We really need to boost the activity here

Cookie Monster

NOM NOM NOM
Looking at the website now, I noticed no one posts links to the forum in their articles. Threads should be created for every article posted. Then hyperlink the thread to the articles, and just say something that will encourage further discussion in the forum concerning said articles.

@Avatar: Great Justice. :monster:
 

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
[quote author=Cookie Monster link=topic=281.msg6990#msg6990 date=1231552378]
Looking at the website now, I noticed no one posts links to the forum in their articles. Threads should be created for every article posted. Then hyperlink the thread to the articles, and just say something that will encourage further discussion in the forum concerning said articles.

@Avatar: Great Justice. :monster:
[/quote]

Actually, I disagree - that was the original setup on ACF, yes, but I personally believe that news-related discussions should go directly onto the frontpage. This'll entice people to go visit the frontpage more often to check on new discussion and whatnot, instead of holing up in the forums. More discussion on (and member interaction with) the frontpage will both increase its worth and make it look a lot more interesting than it does right now (as in, from an outsider's perspective, it looks pretty dead).

This was btw my initial and main concern for setting up the forums - it would distract from the frontpage, cause less activity thar, and create two separate entities - the forums and the frontpage. I'd like to develop a proper frontpage / forum integration, but I haven't been able to be arsed, and the forum software is very uncertain, :/.

On expanding our coverage, this too has been a (small) point of discussion, and I personally believe TLS should remain Compilation and Compilation-related only. The more focussed a website is, the more people who actively search for that subject will find and enjoy it.

It wouldn't be hard btw to set up a 'sub'-website for other FF-related news though, a similar approach, but with wider news coverage. We could just add a subsection for that subject onto the forums ( I don't think creating two separate forums just yet is a good idea, although it wouldn't be difficult to do it ).

But then we'd also need additional active staff and translators and whatnot, and the site's low on both of those as it is, :monster:. Well, not low, just that the majority of site staff doesn't seem to be doing much (not the translators, not Mako, etc). On that, I was going to do some kinda (frontpage) staff review thingy, and (temp?) demote inactive staff, as was indicated to them by either the 'staff wanted' page or the staff information document, which btw I still haven't updated due to cba / don't care, :monster:.

On involving the members, I laid eyes on this thread and already figured Someone must've chucked into the elitist bastard section instead of one of the general sections, as this is a subject that concerns everyone. Move it poasthaste, unless you have serious issues with that, :monster:.

But yeah, as Monster says and as I've indicated, poast links to discussions on the subject (if (remotely?) associated with the poast), and vice-versa. If I cba, I'll go through the existing frontpage poasts and try to add links to forum threads.

On clubs activity and whatnot, I personally don't / wouldn't really care where the activity was if there were ads on the site, but only care about the amount of pageviews and overall activity, :monster:. But on a moar serious note, as I or someone else said when the clubs were decided upon, discussions that could warrant their own topic, such as I dunno, the pen0r size of seffiros, should be split from the clubs thread and chucked into its own thread in the appropriate section. As indicated before, that would be the club leader's main responsibility - A note should be added in the club thread whenever a new topic comes up that reminds the club leaders of that.

Also, I should probably create a post with some detailed stuff about the clubs in the section, i.e. the responsibility of the club leader(s) on the content of the club and new topics and whatnot.
 

Dawnbreaker

~The Other Side of Fear~
I think the main reason ACF was so successful is that it was always one of the first pages to come up when you typed in "Sephiroth" "Cloud" "AC" etc. Most of ACF's memebers weren't invited by others but rather stumbled upon the site (I fairly certain of this, because I did ask the members where they came from out of curiosity). And IIRC the best way of doing that is constantly monitoring the site on all major webbrowsers, and putting up as much content as humanly possible. You also will need to come up with original content, not just something that any Joe could find on the net (although I've noticed that you do have some original content, which is great). Also, ain't you able to monitor what brings in the hits? I know it's been done at other sites, and that should give you an idea on what to focus on.

Anyways, my thoughts, and you did say something about wanting opinions.

 

Isabella

Your Mom
I just don't think there's much compilation-wise to discuss right now, Dissidia aside. I would expect activity to pick up once ACC is released, or even better, if and when a new title is announced. Note to SE: Fans need something new to get jazzed up about/speculate to shreds.
 

Strangelove

AI Researcher
AKA
hitoshura
Hopefully ACC with include something about where the Compilation is going next, a special trailer or preview. 8 more years is great, but only if there's actually something to fill those 8 years
 

Dark and Divine

Pro Adventurer
AKA
D&D
I wouldn't be surprised if, right after ACC is released, S-E announced a new Compilation title.

But unless S-E starts working in lightspeed, i don't think we we'll see a FFVII remake in that 8 year period.

S-E has, until now, launched its FF remakes in chronological order so, in order to have a FFVII remake, a FFV and a FFVI remake will have to be launched before FFVII's one.

And since S-E teams are occupied with Fabula Nova Crystallis games and such, i think that it will take a bit of time until we see the next FF remake.
 

Cat Rage Room

Great Old One
AKA
Mog
I keep saying this over and over again, but no one pays attention

CAPITALIZE. OUR. ULTIMANIA TRANSLATIONS.

We're currently the only place on the net that has as much Ultimania translations on one place. If we capitalize on that (and continue to translate of course), and advertise that fact we'll get members and activity out the ass.
 

Arianna

Holy, Personified
AKA
Katie; Seta.
I'm not a mod or an admin, but... if you'd like another opinion...

Is it really bad that the action happens in the club threads? Perhaps a reformatting to allow the clubs be the 'where it's at'?

Hmmmm... I'm not sure if I'm making sense, but - Perhaps we have a few too many sections/sub-sections?

I can answer for myself only, but I do not go to clubs supporting things I do not care too much about; the same goes for other subjects.

Uhm, I would agree with Dark and Divine that the translations would be a good thing to focus on... Maybe make the entire site more of a group oriented thing - not just a forum and an information site.

I want to help, hopefully this did? If not, sorry to take up your time, but thanks for reading. :)
 

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
AKA
Smooth Criminal
@ M.O.G.

That's what we're trying to do and discuss. We hear you, it just isn't that easy to just get things translated. It takes time and work.

@Arianna

Clubs cannot replace actual sections where everyone can discuss a topic. The clubs are a tiny little niche where people who are fans of the same thing, talk about the same thing. There's only so much activity that can be garnered from that, hence spam has been a problem there.

And we already have a minimum amount of sections as is.

All we can do is just focus on what we can I guess :monster:
 

kunoichi

dead
Just throwing a thought around here (and it probably sounds stupid, I'm tired forgive the ramble) but what's the main aim of the staff for this site in the long run? And is this site offering something different/ unique to other FF sites to keep people coming? How to motivate people is probably the hardest thing to keep up. Perhaps it should just become one big encyclopedia then, without forums to bog the general gist of information. Be the best at one thing instead of trying to be good at everything.
 

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
AKA
Smooth Criminal
Well we're offering the Ultimania translations that no other site has. That's what makes us unique. There's no other site around that has the FFVII guidebook translations out there, other than us. That's what makes us unique.

And we want to keep the forums so we can attract more people to visit us and thus build a community.
 

kunoichi

dead
[quote author=Makoeyes987link=topic=281.msg7508#msg7508date=1231774108]Well we're offering the Ultimania translations that no other site has.[/quote] That's good I guess :monster:
Suppose it boils down to advertising more and starting some clubs up again to keep people from leaving. Really can't think of anything else. Kinda asked the same question on acf and no one really knew then lol. I guess it's early days still :)
 

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
. Also, ain't you able to monitor what brings in the hits? I know it's been done at other sites, and that should give you an idea on what to focus on

yup, we've got daily statistics on both the forums and frontpage, and a thread about that... somewhere, :monster:. Currently, almost 40% of our visitors come from search engines (awesome), 35% from referring sites (i.e. people that link to us, also awesome) and 25% is direct traffic, which is (imo) a pretty good percentage. Although most referring traffic is from the forums, and most keywords we're found at are all referring to the site's name (with dissidia scans and ultimania being some others), it's still good to me.

Also, both the frontpage and forums are sorta optimized for search engines, so that shouldn't be a problem either. Continued content and people linking to us will almost automagically increase search engine hits and whatnot. The second bit, people linking to us, is probably one thing we'll have to work on.

D&D said:
But unless S-E starts working in lightspeed, i don't think we we'll see a FFVII remake in that 8 year period.

How long do you think it takes to create a game of that scale? Even if they decide to make it the moast epic game ever, it shouldn't take more than five.

Arianna said:
I'm not a mod or an admin, but...

The next person who either uses this sentence, a sentence similar to this, or who has thoughts of inferiority or not having a say in matters due to their usergroup, will be b7 and/or ridiculed. TLS is not governed by its staff, just maintained, ergo, the members have an equal say in matters as staff has. They're with more (members), so their say becomes larger, even :monster:.

Arianna said:
Is it really bad that the action happens in the club threads?

imo, no, but it does make the forums look more like a frothing pool of fanpeople instead of a discussion board on the compilation, :monster:. I don't think the clubs activity is disproportional compared to the rest of the forum (yet) though.

Kunochi said:
what's the main aim of the staff for this site in the long run?

Well, there's still an enormous amount of content out there waiting to be processed, translated, transcribed, analyzed, picked apart, etcetera, and that's not counting new stuff, so there's plenty, :monster:.

And is this site offering something different/ unique to other FF sites to keep people coming?

Lessee, the translations is one, and the fact that we've got some of the major news and content people ye olde AC.net had is two. I don't think we're the number one resource for Compilation stuff yet, but we are filling up the hole that AC.net did, I think. It'll probably just take some time, and we'll need to make an inventory of articles that need to be written and whatnot. Any takers on that btw? If we can make a list of stuff that needs to be done (besides translations, the translators are busy enough as they are, I'm sure :monster: ), that would give both us and (potential?) authors a great boost.

Perhaps it should just become one big encyclopedia then, without forums to bog the general gist of information.

The forums were probably the most requested feature for TLS, so I don't think that'll go down easily. Besides, some form of communication between staff will be needed in any case.

Be the best at one thing instead of trying to be good at everything.

We're trying to stay focussed on the Compilation, hence why some ideas for new sections (like a load of FF and SE sections, general X sections) have been shot down (for now) in favor of keeping discussion focussed.

Suppose it boils down to advertising more

On advertising, if you happen to have a website or page, LJ, blog, or frequent other (remotely related) sites, you could drop in a link to one of our articles every once in a while (make sure they're relevant btw and not just spam), that'll both attract some visitors and raise our status in various search engines. I'd prefer if you'd link to frontpage articles over forum threads btw, but whatever floats your boat.

Also, I vote nay to more clubs in favor of other discussions and/or frontpage work, :monster:.
 

Dark and Divine

Pro Adventurer
AKA
D&D
[quote author=Cthulhu link=topic=281.msg7621#msg7621 date=1231800647]
D&D said:
But unless S-E starts working in lightspeed, i don't think we we'll see a FFVII remake in that 8 year period.

How long do you think it takes to create a game of that scale? Even if they decide to make it the moast epic game ever, it shouldn't take more than five.
[/quote]

True, but what i was trying to say is that, since they're currently envolved in several games (The three Fabula Nova Crystallis games, another three Kingdom Hearts games...) and with two other FF games that would probably be remade before VII, even if they could remake the game in three years, imo, it will probably be released after the eight year period that the Compilation is set to last.
 

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
True, there is that. If they'd make a remake, and did it on a large scale, they'd probably do it after the XIII series. Or after one of the smaller projects, dunno yet.
 

Ravynne Nevyrmore

that one Lucrecia fangirl
AKA
Ravynne
I'm with Arianna on the defense of fanclubs, though it may not be coincidence that she and I are the leaders of the two clubs I take part in (Vincent and Vincent/Lucrecia). However, within those two clubs, we do have pretty substantial discussions about the characters/pairing—character development, underlying symbolism, interpretations of certain scenes or dialogue, speculations on what could happen in the future, etc. Granted, they may be the same things that were discussed in equal depth with the same conclusions one or two years ago, but a fanclub does not = an endless loop of "omg vincent is so cool lol" spam.

Let people discuss what they want to discuss. There's no need to try to discourage them from discussing a character and figure out how to get them to discuss a game instead if what they want to discuss is the character. We're all fans here and we've all got that streak of fangirl/fanboy in us.
 

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
AKA
Smooth Criminal
Well your clubs aren't the problem :monster:

And it's not about discouraging clubs, its about maintaining a balance of substantial, and meaningful activity.
 
Is it bad to say I kind of like the site small? Most Final Fantasy sites have huge forums that are impossible to navigate and no one listens to you.

But I'll see what I can do about inviting some friends.
 

ForceStealer

Double Growth
I know this discussion have moved on from this, but I just wanted to say, from what I've seen, a site that changes its focus is generally one of the last things it does. (Though I know FFOF did it)

And I also know the suggestion was to simply expand, but ACF was HUGE and its focus was solely on the Compilation, so what's the difference?

Anyway, up with the times, I have made mention of our Ultimania translations over at gametrailers, and I do sympathize a bit with Jones' sentiments. There is something to be said for an intimate site versus one that rivals small countries in population. But at the same time fresh blood also allows for new conversations.
 

Cthulhu

Administrator
AKA
Yop
Actually, I don't consider FFOF actually changed its focus - its focus never really became the FF series. That, and we realized we could never be better or even half as popular as all the other FF sites, mainly cause we didn't really care about that, :monster:.

As for becoming too large, I don't think there's anything we can (or would want to) do against that. It's just a natural process etc.
 

Countess Ariadne

Pro Adventurer
I posted about this place on my Livejournal. I don't think it contributed much, but oh well. :monster:

I just think this place should focus on quality over quantity on every point: With posts and members. *Shrug.*

I don't really know what's going on with FFOF now, but I loved it at its start. I liked the homey feel where everyone knew each other. But it did seem more like a gathering place of Final Fantasy fans hanging out talking about other things rather than a Final Fantasy forum. If that makes sense. :monster:
 

Username.

Banned
No i think that the more members, the more interesting. We would get noobs,nobs,spammers,niceys,pussys,legends,clever ppl, and normal ppl who just log on for the sake of loggin on.

I am far from clever, but isn't the most viewed site from the search on google at the top of the page? if so, then u must do everything you can to get people to view this site. Go on all the other forums and spam this site i say, break some rules for once for christ sake.
 

Purple

Charmed
I agree. We should promote this site on other sites. More members = more activity. Plus, with ACC only less than 3 months away, we could expect some activity soon.
 
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