What happened to the World's Finest Boards?

[Kylewayne]

Hello,

I have been a member of "The World's Finest Boards" since may of 2001. The reason I joined the WF's boards was because I liked what I saw. It was well kept and fun to visit. I have seen many changes that are not to "everyone's liking".
What ever happened to the World's Finest Logo or has this become entirely the Toon Zone Forums? Have we merged or have we been swalloewed up by TZ? Which is it? I have nothing against TZ, the boards are nice and entertaining to read but I am a bit alarmed that TZ might be taking over WF's as a whole.

These are only my opinions and how I feel. Please feel free to express yourselves but do not start bashing me because of my opinions and free will to speak my mind.

[SilverKnight]

Well said, kylewayne. I've been a member since August of 1999, and I'm surprised to see how much of WF's identity has been lost during the time it has been a part of Toonzone. Can I do anything about it? Probably not. Does it still annoy me? Yes. That's my two cents.

[batboy2001]

I am an WF vet from 99 too. I didn't post, but visited often. I would have to agree. WF has melded into TZ, for better, or worse. PLease show respect for other opinions.

[Vigo Sprax]

I agree entirely with kylewayne, I hope to hear what the administrators can tell us about the situation.

[Fish]

Aye - I second that emotion

I havn't been an active poster lately... I really don't know why but I think it has something to do with this whole place getting so big. The amount of boards is impressive and all but I feel lost - I know that there might be a need for so many boards, when there are so many people with so many topics and so many shows, but I miss the feeling of being a WF'er. Like when ppl would ask me in the chat who I am I would say with pride " I am a WF'er!"



<>< WF member FISH ><>

[Barb Gordon]

I've been with WF since it first started -- then I took that random leave of absense -- and came back again, as you see,lol. Anyways, I have seen some umm....disturbances, shall we say, around here lately. It seems that a lot of people are not satisfied about certain things. And you know what they say, for every 1 unhappy person, there are about ten more just like that, but they'll never say so. I like the fact that there are so many boards, but, it also runs people thin. It's very hard to check out five boards or something all of the time. When I left, I left World's Finest, and I thought that when I came back, I was returning to World's Finest. But it seems that I'm mistaken. This isn't Wf, nor is it a co-thing with Toonzone. It seems more like WF has melded with Toonzone. Now, I have nothing against TZ, I love it, but I think that a lot of WF vets are feeling kind of lost. But that's just my opinion.

Barb^-^

[The Flash]

I've been here (as in WF) from the start, and all I see is TZ sucking up the WF. (sorry, that's what I'm seeing) I thougth this was gunna be a "co" thing?

[Harley]

Hey guys. Just wanted to hop over here and say a few things.

No, WF is not being absorbed by Toon Zone. WF is WF. Are we partners on certain things? Yes. On News we're partners. On the boards we share the same space. Why? That's just how these boards work. The were re-organized recently to make it easier for newer visitors to find what they're looking for.

Change is inevitable. Both WF and Toon Zone have grown immensely over the last year. When I say that, I mean we're nearly quadrupled the amount of traffic we have coming in. That means we have a lot more people visiting the boards. We had to create more boards to deal with that.

And my sincere apologies if creating more boards has made it more difficult to cover all of your conversations in one visit, but the only other alternative is having your conversation shoot down a page before anyone gets to reply. The WF boards are *very* popular.

As for the logos. They were actually designed by a TZer. He's quite talented. But I think he thought that it was just assumed that all of the WF boards were WF boards. If that's something that's taking away from WF being WF, then that can be fixed. Give me a day or two, but it'll be done.

We have no intention of taking anything away from WF. Our only intention is to grow our sites together. If you guys need anything else, just give me a shout.

[Maxie Zeus]

I have to say I am bit puzzled by the uneasiness being expressed by people. Times and places change, and maybe people are feeling the sense of loss that goes with any change. So I'll just make a few observations:

1. Dick Grayson's "World's Finest" is still up and running, and still contains links directly to the "World's Finest" boards. True, the main forum menu is Toon Zone's, but Toon Zone has been kind and gracious enough to let us come here. The set up for that main menu does not identify particular boards as belonging to particular member sites. That change was made for two reasons. First, the main menu was far too jumbled and hard to read with the strict segregation of the various site boards from each other; the reorganization on the main menu beautifully streamlined it. Second, it was hoped the reorganization would lead to more cross-over between various boards.

2. Part of what some think is TZ's "takeover" of WF may simply be that, thanks to such cross-overs many posters don't think of themselves as "WFers" anymore; they post on TTTP and WBC and CCF and Adult Swim and other boards associated with other sites at TZ. But I don't see why that is a bad thing. Most all of the posters at TZ are great, and I know that this is the best crew of mods and administrators I've run across. Why do we want to erect barriers between ourselves and such wonderful people?

3. On the other hand, there's the complaint that the number of boards and number of people has grown too great. As someone with the responsibility of reading every post on every thread in this place, I can attest to the vastness of the place. In fact, with my schedule I am only able to read the 3 WF boards I moderate, and rarely am able to visit the other boards. But this is the price we have to pay for having a large, active and growing membership with a diverse base. And I would rather we had too many active threads and boards than too few.

I don't know if this is the kind of "comment" on the "situation" that Vigo Sprax was looking for. I don't speak as a mod, certainly, when I say these things. I say them as a poster who loves these boards, and thinks that Toon Zone is a great place to be and has contributed only good to them.

[Kylewayne]

To Harley,


I thank you for replying. I know change is inevitable and I see that some changes are good. It only bugged me that all the WF's logos were gone. It was like WF was losing it's identity.



Originally posted by harley

As for the logos. They were actually designed by a TZer. He's quite talented. But I think he thought that it was just assumed that all of the WF boards were WF boards. If that's something that's taking away from WF being WF, then that can be fixed. Give me a day or two, but it'll be done.

Thank you again for taking the time to answer and for understanding.

Yay! Finally a familiar logo around! :).

[Harley]

Nah, not at all. Just an oversight. It'll be fixed. Promise.

[CookieS]

Oh geez. I made the logo. I'm not about branding, but since Toon Zone had just posted its extensive Justice League section up, i thought it would be a great effort of community to say WF and TZ share the board as a joint effort. No one was taking away from anyone. I never thought it was a big deal, but whatever.

[Naraht]

As a new person to TZ/WF but an "Old Fart" on another group of boards, I can say, I like the set up here...

While I don't always play nice with others, I like how I can see which threads are new or have had activity since I last logged on...

Yeah, there's alot going on, but I think the setup allows for easy interaction, and ease of use.

I used to be alot more active on Sev Trek's forums... (http://www.sevspace.com/forum/)
@first all we had was one wwwboard forum, and people would have personal conversations, post strip ideas, post complains/problems with the site, etc.
I started a new forum for idea submissions, on my own server...
at one point we had three forums, all on diffrent servers, all for the same thing.

While I'm not super happy with the current setup, it's gotten alot better. It's locally hosted, with multiple forums for diffrent perpuses..

anyway, the point I'm making is putting stuff where it's easily accessible, and easy to navigate makes life better.

I for one, like these boards, and say, keep it up!

[James Harvey]

Well, I figure it's my turn to step up to bat and see what's the big bru-ha-ha here.

Is Toon Zone absorbing World's Finest? No. Is Toon Zone hosting World's Finest? Yes. Before I comment on this, lemme tell you a little story as to what could have been. About a year ago, World's Finest was on the very over-rated Geocities server. We had about 7 different accounts to keep the site going. In early December, www.comixtreme.com asked us if WF wanted to become apart of their site. We were promised unlimited space and resources. I said yes, and we began to move the site over. During a casual AIM conversation with Harley, I mentioned to her that WF was moving to www.comixtreme.com. Beforer that, Harley was asking me if I wanted WF to be apart of TZ. I turned her down politely at each time. I told her how I planned to launch the site in January and all that jazz and she said:

"What do I have to do to convince you to come to TZ?"

And right there it just hit me. What the hell am I doing? Why am I going to www.comixtreme.com. I don't know anyone at that site and have no previous contact with any of the members? They could very well take me over when I get there. I sat and stared at my computer screen for a minute and typed in "You just did". I immediatly emailed the folks at www.comixtreme.com and told them I'm backing out and going to Toon Zone. In less than a week after that, Harley had all of my files transferred over to Toon Zone and I was in business. She sent me tutorials on how to work FTP, and tips for site updates and HTML and CGI-BIN. She's been doing this every since. And with Toon Zone I've been able to interview the likes of Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett, Stan Berkowitz, Hilary J. Bader, Ty Templeton, Tim Levins, Terry Beatty, Mark Millar, Greg Rucka, and so many others.

Creators flock to this site to see our opinions becuase this site is the site where creators get to see civilized conversations and discussions. Not half-assed rantings about how Batman's oval was miscolored in a past issue of Batman and why Azrael should be beat to a pulp. No - we have genuine conversations here. These boards are still my boards. I have complete control over them, with a little help from my friends. Yes, there is the rare bad egg, but the people here are mature enough to handle it. If you don't like having to go through the Toon Zone mainpage to get to these boards, try these two URLs:

http://forums.toonzone.net/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=8
http://wf.toonzone.net/worldsfinestpage/boards.htm

Toon Zone isn't taking over World's Finest. World's Finest is just becoming apart of a bigger family. Toon Zone is kind enough to host this site, and all it's boards, for free. Without Toon Zone, this board would still be on a crappy boardhost.com server being flooding by Madame Freeman and her troops. Not with this site. This site gives the boards the protection it needs. If you want to see the "WF" tag on the board logos or see "World's Finest Forums" instead of "Toon Zone Forums" in the browser header - I'm sure Harley and the Gang will be happy to comply and make some tweaks.

I know I don't need to see WF on the board logos to know where these are. The WF have a distinct feel that sets them apart from every other board online. These boards will always be "WF" no matter who hosts them. These are my boards, always will be. But, like I said, I gotta have help from my friends to make them possible. I'm a "WFer". Always have been. Always will be. But, I'm also a "TZer". Always have been. Always will be. And damn proud of it. I'm fortunate everyday TZ is hosting this site. I sometimes fear what the site would be without TZ helping us. I'd still be on Geocities lost under a sea of advertisements and pop-up windows, no doubt.

World's Finest isn't losing it's identity, but becoming larger. The popularity of WF has grown to gigantic heights. Our daily hits have sextupled since I got here. Creators are visiting the site for reference. I get tones of emails every week saying how great this site is and how great the boards are. The site is becoming bigger and bigger, going through the biggest change of it's existance. I'm gonna sit back and enjoy the ride - becuase it's only up from here. I'm not sure if this answered any of your questions or confirmed any suspiscions, but this is my opinion.

[batboy2001]

Talking to Harley last night, I inspected these ideas. I came to the revelation that, there really isn't anything to fear or gripe about. Maybe the fear of change, but, the bottom line is: change, it happens, get used to it. I enjoy TZ and its ethics, and enjoy TZ ppl.

[The Flash]

I'd like to see WF get it's own subsection on the forums. (like "The Creative Lounge (http://forums.toonzone.net/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=66) " section) That has just the WF boards in it. If a newbie comes, they have no clue which boards are the WF's unless they click on the links FROM inside the WF site (or if they look at the logo for that particular board carefully). You could keep the WF in the other sections aswell, just use short cuts. ....that's my beef. ...and my only one. I like the way the News page is done, actually. :)

[DerekPowers]

i knew toonzone was now hosting world's finest, but i never really noticed too much difference. the new page changed from what it was before all this, but thats really all i noticed.

i have the worlds finest on my favorite places, so i dont have to go through toonzones home page or anything to get to the boards, so it was never too big a deal.

as far as the multiple boards, i think its a good thing. i like having a seperate board for comics and everything else. it makes it easier to get the info your looking for quickly and organized.

as far as the message boards having the WF logos on them, i didnt really notice wheter the logos were TZ or WF, i guess i just cant tell the difference.

overall i'd say im fine with the way things are done around here. this is like the only website i go to regularly, it has it all i tells ya, it all. the news page is such a great resource, as are these boards. but i understand everyone's concerns, i mean a small comunity is always nice, it makes you feel like part of something special that not everyone knows about, and well, everyone knows about toonzone, so that aspect does get lost, but its no big deal. peace.

[Harley]

I wish I knew what to say past what has already been said.

All the WF boards say "World's Finest" in the descriptions on the main boards page and two of them say it in the name of the board. DG does have the page that groups all of the WF Boards together for the site.

The reason there's no specific WF category visable is because no site has that here. None of our own pages and not any of the other other hosted sites. It's organized by show/type of board to make it less daunting for the new guys to find what they're looking for.

[The Flash]

...True. It would just feel more like the old WF (eipp!) if it was that way. BTW, thanks for the fast reply. :)

[Harley]

No prob. I've been checking in on the boards a lot today. =)

If I can find a way to do this without disrupting the current organization of the boards, I will. But I can't really promise anything on this one. The logos are an easy thing to take care of.

[Maxie Zeus]

One thing people may be picking up on:

Toon Zone itself is a very welcoming and supportive place and everyone who winds up being hosted by it feels the urge to help make Toon Zone itself a better place; and, after al, anything which helps Toon Zone winds up rebounding to the greater glory and credit of the hosted sites. So, for instance, the incomparable Cartoon Fridays not only runs his own sites and boards, he generously and without any prompting designed these incredible banners for the WF boards that people have rightly raved about.

And, conversely, DG and other people associated with WF have put thought and effort into spiffing up Toon Zone itself. DG's masterful reporting goes onto the Toon Zone News board and not just onto a World's Finest news board. And new boards like "The Drawing Board" that once upon a time might have been "World's Finest" boards are "Toon Zone" boards, because they are designed for all TZers and not just WFers.

These efforts have paid off handsomely for Toon Zone, and the World's Finest boards themselves have benefited enormously from them.

[CookieS]

Thanks for the compliment Maxie. For the record to anyone, when I included both Toon Zone and World's Finest on the Justice League board logo, I thought it would just be nice since both sites are offering JL content. I had no hidden agenda and neither does anyone else involved in this site. When I'm asked to make a new logo, I'm not given many restrictions and I just kind of do it. I don't think WF is losing its identity, but just showing that its even more of a part of something bigger.

If you're upset about the board placement, well that took place a while ago. Everyone's board is kind of placed in such a manner that makes its topic more important than its owners, which is the most important thing. I always figured there are two types of visitors.......ones that come through TZ's forums page, and others that come through your site. You can't control which, but I always take into account that sometimes people are visiting a board, and have NO CLUE there is a matching site, therefore I post some site updates and mention it, and even put it in my signature.

Besides, as dick and harley mentioned, World's Finest isn't going anywhere. No matter what logos or where the message boards are, the site and the fans are still here, and that won't change.