Welcome to a new edition of the StripeVine! This, of course, is a special edition of the StripeVine, and is here to celebrate the release of FringeFX V2!
Rather than our normal issues, this edition has 2 interviews about V2 (with Alejandro and Matt!), as well as articles telling you all you'll need to know about FFX V2!
Of course, you've obviously noticed the sexy new layout of the StripeVine. It's kind of hard not to! Huge thanks to Ace` for designing and coding this beautiful new layout! If you see him in the shoutbox or on Fringe, give him a HUGE thank you!
I'd like to take this space to also thank .john for sending a PM to me about this, and I'd like to highlight this topic... FringeFX - Your Help is Wanted!. Please visit this topic!
So, enjoy this issue of the StripeVine, and to many more!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Letter from the Editor
FringeFX V2 Update
After waiting for weeks, FringeFX v2 is released! Coming with our new skin, FringeFX introduces many new features as well as some changes to some of our older features. Out with the old, in with the new right? So... where shall we begin?
Let us start with FringeFX’s well-loved competitions. We will still be keeping our TOTW (Tag of the Week), LAOTF (Large Art of the Fortnight), and POTF (Photo of the Fortnight) competitions, however we will unfortunately discontinue our AOTW (Avatar of the Week) and PSOTW (Premium Signature of the Week) competitions. Do not worry however, because we will be introducing a new concept to our competitions. As well as our three weekly and biweekly competitions, we will have rotating competitions! These competitions will change every 1 to 2 weeks (depending on the time needed per competition) and will be listed out under the Fringe calendar. They will include some familiar graphics competitions as well as some FringeFX has never seen before! What are these competitions you may ask? We will just have to wait and see.
Including the rotating competition, we will have a Bi-Monthly Tournament. This tournament will be a battle to find the best graphic artist, and will run on a ladder (meaning members will be eliminated until we have one winner). You will be expected to make a new tag every round, and in the final round you will make a tag and a large piece. We may introduce a cash prize for the tournament; however this is still in discussion. Members will sign up for the competitions and select to join in one of the two divisions: Beginners and Experienced Designers. You may join in competition bracket that maybe be better than your skill level, however we will not allow you to join competitions at a lower level bracket than yourself (for obvious reasons).
Moving on, ranking will be completely revamped in v2. We are abolishing our previous system where a group of ranking staff classified based on 5 art pieces. Instead, a “levelling” system will take place based on battle victories in the “Member Battles” section. These battle ranks will be based on how active you are in the battling scene (they will not reflect your actual rank, of course, as the more you level the more likely you are to win and therefore level up). If you lose, your level will not drop. Please check the “Member Battles” section for the full description on this new levelling up system. For the classic ranking scene, since there is no Rank Crew, members can simply ask for other members to rank their tags unofficially in the showcase forums.
Points will be worth much more than they used to be. As such we’ve made a few changes to how one will earn points. Not all forum sections will give out points, to prevent members from spamming some of our more active forums (such as Shooting the Breeze), and start being more active and start contributing to our less active forums. Be wary however, if we catch you spamming for points not only will you get your warning increased, we will also deduct points based on what we feel should be deducted (which will vary for each situation). Points will not only be given out from posting. We will also give out points for contributing (such as resources or donations to the stock garage), making constant decent posts and threads (CnC, the Arena, etc), for partaking in Ace’s new contests (stay tuned for these), submitting articles to the StripeVine to be reviewed and perhaps published, and of course winning competitions!
Finally, we have had to make one final major change that not everyone was happy about. We have put a lot of thought into this change, so please don’t think it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. In our old system of staffing, one active staff member could easily get more done in a day than five semi-active staff members combined. Because of this, our new staff system only consists of five individuals who are responsible for running the Fringe in its entirety: Manu, I.haveanidea, Aenima, Kav, and Ace. We truly regret having to cut some valuable staff members, but we felt that it would be the best decision for the future of FringeFX – we hope you can understand. To encourage these ex-staff to continue frequenting Fringe, as they are all valuable forum members, we intend on giving them some form of compensation as a “thank you” for helping out with the development of the site.
That sums up all the major changes that have been done for v2 (besides the new layout of course). To find out more, check out the video Matt and Keith have made in the [url="http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/21640-welcome-to-fringe-fx-v2/page__view__getnewpost"]Welcome to Fringe FX V2[/url] topic. We hope you’ll all love the new Fringe as much as we do!
Aside from those updates, we will also tell you what each of the staff will be doing.
As always, Matt and Keith remain the owners of Fringe. You can talk to them if you need any help, whether it be technical, query about the rules, or would like to report someone.
If you have any questions regarding the Stock Garage, you can contact i.haveanidea. You can also talk to him or Kav about the StripeVine.
If you need help with the new ranking system, or if you're interested in creating a new team, you can talk to Manu.
If you would like to battle another member, or another team, you can talk to Kav or Aenima to get the battle started!
Ace will be to your assistance if you ever have a problem. In which case, you can post in the Public Relations forum!
Remember, if you are ever unsure of any rules, procedures, or have a problem, you can talk to any of the staff - Keith, Matt, Manu, i.haveanidea, Kav, Ace, or Aenema.
All the best, ~ FFX v2 Staff
Let us start with FringeFX’s well-loved competitions. We will still be keeping our TOTW (Tag of the Week), LAOTF (Large Art of the Fortnight), and POTF (Photo of the Fortnight) competitions, however we will unfortunately discontinue our AOTW (Avatar of the Week) and PSOTW (Premium Signature of the Week) competitions. Do not worry however, because we will be introducing a new concept to our competitions. As well as our three weekly and biweekly competitions, we will have rotating competitions! These competitions will change every 1 to 2 weeks (depending on the time needed per competition) and will be listed out under the Fringe calendar. They will include some familiar graphics competitions as well as some FringeFX has never seen before! What are these competitions you may ask? We will just have to wait and see.
Including the rotating competition, we will have a Bi-Monthly Tournament. This tournament will be a battle to find the best graphic artist, and will run on a ladder (meaning members will be eliminated until we have one winner). You will be expected to make a new tag every round, and in the final round you will make a tag and a large piece. We may introduce a cash prize for the tournament; however this is still in discussion. Members will sign up for the competitions and select to join in one of the two divisions: Beginners and Experienced Designers. You may join in competition bracket that maybe be better than your skill level, however we will not allow you to join competitions at a lower level bracket than yourself (for obvious reasons).
Moving on, ranking will be completely revamped in v2. We are abolishing our previous system where a group of ranking staff classified based on 5 art pieces. Instead, a “levelling” system will take place based on battle victories in the “Member Battles” section. These battle ranks will be based on how active you are in the battling scene (they will not reflect your actual rank, of course, as the more you level the more likely you are to win and therefore level up). If you lose, your level will not drop. Please check the “Member Battles” section for the full description on this new levelling up system. For the classic ranking scene, since there is no Rank Crew, members can simply ask for other members to rank their tags unofficially in the showcase forums.
Points will be worth much more than they used to be. As such we’ve made a few changes to how one will earn points. Not all forum sections will give out points, to prevent members from spamming some of our more active forums (such as Shooting the Breeze), and start being more active and start contributing to our less active forums. Be wary however, if we catch you spamming for points not only will you get your warning increased, we will also deduct points based on what we feel should be deducted (which will vary for each situation). Points will not only be given out from posting. We will also give out points for contributing (such as resources or donations to the stock garage), making constant decent posts and threads (CnC, the Arena, etc), for partaking in Ace’s new contests (stay tuned for these), submitting articles to the StripeVine to be reviewed and perhaps published, and of course winning competitions!
Finally, we have had to make one final major change that not everyone was happy about. We have put a lot of thought into this change, so please don’t think it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. In our old system of staffing, one active staff member could easily get more done in a day than five semi-active staff members combined. Because of this, our new staff system only consists of five individuals who are responsible for running the Fringe in its entirety: Manu, I.haveanidea, Aenima, Kav, and Ace. We truly regret having to cut some valuable staff members, but we felt that it would be the best decision for the future of FringeFX – we hope you can understand. To encourage these ex-staff to continue frequenting Fringe, as they are all valuable forum members, we intend on giving them some form of compensation as a “thank you” for helping out with the development of the site.
That sums up all the major changes that have been done for v2 (besides the new layout of course). To find out more, check out the video Matt and Keith have made in the [url="http://www.fringefx.net/forums/index.php?/topic/21640-welcome-to-fringe-fx-v2/page__view__getnewpost"]Welcome to Fringe FX V2[/url] topic. We hope you’ll all love the new Fringe as much as we do!
Aside from those updates, we will also tell you what each of the staff will be doing.
As always, Matt and Keith remain the owners of Fringe. You can talk to them if you need any help, whether it be technical, query about the rules, or would like to report someone.
If you have any questions regarding the Stock Garage, you can contact i.haveanidea. You can also talk to him or Kav about the StripeVine.
If you need help with the new ranking system, or if you're interested in creating a new team, you can talk to Manu.
If you would like to battle another member, or another team, you can talk to Kav or Aenima to get the battle started!
Ace will be to your assistance if you ever have a problem. In which case, you can post in the Public Relations forum!
Remember, if you are ever unsure of any rules, procedures, or have a problem, you can talk to any of the staff - Keith, Matt, Manu, i.haveanidea, Kav, Ace, or Aenema.
All the best, ~ FFX v2 Staff
Interviews!
For this issue, we have 2 exclusive interviews! Rather than our Ask Alejandro section, we've upped it one further and we now got the chance to have a full interview with him! I learned a lot about his history, and the 'true' intentions of Matt & Keith. Don't worry, the Ask Alejandro feature will be back next issue, and all the rest! In addition to that, though, we also had the chance to talk with Matt, one of the two owners of Fringe, regarding V2. Visit the interview section for more! ... Read More