CMS is now live

Ilyena

The mighty arms of Atlas
Staff member
Administrator
Veteran
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
4,168
Location
Wouldn't you like to know?
Gil
594
Andre the Adamantoise
Andre the Adamantoise
Zell
FFXIV
Ilyena Frost
FFXIV Server
Lamia
Hi everyone,

Just wanted to announce that CMS has been activated for all usergroups so everyone should be able to see the front site. Obviously it is a work in progress but we wanted to get some feedback from the members on layout and content. We have a few questions for those members who would like to provide feedback.


+How often would you like to see the front site updated?


+What kind of content would you like to see on the front site? See our categories and let us know the main ones that you would personally like to see more of.


+Are there enough categories? Too much? Any additions you can think of?


+Are you content with the layout? Or would you rather have one column + sidebar?


+Which Seamus skin are you using?


+Do you plan on visiting the front site daily?


The Final Fantasy section is going to have some basic info on the games and perhaps further info on characters and basic plot overviews. We would also like to include an FAQ in each section (possibly compiled from the help booth sections) and walkthroughs. We'd also like to know what kinds of information members would like to see in the FF categories as well.

Also please keep in mind that the comments section for the articles follow the same rules as the forums so please make sure they are appropriate when commenting.
 
Thank you for putting up the CMS. It looks nice. When I read about a front site, I was expecting something different though. I like the column on the left with posts towards the right. It could use a different banner than the forums or none at all with a background image instead. I could see a bottom column put in place instead of the left column showing Categories. This will leave larger posts with a sidebar. I'd like to see the front site updated at least once a week. The content I'd like to see more of would be videos of FFXI and FFXIV on quests. Updates could stay in the Final Fantasy Online section. We could list each Final Fantasy title with basic information similar to a wiki page, not necessarily a FAQ. Fan art could go to the Featured FF Artworks category. The Screenshots category could have images of online gaming and portable gaming with descriptions. I'm using the SeamusBlackBanner skin. I'll probably see the front site almost each time I come to the forums. There's also an image link at the bottom that doesn't show properly.


Awesome, thanks for the feedback. :) Right now it's all new to us, but we're taking steps (however small it may be) to make changes with the help of our technical admins, so we'll see some major improvements soon. A gallery mod might be installed for the Gallery page, but we're still looking into this.

Around June, we're holding our annual banner competition, so there will be new banners for the forums then. Something specifically down to the CMS is something that we can definitely consider if it's not too difficult. We meant to change the stylize header and have a background image, but didn't really have time this week. We can try this out though and see how it looks. I guess my only concern is that there would be two banners (albeit the 2nd one smaller) close to each other. Not sure how that would look, but it's worth a try.

Hmm, a bottom column sounds interesting. I didn't see a grid and layout for that though, but I've read about it earlier this week. Potential.

For Screenshots section, I was thinking we can even add screenshots of non-FF games.

For the FAQ that Tia mentioned, the idea is to organize our FF Help Booths a bit. It will take awhile to do, but once completed, it will look neat. For each FF Help Booths in the forums, we were hoping to gather some of our most frequently asked questions from members over the years. Make a big compilation of useful information, including strategies and tips that our members have provided. It's all just a general picture right now; we still don't know the nitty-gritty of the Final Fantasy section just yet, so any helpful suggestions for this would be awesome.

The image link should be fixed now. Tried it on Guest mode and the banner showed up for me.

I think the article preview title link can use a bit of color. I didn't wanna change the link_color via stylevar though, because it will also affect the rest of the forums, so we can write some custom css.
 
Yeah background image would be nice. Also different font etc. than the forum. The frontsite should be crispier than the forum.
But I like what you guys are doing. Cant wait to see the frontsite when its done.

Also may I suggest an Image gallery? Ive been asking for one for ages but maybe finally now it can be achieved? :griin:
 
On the categories, it says there's one entry under Featured FF Writings and one entry under GFX News, but when I click on them it says there's no content in those areas, which I find kinda misleading.

Otherwise, I think it looks fantastic. :monster: I just need to get used to clicking on 'Forums' instead of 'Home' now so as not to go to the front site when I actually want to get back to the main forum. :lew:
 
just a slight one mits, when i went to http://www.finalfantasyforums.net on my mobile this morning, it led to the forum section, not the homepage, might it be a idea to make entering that lead to the front page rather than the forums :)

but apart from that it looks fantastic, I loved reading the first articles on there this morning and it looks very nice even on my mobile, soo great jobs guys.

also, will it just be FF Editorials on there or maybe could there be other stuff, say gfx, anime maybe etc?
 
+How often would you like to see the front site updated?

I would make it daily, and make it the official "homepage" when I came here it went straight to the forum, and I didn't even notice this until I clicked on home by accident :wacky:

+What kind of content would you like to see on the front site? See our categories and let us know the main ones that you would personally like to see more of.

Well this is a Final Fantasy site, so mostly Final Fantasy stuff. How far you want to take it is up to you.

+Are there enough categories? Too much? Any additions you can think of?

Can't think of any more right now.

+Are you content with the layout? Or would you rather have one column + sidebar?

I like the content layout for now! Very nice.

the Cyan Banner, easier for me to read.

+Which Seamus skin are you using?

Cyan Banner again?

+Do you plan on visiting the front site daily?

I would make it the homepage, but if you don't then yes I am.
 
Can you guys also answer the questions provided so we can get a better idea of changes we need to make? =]

@Ohri-Jin - What kind of font? And we will eventually add a Gallery, yes. I think Fil has already forwarded the request.

@The Welsh Paddy - Few articles are still not published. I'll take out the categories it's all under so that it doesn't mislead anyone. Thanks for pointing that out. :)

@Stevie - Ah, didn't realized that was changed. Yeah, we'll let Belazor know later today. Anything that falls under Editorial & Feature (aside the sub-sections) will contain any FF-related articles (news, blurbs, etc). Anything that has to do with the forums (community updates) will also fall under Editorial & Feature. So Let's Play, GFX spotlight (Kira's already getting ideas from the GFX community), etc. I'm not entirely sure about anime yet. Right now our focus is building content, but also making necessary changes these next few weeks.

Once we hire authors next week (didn't have time to work on the application these past few weeks), then there should be more to add on.
 
opps, never saw the questions, let answer these

+How often would you like to see the front site updated?

Hopfully everyday, it would be nice to have a sumup of what going on in FF World and other stuff just by going to this site


+What kind of content would you like to see on the front site? See our categories and let us know the main ones that you would personally like to see more of.

News of course, but also some nice articles, maybe a game breakdown once in a while, walkthroughs would be nice also, also updates on the GFX/RP Sections and finally some other stuff, maybe game reviews 'rpg related' etc in the future


+Are there enough categories? Too much? Any additions you can think of?

I think there enough for now, let's get the front page going and then focus on new sections later


+Are you content with the layout? Or would you rather have one column + sidebar?

The layout is prefect, it nice even when in that section, that we can still see recent posts etc, that a very nice feature


+Which Seamus skin are you using?

errrr, let me check...... Black Banner

+Do you plan on visiting the front site daily?

Hell yeah, It the biggest update to the site I seen since I joined, i'm really looking forward to seeing what can be done with the front page, and maybe helping out with it in the future :)
 
+How often would you like to see the front site updated?

I'd love for it to be updated on at least a regular basis. That way when members check the forums, they won't be thinking: Wow, still no new articles... At least if you update every other day with at least one article there will always be a read, which I personally think encourages members and possible future members to return quite often to read our front page.

+What kind of content would you like to see on the front site? See our categories and let us know the main ones that you would personally like to see more of.

I'm personally all for boosting the Spira section and contributing in my own way to give a bit more insight of what's going on. I really also want to see the main game focus resting on the Final Fantasy franchise. Walkthroughs, Lets Plays, reviews and the likes.

+Are there enough categories? Too much? Any additions you can think of?

There's never too many! I think how it's set up at the moment looks really nice, organized and easily locatable. I think that's the key to having lots of content. Besides the more content the more chance of there being something interesting for everyone reading our front page. =]

+Are you content with the layout? Or would you rather have one column + sidebar?

Current layout is fine with me. I like the idea of having a backgroud image, but it would have to have a ridiculous amount of opacity drop for it to not be distracting. I personally love the idea for that though. Columns also look fine to me.

+Which Seamus skin are you using?

Black. The Forum's standard.

+Do you plan on visiting the front site daily?

Yes! =] I enjoy having a scroll through the new content and it'll be very rewarding to see CMS actually being used by our Editorial Staff and contributing members and staff. Can't wait.
 
Otherwise, I think it looks fantastic. :monster: I just need to get used to clicking on 'Forums' instead of 'Home' now so as not to go to the front site when I actually want to get back to the main forum. :lew:


Yeah, I hear ya. It took me awhile to get used to it when we enabled it for staff. We can make things a little easier by making the banner clickable so that it directs to the forum. Once we get new banners in a little over a month, we'll get this situated.

Applied color to the Navigation widget as a sample. Any suggestions? Or stick to white? Also applied bold. Not sure if I'm digging it.
 
+How often would you like to see the front site updated?

+What kind of content would you like to see on the front site? See our categories and let us know the main ones that you would personally like to see more of.

+Are there enough categories? Too much? Any additions you can think of?

+Are you content with the layout? Or would you rather have one column + sidebar?

+Which Seamus skin are you using?

+Do you plan on visiting the front site daily?

The Final Fantasy section is going to have some basic info on the games and perhaps further info on characters and basic plot overviews. We would also like to include an FAQ in each section (possibly compiled from the help booth sections) and walkthroughs. We'd also like to know what kinds of information members would like to see in the FF categories as well.

Also please keep in mind that the comments section for the articles follow the same rules as the forums so please make sure they are appropriate when commenting.
I think a "once or twice a week" rule should apply for guidance but it's impossible to regulate this completely - this week, there's not much going on, but Survivor is starting soon so you might want to update it more often for that.

I like the categories and ideas for the home page already - my one gripe is that it looks slightly messy. If possible, I'd group things in to headings, so you have your FF-related categories together (like FF Artwork, Writings etc) and separated from the Community-related categories (like RP, GFX, Community). I think we'll naturally find things to add/take away from it as time goes on.

I approve of the Twitter links on the side.

QUESTION: what posts appear on the home page? Right now, I see an editorial of some sort about the CMS going live, followed by a forum post saying the same thing. My concern is that you'll see things posted twice if there's an auto-link function and we write articles for the front page. I think it'd look less messy if you limit posts that appear on the home page to things you've written especially for it - at MOST, I'd maybe have another side-bar (or something) linking to the "X most recent posts" so visitors can see, at a glance, what's going on.

Any plans for the Shoutbox to be implemented on it?

Just a thought - maybe a way of "hiring" writers could be to set a challenge, i.e. "write me a clear and detailed 2000-word overview of Final Fantasy VII", have people vote on the best (thus what members think is the best writing appropriate for the front page) and hire the winner(s).

I don't know who designed it but I think we're all due thanks to everyone involved in implementing this - it's been a long time coming. :)

EDIT:
Add more references/bits for games other than Final Fantasy. Although we're FFF, FF itself is getting a bit tired and SE have branched out - it's time to do the same. Don't lose focus, but don't abandon the other projects, either.
 
+How often would you like to see the front site updated?
I would like to see it on a regular basis. FF stuff but also general game news.
+What kind of content would you like to see on the front site? See our categories and let us know the main ones that you would personally like to see more of.
Games, Movies, Anime containing trailers and discussion threads.
+Are there enough categories? Too much? Any additions you can think of?
/
+Are you content with the layout? Or would you rather have one column + sidebar?
Perhaps something similiar to this one: http://games.brothersoft.com/final-fantasy-xiv.html
At least 2 columns + sidebar but also tabs above. Im content with the current layout yeah :P
+Which Seamus skin are you using?
BlackBanner.
+Do you plan on visiting the front site daily?
Isnt it default anyway? I get directed to the front site when visiting FFF so yeah I would check it out I guess. Basically a nifty "new posts" section.
Also you know that slidebar underneath would be nice to put on the frontsite as well.
The Final Fantasy section is going to have some basic info on the games and perhaps further info on characters and basic plot overviews. We would also like to include an FAQ in each section (possibly compiled from the help booth sections) and walkthroughs. We'd also like to know what kinds of information members would like to see in the FF categories as well.
Walls of texts arent my thing. I always liked image driven articles myself.



For the font: http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=105
:)
 
For tidiness reasons, reducing the size of that Final Fantasy Forums logo box with the Kain and Golbez silhouettes can be another thing to do. At the moment, it doesn't seem to sit right with me, and I was picturing something similar to what they have on Final Fantasy FXN's home page (they use PenguinCMS rather than vBulletin for their main page, so I don't expect, nor do I want, FFF's page to look just like that). So reduce it, have the text start beneath the logo box rather than align around it, if that makes any sense.

Otherwise, it's looking decent, though I'm not sure why "Square-Enix News" and "Final Fantasy News" need to be separate subheadings under Editorial & Feature, so they can easily be merged. And as mentioned already, perhaps to go with the categories list, have something dedicated to TV shows, films, anime, etc. If someone wants to, they can have monthly roundup articles, i.e. films coming out this/next month, games coming out this month with brief descriptions, then they can, in addition to on-site news and events.

And if this site still has any affiliates (defunct or still online), no reason not to include them in.
 
I keep pressing the bloody home button instead of the forum button! It is a big inconvenience!! Please rectify this!
 
@Kerrigan Thanks for the input. :) I'll go over some of these and answer a few questions.

The whole deal with editorial is that there will definitely be a schedule (or planner) that we'd have to get used to. For example, we don't want a few staff posting two-three articles on the same day, and have one of our authors post another article a few hours later...and no new content for the rest of the week. So publishing articles shouldn't be done on a whim - it's best to spread the articles throughout the week, and the next week if possible. The only exception are news stories, since that should be up on the day of the news release. Communication with other authors and staff members is crucial, so that we don't run into any duplicate articles.

We've already set up an organized table for this for the staff and authors to refer to, as well as publishing queue (where they can drop off any information that they think might be interesting and see if other authors are willing to write about it). There's few others, but these past few weeks, a lot of the planning went into the Editorial & Feature setup for our upcoming writers.

Sections and Categories. Ah, this one was kinda complicated because they're very similar, so I can understand why it appears a bit messy.

So we have a main section, with three main features. Article-based (about news or any other information not relating to news, and not limited to just Final Fantasy), Final Fantasy Database, and a Gallery that will have a different page setup than the rest.

The ones under Category, all fall within those three sections. Setup is alphabetical order, so we can only organize so much. But that's why community-based might be mixed in with Final Fantasy news and trailers, but at least we have the main section to go back to. Categories just helps narrow things down even more. Ex. All site-related updates can be found under Site Announcements. The only difference with the section and category for this one in particular, is that Site Announcements is geared towards the administration, while the Community category can be used by the staff members doing updates for their section and such. (Forum section updates doesn't really have anything to do with main site updates, etc).

Another example, if I were to write a blog-like article about...this whole experience, it would be under Editorial & Feature (since it doesn't fit in Site Announcement or the other sub-sections), and I would tick the 'Community' box under Categories.

So, I wouldn't know how to set it up like you suggested without getting rid of Categories altogether and make all categories its own section instead (which might be a bit too much and kind of loses focus on the other three main features). Unless you're suggesting make "Community" its own section and place the GFX and other forum stuff as sub-section? That would make sense then. :)

With Promoted Content... the posts that will appear in the front page will be quite limited, especially with SE News. We're going to be kinda picky with the Promoted Content, but the section solely exist because there will be times when we'll find a really good post and would want to promote it to an article. But we also don't want to mix the 'forum posts' and 'articles' especially written for the homepage either, so anything that's promoted will be strictly placed in the Promoted Content sub-section. But the main intent for the front page is to have original content, so that's the focus there. We don't want to end up with threads/posts and articles with the exact same content on the homepage.

With SE-News, we are looking for rewritten content, as well as the member's stance and opinions about the topic they're writing about. Merely stating the facts won't cut it, I'm afraid. So the chance of getting SE-News posts promoted to the front page is kind of slim, but again, that's what we'll have authors for. This way, they can create an article especially for the front page only.

Speaking of hiring, there will be a few challenges, yes. :)

Um, no plans for shoutbox.

We can setup content for other SE games too, sure. But right now, one step at a time. :D

@Fleur - The vBulletin CMS seems rather lacking, if you ask me. :hmmm: But we'll work with what we can get.

SE and FF can be merged, sure.

I'm not sure how to have the text beneath the article logo, but probably just requires a lot of extra spacing. We'll have to play around with it.
 
errrr, I just tried commenting on a article 'the one about ff writing' but it came up with a error, saying I don't have the right permissions :(
 
Some thing about SE news... I noticed more and more news just saying "new FF-X images". I think that this kind of news shouldn't be allowed unless it has a date for a release or something more important.

Also are you looking to hire official writers or can any member write a story or whatever?
 
Uhmmmmm okay well I will answer these questions.


+How often would you like to see the front site updated?

Uhm well... to be honest I really do not care in a way. It can be updated whenever because I probably will still be using other news sites for my Square Enix news :lew: Honestly I am not sure it will attract many people since we have a SE news section already. I remember a certain forum had this kind of news map enabled and while it was tidy, I still did not particularly care about it. I probably will not visit it often.


+What kind of content would you like to see on the front site? See our categories and let us know the main ones that you would personally like to see more of.

Wellllllll..... uhhhh...... SE news I guess? If people are into writing and reviews of video games and all that stuff.. I guess it can fit. This is a first for FFF so really.. do whatever as long as it does not violate the page. There could be a video game blog section also for latest news on that. FF should not have so many categories. A nice background image would be nice since the black is quite dull.


+Are there enough categories? Too much? Any additions you can think of?

Screenshots and trailers can go into one huge news article and I do not believe they need different sections unless you want to make it easy to navigate old trailers or something. Not sure what final fantasy album is. Music? Screenshots? Well then I guess you can call it "FF gallery" and put all the screens there. RP news is kind of useless on the home page imo unless some newbies are attracted to them.


+Are you content with the layout? Or would you rather have one column + sidebar?

It is fine but One column+ sidebar sounds a lot better.


+Which Seamus skin are you using?

Default.


+Do you plan on visiting the front site daily?

Maybe, maybe not. It all depends if the forum becomes slightly more active or if I am bored/not doing work :dave:
 
Mits, that's quite an extensive explanation - I'll admit, I'm surprised, because I was expecting the home page to go out on a whim and sit idle for a while, but it looks like you've all been hard at work planning its use.

Just to clear things up, what I meant about the categories is that it currently looks like this:

Community (3)
Featured FF Artworks (0)
Featured FF Writings (1)
Final Fantasy (0)
Final Fantasy Album (0)
Game Reviews (0)
GFX News (0)
Let's Play (0)
RP News (0)
Screenshots (0)
Square Enix (0)
Trailers (0)

What I was proposing is that it looked more like this:

-Community
--------GFX News
--------Let's Play
--------RP News

-Final Fantasy
--------Artwork
--------Writings
--------Reviews
--------News
--------etc

That way, you've got your different site focuses separated from one another. If the alphabetising is an issue, could you just make two different tabs? I've not a clue what goes in to organising that but it doesn't sound beyond the realms of possibility, anyway. It's not an essential change but, thinking as someone who's logged on to our website for the first time, I'd be slightly confused about where to go from there, and I think a level of organisation resembling what I've drawn above would be newbie friendly.
 
Mits, that's quite an extensive explanation - I'll admit, I'm surprised, because I was expecting the home page to go out on a whim and sit idle for a while, but it looks like you've all been hard at work planning its use.

Just to clear things up, what I meant about the categories is that it currently looks like this:

Community (3)
Featured FF Artworks (0)
Featured FF Writings (1)
Final Fantasy (0)
Final Fantasy Album (0)
Game Reviews (0)
GFX News (0)
Let's Play (0)
RP News (0)
Screenshots (0)
Square Enix (0)
Trailers (0)

What I was proposing is that it looked more like this:

-Community
--------GFX News
--------Let's Play
--------RP News

-Final Fantasy
--------Artwork
--------Writings
--------Reviews
--------News
--------etc

That way, you've got your different site focuses separated from one another. If the alphabetising is an issue, could you just make two different tabs? I've not a clue what goes in to organising that but it doesn't sound beyond the realms of possibility, anyway. It's not an essential change but, thinking as someone who's logged on to our website for the first time, I'd be slightly confused about where to go from there, and I think a level of organisation resembling what I've drawn above would be newbie friendly.


Okay, I see what you mean now. I do like this setup and I would change it, but the problem is that vBulletin CMS doesn't show sub-categories. It does allow me to make sub-categories, and I had it setup as you suggested in the Categories panel via ACP, but there are no changes in the front page. Read up on it, and as people explained it (and from what I understood originally, thus the current setup), Categories act more like 'tags' that can be linked to Sections and articles. There's currently no way to achieve that setup in the front page. We'd have to use Sections instead...which I'm okay with.

Originally I intended for it to be used as Categories, but if it's causing too much confusion, then we can cut down the categories and make Community as a section, with RP News, GFX News, Let's Play as sub-sections. The only problem is that it would leave the Editorial & Feature section completely empty (because that's where the community updates would normally go).

Does it make sense? It's a bit difficult to explain, and like many others have pointed out, VBCMS Sections are basically Categories in Wordpress. http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/foru...3206-can-we-make-subcategories-in-the-new-cms

@Stevie - Commenting should be fixed now.
@Shace The Great - Any member can write any story or whatever they want, sure. But we'll still be looking for authors so that they can actually create their own articles in the front page, and that would be their role here.
 
Back
Top