WIP Make the forums active again

[Vitiman]

MFGG forums killed itself back in 2010 when it decided it didn't want the community (See: The Split). Hell, yesterday was MFGG's 23rd Anniversary and not a single post about it.

The Split is a very complicated issue and could very easily be argued was not handled extraordinarily well. But with the insight of peering behind the curtain thanks to a post David Caruso shared back in 2019, we can see that MFGG's leadership genuinely did not like how the community was overtaking the fan game purpose of the website. You had people who had largely outgrown Mario fandom sticking around and behaving pretty poorly and - if that wasn't cause for concern enough - it was actively discouraging newer, younger people from joining the community. MFGG from about 2007 to 2010 had increasingly become a place that was anti-newbie (which, in the context of a video game franchise for all ages fandom site, usually meant anti-children) and while I personally think there is a lot to look back on with MFGG's own homegrown in-jokes and events, I don't even think that was carrying the community anymore. It was a lot of people who grew up on the site, who felt entitled to it (?), and were not reacting positively to being told to be a little more well-behaved. We've had very long, drawn out arguments about this even recently, so I'll stop there with my commentary on The Split. I don't think it was handled well. But I think it had good intentions. Very good intentions.

As for a lack of acknowledgment of MFGG's anniversary, I have good news!