TFF Anniversary Celebration!

[Merlin]

In celebration of Final Fantasy's 25th birthday, The Final Fantasy Forums are getting a makeover! In the coming weeks the forums will be undergoing a number of big changes that will add much needed functionality that has been missing. These changes won't happen all at once though!

The first major change you will see is the upgrade of the forums to vBulletin 4. This version has a lot of improvements over what we are currently running, while still remaining easy to use. Rather than bore you with the differences in the base software I encourage you to explore all the nooks and crannies yourself! Upon release, the forums will still have the classic TFF Light and TFF Dark themes we all know and love. We are hard at work at creating additional themes for you to choose from, but these won't be ready right away.

Of course, having a vanilla version of vBulletin 4 wouldn't be that interesting, so we're kicking it up a few notches. For instance, reporting posts has become more straightforward. Currently, your only option was to write out what the problem is when you report a post. Now you will be able to choose from a number of pre-defined choices such as “flaming”, “spam”, and more to make the process faster. You can still type in your own message as well.

Another change you will see is to the experience point system. Currently your activity over the entire time you've been at TFF is factored into the numbers. This is bad, because if you happen to take a break for a while you are permanently punished for it with no way to make it up. Lame huh? The new system may look similar but it works differently. Here are the main things to keep in mind:

• HP bar: Your HP grows as you gain levels. The higher your level, the more HP you have
• EXP bar: Shows how close you are to the next level. The closer you are, the fuller the bar is. You gain experience points a variety of ways, not just from posting. More details soon.
• SP bar: Shows how active you have been recently. You are not punished for inactivity in the distant past.

So what's the catch? There has to be one right? Well not everything will survive the transition. The two big ones are the Arcade and the Store. The Arcade will be replaced by a more Final Fantasy appropriate gaming system in a future update. Unfortunately the Store will no longer be supported. Rather than buying items, you will be able to earn achievements and awards for reaching different goals around the forums. Since purchasing items will no longer be possible, gil is being removed. We realize that this will upset some people, but it is part of streamlining the forums.

Stay tuned to this thread for more updates during the week where we will unveil more features and give you a sneak peak at what's to come! Not only that but there will be chances for you to win prizes, so keep your eyes peeled for that! Thank you for sticking through the tough times and I hope you all enjoy the new look!

[Lacquer Head]

Oh thank god, I have this version of vbulletin >_> and I guess I wont be buying that Lunar Whale v.v

[Cyanist]

Hey! I was wondering if this next upgrade will be the 'gil killer', cuz I've got a deadline on my art contest that coincidentally takes place on that very day, (September 9th) and if there's no longer any gil, how am I supposed to properly reward the winner his/her 10,000 gil?

[Victoria]

Er.. small nitpick over the announcement, but...Saturday is the 8th, not the 9th. ^^; But uh.. it's fine. Just thought I'd point that out. But I can't wait for the overall transition and see what happens next week! It's all going to be so exciting!

[Merlin]

if there's no longer any gil, how am I supposed to properly reward the winner his/her 10,000 gil?

After the upgrade you will no longer be able to use gil as a reward. An overview of new reward opportunities will be given in an upcoming update.

[Alpha]

I could Google this, but in about how many hours from now/whenever someone replies will this begin?

[Merlin]

The forums will be down on September 8th for the majority of the day. That is six days from now.

[Alpha]

Jokes, I was not paying attention to the date!

Nevermind!

[Kurt Zisa]

The changes look great, I can't wait to see how this site will turn out. Just got to find out what time 11pm CDT is over here

[RagnaToad]

and I guess I wont be buying that Lunar Whale v.v

No. Because I've owned it for over 2 years now.

[Rhaps]

Ooooh, this sounds nifty. Plus the update begins on my birthday!
Can't wait to see how it turns out.

[Unknown Entity]

Sounds pretty decent! I'm looking forward to the changes. I'm sure you guys will do a good job. ^^

Will the current rep/thanks system be carried over?

@cyanosuke Maybe make a small banner by means of a reward?

[SOLDIER #819]

Merlin spent a very large portion of his holiday working on the new forums. Let us all give thanks.

NOWWWWWWWW

[Fuzz]

This is definitely a well needed and deserved upgrade, thanks for doing this Merlin

I may have the new main TFF site done by the end of the month, so looks like both the forums and site will be freshened up. Remember that it is not only the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy, but also the 15th anniversary of TFF! woot!

[Martin]

15 years?? Jesus that is pretty old. Looking forward to seeing this really take shape, and having a mooch around when it's all done.

[Merlin]

OK folks there is only about 7 1/2 more hours until the forums will be temporarily shut down for upgrades! Keep in mind that during the downtime the forums will not be accessible.

[Tech Support]

Welcome Back! I've added a series of blog posts that will help explain various new features. I will add more in the next few days. Check it out here: The Final Fantasy Forums - Forum Updates - Blogs

If you want to keep up-to-date on the latest updates to the forum software, be sure to subscribe to my blog.

Currently we only have TFF Dark up and running. TFF Light needs a few more tweaks and should be up by next weekend(hopefully sooner).

[Martin]

Just a quick question - has the reputation system in the format it was in pretty much disabled now? Just we have the whole Facebook 'like' thing going on so I wondered if that was what it will be from now on.

[Josh_R]

So far everything is looking pretty good. Waiting for that light to get done so I can see how everything looks with it.

[OceanEyes28]

But it looks good. And the rules have been updated, so that's nice. Guess I'll go figure out how everything works now (I feel like I'm 80 years old (or a dog))!

[Merlin]

The Reputation System has been disabled. It's too confusing having multiple ways to 'like' a post. The new like system has a tree at the top of a topic that will quickly allow you to see which posts your fellow TFFers think are the most worthwhile to read. There is no "dislike" so you don't have to worry about getting hater reps anymore.

I'm slowly adding tutorials to Tech Support's blog to help people navigate the new stuff. I'd have more up but I need some sleep. >_<

[che]

Well done, looks great. I did have some questions about earning points, but I posted it in the experience points blog post you made before I even looked at this thread.

[Polk]

Gosh TFF you're looking real purdy tonight, I was thinking maybe you'd like to go to the sock hop with me this weekend?

Gonna take a while to get used to, but looks good so far.

[RamesesII]

Overall in general I like the look of the upgrade it looks great, it is refreshing if nothing else. I like how you can see who has like certain posts and like Merlin said it helps to see what posts are worth reading etc.
I also noticed a little auto save message pop up while I was typing this message is that a little new thing? does that mean that if the page times out then it's saved as a draft or something anyway I think it is a great Idea.

Still getting my head around all this new experience and awards when you visit the page I don't know what is what and whos is whos anyway that makes it exciting to find out how all these new things work.
Well done Merlin and everyone else that was involved.

Actually one thing I find a bit of a pain is that to reply to a thread you need to travel all the way to the top of the page to get to the reply button when there used to be one at the bottom as well.

[RagnaToad]

I'm liking the new forum. The thread layout looks good, clean and tight, and I'm interested to see the 'Like' system being used.

To me the new Blog thing is not something I was missing on the forums or fully understand the value of.

And can the little box that says 'tweets' on the left be removed in some way? Perhaps move it someplace else?

[Imposter]

Yay so TFF the ole girl has gotten her plastic surgery!

I'm liking everything so far, but really haven't got to check all the new shtuff outs yet.

[nix]

It took me about 5mins to find this thread, and then about a minute to find the reply button, i gave up and used the reply with quote one, only one i could see

Anyway, the site looks great, ALOT of change and its gonna take my dinousaur ass time to adjust!

Great work Merlin!

I found it humerous i had to be taken to the rules page before i could post to agree to rules that are not enforced

[loaf]

I now got to look at the forums.

all I found out was this


You changed TFF into Facebook. I'm out, peace.

[Merlin]

It took me about 5mins to find this thread, and then about a minute to find the reply button, i gave up and used the reply with quote one, only one i could see

Wow there's some stupid setting that disables the quick reply if human verification is set to true on posts. Maybe I don't get it because I'm an admin? Anywho, I turned that off because bots can circumvent stuff like that easy enough anyway. Let me know if it is still a problem. Thanks!

[nix]

All sorted now, perhaps i wasnt logged in when i was looking for the button at first, i cant remember, anyway its there now, Cheers pal!