New AW forum for AmigaOS and Multi-Platform Development Projects
Date 29-Nov-2006 1:59:07
Topic: Amigaworld.net News
| Developer Project Forum: Purpose and Rules
What IS the Developer Project Forum?
Good question. This forum addition has been discussed for some time, involving several members of Staff, the community, and developers of both hardware and software projects. As AW has grown larger over time, numerous threads have repeated themselves time and again, and while containing very useful or helpful information, it's not always easy for either the users or a project participant to find, so information is often repeated, or never seen by those who need it.
This new forum is meant to be an 'official' forum for AmigaOS and related projects- BOTH hardware and software, to allow them to make official announcements on their projects, as well as field questions from users, in a single easy to find location.
This is of advantage to both the community AND the developers/project members. We see this as a place for users to interact with the developers and companies involved in bringing their project to us, and for the companies to solicit feedback if desired, or to more easily communicate with the userbase without repeating themselves time and again, in dozens of different threads. Since it seems often that people manage to confuse the facts about different projects, this is essentially an information repository for both the users and project members to take advantage of, and allowing people to more easily find facts about projects, rather than speculation and/or misleading information.
There are some different rules regarding this forum, to keep information easily available, and to the point of this forum. Only project developers or spokespersons may start threads in this forum. All other threads will be moved immediately. One or two people per project are considered to be the 'spokesperson(s)' for a project, and simply act as the 'liaisons' to the public/AW users for the project. Exceptions can be made to this limit on a project by project basis.
Participation from developers is entirely voluntary, but is limited to one thread per project in this forum. They can update as often or as infrequently as they wish, and users can ask questions about each project in it's respective thread, but only a project developer can start a thread for his or her/their project. Existing threads on projects in AmigaOS Software or Hardware sections will remain as they are; it is only for a project member to decide if they want to start and 'official' project thread or not.
For all intents and purposes, this is a projects 'home' of sorts, and people will need to respect that boundary. This is NOT free for all, but a chance for project teams to more easily interact with users, and vice versa. Project questions by users are welcome, but ALL off-topic posts, flames, or new posts in this forum not by a project member will be deleted, and may be dealt with harshly.
What is a Suitable Project?
Nearly anything, that is under development now, or already available, as a hardware or software project. It is at the Staffs discretion if a project is basically suitable or not, but this is mainly meant to keep the forum contents to a reasonable number of project threads, which are expected to be completed at some point, or is of particular interest to the community. We welcome the members of the SAM Team, Troika, ACK, or yes, Genesi, to feel free to post their project thread in here, as well as any software projects, to better consolidate facts about their projects in a single place. This is NOT meant for them to stop participation elsewhere, but instead, to provide a single location for factual statements and information about their projects.
If for some reason, a new project thread is found unsuitable by Staff, it will not be deleted, but instead moved to a more appropriate forum.
What About AROS, MOS, or other non AmigaOS Projects?
Well, let's face it.. Sometimes it seems possible to work together, and at others, it doesn't. We welcome all potential AOS projects, whether they started on MOS, AROS, classic/68k or native OS4 projects, as long as the intent is to run on AmigaOS, including OS4. Projects like Sputnik, assuming Marcik wants to get feedback about a port, are certainly welcome, as are other projects looking to become cross-platform. Projects such as MuiCon, while it does make me drool a bit, are unlikely to ever be ported to OS4, so should continue to post their project information in a more appropriate place such as MorphZone, Aros-Exec, or they are also welcome to post to our Alt OS forum.
So, How Does It Work?
Let's say a projects members have been participating on AW for some time; whenever they notice a new thread where a user has an issue, have a minor announcement to make, or a need for beta-testers. They decide they'd like to create a project thread in the Developer Project Forum, so they can give a full description of their project in a single location, and answer user questions, without having to search through a mass of threads.
The project member would create a new thread in the forum, in any format they choose, as long as the following are covered:
Topic: Project Name
Contents:
- Short or detailed description of the project.
- What platforms the project is meant for if applicable?
- Project home page if any
- Project contact information (email, or if preferred, this forum thread).
- Primary reason for creating project thread- for announcements, to solicit user feedback, to ask for beta-testers, whatever. (optional, and can certainly change over time.)
- Please try to limit speculation and non-factual content as possible. This is the place to really give information, specs, etc on your project, so is more an information repository than a means of advertising means or blog. Feel free to ask any questions of users, but bear in mind, it may be in your best interest to consolidate your actual project info into the topmost project post for the sake of clarity, from time to time.
We ask both the community of AW users, as well as participants from different AmigaOS (or potential) projects, to give it a try. We hope to eliminate much of the speculation and mis-information about different projects, to ease developers frustration with either not seeing a thread concerning their project and/or having to repeat themselves, but in the end, it's up to you, if this becomes a worthwhile addition to AW or not.
We ask that you limit any questions about the forum purpose and specifics to this News item or the sticky thread in the new forum, and welcome any project members to start their project threads at their convenience.
Developers (hardware and software), post your projects!
Developer Project Forum
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