New Website Design Issues.

[EdgarAnTerraFigaro]

Then someone fix it!
Everything, even the logo! Make it look classic, but new.

[RedCloud]

Main issues just for a recap:

- The Banner (logo) is plan and boring
- Glass buttons on the main site look like simple MS front-page stuff.
- Forum colours need to be corrected.

[EdgarAnTerraFigaro]

Everything is wrong, sorry, But the worst part would go to the logo image.
The ff games needs to change and the text should be something dark and
mysterious!
Like....Spawn, or batmanish kind of stuff!

[Vermilion Thanatos]

Hmmm...I just discovered action outside the FF news forums. I suppose I should contribute to this.

I second Garland's nomination of a darker shade of grey. The current one seems too ambiguous, like it isn't sure whether it wants to go dark all the way.

Concerning the FFExtreme logo in the top banner, I feel like a return to a FF-esque font would be appropriate. Classic. The extreme font seems fine, though I wouldn't be opposed to EaTF's proposal.

The pics in the banner: I appreciate that Lightning and Noctis are the future of FF and that arguably Yuna is the most recent leading character we've had in a traditional FF game, and the overall astheticity is fine as far as I can tell. Concerning content, however, I feel that there are other, just as important characters that would me most suited to FF. For one, I find it amazing that any FF designer would have the gall to not include FF's poster boy, Cloud, and am still not sure whether to see this as folly or bravery. Granted, there are only so many characters you can include as everything before FF VII didn't exactly have good-looking CGI renderings of the main characters. And even the PS1 games could be considered to have graphics that if juxtaposed with pics from more recent installments would create an obvious visual disparity. As such, I propose that in the event the banner is changed to contain more relevant characters, we take pics from Dissidia when necessary. When more pics become available, that is. Ideally, to mesh with EaTF's idea, we could have a pic from the trailer of either the ten heroes or the ten villains as a sort of commemoration of FF's history that would also be dark enough to merit a more gothic themed "extreme." I am actually liking this idea the more I type about it. Anyway, just a suggestion on character choice.

RedCloud, I don't mind the buttons; at least they're different. I would normally be fine with you voicing objection to the button style except you pose no alternative to improve upon them. Please enlighten us as to how they might look more "unique," as you seem to have more ideas on the matter than I do.

Another thing I have noticed is that it is rather difficult to determine one's reputation anymore. There is certainly no public access to others' reputations, which I think is intrinsic to a reputation system's purpose. Just a thought.

On a whimsical flight of fancy, I also have had daydreams of possibly the senior members being able to change their titles to whatever they wish. Is that even possible anymore or is it reserved to an even higher post quota? Either way, it would be nice to be able to...

I have no photoshop, though I wish I did, cuz then my wishes to help design this websites might become more than wishes.

[Lady Lamont]

Apart from the general layout issues, my main issue is that other users (from what I have seen/heard on other sites and the sort) cannot even load the damn site OR the forums up without using a Proxy site. Hell, if a User is to be banned then why should I be able to log in?

Or at least some warning, or hell a sign at least to say that there's some sight issues like at the top of the page or at least a pop-up (they aren't that hard to code) saying "Sorry, the site is currently being re-designed please be patient as the site itself may undergo a few issues/bugs that are being worked on." instead of issues like "Error 401 - The Server cannot be found", "Error - The Network is taking too long to respond", "Error - You have been disconnected from the Server Host (Of FFE)"/"Network Timeout Error", "Error - The network cannot be found", "Error - the site address in invalid".

And no, it's not my internet connection as I've already gone over it... Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox, Chrome, PSP Browser, Pocket PC's Browser.... NONE of them can access the site on various providers and/or connections (which all have different IP addresses) without a proxy server.

I've just managed to get on via a Proxy site and in all honesty... I'm fairly pissed off over this issue with needing a PROXY to access a site, being bombarded by pop-ups from the site itself and the proxy...
To finally see a bland, typical... COMMON layout.

And if I have been IPB'd (IP Banned), then I would like to actually have notification of such an event to my supplied e-mail address.

[Garland]

LAMONT!!!!!!!! I thought you died!!!! Or worse, switched forums!
Yay! We all missed you lotz!

...What??? The reason you havn't been able to access this site was because of network blocking? Admin! Your site's falling apart, Ralph. DO SOMETHING! You told me there would be a site change, but as Joe Biden put it "That's not change, that's more of the same!"

I expected you to:
1. update all the current title information, with music, Walkthroughs, general information etc.
2. Give the forums an original feel, not just a skin change which we all seem to dislike. Events maybe?
3. tighten up the professionality of the site. Get a good staff and add more visable nottices whenever something big is going to happen to the site itself.

So far, all i've seen is a questionable skin change, MORE ads, an unoriginal Logo, and my friend not being able to log on! Not to mention a pyramid scheme of workers who don't know the name of THEIR OWN BOSS!! What is this, some dark force screwing around with a second rate fan site just for kicks? Least King Tycoon interacted with his users every now and then! That's how the site became good, because he was able to get some decent feedback from the users, not everyone knows that they can email you.

Any way, concerning one of the minor problems: the Logo. I would advise -Not- photoshopping a bunch of next gen cg figures of characters from the game. I would hire or ask for a volunteer artist to create an original banner logo from scratch. Maybe copy Yo****aka Amano's watermark style and place the image under Final Fantasy Extreme? I'm doing an art project on him anyway, so if you want, I could design one for you.


P.S. Lamont's Back!!!


** EDit. Yo****aka? I can't spell the name of an artist because he has an indecent word inside his own name!? When the hell did we get censors???

[EdgarAnTerraFigaro]

I expected you to:
1. update all the current title information, with music, Walkthroughs, general information etc.
2. Give the forums an original feel, not just a skin change which we all seem to dislike. Events maybe?
3. tighten up the professionality of the site. Get a good staff and add more visable nottices whenever something big is going to happen to the site itself.

This is what i expected as well....
The site needs some good changes.

** EDit. Yo****aka? I can't spell the name of an artist because he has an indecent word inside his own name!? When the hell did we get censors???

Censors! NO!

[Gydian]

Not to mention a pyramid scheme of workers who don't know the name of THEIR OWN BOSS!!

What're you talking about? I know who my boss is, and I know who my boss takes orders from as well. All these changes were authorized by Ralph. If you have problems with them, he's the one to talk to.

[EdgarAnTerraFigaro]

Whoa, no need to freak Gydian.
Their just voicing their concerns and wants about the site they spend time on.

[Vermilion Thanatos]

I am glad that Lamont has returned. Greetings, since we have not met before. It brings hope that other peeps I've only read about will return. Perhaps others have been experiencing some technical issues as well...?

Well put, Garland. I wasn't sure of the extent at which the expected renovations would be implemented, but if asked what I would prefer be changed those are definitely things I would choose. That and maybe giving a little more power to the people, seeing as most of the older people with power have left. Promoting some to mods would not be a bad idea, since we obviously have a few dedicated individuals who would gladly help you out if they only could. It would also be nice to see if we could in the long run revamp the downloads section; start adding more music and checking the old ones for defects, etc. I think that would greatly help this site bounce back.

If a few characters were tastefully selected and aesthetically photoshopped by, I agree, one of our more artsy and photoshop savvy members, I would definitely advocate that. If Amano or Nomura art be possible, then I am all for that, though I just as much support next gen models of characters. I propose we vote on which style and which characters should be part of the banner, as I believe that general utilitarianism promotes reciprocal values.

[EdgarAnTerraFigaro]

I have never met Lamont either, although i have seen her posts before i made
an account. I too, would like to say hello to Lady Lamont.
I hope you stay on for a long time to come ^ ^

[Lady Lamont]

Hello everyone again! - Don't knock me down Garland!!! Nice to meet you new people too.

*Ahems*

Yes, now that idea Garland - RedCloud and myself have been working on our own forum, once I've finished coding it... I was hoping to affiliate FFE but after seeing all of the issues on here currently, I'm now having to make sure that once I find the current bug in my own coding (I'm being the Code Monkey, even though I'm rusty on PHP and PHPBB...) that it doesn't have any problems like FFE does currently.

Hell, once I've finished coding and work for RedCloud's and my forum then I'd be happy to help with providing new images/artwork for the forum and main site as I can do Amano, Nomura style and can also do images that look like the games' renders... or if all else failed I could try and render something or at least get something up and pick a cool font - like Planet Cosmos would have been more suitable than the font chosen for the "extreme" section of the text.... the font itself is called *looking through fonts folder* El&Font Gothic!, doesn't match when we could have had someone use something like Melenik or Fake Plastic, tweaked it in Photoshop and have a fan-style of the Square-Enix logo type which would have been more fitting with the layout colour scheme instead of the class across the forum ranging from the buttons to the header and logos' themselves.

Using renders is good and all, but it would have been great to say... include the past - hell a silhouette of the characters in a running position - say like an old-school Pixel Garland and Warrior of Light running together, followed by the next protagonist and Antagonist running towards the other lines of characters from the series in their styles - like FFVII and FFIX would be in the super-deformed silhouette and stuff all running towards the Crystals gathered around at the other end of the banner and the background behind them would be sky with the sun or moon behind them and having a lens flare to make sense for the silhouette-style and as their shadows stretch along the ground, it fades to black where the logo could be put with a slogan.
And don't tell me that would be too hard, it's a pretty simple thing to do as long as you have some general references and that the banner size for forums can be changed in the coding with a few tweaks here and there.

First and foremost though - fix it so I don't need a damned PROXY to access the site. It won't even load on ANYTHING, no matter what - I've tried other computers (with Linux, Mac and stuff) and the site will not load and just times out. I'm not impressed, a possible suggestion would be that there could be a plain page added to the main website that gives a link to the forum and thus has it's own proxy use as a temp fix for the issue as I know I'm not the only one with this issue. As for the ads, I'm just going to suggest to people to use an Ad blocker, sure it help funds the site to keep it up... but it's extremely annoying to have fake E-Bay pages pop-up and having somewhat gullible parents.

P.S. We've had the censoring since those attacks that happened in a row when Hydro was in charge, when the forums were updated and minor changes happened the censoring was added right before he kinda quit to my memory of since we've had it which is why I've just said "Amano" due to the annoyance of the section of his first-name being censored. D:

Not happy Ralph and co. Please fix the main issues of the site not loading for various reasons and I know for a fact that it's not:, my browser, my firewall, my OS or anything else like a pop-up blocker. It IS the site OR someone has banned my IP address for some reason - if it's the second scenario then, I would like to know why or have it rectified please as I'd like to help Garland by continuing to report the idiots who enjoy breaking the rules here.

So... Garland, can you please check if I've been IPB'd please? If I have then can you please check any instances of my breaking the rules? (Sure I have seemingly flamed a couple of people but I felt it was somewhat called for in some instances). If that was the case, a warning would have been nice instead of an instant-IPB.

Other than that, holding back some rage that is extremely tempting to let out to ab--... scratch the ab-use the censoring feature by doing my best enraged Cid Highwind impression.

[Gydian]

You have to have been IP Banned because there's nothing in the code that would stop you from accessing the site. Nothing in terms of the actual site code was modified. Just the CSS/XHTML, so a moderator or admin will have to look into that for you.

[RedCloud]

Lamont, I didn't know you were banned??? If you were, what on Earth did you do? Help keep this forum alive too much?

Yeah, she can do some awesome drawings, she's done a great sample of what can go on our forum banner, and with our artistic talents, her great coding and my graphic design skills we'll make one mean place to visit.

I totally agree with her on the word "extreme" in the banner, it doesn't look FFish at all. It looks like something scratched onto a train window. And the choice of character (and number of) is disappointing. Hold a competition to see who can make the best banner.

Sorry if I offended you Gydian if you did make the banner, but I think a new one is in order.

[Gydian]

Originally Posted by RedCloud

Lamont, I didn't know you were banned??? If you were, what on Earth did you do? Help keep this forum alive too much?

Yeah, she can do some awesome drawings, she's done a great sample of what can go on our forum banner, and with our artistic talents, her great coding and my graphic design skills we'll make one mean place to visit.

I totally agree with her on the word "extreme" in the banner, it doesn't look FFish at all. It looks like something scratched onto a train window. And the choice of character (and number of) is disappointing. Hold a competition to see who can make the best banner.

Sorry if I offended you Gydian if you did make the banner, but I think a new one is in order.

I didn't do any of the designing. Just the coding.

[Garland]

*Glomps Lamont down!!*.. Sorry about that...

Hey, if you two are planning to make a new forum than count me in.
And yes, Lamont is a great artist, and a technical grease monkey, infact i barely understood what she posted in the middle @.@
I can't fathom how she could be ip banned! She helped keep the site going when no one else was around, and she's been my eyes when it comes to E fellony. (well, exagerated i've been tracking them down anyway, but it was still very helpful)
After i get to the bottom of this ip address thing. I highly recomend that your superior Ralph should hire Lamont as the head designer to this site.
Like we said, we're all artists here, and Ralph isn't really asking for opinions on the design of this site. A fan site should be a site for the people.

[Garland]

Ok. I tripple checked the profile of Lady Lamont, scrolled through the archives of every banned user and checked on her IP address. Everything seems to be normal, it does not say that you are banned Lamont.

Either this is a technical error in your internet service, or you have been hacked, and the Moderation site has been masked. '
under your user group it confirms you as a normal registered user. I'll try to make you a moderator or something so you can see for yourself.

##edit, well ok, this is weird, every time I edit data on your profile, it goes back to default...
Same goes for everything else. I have another idea, and it includes some martyr on my part. I could ip bann myself for a day or two, then attempt to access the site and after it lifts i could describe how the page rejected me, if it matches Lamont's desription, then she may have been ip banned...

[EdgarAnTerraFigaro]

how would Lamont be IP banned? Who would do it?

[Lady Lamont]

The only other possibility for an IP Ban would have probably been the instance when I was helping Garland try to access his moderator panel again, I tested the default forum link to see if it was still up and it was and I know that some forums have an instant-security setup meaning I might have been IPB'd because my IP didn't match Ralph's.

*Shrugs* I finally got something on the other browsers though "The Address "http://www.ffextreme.com" is currently unavaliable." and so-on even with variations on the address (http, https, www. etc) it still comes up with that error and the page says it's loading but never finishes loading.

I'm sending my IP address to you Garland, It might be a Static one but if it's Dynamic (meaning it changes, kinda like AOL does if you use it) then I'll try and fish another one up to test. So if I have been banned, or if there's been an IP Range banned then technically RedCloud and other users who are in Australia or New Zealand shouldn't be able to access the site which could explain why I haven't been able to get on via any computers at like the internet cafe outside my work.

OR there could be an issue with an access protocol for the site, an issue within that section could make a site appear to be avaliable... or the issue could just be the Masking.

I'm just going through things off the top of my head for what could cause this, but some of these suggestions are fairly old. It could also be an issue with the current software the forum is using so it could also require a patch to help it.... unless random users are getting rejected to stop the site traffic on the server.

Gydian, I like your coding but would it be possible to change the colour of the active hyperlinks on the main site to something that isn't so bright.... perhaps a different shade of yellow? As it is very glaring on a bright monitor or a bright laptop screen and breaks up the layout somewhat slightly. Sure it matches the banners but it feels somewhat out of place.

Since there seems to be general dislike for the banners... what about having a competition for the users to make a banner but having the constraints of it needing to match the colour scheme chosen?

[Gydian]

Originally Posted by Lady Lamont

The only other possibility for an IP Ban would have probably been the instance when I was helping Garland try to access his moderator panel again, I tested the default forum link to see if it was still up and it was and I know that some forums have an instant-security setup meaning I might have been IPB'd because my IP didn't match Ralph's.

*Shrugs* I finally got something on the other browsers though "The Address "http://www.ffextreme.com" is currently unavaliable." and so-on even with variations on the address (http, https, www. etc) it still comes up with that error and the page says it's loading but never finishes loading.

I'm sending my IP address to you Garland, It might be a Static one but if it's Dynamic (meaning it changes, kinda like AOL does if you use it) then I'll try and fish another one up to test. So if I have been banned, or if there's been an IP Range banned then technically RedCloud and other users who are in Australia or New Zealand shouldn't be able to access the site which could explain why I haven't been able to get on via any computers at like the internet cafe outside my work.

OR there could be an issue with an access protocol for the site, an issue within that section could make a site appear to be avaliable... or the issue could just be the Masking.

I'm just going through things off the top of my head for what could cause this, but some of these suggestions are fairly old. It could also be an issue with the current software the forum is using so it could also require a patch to help it.... unless random users are getting rejected to stop the site traffic on the server.

Gydian, I like your coding but would it be possible to change the colour of the active hyperlinks on the main site to something that isn't so bright.... perhaps a different shade of yellow? As it is very glaring on a bright monitor or a bright laptop screen and breaks up the layout somewhat slightly. Sure it matches the banners but it feels somewhat out of place.

Since there seems to be general dislike for the banners... what about having a competition for the users to make a banner but having the constraints of it needing to match the colour scheme chosen?

Not too sure about the link color. That's something Ralph will have to advise.