As most of you probably know, the SR3R Project is moving to a new home. While we'll have Trac set up with an integrated wiki and Subversion repository, it seems to me we need side-channels for general kicking around of rules ideas and discussions that aren't solid enough to open a ticket for. The question is, what do we use?


Fora have the advantage of being all in one place and friendly to people outside the project in terms of looking over the material within. Also, everyone here is presumably familiar with how they work.

Downsides: people need to specifically take time to visit the forum and check for new posts. Can be a pain in the backside to administer. The only board I'm familiar with administrating has a bit of a reputation for poor security, and lacks various features for notification of new posts (for example, the ability to subscribe to an entire forum).


Mailing lists have the advantage of being push rather than pull. No need to set time out of your day to check for new material, just wait for the email to roll in.

Downsides: less familiar to most people, can become a burden if lists become highly-trafficked. Conventions for proper quoting of previous replies are a deeply contentious issue for some.


Something else is exactly what it says. You tell me what the advantages and disadvantages are just don't suggest wiki talk pages—we'll have them available, but after thinking about trying to seriously communicate via them I had to go sob in a corner for a few minutes.


Multiple options have the advantage of suiting the tastes of people who prefer different discussion formats. Their primary disadvantage comes from the division of the community and the necessity for those who wish to keep track of the full scope of activity (me, for example) to address each different venue.



Beyond that, we've got a few positions to explain and recruit for. Some positions are open for applicants, others are by invitation only, and others are already satisfactorily filled.



Benevolent Dictator for Life: Yours truly. Like a developer (see below), but with unilateral veto/override power (which I try not to use).

Recruitment status: closed.

Requirements: be me.



Developer: Those who administer the project and have a high degree of responsibility for evaluating changes. In general, changes will not be accepted if a developer is strongly against the change, and is mostly likely to be accepted if no developer is less than mildly in favour of the change.

Recruitment status: invitation only.

Requirements: high willingness to examine changes and their mathematical and logical consequences in a rigorous fashion, ability to effectively express the reasoning behind support for or opposition to a given change. Extensive familiarity with SR3 canon world and rules. Some familiarity with SR2 and SR1 world and rules. Familiarity with Earthdawn world a bonus. Ability to double as an editor (see below) a large bonus.

There will not be many developers, so don't be insulted if I don't offer you a spot. I still love you



Legal advisor: someone with proper legal training and familiarity with trademark and copyright law to provide guidance and advise to the SR3R Project on maintaining a clear legal status. Willingness and ability to represent the SR3R Project (whether at normal or reduced rates) in the event of legal action is a bonus, but is neither required nor expected. In particular, while it would be nice, it is not required that an applicant provide (in the strict sense) legal advice.

Recruitment status: open.

Requirements: formal legal training and experience as a lawyer, paralegal, or legal document assistant.



Editor: those who maintain the actual rules, and who assist in transcribing new rules. Also maintain and create templates, and ensure clean presentation of the rules.

Recruitment status: open.

Requirements: experience with or willingness to learn LaTeX or ConTeXt. Previous typesetting experience a plus. I am willing to provide any assistance I can in the learning process.



Example writer: takes decided-on rules and writes clear, coherent, original examples demonstrating them in action. May produce new examples for canon rules, or assist in producing a new description for existing rules so as to eliminate copyright issues regarding their inclusion.

Recruitment status: open.

Requirements: proficiency with English language, ability to produce high-quality examples, willingness to learn at least basic LaTeX or ConTeXt.



Submitter: May help out with whatever's available or be brought on to work on a specific ruleset. Has commit access to the repository, but is generally expected to run changes by a developer.

Recruitment status: open, though most of these will probably be recruited in reaction to specific issues.

Requirements: must be able to partly fill at least one of the above roles, or to complete a specific task that may be outlined later.


And finally:



Interested Party: files tickets for rules that need fixing, rules that should be added, rules that don't align with flavour, flavour that doesn't align with rules, and picks apart both the current rules and their suggested replacements.

Recruitment status: universal. You join this group by paying attention to our project

Requirements: be interested, be involved. Submit reports of experience with using these rules. Pretty much do what you've already been doing in the SR3R threads.



Let me know if there are any questions, comments, or whatever.

~J

I have seen forums that also have a RSS feeds. I like that idea, just so I know when something was updated, then run to the forum to post.

Community Server does the RSS thing, but it's ASP so I don't know if it would be suitable.

Forum, but a clear forum. The biggest problem we had here was multi-topics per thread. There we could set up a magic/combat/Rigger/decker/etc forum, and under each, subforums of spells/astral/conjuring/metatechniques etc, and under there actual threads like magic fingers/increased reflexes/invisibility, and completely negate any cross-threading. Any other system, such as mailing lists, throws everything together again, and makes it hard to figure out what decisions have been made, or worse, what questions have been asked/brought up.

I voted forum, but I'm pretty easy going. It seems to me that the google pages tool would be best, honestly. I used that for another RPG. As long as you have a google account, you can have a list of threads, and each user can set it to e-mail him or not as appropriate, you can respond straight out of your e-mail box, etc. It doesn't have all of the functionality of a forum, but I don't think we need the ability to do polls, for instance. I don't know what secret powers the administrator has.


In regards to positions, I'm happy to take on the editing/example writing bits. I'm a good editor, however a terrible layout manager. I do most of my stuff at work, so I'll have trouble installing LaTeX or whatnot without making a good excuse, but if it's something where I can take a word document, press a button and presto-chango it's pdf or whatever, I can probably just taxi stuff back and forth from one computer to the other. Maybe 'proof-reader/contributing writer' would be more appropriate.

I really enjoyed reading the prior thread, as I found it helpful in understanding both the 3rd edition rules and the changes made between 2nd and 3rd edition. I would love to continue to follow the discussion, wherever it goes. I would be interested in helping out as an interested party at the very least. I could help with examples and editing as well. I have no experience with either program mentioned but am willing to attempt to learn either. I do, however, have a lot of technical and academic writing experience.

I hadn't taken part in the prior thread, mainly because I'm still new here, and still new to 3rd edition, and felt like anything I might have had to contribute had already been said better by others. But I'm running a 3rd edition game weekly now, so my knowledge grows by leaps and bounds, and at the very least I've got a viable field test unit already in place, so to speak...



And I prefer the message board/forums option, but that's mainly due to familiarity...

I'm still interested in helping out anyway i can.

I am a graphic artist, so I can do layout and such.

I am currently working on and alternate setting book, so when you get the forum up, I would like to bring that over as well. ShadowFallout!

Work kept me pretty busy the last few days, but now it's the weekend and I have time to beat on the server. I'd really like to have Trac up immediately, but there will be a forum up before the end of the weekend regardless of how that process goes.

~J

Progress delayed by blood loss.

~J

Damn, you alright?

Yeah, a piece of the tip of my thumb that I'd sliced most of the way off while cooking last week got caught on something and decided to take its leave completely, depriving me of the natural bandage it had been providing (and the scab that had been attached to it). It's just oozing slowly at this point, though, so if all goes well I should be back up to mostly-full typing speed by tomorrow.

~J

Nice. See what happens when you play with knives?

Count me in as well. I'm not a big fan SR4. I'm also volunteering to help in whatever way I can.

Ok, we're in action. I'm going to be fiddling with the authentication today, so there's a chance that if you register today you'll have to reregister, but I'm hoping to have that all frozen by midnight tonight.

~J

A whole bunch of components set up, as well as some project milestones. I'll probably be posting at least some logs at lunch, and everyone should feel free to start submitting tickets for things they want to see added or fixed.

~J

Authentication's all settled. Register away!

~J

You have a link? Sr3r.net for me is still just the wizkid disclaimer message with a Work in progress type message.....

www.sr3r.net/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi. URL prettification and replacement or linkification of the front page is coming Real Soon Now.

~J

Some logs temporarily up here, they're going to get cleaned and reformatted later so don't rely on them staying there too much longer. Anyone who wants to start putting specific issues discussed into ticket form should feel free to do so

~J

Forum up here. Doesn't share logins with Trac, so you're going to have to register there as well.

~J

More fora created, configuration ongoing,

~J

Is there a preexisting rework of the current weapons list (or really, any section of the gear list) that alters item masses for realism? Other alterations will need a lot of work and debate, but something as simple as fixing the masses probably won't take much discussion.

~J

Might Raygun have more appropriate item masses? And I think the electronics section by and large can be done in five minutes (almost everything would be 2kg or less).

RSS feed generator installed! There are instructions in the fora.

~J

You know, whenever you say 'fora' I think of 'flora'. I have this beautiful image in my head of an SR3R garden. I actually had to look it up before voting. Is there a reason you use that particular word?

Unless I badly misremember my Latin, "forum" is 2nd declension neuter, which means that the plural nominative, accusative, and vocative are all "fora".

Basically, I use it because those five years of Latin have to come in handy sometime

(but if anyone wants to start an official SR3R garden, just send me pictures!)

~J

Just to let everyone know, the SR3R project is still alive, and always looking for new members. So come on by; more input is always welcome.