Welcome to the History section. In this section you can find how Final Frontier is created over the time and what is changed. From a free tripod account to a full domain, from 10 music videos to 400 music videos. The website of Final Frontier Media (FFM) has changed over the years. In this part of the history section I will show you just that. Images will show you how FFM looked in his early days till now. If you want the short story, please visit the Archive - Short history section. If you have any questions, please contact me.

A very long hibernation

In the years that follow Final Frontier Media was asleep. In the year 2004 and 2005 there were some attempts to keep the FTP server online, but nothing more. I wanted to spent my time to other things. So all sections created in 2003 were still in use when I bought a .nl domain. Again a great step forward. Final Frontier Media was now located at www.finalfrontiermedia.nl. This was not the only thing that changed. The problems with the very unreliable FTP server were now solved. A special server was set up and people could download the music videos 24/7. Because I also changed of Internet provider, the upload rate changed from 16kb/s to 128kb/s. After adding some music videos I knew this section become to large. I decided to change this section. This happened in March 2006.

In image 1 you can see the movie clips section as it was in 2003. I thought that presenting the information this way was in favor of the visitors. All music videos were accompanied with two screenshot from the video. On the left, one closely in the beginning, on the right one more to the end of the music video. As you can see the lay out of that page was flexible and also not. A great disadvantage was that the webpage was becoming very large and you had to scroll a lot. As told earlier in 2006 this would change. I needed a way to present a lot of music videos, easy to find and very quick to load. After some concepts and talking with a friend of mine the new concept was chosen. This is what you can see on image 2. I renamed the section from "Movie clips" to "Music videos". All music videos were divided into categories. This would mean short loading times and the music videos were easy to find. In 2006 also the total lay out of the website became flexible. This was my solution for people who were having a larger resolution than 1024 X 768. In 2008 I decided it looked awful and changed it to a fixed width as you can see in image 3. In the last month of 2006 the information part on top of the categories were added. This would show people how much music videos were online and from which series. I started out with 8 categories. At present (September 2013) there are 28 categories. The way a category look liked is what you can see in image 4. The music videos were presented two on a row with a maximum of 20 music videos per page. The images used in this lay-out are much smaller than the two in image 1. The information per music video is also better organized. With the complete renewal in 2010 of Final Frontier Media the music videos section came to an end. The categories still remain and are designed as you can see in image 5. There is less information available as before, but the greatest change is the possibility to watch the music directly at the website. There is now a maximum of 5 music videos per page.

Next!

After changing the music videos section, the site could grow and it did. In 2005 the section "Archive" was added and in May 2006 the section "Newsletter" was created and the links section got a complete update. It was necessary because I had too much banners and therefore the page became to large.

In image 1 you can see the Links section as designed in January 2003. Before 2003 the Link section was always at the front page. This information was just copied to a new page and there it was: the Links Section. In May 2006 I decided the page became to large to load quickly. In Image 2 you can see the change of the Links Section. A special text category for text links and the banner links were divided in several categories. In March 2007 I decided to change the link section a bit. I didn't like the link menu and the way the text links were presented. The text links were incorporated into the Links home. In October 2008 the link section is renewed and adapted to the looks which were used in the other sections. This means for one part the horizontal menu. Image 4 shows how a category looked like into the links section. Because the text links were created, it wasn't important for the banner links to have a fast load time. Therefore I had chosen for a simple setup. The menu and vote links are above the header "Star Trek Sites". They vanished over the years because the websites behind them vanished. With the complete renewal of Final Frontier Media the Link section went back to the front page. All text links can be found at the bottom of the page, also the link categories for the banners are gone. These banners will be shown one at a time, at random and also at the bottom of the page as can be seen in image 5.

The wolf is out

Soon after the renewed Links section, in 2007, my FTP server was upgraded. A new hard disk was added. In just 6 months the amount of 50 music video went up to 87 in December 2006. The Music videos section was growing rapidly. Also a lot of new links were added over time. In April 2006 all music videos were mirrored by the Rik Report server. After receiving several awards, the awards section was born. The award from stnet.tk received in November 2006 gave a hint to improve my website. This hint would change the face of Final Frontier Media, the homepage.