Forum and Organizational Changes

**TAfirehawk** · #1 09-12-2010, 08:50 PM

Forum and Organizational Changes
Communications Department

The SWGEmu PreCU Emulator Project has been Open Source since 2007, and in that time we've seen over a dozen developers use that open door to contribute their visions to the game and its code. We now recognise that while the project's code has been open to change, the project as a body - as a community - has been less open to change. This is a situation that the Team is committed to fixing.

Voicing Your Concerns

We welcome your advice, your ideas and a wider community consensus. By opening up the concerns@swgemu.com email address for concerns about staff or management issues, we are hoping to resolve isolated incidents before they become real issues. Eventually a web based form will be implemented to direct concerns to the appropriate people. Emails about support issues will not be answered from this email address. Threads discussing the overall nature, direction or history of the project are permitted within the revised Forum Rules and the revised Infraction system.

The concerns@swgemu.com email address goes to the Communications Director and Manager only as those positions are serving in a Human Resources role as well as official communications. We hope this provides an efficient means for concerns about staff or management issues, but please continue to use support email addresses. For those cases when the concern is directed at the Communications Department, the comms-concerns@swgemu.com email address goes to the President and Test Center Director only. The use of these two email addresses will allow the person submitting the concern to have anonymity when requested, while still providing a means to convey all the details to the right people on Staff.

Forum Rules and Infraction System

The Forum Rules have been updated to clarify them for everybody. Each rule now has an assigned infraction point value and duration. With the updated Infraction System, infractions will only be lifted when the infraction time has expired, ban only removed when the ban period is completed, and permanent bans are in fact permanent and final. This system will be applied to ALL members of the Community and Staff. Please read through the rules and infraction system carefully as this is in effect immediately.

Forum Rules Update Highlights

Item 1.1 has a link for help with account issues and requests for multiple accounts.
Item 2.4 has been updated, "Troll posts or threads. We define troll posts and threads as those which knowingly lead to inflammatory or off-topic messages with the intent of A) provoking other users into a desired emotional response or B) disrupting normal on-topic discussion."
Some guidelines/rules were removed.

Infraction System Update Highlights

New point levels and durations for each rule
Removal of 0 point warnings, they are now 1 demerit point
New punishment levels based on accumulated points: warning (1 point), 3 day ban (2 points), 3 week ban (3 points), 3 month ban (4 points) and permanent ban (5 points)

Test Center Exploit Testing Policy

The Test Center rules pertaining to testing, reporting and use of exploits has been updated. We hope to make it clear that we want to get all exploits reported and as long as you report them without further use, there will be no penalty or infraction points given.

3.12 The SWGEmu Team encourages the reporting of any and all exploits. You are required to immediately report and discontinue use of all discovered exploits or face disciplinary action listed below.

3.12.1 Exploits include, but are not limited to; all forms of hacking, exploiting and all other actions intended to break, bend or in anyway alter the SWGEmu gameplay experience in favor of one player or against another player.
3.12.2 Report all exploits to the Quality Assurance department at http://www.swgemu.com/bugs using the Exploit category or send to quality@swgemu.com
3.12.3 As a first offence, there will be a warning issued directing the guilty party to the Quality Assurance department. Offenders are required to immediately disclose all known information about the exploit. Failure to comply with this policy will result in an immediate permanent ban from all SWGEmu services. This ban will include the immediate deletion of all known characters, items, disbanding of guilds if guild leader, and removal of all items being sold by the user on the marketplace.

Official Communications

The official announcement banner above will be used on all official communications at the top of the post. This will help clarify "official" vs. "non-official" posting by Staff members.

The Object Restructure and New Website are Coming

As stated in the End of Summer Update, the long awaited Object Restructure code is coming to TC: Nova soon. As often happens with volunteer projects, SWGEmu is no exception, we are behind on our projected goals for releasing the OR. Our staff can only volunteer so much time, and non-development issues have occupied a substantial amount of that time in recent weeks. Our efforts have been refocused and the Developers are pushing to get you the best testing experience in the shortest amount of time for the OR to be put full time on TC: Nova. We truly wish we had a good estimate but as has been stated many times, estimated times are very difficult in a volunteer project.

We have more in store than the OR code on TC: Nova, work has made significant progress towards a single account management system that registers in all SWGEmu services. This means you will have to register just once to gain access to TC: Nova, forums, IRC and the bug tracker.

Wiping the Slate Clean

The new account management system and new forum software means a complete reset on your accounts. The new registration page will check the old forum database for names and passwords so your unique name will be reserved just for you, but you can also choose a new name if you wish.

For the community, there is also an unexpected benefit from our infrastructure upgrade. We will not be transferring any of the bans or infractions to the new forums or IRC server. This means that everyone gets a final chance to start fresh in being a valuable contributor to help us bring back the game that was taken away. This will be the last time we wipe our infractions before the eventual release of 1.0 and your infractions and bans may carry over to SunCrusher.

Please be aware that the updated Forum Rules and Infraction System will be used on the new forums and this will be STRONGLY and FAIRLY enforced.

Organizational Changes

The organizational chart has been updated to better reflect the structure and chain of command for the SWGEmu Team. The major changes include the position of the Founders being added and the moving of the Communications Department out from the Test Center division.