Zelda Dungeon:Layout 6.0

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Layout 6.0

Release Date

March 30th, 2004

Credits

Designer

Daniel
Mases Hagopian
Cartoons

Webhost

AcidMist
Telefragged

Work began on Layout 6.0 during the downtime periods of Layout 5.0. However, while mots of the design was completed, the main programmer of the new layout left the website. The assets were still available, but it was not properly coded. Over the course of a few weeks Mases and Cartoons pieced together the layout, which proved to be rather difficult as this was the first layout that was coded in-house since the sites inception. The layout finally launched on March 30th, 2004.

The 6th layout of Zelda Dungeon was the first layout that had a quick navigation system for the Zelda games. This was a trend started by popular Zelda websites such as Zelda Elements and Zelda Universe, and during this period, nearly every single large Zelda website had a similar quick navigation menu. The quick menu and the additional images on the side bars led this layout to be by far the most image complex layout to date. The lavender colored layout was also something quite different than any previous Zelda Dungeon layout, and was a unique look in color for its time. However, after the strong initial reaction of the layouts launch, most viewers of the website did not keep a positive view of the website theme.

The hosting problems with Acidmist continued and the search for yet another new host had begun. Unfortunately this also meant that the zeldadungeon.com domain name was also in serious jeopardy, because due to contractual fine print, that domain name was owned by Acidmist. After a search for various other websites that offered free hosting services, Zelda Dungeon discovered a website known as Telefragged. The website was a well established gaming website that hosted several large fan websites from all over the gaming spectrum. They offered free hosting in exchange for a simple banner advertisement that had to be placed on the website. Mases jumped at this offer and after weeks of uncertainty with acidmist, the website moved to Telefragged and was now located at zd.telefragged.com.

With the domain name switch, visitors initially plummeted. It was at this time that Acidmist completely went offline, making it impossible even to properly redirect site viewers. Fortunately enough for Zelda Dungeon, the switch ended up being a great benefit in the long term, as for the first time in quite awhile, the website was hosted on a stable server and visitors soon rebounded back to their peak position during the layout 5.0 era.

During this time period, Zelda Dungeon switched to Cutenews, a news system that allowed users to make edits on the sites index page without having to edit and upload hard files through a FTP program. Having a new content management system like this allowed Zelda Dungeon to have staff members that can work independently to post news articles without having to go through one of the Webmasters or upload through FTP. Thus, during this time period, several new staff members were hired strictly as news reporters. Unfortunately, this turned into a revolving door as very view of the team members from this era ever stuck around for more than just a couple of months.

Zelda Dungeon also saw its first active participation into its own forum during this time period. One of the websites closest friends at the time was a website known as Zelda Legacies. They had their own community forum, but it was run by Cartoons, a webmaster of Zelda Dungeon. While not officially a part of Zelda Dungeon at its conception, the forums were actively promoted at Zelda Dungeon with links and consistent mentions at the website. Throughout this time period, Zelda Legacies was beginning to dwindle away, and the forums were becoming more and more interlaced with Zelda Dungeon. This forum was known as the Forsaken Forums and in retrospect, is known as the 1st generation of Zelda Dungeon forums. The forum was run on the vBulletin forum software, which was licensed to the webmaster of Zelda Legacies. Unfortunately, Zelda Legacies and its forums experienced some rough times and went offline, leaving Zelda Dungeon without its own community forum. Throughout its lifetime, the first generation of forums for Zelda Dungeon accumulated over 300 registered members and 7,000 total posts.

Traffic Levels

  • Traffic plummeted after the move away from ZeldaDungeon.com, but rebounded to steadily receiving over 500 visitors per day.
  • The first Zelda Dungeon forum was launched, gaining over 300 registered members and 7,000 total posts.

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