What happened...

[ChronoBroken]

....to the old site? 

I know I'm not going to be popular for saying this, but the original layout of the site worked better.
Not the design itself, but the manner in which content was added. I admit I haven't been around
in a while (when I last came the encyclopedia had just been completed), but I remember when an update of
Chrono Compendium consisted of Zeality (1), adding information to the compendium, or (2) posted
news/links regarding the latest fan projects in the scene. I know it's hard to be a one man staff,
so that's why he needed help adding content. But the thing is, I used to come here and it would
look very clean-cut and proffesional. Now what do I see? A main page that takes too long to load
because of updates by X person ranting about X fan game like it's the coolest thing ever
(while making several typos and grammatical errors, mind you) and posting enormous pictures
like I actually came to the Chrono Compendium just to see the latest concept art from a game
that is months and months away from release. Not that Zeality never updated the site
with fan game information. No, he did that all the time -- he just provided links to the images instead
of forcing them on whoever visits the main page.

Now I know by now someone is reading this and thinking "Dude chill", or "Yeah, who cares, it doesn't
bother me", or something like that. I don't expect this to be taken seriously, because nobody ever
really seems to want to take constructive criticism anymore----but why not have a text-only version of
the main page, at least? For the sake of people like me who used to come here all the time to find
a website that was seriously and proffesionally managed, but who don't now because of the above
reasons. I mean, I'll still come here if I need to look something up in the comendium, but an index page
that gets flooded with big images is nothing but amateur looking, and an eyesore to people who could
not care less about "X" fan game coming out "whenever". Forgive me for sounding rude, but I come
here for Chrono related content, but not to see someone tooting their own horn with large images
(when it *could* be a thumbnail link) of their own fan game, and then passing it off as an "update".
This is why I think a text-only option of viewing the main page would be awesome.

Am I taking things the site too seriously? I just loved and now miss the proffesional look.
It has nothing to do with buttons or a background, but everything to do with how content
is posted.

*waits for angry peoples' replies telling him to chill*

[Chrono'99]

Don't know how many people will really be angry, but personally I agree with you. There is a tag that was created specifically for the news post, which is something like [hidden] [/hidden] if I recall correctly. On the News page, this tag can replace what's written inside by a "Read more" link and the full post is only shown in the Forum. It would be nice if people would actually use this tag.

[Lord J Esq]

Dude, chill!

Actually, I think ZeaLitY will appreciate your feedback...just as he will appreciate eviscerating your bowels and dining upon them raw at his stone feast table! Wah ha ha hah!

[Romana]

just as he will appreciate eviscerating your bowels and dining upon them raw at his stone feast table! Wah ha ha hah!

I thought that was your job?

[ZeaLitY]

No, these are all valid criticisms that I was afraid of making myself for fear of alienating fan project leaders. Too often have giant, extravagant images been posted to the main page, effectively breaking the layout by forcing everything below the sidebar. Then there have been posts of a bunch of animated gifs and things like that.

The remedy? The remedy will come as fan project leaders actually read this thread.

[Ramsus]

No, these are all valid criticisms that I was afraid of making myself for fear of alienating fan project leaders. Too often have giant, extravagant images been posted to the main page, effectively breaking the layout by forcing everything below the sidebar. Then there have been posts of a bunch of animated gifs and things like that.

The remedy? The remedy will come as fan project leaders actually read this thread.

You should bring upon them divine wrath. For too long have these fools taken for granted the rights that we've given them. They have corrupted the very beauty that is the news page with their lack of aesthetic sense, consideration of other visitors, and proper English. Let these mere mortals face judgement and learn the true fury of the gods!

Seriously though, I would have axed a lot of the support we give to most of the fan project "leaders" here. It's not like most of them really contribute something to the site or the community. I hate to say it, but you're being much too nice a person, Zeality.

Considering the horrendous lack of control and standards in the fan project news entries, I might remove it from the front page altogether. Especially now that I've come back from being away for so long and I can see how my little experiment turned out. In which case, authors can still submit to the forum, but it'll only end up on the front page if Zeality mentions it in one of his news posts.

[nightmare975]

Perhaps make a fan project news page?

[ZeaLitY]

Yeah, that might work. A little link in the top of the sidebar to "Fan Project Journal", where they could post whatever the heck they want, as often as they want. It'd be different from the main page, which would get only important updates or release information.

[justin3009]

Fan project page would be quite interesting.  In fact, that'd be quite useful.  With progress we're starting to make on loads of Fan Projects, it's probably going to be loaded.  Probably make a seperate topic for each fan project so it's not unorganized.

[ChronoBroken]

*whew* 

I've been spared the wrath of the almighty Zeality...

[justin3009]

For now.  I think most of us have seen him angry, and when he's angry, all hell unleashes.  For some reason, I find it funny when he randomly starts swearing and yelling at people including myself...I don't know why...