Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: Vivi22's Ramblings of a Slightly Tired Man 3

  1. #1
    Slothstronaut Recognized Member Slothy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    I'm in space
    Posts
    13,565
    Blog Entries
    27
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight

    Default Vivi22's Ramblings of a Slightly Tired Man 3

    Nothing like having to leave things until the last minute.

    So front site up first. I'll say up front that I almost never visit it. I do keep up with the articles and news stories using the side bar in the forum, but there's not a whole lot on the front site that's of interest to me. After 20 years of playing these games and not really wanting to dive as deeply into many of the new ones as I would have when I was younger, my need to look up information about FF titles is pretty non-existent most of the time.

    That said, I did find myself low on ability spheres in my current run of FFX for the Eyeson Plays and looked up what monsters drop them. Turns out none do on the Mushroom Rock road and I'll either have to keep going or go back. So yay for bestiaries and ctrl+f I suppose.

    As for what I'd like to see, some consistent formatting would be nice. Even in selecting what section you want from the menu bar on the left of a particular game the ordering is all over the place. Why are member reviews at the very top in FFIX and FFXII when they're near the bottom in every other game section I looked at? Even if they were just in alphabetical order it'd make it easier to find things. And when I actually looked at the user reviews they were all formatted differently. Some are walls of text, some have tables. Some of the walkthroughs are just presented on the site, some have pictures, some are just linked to and presented in GameFaqs style plain text.

    I spent about 10-20 minutes flipping between different sections to see what's there and what we need and sweet jesus did it frustrate me that every section looks so different. I realize some of it may be the remnants of earlier versions of the site and formatting done by either the users or earlier site developers, but if there's one thing I'd like to see changed first and foremost it would be developing some consistent standards and working to implement them as much as we can so that users know what they can expect to see on every page. There should be no hunting for a particular menu option, or being linked to plain text documents if we can avoid. There should be a consistent visual look with consistent usability on every single page.

    I realize it might be a monumental task to go through and change all of that, but hey, we're wish listing here. Right now though, with the inconsistencies in layout and formatting, it just screams unprofessional/haphazardly slapped together to me.

    Anyway, on to my thoughts on this round. I like it so far. I've got most of my article done, just about to trim it down to avoid my usual walls of text (see example above). I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's articles, and definitely like the idea of wanting staff more involved in coming up with front site content.

  2. #2
    Gobbledygook! Recognized Member Christmas's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Pious Moose's HQ
    Posts
    13,393
    Blog Entries
    6
    Contributions
    • Hosted the Ciddies

    Default

    Very constructive and straight to the point!!!! GOOD WORK!!!

  3. #3
    Eggstreme Wheelie Recognized Member Jiro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    26,942
    Articles
    65
    Blog Entries
    1
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight
    • Former Editor
    • Notable contributions to former community wiki

    Default

    Yeah making the frontsite's content all uniform is a smurfing mammoth task and it, frankly, can't be done.

    They see me rolling. They hating, patrolling.
    Trying to catch me riding dirty.


  4. #4
    Slothstronaut Recognized Member Slothy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    I'm in space
    Posts
    13,565
    Blog Entries
    27
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight

    Default

    Is there a reason that it can't be done though? Is it a matter of it being too much work to be done in any reasonable amount of time with the current number of development staff?

  5. #5
    Eggstreme Wheelie Recognized Member Jiro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    26,942
    Articles
    65
    Blog Entries
    1
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight
    • Former Editor
    • Notable contributions to former community wiki

    Default

    Pretty much. A lot of the information is presented in radically different formats, and creating a standard format for each category in each game and formatting it all that way would probably kill people. Just moving all the information there was crazy amounts of effort. Marshall Banana did almost all of it and hasn't been seen since (not true she's fine but seriously it just can't be done with our level of man power)

    They see me rolling. They hating, patrolling.
    Trying to catch me riding dirty.


  6. #6
    Slothstronaut Recognized Member Slothy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    I'm in space
    Posts
    13,565
    Blog Entries
    27
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight

    Default

    Welp, there's only one solution then. Either we clone the site developers or we turn Pike into an actual robot so she can interface with the site directly and usher in a new golden age for EOFF where simply thinking of something produces the appropriate site code and formatting.

  7. #7
    Eggstreme Wheelie Recognized Member Jiro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    26,942
    Articles
    65
    Blog Entries
    1
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight
    • Former Editor
    • Notable contributions to former community wiki

    Default

    Why not both?

    They see me rolling. They hating, patrolling.
    Trying to catch me riding dirty.


  8. #8
    Happiness Hurricane!! Pike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Clover Town Street
    Posts
    18,644
    Articles
    13

    FFXIV Character

    Althalor Lightpike (Excalibur)
    Contributions
    • Former Editor
    • Former Cid's Knight
    • Former Social Media Manager

    Default

    Yeah, I'm okay with both.

  9. #9
    Slothstronaut Recognized Member Slothy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    I'm in space
    Posts
    13,565
    Blog Entries
    27
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight

    Default

    Well, I didn't want to just assume for Pike. Sure we all know she'd be fine with the robot part, but asking she directly interface with this site of all places might be more than anyone bargained for.

  10. #10
    Eggstreme Wheelie Recognized Member Jiro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    26,942
    Articles
    65
    Blog Entries
    1
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight
    • Former Editor
    • Notable contributions to former community wiki

    Default

    It'd be the starting point for her assimilation of the entire internet.

    They see me rolling. They hating, patrolling.
    Trying to catch me riding dirty.


Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •