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Greetings section: Since there's an obvious problem with newcomers finding this, maybe some sort of thing like big neon sign is required. Or perhaps just a little link below the forum rules link or something... And that one leads to the next idea.

Sticky topics used for 'popular threads' linkage: A set of links to major index threads in the more popular areas (including links to threads that are ones liable to repeat offend) EG: FF6 has the more common polls, trivia, and such linked to from it's sticky thread.

The main ideas behind these are streamlining: saving time for Moderators who do not have to merge/move topics, and also, to make life a little easier for newcomers to the site.

In addition, there's a minor 'morale' issue: sometimes, a newcomer to the site may post in the wrong section, get the moderator attention needed, and start to worry that maybe they're making major mistakes, general worrying, etc.

Well, they're probably no use but I felt I'd ask anyway.






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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

Quote (Del S @ 11th January 2005 15:43)

Greetings section: Since there's an obvious problem with newcomers finding this, maybe some sort of thing like big neon sign is required. Or perhaps just a little link below the forum rules link or something...

Or do what I would do; put it on the front page with all the other forums. A subforum for newbies to meet and greet is kind of a bad idea, since a lot of people do what I do and only go to the forum parts they're interested in. If General stuff isn't what they're here for, why bother? Hence why more people miss that board than what you would expect.

I rarely check out the social forums on the first few posts myself, and that's usually when people make their Hi! posts. If it saves the mods a couple moved topics, why not?

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The Unoriginal White Sheet

-Master ZED

Just so long as there's a minor suggestions thread, I'd like to add one more to the list. Can you guys make the rules somewhat more visable somehow? While it might be convienient for regulars to have them out of the way, I vaguly remember the forum rules being kinda hard to find at first. Due to the rapidly increasing number of new people here, I'm sure others might be having problems finding them too.
I think that the visability problem is caused by the isolation that they have from everything else. A good way to make them more visible would be to make them less isolated. Adding a new button to the button bar or adding a link inside of stickies in of every section of the forums would be a couple of ways of ruducing isolation.
The purpose of this would be to help the newer people realize that there are rules. If they realize that, they might follow them, making a moderators life somewhat easier.

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Role reversal at its finest.

Quote (Master ZED @ 11th January 2005 22:44)

A subforum for newbies to meet and greet is kind of a bad idea, since a lot of people do what I do and only go to the forum parts they're interested in. If General stuff isn't what they're here for, why bother? Hence why more people miss that board than what you would expect.

I haven't had time to watch carefully for a while, but do we really get many "I'm new" topics popping up in FF6 etc.? I appreciate that people may not come here for the "General", because I've never visited a board for the community side in the first instance myself. However, as long as they're aware of the "Make only topics relevant to the subforum you're in" principle, they shouldn't be creating such topics in game sections. If they do, the rules need rereading.

If a new user wants to make an "I'm new" topic and is armed with a) the rules and common sense, they ought to see that General is the most appropriate place. Upon entering there, the Greetings forum should become pretty visible, no?

There should already be something in the rules about that forum. If not, we do need to add it. We could also really do with restructuring the rules so that the basic dos and don'ts show up more clearly on a scan-through; the current document, while well written, requires a little too much heavy reading to become conversant with the basics, IMO.

The position of our current Rules link is the one defined by Invision Power Board. We've tried to make it more noticable. Did people really have trouble finding it? I'm particularly interested in responses on that from people who never visited the board until after the rules existed. I'm also pretty sure we spew the rules out at you upon registration. We used to, at least.

The stickies idea is nice, provided that people actually read those "look here first" stickies. I usually find them pretty hard to navigate, since they contain all kind of mashed up links in a big pot. We don't really mind people reposting topics anyway if a previous/the original topic has fallen off the 30-day radar, with the exception of extremely obvious ones like "What's your favourite character?" I think there's something in the rules about that, too: perhaps we should expand it with a list of topics not to bother starting full stop. And also make it a bit easier to find in there, as I suggested above.

My main issue with unhooking subforums and making neon signs is clutter. I hate boards which have flashing lights everywhere, "RPG info" next to a poster's name which is about a page long, etc. I know this isn't really the same, but the principle of keeping the interface clean and tidy still applies.

I'm not sure if this is the right place, but are you guys(CoN) going to update the site with DoS version of FF1(or eventually FF2?)?

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Yunalesca: "Hope is...comforting. It allows us to accept fate, however tragic it might be. "

Yunalesca: "Poor creature. You would throw away hope. Well... I will free you before you can drown in your sorrow. It is better for you to die in hope than to live in despair. Let me be your liberator. "

If they are, you'll know it when it happens. Other than that, they pretty much just choose what they wanna cover when they wanna cover it.

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~Status Report~

* Completed... Dragon's Head
* Completed... Soldiers of the Empire: Disciples (release pending)
* In Progress/Undecided... Of Love and Betrayal
* Planning/Assembly... Where it all Began

I think CoN should update the site with forums for more FF games like from 7 on instead of just leaving it at FF VI.


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Money is no good unspent.
There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity.

Quote (Zeil @ 24th January 2005 19:32)

I think CoN should update the site with forums for more FF games like from 7 on instead of just leaving it at FF VI.

I think you should search the forums for comments that have been answered several times already.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

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