Why Is A Cross Dressing Cloud So Damn Important?

[Starling]

I don't get why TLS would be assumed to be biased towards Cloti. I mean as a community, this forum illustrates a wide range of opinions on a variety of subject, including everything about the OG, such as shipping. Besides, since disagreement of some sort is inevitable with just about any subject ever, I don't see it as a good enough reason to refrain from discussing something.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I'm a relative noob but i understand that there are some forum battle scars that havent quite healed related to the LTD so i understand Lex and others trepidation

 

[Channy]

I'm so amused that you guys don't realise the minefield of danger you're about to enter by creating such a video from TLS. Every time I see a post about it I feel a general need to hide behind the chair I'm sitting on.

That's not to say I think it's a bad idea. I mean, I think it's a really bad idea, but it's also a good idea. If that makes sense. I don't know how to express what I'm feeling about this. You guys go on ahead, I'll be behind this chair.

You can factually lay down everything known about the LTD in the most concise unbiased scientific form available. The sad fact is that if it carries the TLS name, it will be accused of bias in the favour of Cloti even if it carries a new exclusive quote from Nojima stating that Aerith is about to come back to life and have babies with Cloud while Tifa falls in a dustbin never to be seen again. Such is the LTD. That's why we're all so scared of it now, it haunts us in our dreams.

You forget Lex, the Clerith side has me. while I've been MIA from TLS for 5+ years, my devotion to the clan has never wavered, as seen in my merchandise, fanclubs in other forums,

Spoiler: and this little demotivational I made for TLS so many moons ago (which Tennyo cleaned up and put in a fancy green field with ribbons, I think).

 

[Lex]

There are a bunch of Clerith's here. This somehow goes unnoticed by people from elsewhere (and one place in particular). TLS has been referred to as a "Cloti forum" for years, and the entire thing is just ridiculous.

I'm aware of your allegiance Channy . I had no idea you made that image! But I've seen it used quite a bit. I think it's a hilarious commentary on how some LTD folk make their arguments XD.

 

[Channy]

Yeah, the Clerith side has just sort of quieted down, unless provoked... then we get a little... rabid

Yeah that was a long time ago. I think it was a good way to show how fandoms and shippers can still make fun of ourselves sometimes.

 

[Flare]

I never knew the LTD was such a furiously debated topic on the internet... until I heard about it on here. I'm both surprised and not surprised that it's debated so fiercely.

 

[Cat on Mars]

Right now the video's over 150,000 views. Good job, guys! I don't usually watch youtube videos because it's very tiring for me (non-native speaker with slightly impaired hearing, there are certain sounds I struggle to catch), but I actually enjoyed this one.

The mix of quirky humor and drama was what made me fall in love with the OG so I fully agree with the video's argument. The game would be depressing without that kind of stuff.

Besides, that was the part when I started to like the characters and enjoyed how a damsel in distress trope is fully reversed: Cloud doesn't fight his way into the Don's mansion (the most typical display of stereotypical male traits) but by passing as woman and displaying typical feminine traits. On top of that, when you find Tifa you learn that she wasn't kidnapped but she's here in order to approach the Don and find out Shinra's next move against Avalanche, thus moving the plot forward.


And last but not least, keeping that part in the remake would lead to more crossdressing doujinshi, and that's good.

...don't judge me.

 

[Pixel]

The video is actually number 2 in search results for "FFVII remake", and both of our vids are on the first page of results for "FF7 Remake". Nice work

 

[Lex]

I demand MOAR VIDEOS by TLS with titles beginning with "FFVII Remake" because this vid pops up in suggestions every time I'm watching something VII related on YouTube and I enjoy looking at the view counter which is now close to 650,000.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I actually recorded an opinion piece regarding the importance of mini-games but I haven't seen Claymore around these parts lately and I don't want to try and edit something on...

*shudder*

Windows Movie Maker

Besides while I have many talents, sound production and high quality video editing are not among them.

 

[Lex]

I could get into the editing side of things if you need me to, I've done a bit of it before (and I don't use movie maker XD).

 

[Pixel]

I had planned on doing more stuff with Philip Hartshorn, but the video we did just didn't do as well as we'd hoped.

We got lucky with the timing on the other 2 videos, but they did have their problems, which can be ironed out if we do more. I don't like comments sections on youtube, but there are some brutally honest critisisms that I completely agree with, especially on that first video.

Big things that really rub people up the wrong way - pronunciations, fact checking, and not getting to the point. These are reasons for the large amounts of thumbs downs and low retention of viewers. Although there are 600k views, the majority switch off before the 2 min mark, since there is nothing actually being said.

I tried appealing against the copyright on this video, and they still wont tell me the cause, but i suspect TPRs music. We could have used that money for more production stuff.

I would like to try out a different presentation style for videos, but I haven't had much motivation for writing. I have ideas for vids, and tried getting writers, but didn't get much luck.

I tried paying a "professional" writer for a 1000 word article on how Yuffie and Vincent should be implimented, but it wasnt that great.

Other ideas I had:
Spoiler Alert - Should we protect people from spoilers for this 18 year old story?
Top 7 thing we would like to see in the remake.
Is FF7 overrated?
Is there such thing as too much Nomura?


The biggest struggle is getting people to see the content. Reddit has been a great tool, but people are finding our stuff on youtube more. We just need to affect the analytics by sharing, like, etc. Then it snowballs once it shows up in recommendations and searches.

 

[Dragonslayer Ornstein]

I would watch an actual LTD documentary video with high production values. I'd probably laugh at it if I wasn't kind of numb to laughter. But you know, I'd enjoy it anyway.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I would watch an actual LTD documentary video with high production values. I'd probably laugh at it if I wasn't kind of numb to laughter. But you know, I'd enjoy it anyway.

 

[Dragonslayer Ornstein]

Why not. It's fun to see people stirred up over what they're passionate for. Aerith philosophically represents the loss of those we love, etc. Then you've got Tifa.

I wonder if that woman has problems sometimes, her endless devotion to Cloud looks almost unhealthy. It's also believable, though.

 

[Claymore]

We got lucky with the timing on the other 2 videos, but they did have their problems, which can be ironed out if we do more. I don't like comments sections on youtube, but there are some brutally honest critisisms that I completely agree with, especially on that first video.

Big things that really rub people up the wrong way - pronunciations, fact checking, and not getting to the point. These are reasons for the large amounts of thumbs downs and low retention of viewers. Although there are 600k views, the majority switch off before the 2 min mark, since there is nothing actually being said.

At the end of the day the videos served their purpose - which was to pump out some content double quick concerning the remake (hence the excitement at the start of the first one concerning the 'journey' of fans) and to draw some attention to this place. It wasn't meant to be perfect, and when it comes to videos and Youtube, everyone will have a different opinion. It rambled on, but there was a reason for that.

And hey, 600,000+ views and a showcase in practically any FF VII video? ... Thumbs down are meaningless, lol. We got what we needed out of it.

As for moving forward, I battle depression daily, so have kinda been involved in that, though I lurk here often so am here all the time. But, I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of activity all round here to be honest. This is what we've been waiting years for and there should been a flurry of activity. We should have new articles about both the game segments and the new remake, written content, all kinds of videos, getting a new frontpage layout - let's not talk about the forum as it's not going to change - and fixing all those missing links and getting some VII content on here. It just doesn't feel like much is getting done in a time when it really should, so yeah, motivation has slipped away because of that as well.

And if we can't link and present the little content we have then:

The biggest struggle is getting people to see the content. Reddit has been a great tool, but people are finding our stuff on youtube more. We just need to affect the analytics by sharing, like, etc. Then it snowballs once it shows up in recommendations and searches.

Yeah.

Basically, we need a more site-wide push for content. There's no point getting all that traffic here ... and then nothing can actually be found. Retention is the name of the game here. And with the remake coming out - we should be slamming home both new and old content, and having existing stuff be easy to locate and discover.

But that's my two pence. (I'm British! )

 

[Jason Tandro]

^ I'm all for more content and more content man. Did you ever get that article I pieced together regarding mini-games?

I've also been pushing for interviews with fanworks creators and I just reached ObstinateMelon, but he's been busy and hasn't worked on the FF7 Comic in a while so he didn't want to do it just yet.

 

[Lex]

But, I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of activity all round here to be honest. This is what we've been waiting years for and there should been a flurry of activity. We should have new articles about both the game segments and the new remake, written content, all kinds of videos, getting a new frontpage layout - let's not talk about the forum as it's not going to change - and fixing all those missing links and getting some VII content on here. It just doesn't feel like much is getting done in a time when it really should, so yeah, motivation has slipped away because of that as well.

And if we can't link and present the little content we have then:

The biggest struggle is getting people to see the content. Reddit has been a great tool, but people are finding our stuff on youtube more. We just need to affect the analytics by sharing, like, etc. Then it snowballs once it shows up in recommendations and searches.

Yeah.

Basically, we need a more site-wide push for content. There's no point getting all that traffic here ... and then nothing can actually be found. Retention is the name of the game here. And with the remake coming out - we should be slamming home both new and old content, and having existing stuff be easy to locate and discover.

But that's my two pence. (I'm British! )

If you're going to continue writing videos (and I hope that you do) you need to annex that off in your mind as something that you're going to do and not have it relate to the site content. This is what happens on this site, and I and other staff do push for more content (doing some of that now actually).

Honestly you might think this is a lull, but we've had a lot of stuff because of the remake, and now we're gearing up in the in-between time until we get more news in winter, at which point the place will blow up again. That's how it's always gone. When you compare the site as it is now to how it used to be, we have come a LONG way, and I think people forget that sometimes (or don't know because they joined after 2011).

To be real for a second, there are things that we're all pushing behind the scenes including a complete restructure of how content is laid out on the front site (I'd like to move to a widescreen format for desk/lap and have a separate mobile site for example) and I think we're all guilty of posting all these great ideas that lie stagnant because someone goes "eh, nope" and we're left with what we have - the problem there is usually that those people are just playing Devil's Advocate. We need to take some leaps of faith into the unknown and deal with disasters if they occur if we want to stay fresh, and all that crap can get in the way of content because it FEELS like nothing is getting done, even if that's untrue.

To combat this I'm actually having a staff meeting or "crunch" next week over voice, and if you'd like to join you're more than welcome. I know you must feel frustrated because you've made some good suggestions to me personally and it might look like I'm not listening, but the reality is that I have six other people telling me other different things in the other ear and the answer tends to become "it's best to wait until we've done X" or "we should do X first" from Yop or someone else. This is frustrating for me as well, but it's just part of the situation we're in until certain stuff gets done.

If you ever have a problem, please PM me or something and I will always respond, and suggestions etc. are always welcome. I don't want that to sound like a useless platitude, so I'm also going to say if you want to get involved in staff you're more than welcome to join as an editor and push your own content in front page articles. Seriously.

Let me know <3

(Apologies, this kind of became a site-wide post but it's relevant).

 

[Pixel]

I'm not sure when the next adsense payment will be, but whenever it is, there should be another $20 for each of you.

I wonder if we should scout for more writers. I can definitely pay a base price of $10 per video, and more if adsense money comes in for it.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I'm not sure when the next adsense payment will be, but whenever it is, there should be another $20 for each of you.

I wonder if we should scout for more writers. I can definitely pay a base price of $10 per video, and more if adsense money comes in for it.

Why not have a "Submit an Article" option on the front-page? We could set guidelines for writing and of course have some folks act as editors. I do content acquisition for CTFDN so I wouldn't mind scouring through submissions for you guys.

Maybe have a similar option for a script for a video, though that obviously takes a lot more effort than just writing.

 

[Pixel]

Well, I would only really be able to pay for anything on the youtube channel, so im looking specifically for stuff that I can produce myself, alongside any video content anyone else wants to create, which will also be paid for.

The big thing for me is credibility of the content, in presentation and writing. So anything we put out there is seen as legitimate, rather than people just percieving it as a rant.

 

[Jason Tandro]

Well, I would only really be able to pay for anything on the youtube channel, so im looking specifically for stuff that I can produce myself, alongside any video content anyone else wants to create, which will also be paid for.

The big thing for me is credibility of the content, in presentation and writing. So anything we put out there is seen as legitimate, rather than people just percieving it as a rant.

Like Claymore said though "rants" drive views. 600k and 20k for opinion pieces over the far more professional content on the channel. It's an imperfect system, but there has to be a happy medium. Perhaps if we specifically call-out opinion content as just that- opinions.

 

[Pixel]

This might be pretty challenging, but we could do a video for each game, summarizing the story in 60 seconds. We could start with FF7, then each compilation title, then go back through each FF game if those go well.

 

[Jason Tandro]

This might be pretty challenging, but we could do a video for each game, summarizing the story in 60 seconds. We could start with FF7, then each compilation title, then go back through each FF game if those go well.

Dude now THAT's an idea. Sounds like something we'd want to get Shademp, Vader and Ryushikaze on board with.

 

[Lex]

Tres would be a good choice for Dirge. Don't let him near CC, he hates it.