Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > Reference > Feedback Forum > Discussion about forum organization that actually led to results

[Rye]

I know Monda and I mentioned this before, but no one really followed our suggestion to kind of prune our extra forums. So we decided to make it clear with an image.

As you can see, I've clipped out forums we don't need, like Study Hall and Art Gallery (as opposed to Art & Writing). We condensed Final Fantasy into four categories - Old, Middle Age, New, and General S-E. Why, might you ask, would we condense them? This is a Final Fantasy forum after all!

Monda and I thought about this, and we decided that a lot of the forums are very threadbare. We put ourselves in the perspective of new joiners - if a forum hasn't been posted in for days, we'd be very reluctant to join in and post in it.

By combining 3 or 4 forums into one forum based on age of game, it adds to the appearance of activity. Another good thing is that it allows more of a cross forum migration.

I, for one, would be very unlikely to read threads from FFVI - but if it's combined into a general forum with a few games I have played before, I'd be more willing to look into it, if I find a thread title that I find interesting. Monda suggested that each forum have a prefix, like the Art & Writing forums, for the sake of organization - like FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, etc.

The help and staff forums and moved to the bottom, because they're the least active, and not a major focus of the forums.

Monda wanted me to point out to you that we currently have THIRTY SEVEN forums open to the member base.

Another benefit of this revamp is that these forums are RIGHT in view when you log on, or are only a scroll down. As you can see below, the current layout is... well, longer than long cat.

This is what we decided on together. Forgive the shoddily put together restitchings.

Here, my friends, is the dark truth.



And a thumbnail:



Do you see now? Do you see, my friends?

[Tavrobel]

The scrolling is even worse for Staff members of any type. I have also found that this scrolling issue is a problem with the member list, spanning over 351/354 unnecessary pages worth of members. We should also prune these, as well.

On a related note, didn't we just have this discussion in Feedback a month ago? From what I can tell, there's room for cleanup, but the problem is was that no one could decide on what to change. Everyone has their pet project forums, even though stuff at the bottom could easily be removed.

[Raistlin]

The biggest problem I see is that you are using an ugly layout.

[Rye]

Haha, I don't care what anyone says. xD I think EoFF 2005 is adorable. It's indented, which is the most important thing, (though it goes on forever in length), and I really like the top banner. I just like the color brown, I guess. Call me scat man!

Though if a similar shaped forum layer comes along in cuter colors, I'd definitely make the switch. I just won't use a forum that takes up a full page. It bothers me, for some reason.

Anyway, it goes on forever even with the oldbie blues layout.

[Del Murder]

A lot of members stick in one forum and I don't think they'd like it combined with any other (hi FFXI!). Though I do think we could stand to combine some of the forums.

[Tavrobel]

VG/FFMedia at the least is the one to consider killing. After that is CT/CC, simply because they don't do anything that can't be covered anywhere else.

EDIT: Rye, since you suggested it, how would you arrange the forums, then, if such pruning were to occur?

EDITGA: Goddamn, you ask to solve one problem, and you cause another. Learn how to not stretch the tables with images when you hide them in spoilers. Some of us can't scroll to the right.

[Jessweeee♪]

I like having lots of forums

[eestlinc]

your image isn't loading for me.

I'm not opposed to merging some forums.