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Thread: Raistlin's Round 3: Welcome to the Frontlines

  1. #1
    Shlup's Retired Pimp Recognized Member Raistlin's Avatar
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    Default Raistlin's Round 3: Welcome to the Frontlines

    And by that, of course, I mean the frontsite.

    The Good

    First, I'll give the positives. I like the integration of the site and the forums. It seems to work smoothly and, most importantly, makes it much, much easier for non-Editor members to help out. I remember a couple of years ago when I was trying to help out tuh by coding my own FFXIII stuff, and it was an extra hassle that the new system has all-but eliminated for a variety of the most common submissions. Now, any clueless dimwit can create an article on the frontsite, and a staff member can publish it with the click of a button.


    The Bad

    Now, for the bad. This morning I noticed there was a new Letter from the Producer for FFXIV, and so keeping my promise to help out with that stuff, I wrote up a piece for the frontsite and had BoB promote it. Just now, I Google'd FFXIV info posted within the last day, and the first couple of pages are devoted to the latest news, but... nothing from EoFF.

    EoFF is not a legitimate news source. It's just not. I'm not sure how many people outside of the forum read EoFF's news, but I doubt it's very many. I think that is the biggest hurdle EoFF faces right now, and the staff needs to address it.

    For that, I think there needs to be more Editors actually doing work. Lately I've seen Freya posting a bit of everything and BoB posting the occasional FFXIV stuff, and that's been it. That's not nearly enough.

    I think there needs to be more Editors who are more focused. Editors could still be free to write about anything, but I think it might be best if an Editor had a focus on one category of FF/Square news. For instance, someone could be the MMO guy, the FFXIII + spinoffs guy, the KH guy, etc. You could require each Editor to have a Google alert for their category. And, of course, maybe 1 or 2 Editors who focused mainly on articles. Focusing Editors helps keep their workload someone limited to prevent burnout, while also better ensuring that the specific news will be reported by making each individual responsible for a certain area.

    This would require a fair number of Editors, but I think running the frontsite is a more pressing issue than running the forums right now, as it's the most important aspect of getting new members. There should be more frontsite staff than forums staff, to be honest.


    Game Content

    There's also the issue of FF game content. This is a tougher issue to tackle than doing the news, because we're entirely dependent on volunteered, user-generated content. I think one big thing to do when a new FF comes out is to start working on stuff when they first start playing the game, whether it's a full walkthrough, a boss guide, or an overview of a sidequest or minigame. I know I was personally kicking myself when I didn't start working on my now-mostly-completed mark guide in FFXIII when I first started doing marks.

    Encouraging this is obviously difficult. But maybe a little event could be held, like a Let's Play, except not for just a month, where the people that play the game and submit content can compete for certain little prizes or titles or privileges awarded to the people who submit the best content (both quality and quantity).

    And now I'm starting to ramble on and on, so I'll stop here.

    EDIT: Jesus, that is longer than I thought. I'll break it up into sections so it's not such a wall of text.

  2. #2
    Eggstreme Wheelie Recognized Member Jiro's Avatar
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    Roogle and I discussed your first negative point back at our first meeting in January. Or maybe it was at the second meeting. In any case, getting ourselves into Google as a news site is an important first step.

    The issue with having more Editors is that nobody really wants to do it, and of the handful of people who do want to do it, very few of them could actually do it. I think it's a sad fact we might have to live with. Until we actually get the manpower, EoFF Editors are going to have to either bust their asses or just watch as we slip farther and farther behind. I do agree quite strongly with your idea that we should have different Editors with designated fields to worry about, it makes it a lot less work per person. That being said, I have Square Enix and Final Fantasy both set up as google alerts and there isn't an overwhelming flood of news. As I have said elsewhere, having people who can go out and generate news is what we really need.

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  3. #3
     Master of the Fork Cid's Knight Freya's Avatar
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    This whole event is my secret way to get more editors How many people want to be an editor? Not many. How many want to be a Ck? Loads! By having this round as the third, not only do I have the people who worked hard to get here but also who would care about the site. At that point having them do something FOR the site shows if they'd be willing to help me out when in staff.

    I actually just brought that up IN staff that in my google alerts, nothing pops up. BLOGS pop up before us. It's something we need to change. Speaking of those, I have it for FF, SE, mistwalker and KH. To be honest there isn't as much news about the different stuff as you think. Not only do we need to report on news but we need to generate it as well. I agree with more editors. I've been kinda campaigning/complaining

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    Shlup's Retired Pimp Recognized Member Raistlin's Avatar
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    Oh I know there isn't really all that much news, which why it shouldn't be a problem keeping up (even with one Editor handling multiple categories). But there's still a lot that we miss, which your posts in the Round 3 thread have highlighted. I have the urge to just write a ton of news articles, but I don't want to be unfair to other competitors. I will still definitely write some more though, as at this point I need to put my money where my mouth is.
    Last edited by Raistlin; 09-01-2012 at 05:32 PM.

  5. #5
    Huh? Flower?! What the hell?! Administrator Psychotic's Avatar
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    I've always thought EoFF should never really just post news, as why come to us when you can go to IGN or Kotaku or a bajillion other general gaming news sites? Insightful comment and content about news should be the direction we take. I'm not the boss man though!

  6. #6
    Feel the Bern Administrator Del Murder's Avatar
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    I agree with Psy. We get most of our news from those sites anyway and just re-post it. However, I think we could have more news commentary. This takes more effort though.

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     Master of the Fork Cid's Knight Freya's Avatar
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    Random blogs about FF topics appear in my Google alerts, fyi. It's not all news. It's what we do with our features, but it gets more attention. I need to figure out how though.....

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    Eggstreme Wheelie Recognized Member Jiro's Avatar
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    Seriously, ask Roogle. He knows. We discussed it.

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    absolutely haram Recognized Member Madame Adequate's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Raistlin View Post
    I have the urge to just right a ton of news articles, but I don't want to be unfair to other competitors.
    Disqualified.

  10. #10
    Shlup's Retired Pimp Recognized Member Raistlin's Avatar
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    Wow, I can't believe I did that. xD In my defense, my hands are possessed and sometimes type things of their own accord, unrelated to my intended message.

    Quote Originally Posted by Psy
    I've always thought EoFF should never really just post news, as why come to us when you can go to IGN or Kotaku or a bajillion other general gaming news sites? Insightful comment and content about news should be the direction we take. I'm not the boss man though!
    That's also a great idea, but it still requires finding and posting the significant news.

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    Shlup's Retired Pimp Recognized Member Raistlin's Avatar
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    Also, dear readers, I have an immunity award that I can use on myself or on someone else for this round, which makes it very interesting. I'm planning on writing an article tomorrow, and that plus my news work should hopefully be enough for me to survive this round -- and if not, then the staff was going to eliminate me next round regardless. So I think I should award someone particularly entertaining. The two people I'm considering right now are Bleys, because of his amazing FFV revisited thread, and krissy, because he's always hilarious and might not make it past this round otherwise.

  12. #12
    Feel the Bern Administrator Del Murder's Avatar
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    I think Bleys would not like it if you used an immunity on him. That may be even more a reason to use it, though.

    Proud to be the Unofficial Secret Illegal Enforcer of Eyes on Final Fantasy!
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    Happiness Hurricane!! Pike's Avatar
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    Just showing up to say that I think you're doing a great job in this contest so far, and if you weren't actually Raistlin and blacklisted for life by most of the membership, you'd probably already be staff.

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    What the bliff Recognized Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by I'm my own MILF View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Raistlin View Post
    I have the urge to just right a ton of news articles, but I don't want to be unfair to other competitors.
    Disqualified.
    The irony, man. The irony.

    I agree with the commentary thing. I always find news with commentary more enjoyable anyway.

  15. #15
    Shlup's Retired Pimp Recognized Member Raistlin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pike View Post
    Just showing up to say that I think you're doing a great job in this contest so far, and if you weren't actually Raistlin and blacklisted for life by most of the membership, you'd probably already be staff.
    It might seem a bit weird to you considering you've only been active relatively recently, but I spent a good amount of time in the 2004-2005 timeframe being a deliberate thorn in the staff's side for my own amusement. Which is why I couldn't help but laugh and give kudos to the 2005 April Fools prank, even though it got everyone worked up to the point that some people (including Bleys at the time) left EoFF for many years -- because they deserved to get one over on me. Ironically though, considering that I used to be the poster boy for the "good ol' days," (or maybe it's not really ironic, but I'm exhausted and had a little to drink and need some sort of segue) I've probably cared more about EoFF in the last few years than I have since the EzBoard. Maybe the downturn in activity helped spike a realization that I really don't want anything to happen to this place.

    I'm not sure where I was going with that. Anyway, thanks.

    Quote Originally Posted by Del
    I think Bleys would not like it if you used an immunity on him. That may be even more a reason to use it, though.
    If you couldn't tell from our team's name in round 2, my personal entertainment is far more important than Bleys being happy.

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