Final Fantasy Hacktics

News => News => Topic started by: Eternal on February 10, 2011, 04:24:17 pm

Title: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Eternal on February 10, 2011, 04:24:17 pm
I'm currently reorganizing certain boards so that the site won't be as messy to look at, and hopefully things will be a bit more crisp and organized. Have patience during this time, please. Thanks!
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Pickle Girl Fanboy on February 10, 2011, 04:49:56 pm
Opinion: Really don't like using boards as subcategories for the really important boards, like FFT General Modding.  It adds another layer of abstraction which you need to sort through if you're trying to keep track of topics on multiple boards.  This doesn't really matter for Spam or General, but I like to sit on the forum index and F5 every five minutes.  I don't like seeing empty boards with five child-boards, basically, and I can't think of many sites where this layout works.  Ease/simplicity/convenience of use/navigation is the goal here.

And we haven't reached this point yet, but over-organization can be just as confusing as under-organization.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Eternal on February 10, 2011, 04:52:03 pm
Yeah, I can understand that. Let me finish the rest of the reorganization, which should be done shortly, and then I'll get an opinion on what you guys think should be changed/changed back to.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Eternal on February 10, 2011, 05:08:01 pm
OK, most of the reorganization is done. I just need to talk to the people who've made completed patches and get things sorted out for those to have boards as well.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Pickle Girl Fanboy on February 10, 2011, 05:25:39 pm
Does this mean the main page - http://www.ffhacktics.com/ - will have news on it?
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Eternal on February 10, 2011, 05:26:43 pm
Because of the switch to SMF, whatever plugin Xif had to connect the front page to the News forum no longer works. She's looking for something similar that'll work on SMF, which we'll hopefully have soon.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: st4rw4k3r on February 10, 2011, 08:26:52 pm
I like the new organization
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Wolfran on February 10, 2011, 09:02:56 pm
It's confusing, I like the old organization. Maybe it was a little messy but it was simplier than this.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Eternal on February 10, 2011, 09:03:27 pm
Give it some time. You'll get used to this just like you got used to the old layout. :)
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Celdia on February 11, 2011, 01:49:32 am
A++ on the reorganization. Would view again.

Now all we need in the Completed Patches or maybe in the WiP board is a dedicated section for Raves and Reviews on the different patches here. While of course its nice to have the word of the creators available on each patch I'd like to see what the people playing them think of everything. A place just for those would be nice but then I'm not sure we have users that would write an actual game review of someone's patch around here...feel free to prove me wrong, folks.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on February 11, 2011, 01:53:10 am
I rather like this design, but I'm incredibly biased in that opinion, as about a third of you probably know.

Seems the general consensus is still about 50/50 though... guess it needs a bit of time to grow on people before we can say for sure how well this setup will work out.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: VampragonLord on February 11, 2011, 03:45:54 am
i prefer child-boards, it keeps it simpler. just beware the "overorganizing" or the "do squares go in the rectangle board, since theyre also rectangles, or do they also have a separate board since theyre different enough".
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on February 11, 2011, 03:55:06 am
Quote from: VampragonLord on February 11, 2011, 03:45:54 am
i prefer child-boards, it keeps it simpler. just beware the "overorganizing" or the "do squares go in the rectangle board, since theyre also rectangles, or do they also have a separate board since theyre different enough".


We almost hit that wall a couple times, but I'm super sexy and hit people over the head enough to avoid it on IRC.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Pickle Girl Fanboy on February 11, 2011, 10:08:37 am
The old set-up was very FFT specific, this one is more generalized for modding any game.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: The Damned on February 11, 2011, 11:29:51 am
(Why does everything always change around a lot the mere day that I'm gone?)

I somewhat like the set-up, but I have to agree with Pickle Girl Fanboy about the board seeming a lot overtly FFT-specific even with the many visible sub-titles. From a glance, the only thing besides the name that shows that we may be specifically FFT-oriented is the Ramza picture at that's still at the top and I can't imagine that's very telling.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Eternal on February 11, 2011, 11:32:07 am
You think that the "modding" forum name should be changed to "FFT Modding", then, for more clarity?
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: The Damned on February 11, 2011, 11:52:23 am
Given that most of the time, even when want people to make non-FFT mods, that they use FFT as the base to mod from, that would be useful clarification, yes. That may also be a sufficient enough change for anyone who might just randomly come across us to get the idea, but that might just be me. Pickle Girl Fanboy and others might feel differently.

Regardless, thank you for the swift response.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Pickle Girl Fanboy on February 11, 2011, 11:59:20 am
I meant my previous comment as, "So now we can host modding projects for other games without them looking like afterthoughts."
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Eternal on February 11, 2011, 12:02:07 pm
If I understand what you're saying, you're saying that the modding board would be for non-FFT related games, yes? I'll be honest, I don't really agree with that.

Non-FFT mods are fine in General unless we get enough of them to make a subforum for them later.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on February 11, 2011, 02:59:05 pm
No, genius-Ternal, he's saying the way we set up the Hacking board, we could easily place say, "Castlevania Hacking", "FF6 Hacking", "Super Mario Hacking", or whatever else we wanted in the Hacking index along with the 3 existing boards and they would be equally visible as the various FFT Hacking boards that exist there now.  Stop being dense, bro.   -___-
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Vanya on February 11, 2011, 07:44:55 pm
I agree. I'd prefer having the FFT hacking forums on the top layers as well. It makes sense as that is our main focus.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on February 11, 2011, 08:15:57 pm
Quote from: Vanya on February 11, 2011, 07:44:55 pm
I agree. I'd prefer having the FFT hacking forums on the top layers as well. It makes sense as that is our main focus.


Right now it's the only focus, so this setup was what we came up with to remove clutter on the front page.  If the site actually got into modding off-games (sans maybe Tactics Ogre and Vagrant Story), it'd be likely that an "Non-FFT Modding" section would come into being and the current "Modding" section would become "FFT Modding."  This is just what Eternal and I came up with over IRC looking at the kinds of modding and the amount of users we have at this current point in time as a means of improving organization and reducing clutter.
Title: Re: Forum Reorganization
Post by: Pickle Girl Fanboy on February 12, 2011, 10:21:50 am
Thank you!  I'm not saying we should - I don't like saying "we" in regards to this community because it smacks of rosebuddedness - but that we could, if the occasion arises.