I don't see it having any noticeable impact on the traffic here. Half of what you're suggesting can be done without changing the site. Other suggestions of yours could be tackled with different ways of submitting things. For example, the tutorials section of MFGG3.0 could and should be expanded to include written articles, such as "how to make a sprite" or "how to use FamiTracker" and allow people to attach images etc. What will accepting fanart do? Aside from giving people implied rights to use your fanart to use how they like, not much. The only time I can see accepting artwork as appropriate for MFGG was people designing stock images to be used in things like title screens for fangames and so on.

Oh so you meant "a mario fan general site" as in "a site about fanmade mario content" instead of "a site for mario fans, let's discuss mario stuff!!!" If that's the case then I'm sorry I misunderstood you. I actually like the idea of focusing more on spriting, drawing and composing a bit more. We could even add "level creation" (as in mario maker levels, smw hacks and smbx levels) as a subforum or something. The thing I was against was making mfgg more like a generic mario forum like themushroomkingdom.net

i see fanart being an outlet for people to be able to find artists to have help work on fangames. believe me, if deviantart is any indication then it should promote artwork more than simply posting it on the forums would, especially because the idea is to make such a section easy to submit to with the added bonus of it being easy to showcase. i think it's fair to say that strictly artwork focused threads on the boards get less traffic than sprite focused threads. i mean, again, you said it yourself, most of what i'm saying isn't really changing much. it's just providing outlets to where there need to be some.

I see it as flooding a website with "Peach in a Bikini", "Super Traced from a gif Bros" and "Steven McAwesome, the Lost Third Mario Bro" with no real benifit to anything. There might be some good artists who'll submit, but you're not going to get quality unless you put some hard filters on there, and then what's the point? It won't add a thing to the website.

[quote="Kritter"]I see it as flooding a website with "Peach in a Bikini", "Super Traced from a gif Bros" and "Steven McAwesome, the Lost Third Mario Bro" with no real benifit to anything. There might be some good artists who'll submit, but you're not going to get quality unless you put some hard filters on there, and then what's the point? It won't add a thing to the website.[/quote] That's not even mentioning....recolors. *shudder*

There's always tumblr, deviantart and imgur if people want to show off their art and they can always link it here in a dedicated art topic. Though, I'm not really sure if Mit's idea of fanart being an outlet for fangame development would be a good idea. I can see it being less used than any other stuff, and it'll put the website at a great strain on hosting art which it could be worthless and unneeded. If I'm wrong, can someone try correct what I said? I wasn't really sure what I'm getting.

I also don't think a new section for drawings would add much.

i think you're forgetting that artists who draw that are typically very young and the structure of the website itself should and would point them in the direction of artistic education and self improvement rather than blind support ie on deviantart. all three of those things you suggested should be against the rules (no suggestive art, no stolen work, and no fan characters) just as a no brainer so i honestly can't see that argument as anything worth considering. it's not about quality right now. MFGG on the contrary of a place like tSR is more about the journey of self improvement in your profession by means of using fangames as an outlet. fanart is absolutely no different and in the right atmosphere we can use it to our advantage and flourish.

Well again, if your goal is to instruct people on how to draw better, the "how-to" section of MFGG should be overhauled to include written tutorials, which is something I can wholeheartedly get behind. "How to draw Mario!" - Insert loads of words with pictures to show a basic tutorial on how to draw Mario

[quote="Kritter"]Well again, if your goal is to instruct people on how to draw better, the "how-to" section of MFGG should be overhauled to include written tutorials, which is something I can wholeheartedly get behind. "How to draw Mario!" - Insert loads of words with pictures to show a basic tutorial on how to draw Mario[/quote] i can get behind this too, but i think some kind of way to easily measure one's progression through showcase is important. i understand people can just post it on the boards for direct feedback, but not everyone is going to do that and a more obvious section dedicated to it is more obvious. plus it's just more streamlined anyway, it's easier to see what you want through thumbnails than a thread list.

[quote="Mit"]seems all the people i expected to come in and provide thoughtful one word answers arrived on-cue and provided just that[/quote]If you didn't want a one-word-answer, you shouldn't have asked a Yes/No question. I don't think shifting the focus would increase traffic at all. If people care about Mario fanart, they'd be much more likely to just go to some dedicated groups on deviantArt than to look for MFGG, etc. There's better websites for stuff like that. Fangames are what we do best, and we should keep our focus on that. Chances are just by pandering to other groups, MFGG won't become any more visible.

My initial reaction is, "No". Never underestimate the power of filling a niche. I'm a bit of an outsider at this point, but I like to think I understand a little bit about how the internet works. If your goal is to have a prosperous and populous community, all of your goals should be community-centric. Fix your own house before you try to fix the houses of others. Finish a Fangame, a great one, have the community rally behind a project's release. Review and comment on as many projects on the site as you can. The best thing that anyone can do is be the best version of themselves. Be the ideal version of what it means to be a member of MFGG. Great members are great examples to others and help foster community growth. The clearest case of Fangame achievement has to be AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake). This fangame has been hugely successful and serves as an example to study. While on one hand, the popularity has meant that many people have played the game, it also invites the attention of Nintendo, which can be negative. Maybe we don't want to be that big. Most people work on very personal passion projects. That said, every active user here is more than just one person, they are a node in a network of 100s of people. You can do a lot to promote this site, if you make that your mission and it wouldn't require any fundamental change for the site. I would say that there is some room fir improvement with respect to marketing and curation on the site. But again, this is something the individual can do on their own. Start a Mario Fangame blog, focus on finding great Mario Fangames and explain to people why they should be playing them. If you want other people around you have to convince them that they have been overlooking something noteworthy, and that's not easy.

[quote="Kritter"]Well again, if your goal is to instruct people on how to draw better, the "how-to" section of MFGG should be overhauled to include written tutorials, which is something I can wholeheartedly get behind. "How to draw Mario!" - Insert loads of words with pictures to show a basic tutorial on how to draw Mario[/quote] Honestly one of the better ideas in this thread, but it wouldn't be adding anything unique to MFGG. This is something I wanted to pivot to when I was working on an "MFGG 3" in 2008 or whenever. The original site was authored around some very rigid ideas of what a how-to was, which basically was a .GAM file (or less commonly a .CCA file). GameMaker wasn't even a blip on the radar yet. The time and place for that was real, but it's long in the past.