Structure of EoFF

[Quindiana Jones]

Structure of the Final Fantasy forums
Where should certain forums be located? In which order?

Write each forum on a slip of paper and put that paper in a hat. Pick out each slip randomly one by one, and put the forums in the order of the draw. Job done. :D

This is probably going to be a short starting post, as I actually really like the layout of EoFF. I can understand that there's some merit to having the Final Fantasy forums go at the top, though I personally have never liked that system on any forum.

What do you lot think about the order of the forums? Any preferred layouts?

[Shorty]

I noticed recently that General Gaming, Relm's Studio and the Writer's Corner were all moved up to the General section. How the hell did that happen? I do see reason for it, though - being hooked in with General is hopefully bound to give those forums some more TLC.

The sectioning of the actual Final Fantasies confuses me. They already all have their own forums - what's the purpose of sectioning them off? The Early Years has six games in it's section, The Later Years has four and FFVII is all by it's lonesome. I'm not trying to criticize or be nitpicky, I just wish I understood the reason behind it.

One last thing - why has the "What's Going On" stuff moved to the bottom of the site? I seem to remember that info being available at the top of the forum page with the Currently Active Users information. I've been trying to make a habit of scrolling to the bottom to see which active members' birthdays might be the same day, but often times I forget. I rarely see birthday threads so I'm guessing a lot of other people forget, too. What's Going On also shows newest registered members, latest blogs entries, etc. This info is being wasted at the bottom of the site. Some of the available skins - as adorable as they are - don't even show the active browsing members at the top of the screen. I'm not sure how difficult it might be, but I think it would be in the best interest of the forums (and the members) to have it relocated back to the top. Birthdays, newbies and blogs are the priorities here!

[Citizen Bleys]

VII should definitely be moved to "Later Years"; I consider NES/SNES era to be the early years and everything else as later. XIII also doesn't really deserve its own section, lump it in with Later Years as well.

XI and XIV should be in a separate section, since they're MMOs and of interest to the same crowd. Under no circumstances should FFXI be lumped in with freakin' VIII.

[Goldenboko]

I've always wondered the possibility of differing layouts for users? Does anyone know if that's possible?

What I mean is, maybe Wolf Kanno wants all FF forums to appear at the top, but Psy wants his general forums at the top, is there any way we can have the user choose that and have it personalized? Can any current staff answer if that is possibility implementable?

[Slothy]

VII should definitely be moved to "Later Years"; I consider NES/SNES era to be the early years and everything else as later. XIII also doesn't really deserve its own section, lump it in with Later Years as well.

I see no reason to lump FFVII in with anything else. Keep in mind that it's not just a section for FFVII, it's for the whole compilation. That's what? 4-5 games and a movie? I'd say that's enough content to warrant being on it's own since it at least makes sense to lump all the VII stuff together. Though it certainly made a bit more sense when there was a separate sub-forum for those spin-offs.

I'm also not opposed to the structure of the other sections really. I might wonder if we should combine FFI-III into their own forums since there's so little activity for them, but that might just make things worse for them. And I agree with giving XIII it's own section for now as well. There are too many spin-offs in that series and it's the most recent one, so it's at least somewhat justified. I also wouldn't want it's stink to rub off on any of the better games.

Aside from that though I wouldn't want to change the ordering too much. It's at least somewhat logical and consistent at the moment with groupings that make some degree of sense. Lumping the MMO's together would make sense from a genre perspective and as far as who's interested in them, but it might also make things a bit confusing for new members if the games aren't listed in numerical order. And I don't think I'd move the FF forums to the top. General forums are always going to be the most popular and frequently used no matter what we do. There's only so much interest in talking about older FF titles, and only so much we can still talk about years after their release. Yes, this is an FF forum and site, but that kind of discussion is still limited to a fairly small niche compared to the other forums. If Boko's idea was doable I wouldn't be opposed to it though. Failing that, perhaps we could occasionally bump an FF forum up to the top. Perhaps when a significant event is going on such as a let's play, or even just cycling through them to encourage some extra discussion.

[Citizen Bleys]

People who don't want to post in the gaming forums won't post in the gaming forums. It doesn't matter where you put them.

[Slothy]

Are you referring to my not wanting to lump forums together out of numerical order or the idea of having a featured forum? I'm not quite sure from your statement. I agree the latter may not really do much unless there's an event going on. But temporarily promoting an FF forum for a Let's Play or something similar may be beneficial and get a bit more attention when they start.

[Citizen Bleys]

I'm fully onboard with the idea of a featured forum with some sort of event, like FFV Revisited! or EoFF Plays FFX. That could temporarily be moved to the top; If it's not the same forum at the top all of the time, people might pay more attention because there's a reason it's featured and they want to know why.

[Sephex]

Whenever there is an event going on in a forum, the chocobo or header should be colored something different (also depending on the user style) to draw the member's eye to that forum.

[Goldenboko]

It should be gold ;)

[Citizen Bleys]

My vote goes for octarine

[Raistlin]

I think the FF forums need to stay in numerical order, just for the sake of convenience. But I agree that certain forums of temporary significance, such as just-released games or where events are going on, should be moved to the top. The staff does this with just-released games, but I think it should be done more.

The groupings are a little weird, but it's impossible to satisfy everyone on that issue. I think the current system works fine, and I don't see any real potential benefit by messing with it further.