Another problem could also be some of the people on the site who don't know how to give constructive criticism. In someone's first sprite sheet or game, there are bound to be people who say, "DUDE THIS SUCKS!!!!!!! GAME/SPRITE MAKING IS NOT FOR YOU!!!!!!! GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!" or other obviously unwelcoming, and not encouraging things. I understand no matter what things like this can't be 100% prevented, but a first impression of who is on the site and who will be critiquing you can make a big impact, and nobody is going to want to submit another sheet/game if people act like jerks to them. So this would just require people to [b]work together[/b] to make the site a better place.

@Guinea - I'm mainly suggesting using an open source system because there are some pretty clear advantages to it. - Thoroughly developed and tested - Well documented, in case we ever get more developers who need to learn the system - Customisable, with a lot of plugins available already, including one which solves another problem you've been having for some time (the forum/website bridge) - Don't have to worry about bug fixes because that can be left with the other software developers - Full database control (as far as I am aware) - You don't have to make it and you can spend your time extending it as required, or doing something new - It's free Also, how do you know that these existing systems won't support MFGG? Have you used them for this purpose before and proven that? I guess what I'm saying is, they're at least worth investigating before deciding to create an entirely new system. If they resolve all the problems we have, or at least a portion of them, then that still saves you time and resources which can be used elsewhere. Again, no point solving a problem somebody has already done for you. Oh, and yeah, I'm happy to discuss the mobile skin. It would be probably best over Skype but we'll need to schedule a time for me due to timezone differences. [quote="[url=http://phpbb.mfgg.net/viewtopic.php?p=376638#p376638]Evil Yoshi[/url]"]Another problem could also be some of the people on the site who don't know how to give constructive criticism. In someone's first sprite sheet or game, there are bound to be people who say, "DUDE THIS SUCKS!!!!!!! GAME/SPRITE MAKING IS NOT FOR YOU!!!!!!! GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!" or other obviously unwelcoming, encouraging things. I understand no matter what things like this can't be 100% prevented, but a first impression of who is on the site and who will be critiquing you can make a big impact, and nobody is going to want to submit another sheet/game if people act like jerks to them. So this would just require people to [b]work together[/b] to make the site a better place.[/quote] Unfortunately you can't really solve social issues with technology so that would need another approach. I guess you could have comment moderation but even then that's probably more effort than it is worth.

There's no need to know how to edit the php and you should not edit the php if you want to make a mobile skin. Skins for phpbb are made up of an html template, a css theme, and an image set configuration. As far as I know every one of our skins uses the template titled Experimental (Simplistic Green has its own for some reason but it's unused and likely just a copy). You can edit the pages to look [i]any[/i] way you want by changing these. I'm sure that you can find existing mobile templates online and it would just be a matter of uploading it, making a duplicate of the default skin and changing the template, and then ironing out any issues with the css.

[quote="Guinea"][quote="[url=http://phpbb.mfgg.net/viewtopic.php?p=376572#p376572]fantanoice[/url]"][quote="[url=http://phpbb.mfgg.net/viewtopic.php?p=376567#p376567]Guinea[/url]"]@fantanoice: For the idea to replace the mainsite with a blog, I'm not for this, because the mainsite isn't a blog. It's a content management system, designed to find resources for Mario fangames as well as the games. Users are supposed to be able to upload resources, which then go through a quality assessment process. I'm not sure how well a blog software like WordPress is suited for these needs.[/quote] Cheers for clearing that up. I did a brief search and looks as though it is reasonably simple to set up WordPress as a CMS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o2XcHqQbRY Also found this video which does a decent comparison of the three biggest CMS platforms: Joomla, WordPress and Drupal. I haven't had too much experience with any of them but it seems that because we have a lot of people who aren't technically minded, then WordPress or Joomla would be good options because they take the GUI approach. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onf_SUv61i4 Also seems like you bridge PhpBB and Joomla as well, which would save a lot of hassle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MCiDHr17a8 My knowledge of CMS platforms is pretty limited though so I can't give too many recommendations. It would probably be a good thing to explore in one of those "Let's Improve MFGG" weekends if you guys ever do one. [quote]In other news, I have received a preview of the mobile skin for the forums supernova is making. It seems to come along. Fantanoice, would you perhaps want to collaborate with supernova to get a satisfying result, seeing how you probably have an image in your mind of what makes a good mobile skin for our forum?[/quote] I'm not really the holy grail of mobile skins but I can help out where I can. XD Seems the basic thing to do is to follow the KISS approach and cut as much fat as possible. It is all about the content and being able to read it quickly and easily.[/quote] @Joomla etc: I'd honestly prefer a customized self-written CMS. It gives us a lot more control over the kind of content we support and the user submissions, as well as giving us the option to extend it however we like. Our CMS is supposed to be something unique and streamlined exactly for what we do here. I think of myself capable of writing such a system, the only problem is the time really. I expect myself to have some spare time the latest in the summer break to get something done. As someone who has written multiple CMSes himself in the past, I really don't want to use something like Joomla for a special interest site such as this one. Char has actually left us with a quite useful base of code that I can recycle which does a lot of the database work and handles security issues that I can adapt and use, so that should help.[/quote] [font=Comic Sans MS]this probably isn't the best strategy to go with really- if you can get a nice custom system up and running and have it be maintainable (good documentation for future developers, etc.) then yes, it's a really nice thing. but realistically? there's plenty of software out there that's going to do *most* of what you want, and be expandable for the features you need that are missing. this stuff will be easier to set up and maintain for the future. Just need to spend the time experimenting with what works and what you need (and also what you think you need vs what you really need)[/font]

Can you guys add a Mario And Luigi: Dream Team sprites filter? It would be greatly appreciated. Also, we should have a counter that shows how many submissions are in queue so people can take a guess as to how long it'd take for their submissions to be accepted/declined.

[quote="[url=http://phpbb.mfgg.net/viewtopic.php?p=377427#p377427]UltLuigi[/url]"]Can you guys add a Mario And Luigi: Dream Team sprites filter? It would be greatly appreciated. Also, we should have a counter that shows how many submissions are in queue so people can take a guess as to how long it'd take for their submissions to be accepted/declined.[/quote] Yes, a Dream Team filter will be added! Thanks for the reminder. As for the number, probably not. The staff does share with you the status of the queue in the weekly updates verbally, when it is worth noting. This should be enough. (Although it's an idea I might keep in mind for the next iteration of the mainsite software...)

Speaking of the filters, can someone update the Mario Party ones? There's no section for 8, 9, or 3DS...

I actually don't think there need to be filters for each individual Mario Party game, as their styles have been pretty much the same over the iterations. Mario and Luigi, while similar, do differ. So I'd actually see it more likely to collapse all of the Mario Party ones into fewer categories (N64 Mario Party, GCN/Wii Mario Party, GBA MP and 3DS MP).

And what about MPDS?

Darn why I am keep forgeting things. Since MSN was down back in March. Is it a good idea just simply remove that section or modify that form into another type of social network?

[quote="supernova"]Darn why I am keep forgeting things. Since MSN was down back in March. Is it a good idea just simply remove that section or modify that form into another type of social network?[/quote]I'm still using MSN through Pidgin.

I believe you're using the Chinese MSN server? But since MSN barely used by anyone, we should just simply merge/remove that section. Yet I did a research once you posted about Pidin, I can't see any working one besides MSN China after the Skype merge event.

The MSN protocol still exists (something to do with Skype using the MSN protocol for text messaging), so it is still possible to connect to it with Pidgin and other third-party clients.

[quote="Guinea"]I'd honestly prefer a customized self-written CMS.[/quote] I thought the main site was using RII's Taloncrossing? That [i]is[/i] a customized self-written CMS.

Yes it is, but my reply was toward someone who suggested to use an existing blog/CMS/software mix.

[quote="Guinea"]Yes it is, but my reply was toward someone who suggested to use an existing blog/CMS/software mix.[/quote] Serves me right for skimming I guess. Sorry.

There's one thing I recently concerned about the main site. Each game must have system requirement, there's a lot of comments on my old games where people can't run it on 8 or 7.

I'm afraid there's little you can do about that, aside from pointing people toward the appropriate virtual console applications. Microsoft tends to value things other than backwards compatibility when designing operating systems. However, if someone wants to test every game on MFGG for Windows 7/8 compatibility, be my guest.

[img]http://i43.tinypic.com/hu5co7.jpg[/img] Still working on it (MFGG Mobile) on my Apache server. ;)

^Nice. If you need a reference of a very good mobile layout, look at NeoGaf's mobile skin.