id like to run fanpro2, an unofficial successor. its starting from 1 and will be tagged fanpro2 to differentiate it from the original. it will be the same kind of public character roster.
Hello, @scumbigula! Sorry for the late response. There already is something that exists like that, actually, but it is also on hiatus.
If you want to make your own public use design blog, I can give you some advice. Please don’t use a name that includes FanPro in it, though! Feel free to take inspiration from the name and our FAQ if you’d like, however, like how ComPro (Community Project) did.
Make sure you clearly state that all designs submitted are open to the public to use as inspiration and do whatever they wish with it, including using the character design for commercial use (say, making stickers, ect. A member of the FanPro community and a mod of ComPro has actually been using a handful of designs for a game they are creating!) The original submitter cannot sue someone for using their design(s) that have been accepted by your project.
Make sure no signatures are on the submitted artwork, as well, and make sure to check that it is the submitter’s OWN work and is not a character that already exists in something. Legally, a signature in artwork submitted is open for other people to use, as it is considered part of the design. (One time we had the Skype snail submitted to us and neither me nor the other mod at the time realized and the community had to tell us LOL.)
Running FanPro, especially towards the last 1000 designs, was EXTREMELY STRESSFUL. I cannot emphasize this enough! 😩 Also, if you have multiple mods, the more you have, the harder it is to be organized and agree on things. Despite it being tough, we worked best with just two mods. It helped we were bestfriends, too.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a lot of traction and designs submitted to your project at first or for a while-- FanPro was extremely lucky to get the attention it did, it having been created at just the right time and seen by the right people. Over the years it had died down in activity, though.
I will absolutely promote your project on the blog and in the official FanPro discord server to help out!
So many people had voted yes on whether or not I should open up submissions again and take FanPro out of hiatus, but I’ve not decided on whether or not I can put that effort into it with how much time and mental capacity it takes to run. I’m sure they would all love to know something fresh and new exists!
Good luck! 🙏 - Arkie
