Video: Open Source Survival

[IStandAloneToo]

I would like everyone to watch this video (thanks Nor for showing it to me). I wont be offended if you chose not to, but I think it would benefit everyone (including the newest people of the community) to just take some time to watch this. Everyone always says that they are way too busy, but you can spare 30-40min (you can skip the Q/A part, it really isn't worth much).

"How Open Source Projects Survive Poisonous People"
http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid= ... 1522818645

I really liked this video as it offers a lot of really good advice. Please read-on carefully as these are what I got from the video.

Mission Statement: (web team please paste this on the front of the web page)

Direction
Dawn of Light is an Open Source project devoted to emulating Dark Age of Camelot. In emulating Dark Age of Camelot we pledge to strictly conform to live servers, yet also design the code to allow the community to create custom servers through scripts.

Limitations
We program/script in C# and use MySQL as our database. Official SVN is limited to live-like emulation and nothing more.

Note: I came up with this mission statement as best I could, but I am no writer. If anyone can word what I wrote in a more professional manner, I am up for changing it! Also, feel free to submit things that should be in the mission statement.

Documentation:
- We need a way to better document previous discussions. Here I want the Community Support Team to not only create tutorials/documents on the most common asked questions, but also organize a directory of solve questions, patches, and discussions.
- It would also be nice to see some type of design documents for the Official SVN. Possibly we can add this before 2.0.
- Also, we need to continually update the history of the project. This goes for mistakes and major changes that were made and why. Hopefully with future work on the website, I can more easily update the history.

Bug Tracker:
- I believe we have a bug tracker setup through SourceForge. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=97 ... unc=browse Use the bug tracker! It is a great tool for the developers to know what to fix!

Code Review and Branches:
- By making small commits and small patches we can make code reviews easier. If you fix a bug, make a patch from the update trunk and submit the fix!
- We should allow for branching. I noticed alex_speed's integer change branch and hope that more people are up for making large changes through committing to a branch. This way we can track what major changes can me made to the system and that they do indeed work. The experts on SVN need to fill me in here, but is it possible to give people commit access to just their own branch and that's it? That way we can look at their code!
- If changes are made to the official SVN, I would like a maximum of 1-2 weeks between commits. This way we can evaluate small portions of code and also monitor the progress on large projects.

Poisonous People:
- Signs of poisonous people

• - Funky/weird names - like ImAmThEbEsTuBeRcOdEr
  - Lack of a clue - haven't grasped DoL
  - Hostile - constant bashing of people and the project
  - Lack of Cooperation - people that talk but don't contribute
  - Disrespecting people's time - bringing up issues over and over

- Obviously this isn't a for sure sign like they say in the video, but be on a watch for such behaviors. Stay cool when responding to hostile messages (kill them with kindness).

Don't:
- Feed poisonous people. Respond in appropriate ways by trying to extract their bug or answering their issue directly. Try to see through the emotions and avoid responding emotionally yourself.

Do:
- Welcome new comers! These are the fuel of our community and they must be giving the benefit of the doubt. Even if they post 'Server doesn't work!', we must respect that they may be new and they will learn! Over the last few months I have seen new members go from making those posts, to helping new people with their questions! Great job Community Support Team, I have seen a drastic change in new people's responses.
- Basic rule of thumb, be nice even in the face of hostility.
- STAY ON TOPIC. If you want to respond to something someone else said, pm them if it is that important. Let's keep our threads clean of random garbage. I and the rest of the moderators will be deleting off topic threads, or splitting the thread if it is taking a new 'good' direction.

These rules especially apply to me. PM me if in any situation I have acted out of hand or disrespectfully. I don't want new comers to see that the leader preaches but doesn't do. I am not perfect and will need your help.

[Etaew]

Mission Statement, I'd like to see support for custom rulesets to be on there, we're not only about providing a clone from live.

Mailing List, Go to https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/lis ... server-svn to receive emails on SVN commits which allow discussions. I need to put this somewhere publicly on the website so people can get this information easier.

Bug tracker sourceforge does have one, I don't know if we should create our own and have it fit with our site, or use the one on SF, will do this with the website review.

SVN Commit, no on SF we give general SVN access, we can't give commit access to a branch only.

Don't allow people to put names on the source code files, because it is almost ownership, and people won't edit it. I personally will create a page which credits everyone who has contributed. It's community code.

Assign someone to review submitted code.

People who we give commit access, review then commit and finally commit then review.

Even a founder can be booted, I loved that part, we did that lol.

Voting is a last resort, I like it, people should just make compromises to the community moves forward.

Community rules, I liked their stuff about spamming, nicknames and the way they talk.

Hostility, I liked it, angry and demanding help, blackmail, insulting us. Not the people we want in the community. Happens quite often here.

LOL and the conspiracy stuff, oh man have tobz and corillian played that, I hijacked the project etc.

Willing to complain and not help fix, either ignore or make them understand our situation. "Patches Welcome", nice for "Go Screw Yourself".

Yes, the draining attention, someone trying to learn, but we don't have time to hold their hand. Need a team to tutor people otherwise, they have to learn themselves.

Are you still heading for a 2.0 release? Can you outline your release plan somewhere, you can see mine. http://dol.talyn.de/viewtopic.php?t=7908

We need to get our official server back, and get the team working on this, together, instead of their own, it really does benefit people.

[Tolakram]

Mission Statement, I'd like to see support for custom rulesets to be on there, we're not only about providing a clone from live.

I'd like to see the blurb say something to the effect that the design is meant to support custom rulesets, though primary server development is to emulate live. In other words features to help people making custom rulesets should be embraced even though they might never be used for live-like development.

This might have been exactly what Etaew said.

[Batlas]

Like when player classes were in the scripts and not in the core!

[IStandAloneToo]

I agree with you two. Updated mission statement, hopefully it is more appropriate!