10-06-2018, 09:43 PM
These are all good questions! I'll answer them to the best of my ability. Just keep in mind that most of this is not set in stone - the lumaSMS dev team, the rest of the MFGG staff, and the MFGG community will all play an important role in deciding which features get added and how the system is implemented. If you have suggestions, comments, or concerns, please step right up.
When will the LumaSMS main site and forums enter beta testing?
We're not sure - that's dependent on the people who are developing it. Everyone here is a volunteer - they're giving generously of their time and talents to help make this happen, and we can't commit to a firm release date. I hope it happens sooner rather than later, though.
Will it be having more then just Mario fan-games? (e.g: Nintendo fan-games)
Making a "Nintendo Fan Games Galaxy" is certainly something to discuss. We could simply start accepting more non-Mario Nintendo content, or we could make a set of parallel sites linked to a single sign-on - you could log in to your MFGG account and be able to post on/submit to a ZeldaFGG, KirbyFGG, etc., each with their own unique skin.
How would the main site and forums be merged? How would that work?
What will happen to the current main site and forums when LumaSMS is released?
Everything on the current mainsite will be transferred to the new system (although we might make improvements to the way content is organized.) Once beta testing is complete, the release will probably be a direct changeover - if both the old and new systems run in parallel, it wouldn't be for a long time.
The forums are iffier. Ideally, lumaSMS would combine the mainsite and forums into one system, so you'd only need one account to use both parts of MFGG. If this happens, we could archive the current forums and start fresh, or someone (such as myself) could write a script to move current topics and posts into the new system. This wouldn't be too difficult, especially if we can get all mainsite users to include their phpBB user IDs in their profiles (there's a reason I added that field!).
Will the Discord be integrated in someway? (Like in the SMBX forums?)
I don't know much about plugins for Discord integration. Currently, there are no plans to add this feature, but it's something we could discuss in the future.
Will the Wiki (the old one or a new one) be integrated in someway?
This is beyond the scope of the current lumaSMS project, but in a future phase I'd love to see a way to integrate wiki-like functionality into the mainsite. (If this happens, this would increase the odds of us archiving the current MFGG Wiki.)
Will there be more options for skins, submissions, and pre-made avatars?
More skins are always nice - if someone wants to make more, that would be awesome indeed. As for having more submission types, we plan to separate fangames and ROM hacks (this could conceivably happen even before lumaSMS gets finished). Premade avatars aren't used much, but it doesn't hurt to have some more.
Will there be not only text based game reviews, but video ones as well?
Hosting videos on the MFGG server isn't technically feasible, but there could be a way to add a section for each game for links to offsite LPs, video reviews, and so forth.
and will the Quality Control have a mind set of quality over quantity when approving submissions?
That's another discussion for another day, but probably not. Submitting to the lumaSMS will probably be more like posting a game topic on the forums. (Staff will always be monitoring game submissions to make sure that they run properly and meet other basic standards, though.)
Finally, just in case anyone is worried: No MFGG content, whether on the mainsite, forums, or Wiki, will be lost during this transition. If a current system is retired, we'll make sure that it's still accessible in a read-only state, and we'll be sure to keep some offsite backups as well.
When will the LumaSMS main site and forums enter beta testing?
We're not sure - that's dependent on the people who are developing it. Everyone here is a volunteer - they're giving generously of their time and talents to help make this happen, and we can't commit to a firm release date. I hope it happens sooner rather than later, though.
Will it be having more then just Mario fan-games? (e.g: Nintendo fan-games)
Making a "Nintendo Fan Games Galaxy" is certainly something to discuss. We could simply start accepting more non-Mario Nintendo content, or we could make a set of parallel sites linked to a single sign-on - you could log in to your MFGG account and be able to post on/submit to a ZeldaFGG, KirbyFGG, etc., each with their own unique skin.
How would the main site and forums be merged? How would that work?
What will happen to the current main site and forums when LumaSMS is released?
Everything on the current mainsite will be transferred to the new system (although we might make improvements to the way content is organized.) Once beta testing is complete, the release will probably be a direct changeover - if both the old and new systems run in parallel, it wouldn't be for a long time.
The forums are iffier. Ideally, lumaSMS would combine the mainsite and forums into one system, so you'd only need one account to use both parts of MFGG. If this happens, we could archive the current forums and start fresh, or someone (such as myself) could write a script to move current topics and posts into the new system. This wouldn't be too difficult, especially if we can get all mainsite users to include their phpBB user IDs in their profiles (there's a reason I added that field!).
Will the Discord be integrated in someway? (Like in the SMBX forums?)
I don't know much about plugins for Discord integration. Currently, there are no plans to add this feature, but it's something we could discuss in the future.
Will the Wiki (the old one or a new one) be integrated in someway?
This is beyond the scope of the current lumaSMS project, but in a future phase I'd love to see a way to integrate wiki-like functionality into the mainsite. (If this happens, this would increase the odds of us archiving the current MFGG Wiki.)
Will there be more options for skins, submissions, and pre-made avatars?
More skins are always nice - if someone wants to make more, that would be awesome indeed. As for having more submission types, we plan to separate fangames and ROM hacks (this could conceivably happen even before lumaSMS gets finished). Premade avatars aren't used much, but it doesn't hurt to have some more.
Will there be not only text based game reviews, but video ones as well?
Hosting videos on the MFGG server isn't technically feasible, but there could be a way to add a section for each game for links to offsite LPs, video reviews, and so forth.
and will the Quality Control have a mind set of quality over quantity when approving submissions?
That's another discussion for another day, but probably not. Submitting to the lumaSMS will probably be more like posting a game topic on the forums. (Staff will always be monitoring game submissions to make sure that they run properly and meet other basic standards, though.)
Finally, just in case anyone is worried: No MFGG content, whether on the mainsite, forums, or Wiki, will be lost during this transition. If a current system is retired, we'll make sure that it's still accessible in a read-only state, and we'll be sure to keep some offsite backups as well.
Course clear! You got a card.
![[Image: CourseClear.gif]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/d5mcpm4nmt0gd14/CourseClear.gif)
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