Forum

Well I love the new Items layout by far. Very easy to navigate. There is no forum link though once you go to the Items page like the others have but you can always just hit Home then Forum.

Streamlined is always a good thing. Makes the site more efficient eh. Nicely done and thank you Kida.

Hi Kida,

Thanks for all your work so far!

However, a couple of issues:

1) The "Forum" link is not available when browsing the "Items" pages.

With:


Without:


2) The "Two Handed" items have funny characters:

IE


Firefox


3) I keep getting this message while browsing the site:



4) The site search is tiny, and all the way to the right of my screen, and outside the area of focus. Maybe move it to fit in the centered "frame" of the site?

5) Also, I just noticed a warning icon in IE on the main page. Click the warning icon and I get this:



Regards,

Eldr

Edited by user Monday, January 02, 2012 12:55:29 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Added JavaScript warning

In response to Eldr's points...

2) Please specify what version of browser you're using. For me (using the latest Chrome) it appears as "TwoHanded", so the problem is likely whatever character is used for what I assume to be a dash between "Two" and "Handed". It also shows up this way when I use IE(9.0).

3) You're probably going to have to explain some scenario(s) when that message appears -- or is it always appearing?

Edited by user Monday, January 02, 2012 1:15:51 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi Raldo,

2) If you read the last sentence in the above message from Vicious he confirmed the "two handed" characters problem. Using IE 8 and Firefox Beta, both render wrong.

3) It always pops. Open the main page. Wait 20 seconds or so. Pop.

Also, I added number 5, a warning that I just noticed.

It's generally frowned upon to suggest ad-blocking on the very website you are supporting. That is how Kida pays for domain registration, bandwidth, server space, etc.

I have my ad blockers turned off for this site in order to help offset the costs generated by my visits (using Chrome). Though I will admit that NoScript makes it difficult to disable on specific sites, and I've yet to figure out how to enable ads, but keep popups and whatever else disabled without just whitelisting google-analytics (using Firefox).

And, since I haven't said it yet, I like the changes.

Edited by user Monday, January 02, 2012 2:29:05 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

OK so I am currently looking on the issues...

1) regarding missing link to forum.
This should be fixed. I have not yet put the corrected version live but will do soon.

2) regarding strange characters in menus.
This should also be fixed. When cache is refresh this will be reflected on the site.

3) regarding pop up with OK
I have not been able to recreate this error anywhere on the site but I have a feeling it may have something to do with server status but I am not quite sure. Do you get this on other pages than front-page?

4) regarding the location of search
I will look into this. There are other issues with this than it's location and I will have to make corrections to actually make it work which it doesn't at the moment

5) regarding warning on front-page
Again I have not been able to recreate this error but I will see what I can find.

And then to make a comment regarding the economics of this site. The Google adsense that is currently on the site is the only current income of the site.
I have had one donation since I started almost 1 ½ years ago. While donations may be good way to get an income on the site it is not very steady and most people will ignore a Donate button after a while. I ran finalfishing.com for MANY years (it is still running) and in all the time it ran I don't think I ever received more than 100 USD in total even though I had a very big donate button. That is less than 20 usd a year in the best days of the site and certainly not enough to get a server running. I eventually removed it because I got nothing from it as less and less people visited the site. That being said I may try it on this site sooner or later.
At the moment the adsense program is working out for me. I almost cover all the expenses of the server but only because we get 1000+ visitors every day and clearly some of these visitors do not use adblockers.
I am considering joining an affiliate program with either Amazon or similar but then I will have to continually make adds for the site on my own and find relevant products. I considered making adds for FFXIII-2 but didn't get around to it.
While I also myself use addblocker I too disable it for sites I like and use regularly (comicbookrealm.com, zam and some more). This is my way to support the sites I use. When I see an add I find interesting I may click it but I only do it when I actually find it interesting as I know site owners can easily be banned if they have irregular clicks and I too have been banned from adsense in the past (with other sites) and I would hate for this to happen for disciplesoftheland.com
So while I can understand and respect that people want to use addblockers I would of course be a lot happier if they didn't

So all in all I will let it be up to the visitors whether or not they want to use adblockers. If you want to support the site feel free to donate using paypal to weinreich@hotmail.com. Every dollar is appreciated.

I know I am not going to get rich on this site but I enjoy doing it and if one day it makes a profit I will certainly be very happy. But it will only begin to cover a very small part of all the time that has gone into making this site. I believe I have spent more than 500 hours on this site so far so talk about a lousy wage if that was the intention.

I may try to find some other way to make some money. I have a very large database at the moment and making an android app that uses this data may generate some kind of income but this also ads a lot of work for me as this would need to be updated and maintained and I already have a lot of work just managing this site.

The point is that you should do what ever you want to support the site. V may use addblocker but there is no arguing that he has been one of the most supportive users/moderators of this site. Raldo has also shown great support by taking up this discussion while also supporting with information and generally using the forum. Eldr regularly post and has spent time debugging this site and that too is appreciated.

I just want to get more visitors and this is only accomplished if the site works and the data is accurate and people find a use for the information here. So please post as much relevant information you can and keep up the good work

I am going to stop now... I could go on forever but you should know that all support is appreciated, whether it is money, clicks or information. Check out this thread if you want more inspiration on how to help out it should probably be updated but I will get around to it sooner or later

Edited by user Tuesday, January 03, 2012 4:34:55 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I don't disable ads for any site, but it's kind of disheartening to see the "Buy Gil" ad pop up sometimes on this site. :(

I don't remember the last time I saw it to be honest. It's not like I've ever visited a gil selling website. The ad might be generated based on all the other fansites I visit and it thinks "ooh he likes this game, let's send him to a site that sells gil for it."