» Sun Aug 16, 2009 11:03 am First some basic infos about the purpose of the FOOKUNITY.
The FOOKUNITY will be a place that focuses on popular and promising mods for FO3. Modder will get the possibility to host their own subforum there dedicated to their mod with full access to forum administration and user management. We just provide the infrastructure as well as a place with enough traffic to have an active forum cause let's be honest the most mod boards dedicated to just one mod will simply die due to inactivity.
We try to provide the advantages of a forum that gets actually used by ppl (like nexus and the official forum) together with the possibility for modder to have their own forum hosted there with full controll over it.
Besides that you will also be able to enjoy the advantages that come with a community that shares an "open source" spirit. This means that everyone being part of a FOOKUNITY mod team will have access to ALL internal forums. There are no closed projects. If you are part of one project then you are part of the whole FOOKUNITY.
This is done so modder can share infos and resources as well as help each other if the opportunity arises.
I am an absolute supporter of the "open source" idea when it comes to modding and hate it (as user and modder) if a mod team starts to act like a game company with closed projects and bad information policy. The goal of a modder should be to improve the game experience and listen to the feedback he gets while also staying true to his own ideas about his mod.
Sadly most modder and modding projects are very isolated from each other, there is hardly any communication and this results in a lot of problems, so many that i'm not even bothering to list them all here. We have the intention to change this, provide a place where modding knowledge can be shared, where modder try to help each other.
In the end it's of course not in my hands if ppl will make use of it and rly try to help each other but i'm for sure giving it a go.
If you are a modder and interested to become part of the FOOKUNITY then you might have some questions like what are the requirements and what we plan for the future.
The requirements for becoming part of the FOOKUNITY (and thus also get access to the internal area and other resources) is that you have done something of note. This means you have either already created some popular work (doesn't need to be a whole gameplay mod, if you are for example a great modeler with a record of releasing very good stuff then that is good enough) or work on something with a dedicated team.
The decission if we will add someone to the FOOKUNITY will be done by a case to case basis. There is no general guideline except that we need to have the feeling that you are able to contribute something.
We don't want to give ppl access just so that they can read the internal area. If we add you and notice that you don't contribute or are simply inactive then you will get removed from the FOOKUNITY staff (no bad feelings or anything, there can be good reasons for inactvitiy, just understand that we need to make sure that ppl that are added contribute and aren't only stalkers).
I am currently also working on a FOOKUNITY news portal. FOOKUNITY members will then have the possibility to post news and updates about their mods as well as host their files on our server (no size limit, good speed and easy upload through FTP or the website management system for downloads).
I'll also offer the service (though at a later time, have to do things step by step) to host a website dedicated to your mod. I am familar with websites based on joomla and wordpress, setting these up is easy enough as long as you can provide the resources for it (ie all the needed files or a joomla/wordpress template, rest will be done by me).
This is all done in my free time and financed by my private money (stuff like servers, domains, licenses etc. cost a few bucks) and i'm only a student. I'll try to get a bit of it back by advertisemant on the pages (nothing annoying) and offer ppl the possibility to donate to us via paypal and support our task to help the modding community.
Again, this is all based on fair use and that you act like a grown up person. Big networks like IGN etc. would never risk to give ppl access to their website management or direct FTP access, not to mention that they might call themselfs community sites but run in the end just a service which purpose is to make money.
I am very positive that an open minded / open source approach to modding and community management can work and hope that ppl will support us in our effort to help and support the modding community.
If you like what you just read and are interested or have questions you are welcome to contact me either through msn ( linkesauge@gmx.de ), yahoo ( linkesauge82@yahoo.com ), ICQ ( 69361669) or simply via pm.
Edit: Just to avoid confussion, this post is directed at modder and the services we offer to them. The FOOKUNITY board is of course open to EVERYONE. The access i talk about in this post is about the internal mod forums ie where the actual development of mods happens.
) But once I finish building the most important parts I'll be looking to hire on some help, I take it the FOOKUNITY is the right place for me at that point?
).
