[size=85]Good day. You, fair viewer, have just landed upon the brand-spanking new Mario Fan Games Galaxy (MFGG) forums! We're one half of a recent split, and this side will be focusing on the world of fangame creation to directly accompany the MFGG website. This half is currently headed by long-term legend DJ Yoshiman, with Black Squirrel playing the Nick Clegg figure and running as deputy. MFGG has been around for nearly a decade and its main site is perhaps one of the best (if not THE best) fangaming resources in the world. Now it's time to do something similar to its forums. For those who join us from our previous iteration, an explanation. MFGG of yesteryear has been split into two distinct sections, with one half focusing on the fangaming side of things, and the other focusing more on the community aspect. You can find the other half here, as [url=http://forums.theminusworld.net]Minus World[/url]. We aim to operate completely separately, with different goals and ideals. Why the split? Because the old MFGG had become unmanagable. Conflicts of ideals both interally and in the public realm led to huge divisions in opinion, and successive admins with new and wonderful plans have only widened this gap. We thought it was fundementally wrong for mod teams that lacked fangaming interest to be running a fangaming message board. With so many resources being pumped into sections and features unsuited for a fangaming website, MFGG had simply lost its sense of direction. And that's not a good thing. The result was to split the board into two, allowing those users with no connection to the fangaming world to continue about their daily business, while giving the fangaming community the attention they deserve. But do not fret, nothing of value has been lost. If you cannot find what you're looking for here, chances are it will be on Minus World, and likewise if they're lacking something it's probably here. You might even find new things. [b]What we expect from you[/b] MFGG no longer wishes to operate in the same half-assed fashion it was in the past, and will always maintain a strong focus around the subject of fangaming. You may suddenly find that you no longer fit in here as a result, and this is fine, assuming that you can understand we have no obligations to appeal to you. We have filtered the board down to the raw basics, and though this may not be to everyone's fancy, it is seen as key to the board's survival in the world of fangaming. We aim to drop the stigma that these boards have carried for the best part of the decade and propel MFGG into a new golden age. And no, that doesn't necessarily mean a million members posting every second. You are not entitled to register and post on this board. In fact, we'd recommend not doing so unless you are truly sure this is a setup you can understand and abide by. If you plan to oppose these changes at every turn, we don't want you. We're not interested in how this place may not live up to your expectations, or "how it's not as good as it used to be", this is NEW MFGG, and things are different now. You're also welcome to fork out other communities if you can't cope. The warn system is identical to what it was in the last iteration, but with moderators following guidelines I'd like to think it was being enforced properly now. Don't tempt fate. Think things through before posting and remember, MFGG is a family friendly place. That means don't be rude, don't bypass the filters and don't discriminate, otherwise bad things might happen. Common courtesy is fair game, and it is a game you are expected to play upon registering. [b]What's going on right now[/b] As you can imagine, a split down the middle means that Minus World gains many of our now-redundant featuers. However, we've kept many of the features for ourselves, such as most of the skins and of course the name. The basic forum structure is similar to the older boards, but streamlined. The development boards remain mostly the same as before, and the arts board returns with a new focus on computer graphics and audio, i.e. the stuff fangamers would find useful. The premise of most things have not changed too much and what was once acceptable at old MFGG is mostly acceptable now. However, our primary focus is on the world of game development, so we'd like to think sprites and models have a greater precedence over paintings, even if they're both acceptable. Contrary to popular belief, we are not abandoning independent game development. In fact, all game development is welcome in the development centre, whether that be a classic Mario fangame built with Klik & Play, right through to home grown 3D first person shooters for home consoles. The sky is your limit - if you're making a game for anything in any format with any theme (assuming it doesn't break one of our rules) it's welcome in our development centre. We're aiming to form a community of friendly and knowledgeable members and guide them towards producing fantastic stuff. We have removed any sign of casual discussion boards for good, but we have also taken the General Chat and Game Discussion boards off as well. Whether the latter two make a return depends on how the community operates and develops, but right now we're operating without one, and may do so for a long time. Competitions still exist but are split across the board. Fangame competitions existing in the development centre, and sprite and music competitions existing in the new arts board. We have dropped the drawing competitions, and the majority of forum events have been axed. This will mean your badge counts are slightly lower than before, but we believe that meaningful badges greatly outweigh the meaningless ones. We'd also like to guide competitions back to the world of Mario, or at least Nintendo, to give them a sense of purpose. We can't celebrate your contributions to MFGG if you're not contributing to MFGG. And of course there's practical reasons for this too - recent competitions have been very open-ended, and it's difficult to really see which is the better sprite if the subjects are completely different. MFGG Awards will still happen at some point, though they might be delayed. Sadly we're not doing Secret Santa on this half of the boards this year, because we want to have a settled community first and we're slightly short on staff. Minus World will supposedly be running one, however. All moderators will be following a standard set of guidelines and will be solely responsible for any front-line work on the forums. Black Squirrel and myself, as administrators, will be... administrating - making sure the mod team are running correctly, solving issues they can't and maintaining the board. Currently we just have global mods, but specialized mods may be brought in to lessen the burden.[/size]

To add to this, there are some things that still need to be done, so your patience with those would be appreciated.

Welcome to all! I'm interested in seeing how all this pans out. I hope it all turns out well.

I'll likely lurk some, but I probably won't be very active. PS I love the smily reshades

Looking pretty (and organized/streamlined). Also loving these semi-new smilies. Though some of them aren't reshaded yet =P

Very organized, that looks more for fan gaming resource, the "Help" from the older MFGG was for all, and it was pretty confusing... Nicely done guys, and I loved the start page, one of my submissions ^^ Good you're back ^^ Thanks, it's great this new one!

[quote="Mason"]I'd really like to see the return of Joke Minigame competitions.[/quote] Minus World will most likely have those. Anyway, this place looks really interesting and much better than the old system.

[quote="Mason"][quote="DJ Yoshiman"][size=85]Myself and Yoshiman, as administrators, will be... administrating - making sure the mod team are running correctly, solving issues they can't and maintaining the board.[/size][/quote] Yourself and Yoshiman, eh DJ Yoshiman? =P[/quote] excuse me while i have a mild case of schizophrenia

Looking good, you have a nice set up and a clean slate to work from, good luck with it. As for myself, I'll remain lurking, only posting if I have something to say or showing off something I did.

Thanks, it's good to have this place back. Soon I shall post my secret project that will blow ya all's minds.

Hey guys. New place looks snazzy as heck. :)

Hmmm....i don't know if I like this. I guess we'll have to see how things evolve down the road hm? Nice design though, like the images.

I'm liking the fresh start. What about displaying member post count, etc.?

CeeY, just click on the member's profile. Most of the members on the Minus World thought displaying post counts besides posts wasn't very important. Also, shouldn't post counts be reset? It looks dumb for inactive members like Parakarry and Shadowman to have hundreds of posts carried over from Old MFGG.

[quote="VinnyVideo"]Most of the members on the Minus World thought displaying post counts besides posts wasn't very important.[/quote] [i]technically[/i] mw's opinion has no bearing here

[quote="VinnyVideo"]CeeY, just click on the member's profile. Most of the members on the Minus World thought displaying post counts besides posts wasn't very important. Also, shouldn't post counts be reset? It looks dumb for inactive members like Parakarry and Shadowman to have hundreds of posts carried over from Old MFGG.[/quote] They should have been reset.

Lets see how this goes.

do post counts honestly matter

I honestly thought that all user accounts were going to be wiped and people would need to re-register?

wait they weren't? ffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu