I-VI), Sony Generation (VII-XII), Next Generation (XIII, the future games and the like), and maybe something for other games in the series, like Tactics, Crystal Chronicles, Kingdom Hearts and such.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
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Originally Posted by
LocoColt04
I know I'm double posting, but I don't know where the edit button is on Tapatalk.
Select your post > Select more > Select modify > Select edit.
At least thats how it is on the iphone. It was better when you just selected your post and clicked edit.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
That mod would be a really good if you could get your hands on it. 15 FF forums alone... it's a crazy big list.
On another note, maybe you should move the TFF Office category to the top, where it's more readily available to the ones who can see it? Not that most of the forums there are used very often anymore...:\
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
I don't know if vB can do this, but at the site I frequent most, Child/Sub forums have hyperlinks at the bottom of the forum description, for ease of access.
Would be handy if we kept them separate, but in 'Generation' forums, you know?
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
make political and intelligent; separate topics. I can ram a lobbyist or rush Limbaugh in your ass all day every day and tell you it's raining but politics is not a proven science with a world-wide consensus. Emotion and judgement have no worth in an intellectual discussion unless this is how TFF wants to portray it's beliefs and endorses it slogan. Are you worried the politics here will rise and that a sophisticated essence will die? These are not the two topics your want merged.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
Quote:
Originally Posted by
LocoColt04
And to whomever (cyanosuke?) it was that mentioned clicking multiple times to reach your destination, that is exactly what I'm against. What I'm suggesting is not creating forums and then moving existing areas into them as subforums; rather, I'm saying let's literally merge the forums together. Still just one click, butwith multiple topics at hand.
I was kind of talking about making the forum more appealing to lure in more members. Hmm, a bit off topic, wasn't I? Sorry, I'll save that stuff for another thread, then. Anyway, I get it now. Thanks for the explanation.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
So how's that vote going up in the capitol? =P
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
No votes anywhere yet. This was meant as a discussion, and you'll note that I didn't specify some kind of timeline on this one. I was hoping more of the staff would chime in with their opinions though... *cough*
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
As long as this isn't forgotten like just about everything else, haha. I'm looking forward to less scroll time. ;)
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
Merging the FF forums into sections as the OP mentioned seems like a good stop-gap for the current situation. Also, you can already add an icon when you create a post/topic so really all you need to do is to dump the corny emoticon ones and swap them out with custom images that are more FF appropriate.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
Fantastic suggestion - and since the CP gives me control over which icons show up and in what order, I can just wipe out part of the list and have roman numerals highlighted atop the listing.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
Or kawaii FF faces that double as emotions so that I can spam Cloud crying like a bitch. ^_^_^_^_^
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
I'm not sure if there are good FF themed emoticons that small that actually look good and would be easily recognizable. I guess it is worth looking into.
Another option would be to have tags like Fark.com. Designer rectangles with "FFX", etc in it would look pretty cool to me. Of course, this all assumes people use the tags. Moving the Post Icons section of the thread/reply creation under the title might help with that.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
Is it possible to make an icon/tag a necessary item to be selected in just the FF forums, like the title and post body of a thread in any forum? That way people won't stumble onto spoilers in untagged threads... since there wouldn't be any.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
I'm going to try and get hold of some RPG Maker style sprites of FF characters to represent the different games. So far I have access to (main characters): Luneth, Cecil, Terra, Cloud, and Tidus. That's nearly half without any effort!
All are free to use, but a credit should be given somewhere on the site.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
If you force people to pick an tag, the other issue would be having people actually pick a post icon that actually applies. How do you stop someone from making a FF7 spoiler thread with a FFX tag? I guess you could enact a rule around it, like it is a low-level warning or something. That would be something that would need to be fleshed out I think.
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
I'd assume that would work in the same way as posting an FFVIII topic in the FFIII forum, or something like that.
EDIT:
Just to give you an idea of what I was talking about vis-a-vis icons:
http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m612/Aerif/TFF.png
Re: DISCUSSION: Forum Consolidation
As Aerif said, it's an inevitability. However, I do agree that forcing them to post a tag/emoticon does change things a bit, so perhaps it would be better to use roman numerals/numbers instead of sprites for clarity. Years ago you couldn't mistake Cloud for Terra, but I'm not sure I'd be able to pick Tidus and Vaan apart. :p